“Is she still singing?”
This was the question that Perth songstress Katie Whittaker’s grandmother would inevitably ask her mother, week in and week out, when Katie was a toddler.
“She believed a singing child was a happy child,” explains Katie, 33, as she recalls her childhood in the Scottish Highlands, where she attended Rogart Primary School before studying music at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
“So her way of gauging if I was happy was if I was singing. And I was always singing. I’m still always singing.”
Now, the mum-of-two, well known around the Perth’s pubs and function suites for her powerful voice and renditions of Etta James and Bessie Smith classics, is celebrating the release of her debut album Shine with a hometown gig at Perth Theatre’s Joan Knight Studio.
And it’s a show that’s been a long time in the making, with the first tracks of the album written back when Katie was a fresh-faced student and global superstar Taylor Swift was a little-known country singer from the US.
“The oldest song on the album, Breathe, I wrote when I was 19 and at music college,” smiles Katie as her sweet dog Billy curls up next to her.
“I’d literally just picked up the guitar. I’d never played it before and it was the year I discovered Taylor Swift’s first album. I thought: ‘If she can play guitar, I can play guitar’.”
‘Kitchen jam sessions’ with husband helped album come to life
From there, Katie began writing songs routinely, including album track Less Than Tomorrow, written for her aunt’s wedding to her now-uncle.
“I’m told there were tears!” chuckles Katie triumphantly. “It was originally a duet between me and my sister, but now it’s on the album.”
And she says many tracks are inspired by “kitchen jam sessions” with her husband Barry Whittaker, whose family she insists “have more musical talent in their little fingers than most of the professional musicians I know”.
“He’s a massive inspiration and he helped write a few of the songs on there as well,” Katie reveals.
“He wrote Fate, Spinnin’ Round too. We co-wrote Pick Me Up and Dream Song together.”
A move to Perth saw Katie go from “total pop princess” to a staple of the city country scene, and attributes her “crunchy” sound to the influence of local Americana collective Red Pine Timber Co, fronted by Gavin Munro.
“Gav and Red Pine were a massive influence in my musical style, which came after the songs,” she explains.
And indeed, it was because of her involvement in roots music that Katie got her biggest break to date – a slot on Glastonbury’s Left Field stage in 2016, alongside Billy Bragg.
Glastonbury with Billy Bragg was ‘intense’
“Red Pine were doing great but it never hit that level where any of us were making enough money, you know?” she says candidly.
“But then I got Glastonbury and I was like ‘well, I guess it’s professional time now’. That’s when I went self-employed.”
Taking place over the days of the Brexit referendum, Katie’s Glastonbury appearance was an “intense” weekend.
“With the Left Field stage as our base, there was so many debates and talks, and everybody wanted to know what Billy Bragg had to say. So it was a really special gig,” Katie explains.
“A few of the songs on the album were actually written specifically for that Left Field stage, because I don’t like to write about nothing. If I’m going to write a song, it’s got to be real or genuine to me.”
But after the meteoric rise to Glastonbury, Katie felt she needed something new to say. She needed inspiration.
‘You can’t write a song if you’ve never lived’
So she did what anyone looking for inspiration would do – she got a job in McDonald’s.
“I think I realised after a little while that you can’t write a song if you’ve never lived,” reasons Katie.
“My husband has always worked so it’s not been on me to sustain the family, but I just wanted the experience. I thought ‘maybe I’m being a cliché by never getting a job’.”
Did it work? She shrugs. “I don’t know how much inspiration I’ve got from working in McDonald’s but we’ll see.”
Now her debut album, produced by David Macfarlane, is finally out – 14 years after the first song was written.
But Katie is refreshingly honest about the fact that as a mum to a 15-year-old and an eight-year-old, pursuing music hasn’t been easy.
“It’s definitely not all music, all the time,” she chuckles. “It’s a lot of school runs and kid things and dog and husband thing. Groceries!
“And there’s just not as much money in the entertainment industry as there used to be. The amount of music venues in the country shutting down is like one a week.
“That’s tragic for the industry and for artists like myself who are looking for that grassroots audience, because it’s diminishing at a serious rate.”
That’s part of why Katie is determined to sell-out her first big hometown show since her album launch this weekend.
“I really hope loads of people come,” she says.
“It would be amazing to sell it out, because it’s a big step for an artist to sell out a home show. It puts a lot of confidence in you further afield.
“That’s when other forces come into play and start paying attention.”
Katie Whittaker plays the Joan Knight Studio at Perth Theatre on Friday January 26. Tickets are available from the venue’s website.
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