In her upcoming Rep show, Area Of A Circle, award-winning musician Kathryn Joseph is getting to grips with her new Dundee digs.
The Scottish Album Of The Year 2015 winner, 46, has previously been based in Aberdeen and Glasgow, but moved to Dundee during the pandemic. And so far, she’s loving her new home in Broughty Ferry.
“My partner’s in Aberdeen, but my daughter goes to school in Glasgow,” she explains. “So for me, Dundee is like the perfect halfway point between the two places I love.
“It’s always been a city I’ve loved the feeling of. I’ve always felt really comfy here.”
In Area Of A Circle, Kathryn will be joined on stage by her friends and fellow Dundee musicians Su Shaw (SHHE), Andrew Wasylyk and Siôn Parkinson, for an evening of songs, stories and conversation about the influence of Dundee on their creative process.
Kathryn explains: “Jess Thorpe (Dundee Rep associated director) is a friend of mine and we were talking about the fact that I hadn’t done a gig in a long time. And she was very interested in getting more music in Dundee Rep.
“So we came up with this idea with some really beautiful friends who already live in Dundee and whose music I’m already in love with.
“We thought we’d put a live gig – also live-streamed. But part of it would be them showing me parts of Dundee I’ve never seen before, and talking about why they love the area so much – why it makes sense for them to be making music here.”
It’s always been a city I’ve loved the feeling of. I’ve always felt really comfy here.”
Her excitement for the gig is palpable, and the fondness with which she speaks of her fellow performers promises a warm, intimate atmosphere at the one-off show.
“I’m so lucky, because even if these people weren’t my friends, it would be my most favourite music, you know? That’s what’s so nice about it,” Kathryn says.
An effusive, witty talker, Kathryn peppers the words “beautiful” and “special” into almost every other sentence. But it’s clear that in every instance, she means it.
And it’s no surprise, having heard her nature-inspired, ethereal-sounding songs, that the The Bird singer finds Dundee just as “beautiful” and “special” as the people in it.
If you didn’t have people showing you these things, you wouldn’t know they were there.”
“I think people don’t realise how great Dundee is,” she says. “What we’re trying to do with the gig is show that having all these beautiful areas, like Balgay Park, the Observatory, even just looking out over the Tay – it’s really special, you know?
“And I think if you didn’t have people showing you these things, you wouldn’t know they were there.”
The show must go on (stage)
Like most performers over the last 18 months, Kathryn has been hankering for the stage. When it comes to virtual gigs, she finds she “enjoys watching them, but for myself, I need the human beings to be there”.
And although Area Of A Circle will be streamed, it’s also her first time playing to a live audience in months.
“There’s a few tables at the front that we’re able to have, that are socially distanced,” she explains. “That’ll definitely make it feel like it’s a real gig even though it’s still not a full room.”
Her complicated relationship with her own stardom is well-documented, but the chance to play on a real stage in front of people again at the Rep is one she welcomes.
She says: “I’m quite a paranoid person in real life, so I still find it very odd that the only time I don’t feel like that is when I’m playing, you know?
“I don’t think about what I look like, I don’t think about what people are thinking about me. I just enjoy the feeling of being a room with people who want to be there and seem to quite like the songs.
“But,” she adds with trademark self-deprecation, “I know I’ve got really evil eyes, so it must be horrible watching me!”
Lockdown – a writer’s best friend?
Kathryn Joseph fans might have looked at lockdown with a sense of anticipation. After all, her content is always serious and often difficult – as the singer herself jokes, a lot of her music is fuelled by “all the misery”.
Her breakthrough album, The Bones You Have Thrown Me And The Blood I’ve Spilled, was created in the wake of the loss of her son, Joseph, and the critically-acclaimed follow-up From When I Wake The Want Is charts the break-up and reconciliation of a relationship. So given the global turbulence of the last year, can fans expect a beautifully “miserable” lockdown album?
“Lockdown was when I started writing again,” admits Kathryn. “I hadn’t for about two years and then at the very beginning of it all, the songs were pouring out.
“But these songs aren’t really about what’s been happening on a wider scale. It’s definitely more about what’s been happening to people that I love and difficult things that they’re dealing with.”
In contrast to her sober subject matter, however, Kathryn is chipper about what’s on the horizon.
“I’ve just recently been up recording at a beautiful studio in Fort William, so I’m feeling quite excited for doing new things – and hopefully the world letting us do them!”
Area of a Circle is broadcast on Friday, May 28, at 7.30pm. Tickets can be booked here.