Writing a truly great song can be a near-impossible task. How can one tell their story in a way that feels true and personal, yet feels relatable to others… but isn’t so generic that it becomes boring? This is the balancing act that diligent songwriters live and breathe.
UK-born and US-based artist Phoebe Katis holds her songs deftly in balance on her latest record A Coming Of Age. She is also an especially tenacious, classically type A person. Chatting with Leo Sidran recently on The Third Story podcast, Katis explained how she gave the early days of her career a shot in the arm, by making something of a cold call to guitarist Cory Wong.
“That was an Instagram DM,” she laughs. “I went to see Vulfpeck in 2017, in the UK. And then I did what I was doing at the time, which was messaging all of my favorite musicians, whenever they came into town… or just in general. And I think I messaged all of them. I was like ‘hey guys, I’m a singer in London, if you ever want vocals on anything, blah blah blah…’ and Cory was like ‘you know, funny you should say that, I want a British singer on this new song, do you want to give it a go?’ …And I was like ‘oh my god…!’ And that was on his album The Optimist. And it went from there! And we started touring, and he was producing my music. That was a really big moment. It was amazing.”
Seven years and five of her own albums later, Katis has once again slyly talked her way into collaborating with another of her musical heroes, the eccentric Bill Wurtz, on one of her album’s standout tracks, the decidedly maximalist “I’m A Kid”.
“I was a huge fan of Bill Wurtz. My incredible friend Ryan Lerman put us together… because I saw this one interview with Bill, where he was like ‘I’ve never collaborated with someone, and I don’t know if I would like it, but I think I should do it.’ And I was like ‘this is my moment!’ Phoebe excitedly whispers to herself.
“And so I sent him my music, so he could check it out, and he said yeah!” Phoebe recalls.
“...None of the demos I was sending him were right for him. So, I actually did the opposite of what you usually do - usually you write a song, and find a producer to fit the song… but I found a producer, and I wrote a song for him,” Phoebe laughs again, some obvious pride now brimming through, and perhaps a lingering touch of disbelief.
“His production style is quite literally out of this world. It’s like he’s not operating in this universe.”
On the album’s title track, Katis boldly tackles some of life’s biggest questions head-on, somehow gracefully cramming her own half-autobiographical, half-hypothetical cradle-to-grave story all inside a three minute pop song.
“The saying ‘to come of age’ is sort of associated more with - you leave high school, you become an adult, and there’s such a pressure to become someone… become a thing that you can plaster on social media. There’s such a pressure of arriving, and achieving. And I’ve never felt like I’ve arrived. I’ve achieved things, but I haven’t necessarily arrived in a place that I can say like ‘this is who I am…’ That song maps it out - of how you never really do come of age.”
On the fan-favorite “Chronic People Pleaser” Katis pulls back the curtain even further on her perhaps neurotic, yet widely relatable social and personal habits.
“That one is straight therapy, in a song. It’s funny ‘cause I sort of spun out about that too, and was like ‘...do people think me calling myself a chronic people pleaser is me saying I’m a really good person, because I just think about everyone else…?!’ I texted my friend this and she was like ‘...Phoebe… that is quite literally what you’re talking about in the song. You’re worrying about what other people think about you, in the song where you’re saying you worry about what other people think about you!’” Phoebe shakes her head and chuckles.
“It’s so dumb. But I’ve had a lot of very sweet messages. A lot of people have been like ‘oh my god, Chronic People Pleaser, that’s me!’ And I’m like ‘oh yeah? OK good!’ That, I think, is just my constant thread that I come back to - maybe someone feels better about themselves, if they hear this song.”
Find A Coming Of Age wherever you listen to music. Phoebe Katis is also a prolific touring performer, across the US, the UK, and beyond - don’t pass up a chance to see her hold it all in balance, live. Special thanks once again to Leo Sidran and The Third Story podcast. Find the entire interview with Phoebe Katis here.
