Katy J Pearson on Someday, Now
Ahead of releasing her third solo studio album, we talk to Katy J Pearson about pop music, living in the moment, and working with producer Bullion on Someday, Now
“I haven’t really been to a festival for like five years where I haven't had the responsibility of my own set.”
Katy J Pearson’s latest album follows a period of burnout. After a break from it all in Australia at the start of the year, she vowed not to do any festivals in 2024, but quickly found herself agreeing to a Glastonbury appearance with Yard Act. “You can’t say no to that really,” she smiles over Zoom. “I went to Green Man too, just as a punter, and I just had the best time ever. It was really nice just to get to have some quality time with my friends.”
During our chat there's a giddy excitement from Pearson as she embraces living in the moment, a meaning she agrees is buried in Someday, Now. “The flippancy of it, I think, is really good,” she says of the title. “If you have anxiety, it's very easy to think of the future and be shitting yourself, but I think trying to look at it and using 'someday, now' as a positive thing – as I'm getting older, I'm becoming more confident in myself." She adds: "I've been using the radical acceptance vibe... Especially with music, when you're being very vulnerable with yourself... You have these big highs and then these anticlimaxes, and it's just learning to kind of live with that.”
A line in the press release, that Pearson was previously unaware of, describes her as a ‘pop singer-songwriter for the modern catastrophic age’. “That's so funny," she laughs. "I mean, everyone is thinking like that. I was talking to my friend yesterday about if we want kids or not, and I was like, 'Well I couldn't have a fucking kid right now? How do people raise children in this age?' A lot of my friends are living back home, it's not a financially viable time, and there's a lot of weird shit going on, so that all gets absorbed into my music, and then I end up writing these bittersweet, joyous songs."
Talk briefly turns to Charli xcx's I think about it all the time, and after delivering her best 'She's a radiant mother and he's a beautiful father' impression, Pearson drops a shocker. "My mum, the other day, I went for lunch with her and she was like, 'Darling, I really think you should think about freezing your eggs'." Completely stunned, it surely won't be long before Pearson writes a sad pop banger about the unhealthy pressures and expectations put on a 28-year-old to have kids.
On Someday, Now Pearson tackles subjects like grief (Save Me) and heartbreak (Maybe) over swaggering pop motifs, while tragedy (It’s Mine Now) is explored above bright chords and warm strings. "It's Mine Now is about reclaiming tragedy in your own life. Everyone in my life is not having the best time right now, the world and life is really difficult, I've just always been very honest about how I deal with life. I write these songs, but they come from a place of true honesty, from real emotion."
Someday, Now was recorded in Wales with electronic producer Nathan Jenkins, aka Bullion (Carly Rae Jepsen, Nilufer Yanya, Avalon Emerson). “I didn't know if it was going to work," she admits. "But I think that on this record he really captured me. I think I've always been a bit confused about where I sit in genres.”
Being labelled as 'folk' is a common misnomer. “I just get so pissed off, because it's not that,” she says, exasperated, in the same breath acknowledging her recent Wicker Man EP. "I do write pop songs, and I think I was fighting against that for a long time. Being signed very young and being made to be in the pop world [she was previously a part of pop duo Ardyn with her brother], when I reached out to Heavenly, I was like, 'I don't write pop songs, I'm an indie artist and I play in an indie band', whereas now I'm like, ‘Oh no, actually, pop music is definitely what I write.' It's a very freeing thing, because you can go anywhere."
Alongside Bullion in the studio she was joined by Davey Newington (Boy Azooga), Huw Evans (H Hawkline) and Joel Burton on the record, all of whom she says made her and her songs feel very safe. From an aesthetic point of view, Pearson entrusted Lucinda Graham, Seren Cerys and Kasia Wozniak to help bring her vision to life for the photo that adorns the album's cover art. On it, Pearson holds a sword, styled in a dreamy contrast of delicate tulle and bold jester-like fabrics. "It's powerful confidence – I'm holding the sword, I'm in control, I'm Aragorn," she quips.
The 1940s-inspired video for Maybe, shot by Edie Lawrence, is similarly vibrant and playful yet powerful. It features Pearson taking part in a choreographed archery routine, before she goes on to win what feels like more than just the tournament. An upbeat pop song at its core, everything about Maybe feels like Someday, Now in microcosm as Pearson confidently shrugs off heartbreak in favour of living in the moment: 'No more looking back, it’s as simple as that’.
Someday, Now is released on 20 Sep via Heavenly Recordings
Katy J Pearson plays Saint Luke's, Glasgow, 3 Dec