UK Country artist Katy Hurt Sounds Good in a Bar – and at The Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham | Interview

But the singer-songwriter was unable to collect her awards in person.

Katy explains: ‘I moved to the Wirral during the pandemic – I have some family up here so it made sense.

‘Given all the time off, I thought it was better than paying London rent prices. The awards were happening in London and I was meant to be in rehearsals, but sadly that got cancelled at the last minute, so I could have gone!’

She only found out she’d won when a friend who was there sent a video of the announcement.

‘One of the very last shows I played in February 2020 was that awards ceremony, so I was fortunate I got the opportunity to play there when it was one of the last things I did before the pandemic, now it's full circle, starting up with it again.’

Now out on her Looks Good in a Bar tour – her first full UK tour since before the pandemic – the past two years have been tough for the self-confessed workaholic.

‘It was difficult, really frustrating.

‘I have had to learn to accept that maybe it was a bit of a blessing, to slow down, because I did 155 shows in 2019, and I did about 150 the year before. 2020 was looking to be even more busy than that, and I hadn't taken a break in a very long time – that's my own choice, and as far as I was concerned in 2019 I was: “Well that's not enough, there's 365 days in a year, why aren't we playing more?”

‘I've had to accept it was a blessing to slow down and take stock of where I was.

‘The downside, of course, is that I'm an independent artist, this is my job. So first of all it meant the loss of all of my income from live shows, and secondly, we had been building momentum, and it's really hard to build momentum in the music industry without loads and loads of money going into PR and marketing.

‘To have that all come to a complete stop, and to not know when was the safe time to start promoting shows again. Even now it's, are the shows going to happen? What happens if someone in the band gets sick? What happens if the venue has to close last minute? Or there's a storm?’ We are speaking as Storm Eunice is battering the country. ‘It's really difficult, a fine line, how to juggle that in this new world.

‘It was disappointing for me to lose that momentum. Now, I know I'm not, but it feels like I'm kind of starting from scratch all over again. But it does mean I've had the chance to improve and write, and work on my album, so it has been difficult, but good.’

Building on her first two EPs, Katy had released the well-received Unfinished Business EP in 2019, and had been in Winnipeg, Canada, for several weeks in early 2020 to record her debut album.

‘I am super, super-excited about my album. But then I got home, played three shows and the world ended, so I decided not to release it because I didn't want to put it out in the middle of everything that was going on and lose all of the work that I had spent years on.‘One of my all time favourite things about music is the story telling aspect, that's why I like writing songs and why I like performing. To not be able to share that with people in person, just wasn’t going to be an option.

‘I wanted to wait until I can actually go and play these songs live and tell the stories behind them and give it to people then, rather than put it out online and that be that. Some of the songs I'd been playing before the pandemic, because I thought the album was coming out then, so I don't want people to think I'm just lazy and I'm still playing the same songs!

‘Sounds Good in a Bar was the first single from the album, the second single is due soon!

‘My hope is we can get the album out by the end of the year.’

But in the meantime Katy has released a single with two of her friends, fellow Brit Sally Rea Morris of Gasoline and Matches and American Jessica Lynn.

All For Love, is a cover of the song by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting from the 1993 film The Three Musketeers. They put it out in November last year.

‘That was fun,’ says Katy. ‘Obviously we were at home a lot, so I thought let's record something for fun, something to make people feel they're together.

‘I felt like we needed a little bit of that Musketeers' spirit, so I contacted those guys and they said: “Yes!”

‘We all recorded the parts from home studios – Jessica Lynn is obviously in New York so there was no way we could get her over.’

So, who was who then?

‘Because they're male vocal harmonies originally, we did have to do some shifting to make it fit with our ranges. I don't actually know who was who... I think Sally was Rod Stewart, I might have been Bryan Adams and Jessica was Sting, but I think we switched around a little bit at the end!

‘I love those guys, so I'm really glad we got the chance to work on a track together.

Katy Hurt is at The Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham on Wednesday, March 9. Go to ashcroft.org.uk/event.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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