Katy J Pearson on finding her confidence and stepping into her own skin for third album 'Someday, Now' • Interview • DIY Magazine

It’s absolutely pissing it down as we ferry Katy J Pearson out of a taxi and into the drizzly wilds of Regent’s Park for today’s photoshoot, but the Bristolian singer couldn’t be more chipper. Gamely sitting on a secretly-concealed tote bag in an attempt to separate herself from the sodden bench beneath, she then hops up for a trot around the extremely slippery perimeter of a nearby fountain – much to the consternation of her watching manager, who’d rather not deal with any potential broken limbs. Chucking her jacket off so as best to show off her Fairport Convention T-shirt and barely asking for more than the occasional fringe status check, she is that most rare and wonderful of things: a seemingly egoless artist who actually quite likes doing press.

If it’s a notably buoyant vibe that Pearson is giving off today, then it’s for good reason; anyone who’s dragged themselves out of a rough patch will recognise the familiar joy emanating from a person who’s managed to find their way back to themselves. Though both of her solo albums to date – 2020 debut ‘Return’ and 2022’s ‘Sound of The Morning’ – had received near-universal praise, the 180 of emerging from the nothingness of lockdown into a constant cycle of activity had taken its toll. “I was just mentally fucked. I was absolutely exhausted. I was like Ken: my job is music and this is all I have,” she says. “The first two records were so close together and I just lost a sense of what I was doing. I didn’t go to uni, I went straight into music very young, so my whole identity was being a musician. I needed to just fuck off and chill out for a bit.”

She impromptu booked flights to stay with family in Australia for three months (“on Klarna because I didn’t have any money,” she caveats, “pay in three!”) and “came back, like, healed”. But as well as giving her the space to physically take a breather and remember a life outside the pressure cooker of the industry, the time away also gave Pearson a chance to really focus on what she wanted from Album Three.

“I’ve loved both my other records but I really wanted to zone in and make a body of work where I was at the helm, whereas before I’d let someone else guide me because I’d not given myself time to process things,” she explains. “People always say when you get older you start to know yourself more, but I think it’s all very true. Especially as a woman, in the past I’ve been so doubtful of my control in something and I’ve always let go of the reins thinking someone else knows better. So I was really excited about working with [producer] Bullion, and I actively chose my band because I trusted them not to be sexist and misogynist in the studio. And it’s a shame that’s a thing but I think most people in music have the same stories.”

“When you’re young, you’re so easy to manipulate and it takes so long to shake off those shackles.”

Before emerging under her solo guise, Pearson and her brother made music as indie-pop duo Ardyn. Signed to a management contract aged 15, a major label aged 19 and then subsequently dropped aged 21, by the time she’d come back as Katy J, the singer had already experienced an entire cycle of arguably the worst side of the industry. Inevitably, the impact of being developed and shaped from such a young age had lasting effects on Pearson’s own sense of self. “Even though it was my music and I was writing it, when you’re that young you’re so easy to manipulate and it takes so long to shake off those shackles,” she reflects. “It took me ages to realise because I used to think I was a really confident person, but when I started going to therapy I realised I was extremely insecure. You can really trick yourself into thinking you’re being such a boss bitch and it’s like, no, you’re not!”

She recalls recording ‘Return’ in a state of total stress-induced, lethargic shut-down. “I don’t know how we even made it because I was so depressed and sleepy. It was really terrifying because I’d had such a bad experience before, so making that record I was…” she grips the table, hyperventilating. “Then making the second record was even more confusing because there were two producers and I was like, what’s happening? So finally getting to this point is like… OK,” she pauses, taking a deep breath. “Cool.”

If the emotional rollercoaster to third album ‘Someday, Now’ is one that’s been more than a decade in the making, however, then its pay off is suitably sweet. Finally allowing the pop influences that she’d forcibly sidelined since Ardyn to fully come to the table and lift her established palette of lilting indie-folk, Americana, synthpop and more to new heights, Pearson’s newest is a wonder. Playful, confident in its own skin, and constantly seesawing around the axis of unexpectedness and familiarity, we’re earmarking it now as an early contender for a 2025 Mercury Prize nod.

For Pearson, it’s the result of standing up for herself but also letting her guard down with the right people. “Some people I’ve worked with, it’s just bonkers. I said to someone earlier, ‘The bar is in hell’,” she groan-laughs. “So this just felt really fun. I was showing Bullion the demos I used to make [for previous albums] and they’re so far removed from how [the albums] ended up sounding but quite like how this album sounds, so it felt like I was finally at the helm sonically. It’s much brighter. I think the actual sound of it represents my personality a lot more. It sounds like I’m really finding my feet and it doesn’t feel forced and it just feels very ME.”

Bullion came into Pearson’s orbit when the singer guested on Orlando Weeks’ second solo album ‘Hop Up’, which he also produced. Himself an artist dealing in warm, nostalgic electronic pop, the pair soon began to bond over a love of ‘80s artists like Tears For Fears, Kate Bush and Bowie’s ‘Modern Love’. In the studio, they built a playlist that helped her to reference the breadth of influences that she’d always found hard to fully articulate when talking about her own work: “Operating Theatre, Anna Domino, Beck, Broadcast, The B-52’s, Eurythmics’ ‘There Must Be An Angel’ – that was a big one that I just wanted everything to sound like. It felt like, for once, I’d revised properly for the exam and I’d really thought about it,” she says.

Alongside the producer, Pearson also assembled a band including Huw Evans (better known as H.Hawkline), Boy Azooga’s Davey Newington and fellow Broadside Hacks collaborator Joel Burton to play on the album. Genuine friends as well as hired musical help, they would act as cheerleaders-cum-therapists when she began bringing lyrical ideas to the table. The breezy catharsis of ‘Maybe’ contains an affirmation that feels crucial to the energy of ‘Someday, Now’ as a whole: “Maybe I don’t need your love / To show me I’m good enough / Yes, I am deserving”. Behind the scenes, however, it took a stern shake from Evans to get the singer to see sense.

“That lyric used to be, ‘Maybe I needed your love to show me…’, and then we were rehearsing and Huw was like, ‘Katy, you don’t need that person’s love to know you’re good enough’. Oh my god, feminist ally in the room!” she laughs. “But it was such a good point! So when we changed the narrative, that’s when we worked out what the song was; it was stuck because the lyric was wrong and it wasn’t empowering. Same with ‘Long Range Driver’. It used to say, ‘Because I’M that piece of gum that won’t leave your shoe’ and now it’s ‘YOU’RE that piece of gum’. Like, Katy, why are you being so rude to yourself?!”

Even though ‘Someday, Now’ still contains plenty of heartsore lyrics (“Classic me,” Pearson guffaws at the suggestion), the overall takeaway of the record is one that wants to overcome these hurdles; of an artist who, through it all, chooses herself. “When Huw brought that up, it made me realise that even in my lyrics I was putting myself down which is just… so sad?” she says. “I wasn’t realising that I was being shit to myself on stage, just singing like, ‘You’re a piece of shit’. And then when we changed it, it was great vibes. Those little things, realising that even in the ways you songwrite you can be putting out that insecurity, you can think that people won’t notice but they do. It’s so interesting that changing a lyric can help you find the sound so much more. Changing the narrative and how you’re speaking to yourself can make everything click into place.”

“This record sounds like I’m really finding my feet and it doesn’t feel forced and it just feels very ME.”

About to release the third album of her second project, Katy J Pearson has already lived a lot of life in her 28 years. Returning to Rockfield Studios in Bath – the place she’d first visited with Ardyn a decade ago – to lay down ‘Someday, Now’ felt, she says, like a way to “reorder those memories”. “It felt really powerful to reclaim that experience,” she smiles. “Being back on my third record it was like, ‘Fuck. Here I am.’ It’s not like I got dropped and then stopped doing music. I’m a really resilient person.”

Now surrounded by trusted friends and collaborators, Pearson is arguably one of the best connected young musicians in UK indie. As well as popping up on Weeks’ record, she’s contributed vocals to Yard Act’s second album, released her own collaborative Wicker Man EP featuring Wet Leg, Drug Store Romeos and more, and is a member of folk supergroup Broadside Hacks. Where her first teenage musical forays were categorised by loneliness and struggle, these days she’s exactly where she wants to be. “This album represents a real reflection on how I’ve navigated things – and not in a bad way, but it’s all been so crazy and that’s OK. It’s all me learning to be a better artist and, you know, Stevie Nicks wasn’t in Fleetwood Mac until she was 31 so everything’s fine!” she laughs.

“I keep saying the phrase ‘radical acceptance’ but I think I’m just doing some big accepting of the way things are. That there’s nothing else I’d choose to do more than make albums, but that it’s still gonna be weird and shit sometimes and I’ll need to ring my mum,” she says. “I still feel like it’s only the beginning. I’m three albums in, soon I’ll be six albums in, it’s all just carrying forward and seeing what you’ll do next. I’ve realised recently that you should never feel like something defines you; it’s a period of time where you’ve made something and then you’ll make something else. I’m not so worried. I was an anxious person but I’ve found my peace somehow.”

‘Someday, Now’ is out 20th September via Heavenly.

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