Nashional treasure
Kate Nash is knackered. She barely has the energy to dig out the chunks in the tub of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough she’s digging into in the absence of her usual sleep-deprivation cures: crisps, cheese sarnies and posh grub from M&S. Without her Marks’, has Kate lost her sparks? Itchy has heard that her speed-talking motor mouth can usually rival that of a horse-racing commentator, but after hitting the sack at four and getting up again at nine, today the 20-year-old is feeling a touch more subdued. ‘I’m a pretty uncoordinated person, but I spent last night being transformed into a brilliant mover by Amerie’s lovely backing dancers after we’d played the same stage’, she yawns. Still, despite struggling to hoist the mighty weight of her spoon, she manages to raise our spirits with her easy, friendly and polite attitude. It’s just a shame that she raises only a few points that we haven’t heard before.
Everyone knows how she started penning her lyrics just 15 years after she was a mere twinkle in her daddy’s eye, and how she learnt to play guitar when said papa bought her one to keep her amused after a tumble down some stairs left her incapacitated with broken tootsies. We’ve all read countless times of the MySpace leg up that she and her fixed foot were given when fringe-topped, trainer-tailed, prom-com queen Lily Allen named her as a Top Friend. And we’ve certainly listened to Nash protest in virtually every interview since then that her style is nothing like Lil’s, despite them both being DIY female artists delivering cheeky, frank tales in a heavy London accent. Whether or not there are, as Nash again claims with us, major differences elsewhere in the shit they both drop, Allen has certainly warmed the seat for her. What Itchy wants to know is whether Nash has enough that’s truly unique about her to continue her success beyond this fashion-led first flush of fame.
Still clad this afternoon in the yellow hoodie she briefly slept in, and, suitably enough, a pair of jodhpurs, Kate denies she’s simply riding a trend; she’s been developing her music privately for five years after all, so perhaps it’s just a happy coincidence that her sound is considered hotter than wasabi right now. She’s not worried that her popularity will go off the boil either, as she expects to grow and mature as an artist over time, and is confident that the warm welcome with which she invites this development will naturally keep her tunes fresh and appealing to audiences; ‘My life is changing every day; already I’ve been affected by the process of becoming well known, of finding myself suddenly in a situation with whole new ups and downs and having to work harder, professionally, than I ever have before – that’s all new experience that’s sure to change and affect my outlook and the way I compose. Plus I’m prompted to write by people that I meet, art that I come across or films that I see; there’s lots of input beyond what literally happens directly to me’. Although it’s impossible to predict what direction her evolution will take and whether the tastes of Nash’s public will develop in parallel as she hopes, Kate is confident that all the novel influences she’s being exposed to will prevent her from becoming stagnant.
But will it end up with her getting too big for her boots? After all, just a couple of months into the whirlwind of fame, she-to-whom-no-resemblance-whatsoever-is-borne was already developing a bit of a rep for her bitchy scraps. Has Kate herself given anyone a sock in the eye yet? Or, failing socks, maybe garrotted an enemy with a pair of her natty opaque tights? ‘I have two very opinionated sisters, and we tend to argue a lot when we’re cooped up together, although we’re really very close’, comes Kate’s measured answer – not quite the bloodbath on the hometown streets of Harrow we were salivating for. Hell, not even a light shower of violence. Okay, if words are Nash’s weapons of choice, what’s her best insult? ‘ Just “Shut up”, usually. Although “Your mum…” is a good one too’. What about our mum? She’s so fat that she deep fries her toothpaste? She’s so hairy her armpits look like she’s got Bob Marley in a headlock? ‘I don’t want to be crude’, she insists, and tries to turn the conversation back round to her songs, instead changing conversation to the ‘very political lyrics’ she scribed in her teens. Well, she’s certainly no mini Allen thus far.
Any plans to use your fame to create your own product? Lily’s done the Air Max and New Look clothing range. ‘I’d love a Wallace and Gromit-style machine that could speedily get me ready in the mornings so I could lie in a little longer. Then it would tip me onto a bicycle ready to ride wherever I needed to go, with a basket on the front of it. Filled with indulgent M&S food’. Well, she mightn’t be as brand-savvy as the alleged chick with a dick, but Itchy hopes she gets to catch some rejuvenating zeds soon. She may not be anywhere near as controversial as her alleged mentor, but we’ve woken up to the fact that Kate Nash is rather lovelier than we expected. For that alone, we’d be happy for her to bed into the charts for a while to come.
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