Kathleen Frances breaks down her new EP, ‘Through the Blue’

Kathleen Frances popped up in our inbox a few weeks ago and instantly her voice blew us away. A deep, rich baritone it’s a truly special sound. So, we asked the artist to walk us through their new EP, Through the Blue.

Shout Love. 

This was written on my bed in the middle of the night. The summer of the pandemic. I was feeling pretty low and anxious during this time, probably like many other people. Benji sent me this gorgeous rolling arpeggiated piano part that was about six minutes long. I just began trying melodies out. With most of my songwriting it’s a case of trying many different ideas then leaving it for a day/a week/a year and coming back to it, however this one came pretty easily. Lyrics and melody seemed to flow, I was letting the shit get to me and I wrote this as an aggressively positive response. I chose, in that moment, to marvel at the absurdity of the world. Rather than instilling existential dread it inspired a drive to shout out whatever I wanted to bring/do/be in this life, no holding back. 

Grown. 

This is such a nostalgic song for me. I wrote this and then came back to it six months later. That’s when the pre-chorus hook finally came to me. That part just takes me to one of those (too infrequent) moments where you have the least cares in the world, no worries, no responsibilities. Basically being an adult sucks and we should try and escape it whenever and wherever possible. 

Background.

Background is the interlude on Through the Blue. It was actually the wonderful Ben Baptie, who co-wrote and produced this one, who suggested a pause from the piano and this spacious, beautiful track emerged. I wanted a moment away from a body of work that is predominantly introverted and self-reflective. So I flipped the lens to being the person in the background of everyone else’s lives. It’s such an important role we have as human beings, and sometimes when I’m wrapped up in my own crap I find it comforting to know that in the background people are there for me and I am there for others too. After I wrote it I realised it could also be a message to myself in the second person.  

Boy. 

This one took me ages to write. I was really hurting from a breakup. I just wasn’t ready to go there. I had a few nice ideas but nothing that felt totally right. It was all too surface-level sad and self-pitying. I had to find what I really felt about it deep down, underneath the feelings of betrayal and bruised ego. I had to figure out what I really wanted from this person now. Things change, people change. It’s sad but it’s also hopeful, it allows you to take stock and figure out what you really want. With this song I was attempting to get the balance right between cathartic sadness and self assuredness.

Baby Blue. 

The initial ideas for this track came from the studio. Me and Benji were playing around making interesting sounds, we manipulated a load of old material and came up with some ambient stuff. I went home with what we had done that day and chopped it up, moved chords around and messed around with a beat. It took a couple of days before I settled on the ‘Baby Blue’ chorus. I took my lyric book out to the park and wrote the verse lyrics. I was feeling very contradictory feelings and the colour blue is also contradictory. It’s the sea, the sky, my favourite colour but it’s also how we describe feeling down. I just really liked the imagery it evoked.  The track really came together when I took it to producer Ben Baptie. The outro was created at his studio. He carved out the production with such sensitivity and care and gave the track a journey without overriding the song. 

Listen to Kathleen Frances’ new EP on Spotify and Apple Music.