Katy Steele did something huge last year. Something she hadn’t done in a long time. Something her fans weren’t sure would ever happen.
Hear Katy Steele’s full chat with Dylan Lewis
For the first time in many years, the Western Australian band hit the road and played their classic 2004 album BigBigLove in full at a handful of shows around the country.
“It was awesome, but it was a big, big thing in my life,” Steele tells Double J’s Dylan Lewis. “We hadn’t played together in like 15 years or something.”
Revisiting the band that launched her career prompted a question: would Steele re-record some of her band’s classic tracks in stripped back form?
While she wasn’t against the idea, Steele couldn’t quite grasp the purpose of such a move.
“When I went into the studio, it was kind of like, ‘Let’s just track some stuff’. And then once I did record them, it was just enjoyable. It was really fun and spontaneous for the most part.
“It was like, ‘This is the way it should be’. It shouldn’t be too thought out.”
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Her new EP Undressed, which will be released on April 24, is the result of that lowkey approach in the studio.
Rather than write a whole new record, Steele has reimagined some of her past work and a handful of classic songs that have inspired her.
“It’s a real broad spectrum of songs,” she says.
“There’s four covers, three reinterpretations of Little Birdy songs and one song that’s never been released, which I wrote a few years ago. Then there’s two reinterpretations of my solo catalogue.”
She bravely tackles some of the most revered songs of the modern era on Undressed, including The Smiths’s There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, Michael Jackson’s Ben, and Patti Smith’s Because The Night.
Alongside a few reimagined solo tracks, Steele also delivers new versions big Little Birdy tracks like Beautiful To Me, Relapse and 2009 single Stay Wild.
But these aren’t going to be anything like the versions you know and love. Undressed sees her strip everything back, offering the most intimate takes on these songs fans have ever heard.
“It is pretty raw,” Steele says. “Some of them are just piano and vocal and a few harmonies.
“Some people might find that kind of boring, and that’s cool, but it’s what it is. It felt really liberating to do it that way.”Existence is purpose
Listening back to old Little Birdy recordings stirs up plenty of feelings for the singer-songwriter.
“It’s weird listening to that voice,” she says. “My voice is so young in those recordings. It’s bizarre. I sound like a child — I was a child, really. I sound like a woman now.”
Undressed features stripped back versions of Katy Steele’s most loved work, as well as some iconic covers. (Supplied)
Steele was living through that awkward period between youth and adulthood when the band began. When they took off almost immediately, it meant both growing up and learning her craft in full view of the nation.
“I was 18 when I picked up the guitar, and it was very soon after that the band became a thing. It was very soon after that that [triple j] started playing our music. So, I kind of had to learn on the stage,” she recalls.
The single Relapse was the band’s big break.
Released in 2003, it made the ARIA charts and ended the year in the top 20 of the Hottest 100. While the band would have bigger hits, Relapse will always be special. It helps that it has aged so well.
“I guess it was the song that put our band on the map,” Steele considers. “It was the first song that [triple j] played.
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“It’s a song that has never felt old to me. It was the first song I remember writing, which is just nuts because I don’t remember writing many other songs.
“I don’t remember writing it, but I just remember the sentiment and the feelings that I felt … young love, being 17. Things are just … things are intense, man.”
Steele is back on the road playing suitably stripped-back shows in support of the new EP later this month. While fans holding out for another Little Birdy tour might need to wait a while, Steele isn’t closing the door on her old band.
“I’m focusing a little bit on solo, but it’s always kind of in the peripheral,” she says.
“We live in three different states. So, it’s quite hard to get us in a room, but there are definitely plans to get some new music going.
“We just want it to be really good. Like we don’t want to put any old shit out. So we’re kind of taking our time but, in the background, we are preparing.”
Katy Steele kicks off her Australian tour in Hobart on April 23, before shows in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Perth. Her new EP Undressed is out April 24.
Catch Dylan Lewis on Double J Arvos weekdays from 3pm. Tune in on ABC listen.