"I wanted to share with you a collection of b-sides, remixes and demos that never has been officially released. This is part of my journey in creating music. Not all
of these tracks represent me as the artist I am now, but it does show the journey of getting to where I am now.
These tracks are all outsiders in one way or another, and these songs have never fitted onto any of my albums. They are all written at different times, and some are as old as from 1997. They vary in production and in style and are the kind of songs that always "had something", but never felt quite right.
I'm still very fond of these songs and didn't want them to be hidden for all time."
TROLLMOR
"Trollmor’s Vuggesang is a famous lullaby written by Swedish writer Margit Holmberg.
My mother used to sing this for me when I was a child, and I used to sing it for my little brother. I have always loved it and wanted to make a fairytale sounding version of the song. When I initially recorded this song it was always supposed to be the opening track on Melankton, but I thought since Melankton was my debut album it was a bit risky to open with a new version of a famous Scandinavian lullaby that people were attached to. I recorded the strings with Bratislava Symphony Orchestra along with all the other Melankton tracks."
NOT FAIR (Ost & Kjex Remix)
"Petter Haavik from Norwegian techno group Ost & Kjex is a friend from when I went to College in Liverpool and we have been working together since we were in school. He worked on many on the Melankton tracks and he also made this amazing remix of Not Fair when there was a question of having it as a single for Melankton. That never happened, and this remix never saw the light of day... until now. I love how dark and epic he makes it with the brass."
SERPENTINE (Dokkemand vs Andy Page Remix)
"I met Dokkemand (Marius Grøtterud Egenes) on myspace (before Facebook existed) and I really liked his music. We became friends and kept in touch and when I had done Melankton I asked him to do a remix, he picked this song. We finished the mix in his bedsit studio in Oslo on a dark winter night. I think his approach and feel is wonderful.
When I was preparing my live set up for Melankton, I had my friend Andy Page program a special ending for this song for live performances. I've always loved what he came up with, and I really wanted it to be heard. It was kind of strange to just include Andy's end bit on it's own on the Residue album, so I edited it onto the tail end of Dokkemand's remix just be able to include it."
ALL I NEED
"This song was written over a backing track with brass parts. The backing track is made by Lee Muddy Baker (whom I have still never met), and was given to me by a music lawyer who asked me to write a song over it for another artist to use. I never managed to finish it completely and the other artist ended up never hearing this rough sketch of the song.
I always liked the energy and drive in the song, I thought it is worth sharing even though it is not a typical Kate track, it sounds quite different from the rest of my songs. This production is by Gisli Kristjanson and Petter Haavik, based on Lee Muddy Baker's brass and backing track."
PUSHED AWAY
"I wrote this song a long time ago and it has been recorded and produced many, many times by various talented people with different takes on it, but somehow it never sounded “right”, and it was never used on any of my albums. I have played this song on many shows and I love singing it, I have always been aiming to release it. I think it is time to release it now on this record as I can't see it fit onto the next album either. The song is produced by Gisli Kristjanson and Sean McGhee and mixed by Sean McGhee."
SOMEDAY (Andy Bradfield Mix)
"Someday was on my original Melankton release in Norway and UK. This was an alternative version of the song we made before the USA release of Melankton, but we took the song off the US version of Melankton altogether to make space for other tracks. I love how the drums help give the song it's peak."
STRANGELOVE
"Strangelove was the first song I ever had synced in a TV series, it was used in The West Wing TV-series, it was just a demo and I had never released anything at all. It was quite exciting and I offered to improve the production and recording before they used it but they wanted it as it is. This recording was produced and recorded with Espen Berg in Oslo, Livingroom Studio."
YOU AGAIN (Temposhark Remix)
"Temposhark was a band some friends of mine had, Rob Diament and Luke Busby, and they wanted to remix this particular song. I think they did a great job and it is a really fun version of the song. I used this remix in one of my video blogs from a trip to NYC and I remember getting a lot of requests of where people could buy this remix, so I am now glad to finally make it available."
ICICLE
"Icicle is a very old song I made as a student in Liverpool in 1997. I think this is one of my dad's favorites, he used to always mention how much he likes this song and that I should put it out. The demo is produced by my friend Stein Johan Grieg Halvorsen (Steinjo) who lived in the flat next to mine while we were students. He is now a composer, songwriter and comedian in Norway. The funny thing is that we hadn't really worked together since we were students, but last year we did a soundtrack for the Norwegian Movie “Mormor” together. Even though the sound is a bit dated I feel this old demo has its charm."
REAL
"Real is another song from my time in Liverpool as a student and was written in 1997. My friend Stein Johan Grieg Halvorsen (Steinjo) also produced this demo in his bedroom studio. Again, the sound is a bit dated but I think the song has a certain energy and charm, it reminds me of how much I wanted to become a recording artist."
PIECES
"I made this song and demo with Brio Taliaferro in his small studio loft in London, I remember the neighbor being very unhappy about the noise we made. The floor was shaking while I was recording vocals as the neighbor was banging his ceiling with a broom to make us turn the music down and be quiet. It made me quite nervous and doesn't really reflect the calm mood of the song. Brio went to work with big artists like Sugababes, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Robbie Williams to mention a few."
TIMELESS (Extended Instrumental Version)
"I made this string arrangement in Iceland in my then husband´s parents basements flat. I only had headphones to work from and I was under time pressure. Somehow it just took shape and we recorded it in a beautiful church in Reykjavik with string-players from Sigur Ros. Kjartan (Sigur Ros) brought protools recording equipment and helped us set everything up and record, I am so grateful for that because the strings sound great. To me the instrumental always sounded a bit like a film-score with a life of its own."
New Day (Jan Sigsworth Remix)