By Kate Torgovnick
I would very much like to thank Pitchfork for introducing me to my new favorite band, Kate Boy. This Swedish quartet creates ethereal electronic pop that, as the music mega-site explains, is equal parts Peter Gabriel and (Kate-book.com muse) Kate Bush. Their track “Northern Lights” is the perfect ’80s update while “In Your Eyes” builds into a beautiful synth opera. The video for the later, above, is simply incredible — turning a bunch of ordinary fluorescent lightbulbs into something magical.
So … what’s up with their band name? Made up of four members—Hampus Nordgren Hemlin, Kate Akhurst, Markus Dextegen, and Oskar Sikow Engström—Kate Boy is their androgynous fictional fifth member.
But we of course are also interested in vocalist Kate Akhurst, who originally hails from Australia and arrived in Stockholm in 2011. She says that, the minute she met the rest of the band, their connection was obvious.
“Someone from [another recording session] was like, ‘You should meet these boys, I think you’re really going to like them,’” remembers Akhurst. “So we met up for a drink, and then decided to go straight down into the studio and start working that very first night. We had this instantaneous connection; we couldn’t even wait until the next day. I felt like I found my people, like, ‘I’ve been waiting all my life for you! I can’t wait another minute.’”
Can’t wait for more from this band.
Got a Kate-
