It’s nothing short of amazing, but success, fame, tabloid snark – none of it has gotten to Kate Nash yet. I’m talking to her on the phone – she’s in Atlanta and distracted by something –and she’s as down to earth and natural on the phone as any of my friends.
I ask her what’s going on.

I’m sitting in my dressing room. Actually, that’s not true, that sounds a little more glamorous than the truth. I’m actually in a
changing room in Georgia, trying on vintage dresses. The vintage shopping here is really wonderful.

She fires her answer in million-miles an hour bursts of joyful loquaciousness, in between quick asides to the shopkeeper. I’m notsure how she’s in such good spirits, doing the business end of promotion interviews with websites and blogs and the like. Still, the story of how she got her start in music is endearing –hurting her foot descending a staircase, retreating to bed to recover with a new guitar from her parents – and her enthusiasm is legend. From a handful of songs recorded in her bedroom and posted on MySpace, she moved on to her first tentative gigs at the Trinity Bar on Gayton Road in the London Borough of Harrow.

Oh my god, how do you know about that? I guess everything’s on the Internet, isn’t it? Yeah, first there was a xmas gig, and then I played my birthday.

That was in 2006. Here we are, two years later, a number one debut album in the U.K., released in January in the U.S. (”Made of Bricks,” Geffen Records), and a number two single (the colossal “Foundations”), along with a slew of other singles in the U.K. I asked her if she knew she was going to make it early on.

I don’t think so – no, that really didn’t go through my mind. I had no idea what it would lead to, really. I was making music because I was bored, and I knew that if I wanted the opportunity, I would have to make it myself.

But the chart success came as a complete shock to the young singer. Perhaps because of a withering, hateful response from some of the British press (c.f., the Independent, the Guardian), writing her off as a talentless Lily Allen knockoff. Instead, two weeks after its release, it was #1.

I was absolutely gobsmacked. I was so happy. I just had no idea that it was ever going to enter the charts, and then my friends are calling me, telling me it was in the top ten, and then number one. I just felt so surprised.

The album did well in the States, too, debuting at number 36, selling 16,000 in its first week and 56,000 in its first full month. Still, the material on the album had its roots in demos and songs that had been rattling about for years, so I ask if she’s thought about recording a second album.

I think about getting back into the studio all the time. I’m looking to do all new demos and work with another producer. I think you always have to think about moving forward. I’m lucky, though, because Fiction Records [her U.K. label, founded by the Cure] have been so good to me. I have all of their numbers on my mobile and they support me whenever I need them.

She brings up her fears of being denigrated as a female artist.

You have to think a lot about where you sign – it’s very scary. I like to be in control, to know what’s going on. As a female artist,
you get taken advantage of; people just make all kinds of assumptions. But I’m not going to let that stuff happen to me – I’ve got a really good relationship with my label and that’s an important part of it.

And she still keeps touch with her friends.

My life is all really different now. I suppose it is a different way of life, but it hasn’t really hit me. I suppose once I’m off the tour and I have a chance to settle down and chill a little bit, maybe then I’ll freak out. But for now, I don’t pay attention to the press or any of that stuff. And it’s all because of my friends. My friends are really cool; they’re really supportive to me. They defend me. It’s just so weird what the press do, and what they get away with all the time…

Paul Epworth producer of Bloc Party, Futureheads, Maximo Park and the Rakes fame (though I love him best for his remixes under the name “Phones”) twiddled the knobs for her debut album, also co-writing “Foundations.” But her first ever release was a limited-edition vinyl-only single on the legendary indie label, Moshi Moshi, produced by Valgeir Sigurosson in Iceland.

I was featured on a website, I think it was Record of the Day, and Valgeir got in touch. He suggested we record in Iceand. I loved it there. It was just so beautiful and so odd, with black sand and the sky and the air are so clear…

I ask if she still sees herself churning out album after album years from now.
Laughing, she is emphatic that she’ll be doing this sort of thing forever.

Definitely, yeah, even if I’m recording in my house and selling cassette tapes, I don’t care. I love it. I have a great fan base, and they’re really mixed, young girls and mums, punks and boys and they’re really wonderful.

I ask if that was really her in the audience at the Cribs show at the Black Cat a few weeks back (yes, it was, and we have photos to prove it-ed) and she laughs then we change the subject quickly.

I hear the changing room attendant in the background and her handler hurries her off the phone. I get the feeling she didn’t want to talk about her boyfriend (the Cribs singer, I think), and she had a million more 10 minute interviews to give before she could sit down for dinner.

It still hasn’t registered with me that I just spoke with a top U.K.pop star, playing an utterly and completely sold out gig at the 9:30
Club this Thursday. What a sweetheart.

This Kate is no victim…

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