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Music

Kate Nash Talks the Song that Made Her

"Some people don't even recognize me, but they'll know the song," she says. That's the mark of a real classic.

It's a good thing Kate Nash hasn't let success go to her head, or else an unsuspecting American might've never been heard from ever again. On the newest installment of "Made Me," she describes stopping at a gas station and being asked if she was in a band. "I said, 'Oh, Kate Nash' and he said 'You guys play for Kate Nash? That is awesome? "Foundations," man! High five!' she recalls. "He didn't even know that I was saying I was me, but he high-fived me for playing in my band."

Given the way she first found out that "Foundations" was breaking big, her response is no surprise. "I was just sitting in my mum's kitchen, eating my Weetabix, spoke to my manager and he said, 'Oh my God, it's going to #2 on the charts, it's amazing,'" she says. "Hung up, and kept finishing my Weetabix. I was having a life-changing thing but I'm still like, putting my stuff in the dishwasher and going about my day." Such a down-to-earth response echoes the relatable emotions in "Foundations," which is about someone trying to hold onto a relationship that's beginning to fall apart. "I think the hardest part about a breakup is actually deciding you're going to do it," she says, a sentiment that plenty of us can probably agree with.

That the song's won her fans from Patti Smith (who told Nash she liked it) to random Americans isn't surprising given its airy, poppy lift. What's surprising is that she did it without the traditional means of support. "It was really unexpected, and really cool as well because I wasn't being supported by Radio 1, the biggest radio station in the UK," she says. "They actually refused to support me, and when it went to #2 on the charts they started playing it." Another singer might have taken that to heart, but Nash hasn't let it bother her. "Some people don't even recognize me, but they'll know the song," she says. That's the mark of a real classic.