Kaia Kater Explores The Heavenly and The Sinister on "Saint Elizabeth"

Photo by Polina Mourzina

Kaia Kater is a woman standing alone in a circle of people turning around her. At least that is what her sophmore record title, Nine Pin, also the name of a traditional square dancing formation, leads us to believe. The 22 year-old blends her personal roots–with ties to Quebec, Toronto, and West Virginia–into a folk kaleidoscope on Nine Pin. Released back in May via Kingswood Records, Nine Pin is unflinching in its looking at the realities people of colour in North America face every single day. Coming from a line of women in folk and country who were, according to Kater, much more radical by simply existing in these musical spaces, it is important for her to continue speaking up and creating a space for more women—and women of colour. Noisey spoke to Kater about the inspiration behind the song and video for the stripped down performance of “Saint Elizabeth,” Nina Simone, and why being political is important.

Noisey: Do you call Toronto home now?

Kaia Kater:

It’s my home base. I’m between places because I just graduated college in West Virginia. Every time I come back to Canada it is my home base—my mom lives here. I have a strong community of friends here.

What is the inspiration behind “Saint Elizabeth?”
It is basically about looking at the relationship between the heavenly and the sinister. There are lots of creepy love songs that I like. “Creep” by Radiohead, for example, and “Every Breath You Take.” I always find it kind of funny because people use it was their wedding song and I find it to be extremely creepy. I had a fascination with, more I guess, gothic themes in love stories. That was the inspiration for “Saint Elizabeth," which has this very low, low down, almost a sinner, sort of figure who is in love with this woman who is angelic and her name is Saint Elizabeth. He is completely devoted to her and will do anything for her to the point of obsession.

Listening to some of your other songs and I feel they do have a political thread through them. I wanted to know if this touched on anything like that and, also, why is it important for you to have those discussions in your songs?
“Saint Elizabeth” is one of the less political songs on the album. I’ve really wanted to look at different relationships within the love context. I’ve never been drawn to the whole “oh we’re happy and we’re in love” because for me, at least in my relationships, it’s a constant struggle, right? Between joy and sadness and negotiating things within relationships and when relationships get unhealthy. I think as a woman looking at those different angles of love and how easy it is for love to turn into obsession or for us to feel like preyed—if it did have a political angle, that would be it. I’m not interested in writing happy ballads. It's not really representative of the human experience or my human experience at least.

Photo Photo by Polina Mourzina

If you look at the way popular folk or country music has functioned, it’s largely a white, male-based genre and they touch on serious aspects of human life. So how do you want to navigate women in that conversation?
I was at a conference in North Carolina and they had this panel called Wisdom of the Elders. They had women — who were some of the first pioneers in bluegrass music—and Alice Gerrard was talking about…they used to have women in bluegrass bands and the only position women would occupy was as bass players. That’s because the men didn’t think the women were smart enough to get an instrument you could solo on like a guitar, banjo, or mandolin. Or a fiddle. And they were the butt of the jokes a lot of the time. Even love songs that were reverent for women were written largely from a male perspective. I think there are a lot of women who come before me—like Elizabeth Cotten—who write really interesting songs that are more reflective. In terms of the pattern that I’d like to continue is creating a space for women that is something other than just being the objectified one or the one who is adored. The one with more grit and depth than women in country music have normally been.

Are there other women in music who drive you toward attaining that goal?
Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu. I think one of the biggest and earliest is Nina Simone. [The Nina Simone documentary] gave me a lot of insight into who she was as a person. She was very complicated and very strong. I think some parts of her work were broken by a society that was so incredibly racist. I like when women, especially black women, can command that kind of space. And pull it off so well artistically.

How do you find navigating this industry knowing the stories of the women who came before you? How does that inform what you’re doing in terms of songwriting and promotion and anything else that goes with it?
I think one of the biggest things is to not be afraid to be taken seriously. It sounds really odd and something I’ve been fighting with myself because a lot of the time. I started playing when I was very young. I would showcase and make little EPs. I loved music from a young age. And a lot of the time it was “oh she’s so cute and she’s singing these folk songs.” And I think with Nine Pin my goal was to be taken seriously as an artist regardless of my age or my appearance. I have the appearance of looking quite young. People think I am not even out of high school yet. Understanding that people have their own image of who you are but also requiring that they take you seriously and that’s a basic form of respect. So I get a lot of that from men who think I’m just a young girl who can put their advice upon me when I don’t need it. At the end of the day, I’ve been performing for almost ten years but they don’t see that. I do a lot of body percussions at live shows and someone, this well-meaning guy, in the industry told me I should stop doing that because I was hitting my chest area and he was saying my boobs were bouncing too much. It would draw the eye to my boobs. It was so hard also because it’s not like they are directly insulting you in case you rebut that. It was said in a neighborly way. There’s this atmosphere of older men knowing what’s best for the younger girls.

Sarah MacDonald is a staff writer at Noisey Canada. Follow her on Twitter.