Jon ZilinskiKatie Laine
With: The Good Goodbyes
Wednesday April 20 Time TBD
Bohemia (10217 97st)
Price: TBD
“I was trying to post us on Reddit and I sat there thinking I needed a really good title for the post and I couldn’t come up with one. Then, all of a sudden it came to me and I wrote: ‘White person plays reggae and it doesn’t sound like complete shit.’ That‘s us in a nutshell.”
The group in question here is a trio made up of MacEwan University music students who play a unique and soulful blend of reggae-inspired folk-fusion — one which, according to Katie Anderson, also happens to not sound like complete shit. They go by Katie Laine.
Anderson — of whom the non-shit-sounding act takes their name — leads as guitarist and vocalist, while JD Speelman holds down the groove on bass and Sam Malowany sets the pace on drums.
The group recently celebrated the release of their defining debut EP, The Sea & The Soil, with a sold out gig at Cha Island Café and have recently garnered more attention than ever, with a string of interviews, live radio performances and album reviews.
Despite the average age of the performers being no greater than twenty years old, they have a mindset towards their art that feels well beyond their combined years on this planet.
“Once you decide you want to do music for your life, you can’t just be one thing,” says Anderson. “You can get good playing one genre and be known as that guy but if you want to make a living you can’t pigeonhole yourself … as younger musicians we have to be versatile,” adds Malowany.
This acknowledgement is reflected throughout Katie Laine’s music — jumping at one moment from tropical, reggae progressions to neo-R&B-soul the next.
“I travelled a lot as a kid, my family always had to get away from this cold shit — it was Costa Rica, Mexico and other Latin American countries where there are so many musical influences, from salsa to reggae,” Anderson explains. “Edmonton is like this giant flower, opening up with all different kinds of music, so it’s not ‘oh we have to play folk because we’re from Alberta’, no, we’re going to play all the kinds of music we want.”
The confidence to utilize this mixed-bag approach in part comes from each member’s pragmatic mentality toward their music but also finds roots in Anderson’s inherent love for collaboration and experimentation.
“I used to travel with a ukulele — I had this little, pineapple shaped one — I would just sit on the beach and jam with people,” Anderson recalls. “I remember being in France and there was this group of guys playing reggae, I asked if they wanted to play together and they were like ‘fuck ya!’ I could barely understand anything they were saying so I was just like ‘oui!’ I love connecting with people through music and sharing styles.”
Anderson, Malowany and Speelman are still early in their musical careers but they have already set their eyes on lofty prizes — the top tier teddy bears at the carnival.
“I envision being on Folk Fest main stage, in front of 30,000 people,” Malowany says. “The coolest part is there are so many people in the city who are trying to help young musicians like us get up there.”
While the future careers of Anderson and Co. are sure to be bright, the present remains filled with youthful fun as the trio continues to experiment and build a unique musical offering that will appetize listeners and get them onto that stage of their dreams.
“If you were eating Katie Laine for breakfast, you would have scrambled eggs, an English muffin, some kind of salsa, guacamole, then add in something sweet, so a bunch of fruits and then spiciness — Siracha — you would do whatever you want with that. That’s what we are here for, to shove this giant mess of stuff to people and see how they will enjoy it. It might be a little bit of a cluster-fuck, but that’s what we like.”
Pick up Katie Laine’s not shitty debut EP here.
