Endeavour Magazine • October 2012 •103

AN INTERVIEW WITH KATHLEEN WILLIAMSONWRITING WHEN IT’S THEREby Donnie Rust

My boss, who is a virtual catalogue of acquired tastes, stepped into my office and handed me a CD to listen to. Not sure what to expect but nevertheless eager for the break from my terribly busy day of sharpening pencils and drawing circles, I slipped it into my laptop and quite frankly fell in love with what was on it.

It is a well-known fact that since the internet has made the music industry accessible to everyone it has also made everyone think that they belong there. Usually I’m hesitant to listen to anyone’s mix-cd because, while they’re expecting me to think it rivals Freddy Mercury at his best, it usually doesn’t and I end up adding another name to the list of

people I have to actively avoid. But can I describe how different my response was to this

CD? Not a pencil was sharpened and not a circle was drawn for the two solid hours I spent listening to the CD on repeat. Not one. It was a delight to finally catch up with the woman behind the music, Kathleen Williamson and have a chat.

“I got into music when I was nine or ten years old,” Kathleen explains, “Starting with learning the clarinet, the saxophone, piano and guitar. The singing training started when I was fourteen but I was singing for as long as I can remember.”

A common misconception is that people are born with the ability to sing and this couldn’t be further from the truth

as the ability to sing is a learned talent something that is developed, strengthened and honed over many years of training. Saying that someone is just born with it is a crime as you’re stealing away the joy and triumph of achieving something special.

I happen to believe that Kathleen did possess a higher degree of talent when it comes to music and thus forth perhaps had a karmatic responsibility to develop it.

“I had vocal training from the age of fourteen to about twenty four,” she says, “It was initially classical training, then contemporary/musical theatre and then jazz singing with a number of different vocal coaches. Like this I had the

opportunity to strength the voice behind my sound instead of focussing on just making a nice sound.”

In classical training you learn the science behind how the notes are formed and where the sound comes from inside you. It trains you for singing at both poles of your singing range, the bottom all the way through to the top and getting the most perfect sound possible. The difference between a ‘pop’ or ‘rock’ singer who sings for half an hour and then can’t speak and an Opera singer who sings without microphones to a hall of people for four hours without straining their voice is down to the manner in which they are trained.

I asked Kathleen about her influences.

“My parents were into a wide variety of different music so I had a lot of influences on my style,” she recalls, “My dad was into lots of rock and folk so I grew up listening to the Grateful Dead and the Beatles. I’ve always been a fan of the likes of Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and Tori Amos and because I’ve had the chance to perform in a lot of different areas I’ve been able to filter my likes through my experiences and the result is what you hear.”

She is modest about her sound. Personally, I think it’s the sort of lyrical cleverness combined with music originality that deserves to be on every playlist of every human on the planet. But that is purely my opinion.

The songs are so well designed that you can’t help but picture her as someone who just can’t help things bubbling out of her head with the sort of ease that would drive other people to distraction.

“Writing can be the most frustrating thing to do. You can’t force it. If you do what you have is never going to sound right and you’ll never be satisfied with it,” she warns, “When I was working in Dubai on a six month singing contract at the Hyatt Hotels, singing jazz and contemporary I didn’t write anything of my own because I was immersed in the work of other artists. It was a fantastic professional opportunity but it did cloud my inspiration.”

Professional opportunities are the punctuation used when the perfectionist can gather inspiration before writing the next sublime line. Or at least that’s what I’ve always thought.

“Inspiration comes at the strangest of times,” she smirks, “Luckily my partner is a musician as well with similar patterns because sometimes I get an idea for a song as I’m about to fall asleep. Then I’m up and scribbling it down in a book so that I don’t forget it.”

“Artists don’t sleep,” she adds, “You have to write when it’s there.”

I asked her about the method how she puts her songs together because the process of creativity has always interested me. If you believe what you see on television someone gets an idea for a song, there is a quick montage and then they have a song that changes everything… (Mostly Walk The Line). But I’ve always had the feeling there was more to it:

“For me, as a vocalist it starts with the words and a sketch of the main melody and the instrumentation comes in later,” she says, “It’s easier to put the music to the vocals after you know what you want to say in the song.”

Talent, preparation and seizing opportunities have made Kathleen’s career a surfing ride rather than a climb and there seems to always be something new approaching on

the horizon.“My partner, Leo Altarelli, and I live in Bungay Suffolk,

which along with a rich folk heritage is beautiful and peaceful,” she, a person who grew up in Sydney Australia explains, “We’re working on a 1950s inspired close harmony duo called You & The Night. In November we’re going to New York, where we’ll be playing a few gigs and checking out some of the legendary music venues.”

Here I have to write a conclusion, something to sum up the article into a revelation that will leave you the reader with some thought that will, in a small way improve your life. Knowing that I am inclined to waffle on a bit when I myself am inspired I will leave you with one bit of advice: seek out Kathleen Williamson and get your hands on her CD “Little While” and, for more information, visit her website: www.kathleenwilliamson.tumblr.com.

by

Kathleen Williamson

Written by Don Campbell

www.littlegatepublishing.com

Kathleen Williamsonwww.kathleenwilliamson.tumblr.com.