Many roads to Nash-ville
When chart-topping singer Kate Nash temporarily swapped the music industry for Hollywood one thing struck her immediately.
“Acting is more professional than music,” says the 30 year-old Londoner, who has found success starring in Netflix’s hit 1980s wrestling drama Glow.
“In music there is no organised body to help people out. In acting you have SAG [the Screen Actor’s Guild]. There is a lot of discipline and professionalism. The music industry is appalling in that sense.”
Nash, who goes back to her “day job” for a performance at the Indiependence festival in Co Cork at August, should know.
In 2007, she went to number one in the UK album charts with her debut, Made of Bricks, (it peaked at eight in Ireland) and was all over the radio with single ‘Foundations’, a co-write with Adele and Florence and the Machine producer Paul Epworth.
But success quickly became more curse than blessing as the then-19-year-old was pressured into touring over and over.
Anyone who caught one of her many Irish shows in that period will have noted her transition from perky young woman to exhausting-looking slogger (it didn’t help that she was unfairly disparaged in the media as a Lily Allen clone and referred to as “Mini Allen”).
The gigs were always fantastic — but goodness she looked worn by the end.
“I was in a workhorse situation,” she reflects. “My labels and managers didn’t implement anything to support me emotionally or mentally. I definitely got burnt out.”
She flirted with giving up on music. The darkest moment followed 2013’s Girl Talk album, when her record label informed her she’d been dropped via text message.
Meanwhile, her efforts to break into acting were coming unstuck, with a move to Los Angeles ending in disappointment. She wound up living with her parents back in London, feeling slightly crushed.
But she never completely lost faith. And, as if often the case in show business, after things reached bottom they suddenly got better.
Nash ran a successful crowd-funding campaign for her smart and uplifting fourth LP, Yesterday Was Forever.
Around the same time, her American agent got on in touch to say she’d been offered the part in a new Netflix drama about an all-female wrestling show in Eighties Los Angeles.
Glow returns on June 29, with Nash’s Brit-abroad character Rhonda “Britannica” Richardson one of the key members of the ensemble.
She’s always been an unflinching lyricist. However, even by her standards, Yesterday Was Forever is hard-hitting.
She sings about her struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety and frankly pokes through the ashes of unsuccessful relationships.
The songs are always catchy — but this is a record that lands its punches too.
“I write about what’s happening in my life with my art. It feels really natural.”
The fact the album is self-released is freeing she says. It means she isn’t dependent on the kindness of a record label or management. She can plot her own course — and prioritise her psychological well-being.
“I can only go off my own experiences. There are definitely problems I have with the industry. I hear other people’s experiences too. There are a lot of complaints about the business and how they treat artists.
"If you are given money by a label there’s a lot you are giving up for that – a lot of compromise. It ultimately depends on what you want from your career.”
Nash is a graduate of the Brit School, the Croydon second level institution that gave the world Adele and Amy Winehouse.
She is back in London presently — Nash grew up in Harrow, with an English father and Irish mother — but spends much of her time in Los Angeles.
The sunny positivity was initially a culture shock. She is getting used to it.
“I definitely miss the grit and sarcasm of London. When I come home. I feel it instantly. But there is a lot to be said for Los Angeles. People are positive and look after themselves.”
Glow, you sense, has made a huge difference. Nash is no longer entirely dependent on music for a living.
Moreover, the series is noteworthy for its female heavy cast and backroom staff. Coming from the macho music business, still very male dominated behind the scenes, it’s a refreshing contrast.
“There’s a lot of understanding. Working with women, you’re not just being looked at through a certain lense — the male gaze.
"You’re being looked at as a person. Glow isn’t just any old acting gig. It’s something I really a care about. I’ve been trying to get into acting for such a long time.
"To be surrounded by so many fantastic women — it’s a whole new world.”
Nash was ahead of the curve in protesting attitudes towards women in the entertainment business.
Her second record contained the bruising and brutalised ‘Mansion Song’, which discussed the treatment of female fans by male rock stars — a culture she had witnessed first hand on tour.
There was a widespread feeling — among men predominantly — that she’d gone too far.
Talking about feminism wasn’t as common back then. I remember people being quite excited to talk to me about feminism. A lot of pop artists wouldn’t talk about it or wouldn’t claim to be a feminist.
“One journalist told me that publicists would jump in to stop the artist answering if they were asked ‘are you a feminist?’.
"This was as recently as 2008, 2009. Then suddenly Taylor Swift became a feminist, Beyoncé was a feminist. There’s been such a shift. It’s amazing.”
State of Indiependence: Festival highlights
These Britpop icons have done it all — from pushing the boundaries of dance and rock music with 1991’s Screamadelica to channelling the Rolling Stones on 1994’s Give Out But Don’t Give Up and pushing krautrock towards the mainstream with Vanishing Point and Accelerator.
Singer Bobby Gillespie even duetted with model Kate Moss on a cover of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Some Velvet Morning’.
Hailed the Bob Dylan of the English Midlands with his 2012 debut album, the Nottingham native continues to build a cult audience.
He veered into alternative country with last year’s Hearts That Strain while 2013’s Shangri-La was produced by LA hitmaker Rick Rubin.
The Dingle band are one of the biggest things in Irish rock, with anthems that pitch tent somewhere between Coldplay and Mumford and Sons.
Now with Fight Like Ape’s Mary-Kate Geraghty on vocals, the Dublin electro group have found huge success with their relentless party music, in which melancholy and euphoria are counterpointed perfectly.
The Waterford group have quietly become live sensations in Ireland, their riotous techno shows enlivened by costumes, dancing, and zaniness.
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