Kay Iris will release their new single ‘Last To Be Sung’ on Friday, 20th September 2024, and we take pleasure in delivering you this interview and feature that introduces the music and the duo behind the songs and videos.
Kay Iris is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and activist joined by accomplished instrumentalist and songwriter Matt Patmore. Their songs aim to inspire and empower.
Their signature sound incorporates folk, country, Americana and rock, with distinct compositions that combine ethereal vocals, memorable riffs and thought-provoking lyrics. Taking inspiration from The Doobie Brothers, Joni Mitchell, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Fleetwood Mac.
Creating sounds for sustainability—Kay Iris intends to use their platform to help promote sustainable and ethical lifestyle choices. Past projects include their ‘One Tank, One Tree’ tour, in which they partnered with ‘Tree Nation’ to donate trees to reforestation projects based on how far they traveled. Looking forward, they hope to attain a line of sustainable and ethically sourced merchandise to perform at ecofriendly festivals such as ‘The Vegan Campout’, ‘Into the Wild’ and ‘Black Deer Festival’, as well as supporting conservational charities and venues.
We were joined by both Matt Patmore and Kay Iris for this conversation. We began talking about a past single, “Dead Man Walking,” which comes complete with a folk story, some of that American South rhythm and this interesting video full of sketches to accompany the tale. Written and directed by Kay Iris, we are told that ‘Dead Man Walking’ is a cinematic following of the last days of a remorseful outlaw running from justice. The style of the song was inspired by Quentin Tarantino soundtracks as well as old spaghetti Western scores by Sergio Leone.
Kay: Initially, we were thinking that we wanted some visuals to go with the audio, but we also knew it would be hard to pull off doing a video like this on a budget. We didn’t want it to come across as twee, and we looked at how best to convey the cowboy theme. So we thought about conveying the story as an animation.
Matt: We storyboarded it ourselves, sketched up ideas about what would look good, loosely based around Quentin Tarantino. We then sent these ideas off to an artist and gave them the mission and the budget! But it turned out very decently.
Kay: We had a few changes to the backboards; we wanted the visuals to be authentic for the time; we wanted the inspiration from the western spaghetti movies. It needed to do that and convey our story too.
Matt: But we remain pleased that we did that rather than dress up as cowboys and cowgirls!
Kay: The video doesn’t have our faces in it. We are very proud of it, but would have liked the views higher, and maybe in the future we will do a music video with us in it and maybe have a different feel to it. But our songs lend themselves to story and visuals, and we would like as many of our songs as possible to have videos to go with them. That short movie style is a good way to show our music.
As an Indie magazine, we fully sympathize with independent artists. There is so much you end up having to do yourself to be able to continue sometimes.
Kay: That’s it. And the story isn’t about us; we were telling it from the narrators perspective. It doesn’t involve us; we are not in the story; it’s not about our lives. We are quite private people and that can be tricky as we get the most views from videos that show us. We do say that if we were not in music, then we wouldn’t be on socials, and it can be a scary space out there.
Matt: We like the degree of separation.
You can, of course, write something without having any personal connection to it at all. Bram Stoker can write ‘Dracula’ without a genuine vampire encounter! Yet, with this duo in some situations, like the new single ‘Last To Be Sung,’ there does seem to be a personal connection; there is not total detachment with the songwriting?
Matt: I agree. “Dead Man Walking” was the first song written where there was no connection to us, no connection with anything that had happened in life. With that song, we wanted to write a song through a narrator, but it’s interpretative and your life can just get mixed up into it.
Kay: The last line, “Tell me, do we really know what we’ve got till it’s gone?” That is maybe a line where I feel there is a lot of me behind the line. “A Tale of Fate” is personal as it’s about our ethics and morals and so we like to blur lines behind things that clearly matter to us but put it in a way that is visual and interesting as well. Of course, you don’t have control over how other people perceive your music and that can be tricky. We have found with some of our songs that people have perceived them in ways so different from our intent when we wrote them. But sometimes they have helped people, which is lovely. I would say, however, that it’s strange how people can look at lyrics and perceive them so differently from how you wanted them seen. I have had instances where people have said to me that this song means a lot to them because of this, or they have taken it in a way that I had never envisaged. You don’t have control over how a song is received.
It’s an old question: who is right, the person who creates the song or the person who listens to it?
Kay: Sometimes people want a song to be something, so they make it that. Sometimes people have an idea of something that they want it to be.
Matt: I like it sometimes though, when it just goes off the rails and it is perceived as something totally different.
“A Tale of Fate” asks the question, ‘Is love coincidental or tied to something greater than ourselves?’ A particular Greek myth inspired this song. It tells the story of Zeus splitting soul mates in two, as he was fearful of their power together. From there, these two entities would spend their lives trying to find their ‘other half’. The sound and subject matter of the song combine dreamy, ethereal vocals with groovy instrumentation as the narrator navigates the eternal question: Is love ‘A Tale of Fate?’ This video, with leads off with the tarot card image, is another that leans on animation and places the due off limelight. We wondered if they were looking toward a musical image, dress-wise. Musically, for us, they move between folk and country/Americana, so maybe they could grab those cowboy hats?
Matt: Image is something that we are consciously working on. We don’t set out on purpose to be ambiguous; if anything, we would like it if people could visualize us and a sound and connect us with that look. But although there is the western imagery in there and there are some country touches in there, it is not to the point where we are rocking along to cowboy hats and spurs, even if we nod toward it. There may be a bit of Fleetward Mac there, a bit of Southern rock and Joni Mitchell, and as we release more singles this year [‘Last To Be Sung’, September 20, and ’Stories We Tell,” TBA November 2024], then as time moves along we will shape ourselves into a more cohesive image. With these two upcoming releases, I feel that is a very good slice for people to grasp what we do. The one just about to come out is a bit more folk-based; the last one is more rocky. However, with the four, it will give the audience and us a good impression of who we are and where we are going with this.
Kay: I also feel that the more we write together and have a solid band, then we are finding our sound a lot more; especially with “Last to Be Sung,” instrumentally and stylistically, it is our sound, albeit a bit heavier. But the lyrics and story it conveys are about sustainability, we want to use our platform for good and for a reason, so we are conscious of that. Stylistically, the story is what we are about and the more we release stuff, the more we will be solidified image-wise. I think we are Americana, but we are still developing our audiences and still growing. I believe we always will have change in there; we may not become heavy metal, but we are really not wanting to be twee.
Matt: And authentic. Cowboy hats wouldn’t be authentically us.
Kay: Yet, we also need to be aware of the showbusiness element, and look at Elton John; I think somewhere I heard him say they may not be coming to see him as much as they are coming to see Elton John, so we need to be aware of that. I do feel with “Dead Man” we will do a music video with us, but it has been so busy with schedule and putting the band together that it hasn’t happened yet. We also want to do some live settings so people can see and hear us live and in studio. That will lead to a more refined image for us.
Gene Simmons of Kiss told us that he wanted people to come and watch them and forget their troubles for an hour or so. That was the aim.
Kay: Yes, escapism. We can appreciate that. We love movies for the same reason; we can immerse ourselves in a film for hours. And musically, we have a similar thing. I’m glad you mentioned the image of the tarot card—kind of bohemian.
And your logo of the moon we thought that was distinctive.
Matt: We jotted that down in a notebook!
Kay: Kay Iris is not my real name; my name is Kayleigh. But Kay Iris is the way I perceive my songs and see the world, through the iris. So that was the logo as well. Originally, we had it more like an eclipse.
Matt: It was a note in a notebook, but it developed.
Noting the band in 2024, live performances seem very much a part of things.
Matt: Some of the first tracks were written as an acoustic duo, but we wanted them to be for a four- or five-piece. This summer we got together with a drummer called Aiden Purdey and a bass player called P.J. Flynn and then we found them so up for it and wanting to write with us.
Kay: We have been so lucky with Aiden because he is the nephew of John Martin, and so there is some magic in the band.
Matt: And of the last couple of months we have solidified and have just come off the Lakes Fest with a steady line-up. I am happy with how it sounds and prefer to keep regulars rather than rely on session musicians.
Kay: We are also conscious of image and theme. We want to develop better as performers with a band and we notice that in the way we write, we will jam with a band in development and that can significantly change the song. Now we want to think of the live performance aspect and this helps us do that. It’s important to have a unit you feel positive about live.
Matt: Both of us have come from a function band background; you get told the gig a week in advance, you turn up and you may have never met the musicians before. This time we feel like a unit and it is good to know the band.
Kay: We are doing this for the music and we want to get original material out there, meet people and develop as artists.
We saw you on YouTube doing a lovely cover of “Midnight at the Oasis.” It was good to hear that one.
Kay: There are some earlier covers around by us that we are trying to delete, as we have been trying to clean slate things a bit so fresh material goes out.
Lyrical storytelling is clearly at the heart of this duo and their music. What is the long-term aim for them as a band? World domination? A hit album?
Matt: Lyrics are so important to us. I love Jimmy Webb. Our aim is to have lyrics that positively empower people. We will write about the butterfly effect, how you shouldn’t panic yourself and place pressure on things. Things will happen for a reason, surrender to that. The last single for the year is “Stories We Tell,” and that is about the perspective on life we hold and how that changes how we live. It is a mental health awareness aspect that is important to us. We have both been through it and we want to help people help themselves.
Kay: Adding on to that, modern-day songs often repeat the same line over and over. We want to take listeners on more of a journey and mental health awareness is in our music. The reflective aspect of our music is as important as the entertainment aspect.
And a last question: what album did the guys last listen to, and did they enjoy it?
Matt: I listened to “The Essential Chet Atkins album,” and I did enjoy it.
Kay: I listened to “Tattoo’d Lady” by Rory Gallagher, and it was incredible!
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By Mark C. Chambers
and
Lorraine Foley
