Q&A: Kate Young
This week we caught up with the amazing Kate Young. We discussed the enchanting journey behind their album Umbelliferæ, which beautifully intertwines music and nature through the stories of wildflowers, inspired by personal experiences and their studies in herbalism. With a captivating blend of genres and the vibrant influence of synesthesia, they aim to create immersive, sensory-rich experiences that invite listeners to explore the magical connection between plants and sound.
Check out our Q&A below:
Your album Umbelliferæ is a beautiful tribute to wildflowers and their medicinal secrets. How did you decide which plants to bring to life through your music, and what captivating stories or characteristics inspired those choices?
In the beginning, I had been doing a wee introductory course in Herbalism in a physic garden near Hexham, Northumberland and initially I was inspired by all the different kinds of plant names and their associated stories/ properties. You have the common name, the latin name and then regional folkloric names which can change depending where the plant was found in the country. These often have associated myths, all of which made for a rich wealth of knowledge for me to dive into creatively. The ones I chose were a combination of what plants I was seeing in the place where I wrote the music when on walks, or in the gardens, and also the herbalist books and accounts I was researching.
The Marigold for instance, I found a story about in a book that described “if a girl touches her toe on Marigold, she will understand the language of birds”. So one day, I tried this out, I put my toe on a marigold…a few weeks later it was very windy outside and a little bird got thrown against the wind and was lying on the ground concussed. I picked him up, built him a little nest in the garden shed and we hung out for about an hour. It was a special moment as its so rare to get that close to such a little bird. He eventually flew off – and then I remembered the story. So perhaps theres something in it!
The Dandelion song – I was just trying to imagine if a dandelion was a person – what kind of person they’d be and their character. I decided they’d be pretty wild and chaotic. So this shaped the sound of the music and perhaps by accident turned into my ‘death metal’ number. Elecampane is a well-loved herb by many herbalists and have many assocoiations with ailments of the lung. I immersed in the writings of Mrs Grieve ‘A Modern Herbal’ and wove some of her descriptions and concoctions into the song from there.
The journey for this album began with a commission from Celtic Connections, leading you to a Northumberland community farm. How did that immersive experience shape your artistic vision, and what magical moments influenced your fusion of music and nature?
I was lucky to have the time to fully immerse on composing for about five months, and being in that environment was the perfect setting for inspiration and also focus on the work. The process of composing can be fickle and taking break for walks, chatting to friends and observing dreams are just as important as putting pen to paper in the process.
With such a rich blend of world traditions, chamber music, and indie/pop, how did you navigate the unique challenges of creating a string quintet album? What surprises did you encounter while redefining the traditional 'singer and band' model?
To be honest, I would only say that I do not think about ‘what genre I’m composing in or stylised in’ when creating. I think that could be quite problematic. The only thing I’m ever concerned with is the freedom to experiment, try out and combine one idea with another. I draw upon a wide range of inspirations from Indie and Pop to Classical and of course World and folk traditions. I’m not interested in whether I am conforming to a generic performance model or creating a new one – I’m primarily concerned with staying in line with what feels magical/yet to be discovered/ honest and personal. I was not trained in classical composition either – I have slowly found my feet with composing for string quartets and quintets over the years through projects where folk musicians were allowed to try out working for such an ensemble. What I would say about this is – while scoring for quintet makes me feel free to compose in all directions and explore, I like to combine the voice and song with it as it helps to anchor the piece in my way of writing. To me, it feels kind of like the ‘spine of a book’ as a it, hold the pages together upon which all kinds of ideas and journeys are traversed.
Your synesthesia, especially Chromesthesia, sounds fascinating! How does experiencing music in color and imagery shape your compositions? Can you share any vivid colors or scenes that come to life for you in specific tracks on the album?
I always knew I had some experience of colour and imagery associated with music since discovering an internal vision of colours in my mind when played the notes of the piano as a child. However, I think because the process of composing this work was so intensive and I worked daily on it for almost half a year – some things in my unconscious brain became more vivid and I began to notice them more consciously. This moment arrived when I was in the middle of writing ‘Gentian’ and at some point I stopped to ask myself ‘OK, what is the next part of the song? How does it sound?’. In that moment, what I experienced was a colourful, spatial ‘landscape’ like an abstract painting in my mind – only momentarily. It felt as if behind it there was a hidden message – but one that can only be felt. I realised there and then that it was only that I was by chance channelling whatever this was into music, but it could easily become a painting or dance movement and so on. What I was ‘seeing’ was the idea or song itself in a primary state before it have become materialised in some way. I also realised that this is probably what is going on most of the time and I will dip in and out of varying degrees of awareness about this. Since discovering this, I use this as a kind of compass when writing. I believe that if I can ‘see’ the song I’m writing, then I’m on the write track. Because this means that somehow there is something of substance going on and I’m not merely just pushing out notes for the sake of it!
More recently, I have completed a Masters degree in the Utrecht, NL in Scenography which was about designing spatial experiences and environments by employing dramaturgical concepts. My graduation work and focus was about composing spatially and how objects and materials in space relate to – or can symbolise musical or sonic ideas and concepts. I designed environments that encourage people to open up their senses, touch, listen and also play. Objects where played with that trigger sounds made by the choices of the spectator and therefore the main goal being to unveil something of this magical world that a composer with synesthesia gets to experience to the public, without the need to become a skilled musician to do so. I believe creating playful environments for being to explore, create and be as a way to celebrate the world of composition, and also observe the experience of others as a way to research how I might continue to make work that aims to bridge the gap between sound and material.
Can you tell us about any upcoming plans & projects to watch out for?
On the 1st of December I will be performing with Hannah Lavery in the Traverse theatre. She will be reading excerpts of Jekyll and Hide while I will be creating new music to accompany the text. I will also be performing on New Years’ Day at ‘First Footin’ festival with my UK string trio band.