FEATURE
FEATURE
ate ’ s upbringing in the
KUSA clearly had a huge influence on her music today , not least the influence of her architect father , an avid music lover , who once had the honour of performing with Hank Williams at the Louisiana Hayride , which came about through his guitar teacher , Williams ’ base player . Despite this , Kate ’ s own path to music was not as one might expect : “ I was born in Louisiana and I grew up in Manhattan . I have an English Mother ,” a prominent New York magazine editor , “ and a Louisiana Dad . I did music growing up , but it was piano , classical . I didn ’ t think about song-writing then , but I was introduced to a lot of music that I think really influenced me when I was young through my Dad . He loved classical music , but he also loved a lot of the stuff coming out of the south : Johnny Cash , Hank Williams , also Harry Bellafonte and Randy Newman later on . So , he introduced me to a lot of stuff that I think shaped the kind of music I love .” In fact , Kate has recently completed a series of 10 shorts of her father ’ s records that influenced her , including Pete Seeger – ' Red River Valley ' and Johnny Cash – ' My Grandfather ’ s Clock ' ( search ‘ Kate Ellis – My Dad ’ s Records ’ on www . youtube . com ). “ So that ’ s probably where it started in terms of the music that I love .”
Ellis may have been brought up in a household passionate about music , but it wasn ’ t a career she immediately wanted to pursue . In her own words : “ I actually sort of did kind of various weird things like going to law school !” Kate majored in law at university and actually practised law for a couple of years until she decided it
" I was introduced to a lot of music that I think really influenced me when I was young through my Dad ."
wasn ’ t for her . Like many of us when it comes to choosing a degree so early in life , you make the best decision you can at the time . “ I was actually very interested in art . I loved painting particularly , so I did a lot of that in high school . When I went to university I decided not to go down the fine arts route of doing my own work , but I did art and architectural history , that was my major ( you ‘ read ’ here right ?) I thought a bit naively I think , I ’ ll do art law which will be really interesting because I ’ ll be working for artists , galleries and museums , but in the field of law . Long story short , I got into intellectual property stuff . I did do other areas of law as well , but I realised , at least from my perspective , that with every different area of law , it doesn ’ t matter who the client is - they could be a museum or a widget factory - you ’ re doing the same kind of thing for them . It ’ s not like you ’ re in that really interesting field of art . I think it was just a bit of a wrong turn . I don ’ t regret it . Law school was really interesting , but I made the right decision to leave as it wasn ’ t really right for me .
“ I went into music pretty quickly after . I also did other jobs on the way . I worked at a magazine , I got into organisational behaviour – psychometric assessment , which interested me as I ’ m interested in psychology fields . It was of interest because when I was unhappy in law I went to a career counsellor and they gave me the Myers Briggs . I found it extremely useful and helpful to me in terms of things being not quite right and what I might want to do , but also in of itself and actually got trained to administer it , so that got me started on psychometric assessment . I did a bit of that here and there , but music was the thing I was really loving and wanted to carry on doing . I realised I needed to do something creative . That ’ s what made me happy and