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7–14 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 79
THIS IS THE KIT Kate Stables discusses travelling, working with the National and life in Paris
‘It feels like everything that’s ever happened to me or This is the Kit has been a fl uke or a one-off,’ says Kate Stables, who is both the artist who bears that alias and the leader of the sparse folk-rock group who use the name. The question is whether or not she can pinpoint the moment This is the Kit shifted from the underground to the kind of group which plays the Edinburgh International Festival.
‘I think it depends on who you ask about us,’ she says. ‘Most people still haven’t heard of us, so might think of us as an “underground” band, but some people have been listening to our albums since the fi rst one in 2007 and consider us to be pretty mainstream and around for ages. Old hat!’ She’s communicating from the road in America, midway
through both a journey between tour dates in Los Angeles and Portland, and a year which began with a trip to Morocco for the BBC’s Sound Odyssey series. 2019 has also included a Glastonbury appearance, and recording and touring with the National. It’s a long way for a singer raised in Winchester
(where she went to school with her bandmate Rozi Plain), made in Bristol and now based in Paris. ‘It’s home, and I’m missing it a lot at the moment, having been away so much recently,’ she says. ‘I need a lot of solitude to write, so the new album is going pretty slowly at the moment. It feels like I’ve got about 43% of it written – I’ve just got to say “no” to some gigs for a while to get the rest fi nished!’ (David Pollock) ■ Leith Theatre, 13 Aug, 7pm, £25.