Katy Goodman recently released her second full-length La Sera album, and perfect summer soundtrack, “Hour Of The Dawn”. We chatted about the final Vivian Girls performance, being a “tall-female-musician” and why animals love La Sera.
By Shannon Kurlander
With the timing of Hour of the Dawn’s release and the sound, it makes for a perfect summer soundtrack. What is something you cannot live without during the summertime?
Iced-coffee. Although I do love iced-coffee all the time, it’s just more appropriate now. During the winter people are like why are you drinking that…it’s cold. In the summer I can drink my iced-coffee shame-free. Also I just like to chill and do as little possible.
How was it different writing for this album than Sees The Light?
I wrote this album with a band. Before I wrote all the songs by myself in my room and then I would work with a producer friend to record the sounds and make them awesome. This time I wrote less of the songs. I would do parts of the songs and bring them to the band. It was way more collaborative. I like working with people that I trust. All the songs come out better when I work with people who have good tastes. Together we do better than I do by myself.
Love and break-ups seem to frequent your lyrics. What is the best cure for a heartbreak?
Time. It’s really all there is. I had a lot of breakups in my time and I would say really that’s the only cure. You know, this too shall pass. I write songs about breakups and that helps me get over them. “Losing to the Dark” is the angriest song I’ve ever written and after playing it every night I am kind of detached. I would kind of go crazy reliving it every night. It’s almost like I bottled up the entire relationship and put the bottle up on a shelf. Now I’m free. It’s sort of like making a list of things you need to do. A million things pop to mind but once you write it down then you realize you don’t actually have that much to do.
The ladies on the Hardly Art roster have been dominating lately. Girl power is fantastic and all but how do you feel about the “female musicians” and “girl band” labels?
People really do feel the need to qualify a female musician as female. It’s absurd. I’m 5’ 11”. What if every time someone wrote about me they called me a really tall musician? That’s weird. Why would they keep mentioning that every time? What does that have to do about my music? It’s the same thing. I get it… I’m a girl. My name’s Katy so I think they’ll figure out I am a female…but okay. We’re a minority, I guess. Tall musicians and female musicians.
Who are some powerful women in music that have inspired you?
When I was growing up, Kim Deal. Now St. Vincent, Joanna Newsom. So many.
What was it like to play your last show with The Vivian Girls?
Emotional. It felt right though and I’m glad we did it. It was nice put a celebratory end on the whole deal.
Your Instagram is full of animals posing with copies of Hour of The Dawn? Why do animals love La Sera?
It’s very animalistic. Aggressive. Animals pick up on that. The slower songs may be good when a cat needs a catnap. Actually… it’s a little too lively. So maybe cats use it to wake up in the morning.
We will have to survey some cats. So you’re obviously a big animal lover. What’s your spirit animal?
Elephant. I’m big and tall plus I’m a slow walker. Lately everyone is like ‘you’re very chill’. Apparently I give off a calm presence even though I have all these anxieties and things in my head. So I’m an elephant, tall and calm.