by Angel Park
Katrine Ottosen, also known as CALLmeKAT, is a rising Danish musician who has graced her listeners with her own unique take of lo-fi pop. Her newest release, Where the River Turns Black, is a delicately crafted, charming mix of songs, and has even garnered enough attention for Ottosen’s current tour for select dates in Europe and the U.S.
Her background in music began as at an early age, and the idea for her alias came naturally. “CMK is an alias that I came up with because I wanted a sort of frame I could work within. It was a gradual thing, I think. It still is,” she says. “I had this idea of a shape of music that I couldn’t really catch and I started searching for it. Around 2007 I started recording some of my songs with my friend Daniel Fridell and then I started touring a bunch and CMK kind of grew from there.”
And soon with the name came her music, which has its own qualities to it, ranging from light and poppy to what some critics call “downright bluesy.” Ottosen, however, prefers not to limit herself that way. “I don’t write my songs thinking ‘this should be a blues song’ or anything specific like that genre-wise,” she explains. “ I just write the music and lyrics in their own frame of logic and then when played or recorded they take shape. I guess you can also say that the people I work with have a certain blues in their playing. There’s a certain feel, a sort of raunchy approach to playing music, that I really appreciate.”
Along with her reputation for her quirky tunes, Ottosen has also found her niche with her keyboard, which has been featured on many of her live shows and almost all of her songs. “It’s fairly easy to bring. It works on stage and I can have fun with it – which is really important to me,” she explains. “ I love analog keyboards. But sometimes I have to substitute my beautiful analog bass keyboard with a road dog of a bass keyboard, the Microkorg, because it doesn’t break easily. I have a hate-relationship to that keyboard, but I love it a little bit too because it is always working!”
While Ottosen is currently touring, she doesn’t plan on being idle for long. Her fans should expect a new EP right around the corner, as well as a new side project with her new band called Gene Gene. Catch CALLmeKAT this week at SXSW (Darwin’s Pub on 3/12 and Esther’s Follies on 3/14).
