She's the daughter of a well-known classical composer, but Dubliner Cathy Davey is an independent-minded woman who is happiest in the studio, crafting her own alternative rock sound, writes Brian Boyd
She's like the anti-Pop Idol. Cathy Davey seems almost reluctant to release her début album and admits to being "terrified" of having to tour behind it. While most people of her age (mid-20s) and her talent (considerable) would do most anything to publicise their work, Davey talks of her regret at having to "surrender" her songs to her record label.
The Dublin singer-songwriter is now on the brink after years of methodical preparation. The reviews that are already coming in locate her in the same musical space as PJ Harvey and Kate Bush. It's already a bit of a cliché for Davey: "I think any woman in music who's not an out-and-out pop singer is going to get those names used to describe her," she says. "I understand why it happens and why they're making that connection, but still . . ." She sighs.
From an arty background (her father Shaun is a classical composer, her mother is a sculptor), Davey has spent the last few years in virtual musical seclusion, working on the bunch of songs that make up the album Something Ilk. Originally an art school student, she taught herself how to play guitar and piano and, avoiding the pack mentality of the Dublin music scene, busied herself away from the maddening record industry crowd.
"I think in these days of music as a television entertainment show, people quickly forget that it is a trade and it's something that must be learnt," she says. "I really wanted to get to the point where I felt the songs were fully formed before I let anyone hear them. I thought if I went too early to a record company that they would have shaped me a certain way. The way I did it was that I virtually had the whole album finished before I began talking to them."
Davey is not an avid music listener, saying she has no real musical influences.
"I think maybe that might have something to do with the fact that I'd be worried about picking up influences. I mean, I do listen to stuff, but my taste is music is all over the place. It would be acts such as Simon and Garfunkel, Burt Bacharach and Guns 'N' Roses."
Working odd jobs, she has spent the last few years perfecting her sound.
"I had a four-track and recorded on that. I learnt how to make enough sounds to give the songs a real 'band' sound. It was only when I felt I was ready that I decided to get a manager and get signed and get the album released."
Dublin manager Oliver Walsh was impressed enough by her demos to take her on. The two set about trying to secure a deal with a record company, despite the fact that Davey had never played live - usually a pre-requisite when it comes to a label signing an act.
"We went around all the labels in London. I knew from the start who I wanted to talk to and who I didn't," she says. "I looked at which bands certain labels had and if I felt that those bands were being given the necessary freedom, I went for that label. It was a very strange time. You'd find yourself in an office with an 18-year-old A&R guy who would be flicking through your songs and fast-forwarding through the intros to them while saying, 'What do you want to do?' and I'd be thinking, 'Well, what I don't want to do is work with you'. It was a bit difficult in that all they had were the songs - they couldn't see me play live."
Davey was reluctant, for a number of reasons, to do live gigs.
"I've always seen myself as more of a recording artist than a performer - I'm far happier in the studio than on the stage," she says. "But at the time all I could do was get up on stage and play the songs on my acoustic guitar and I didn't want to do that, because then the label would have expected an acoustic album."
To do justice to the full-sounding feel of her album, she recruited a band.
"They're not just a bunch of session musicians," she says, "they're a real band. In there is an ex-member of Verve and also the person who played keyboards for Blur for the past few years. Now the songs sound real when we play them live. We started off with a mini-tour around the UK, as the support act. I was really freaking out about playing live before that tour but it went really well. People would come up to us afterwards and say, 'I never usually listen to the support band but . . .' and stuff like that.
"And again, playing live is a trade you have to learn. I've had to learn everything about it because I'm not one of those people who grew up wanting to be a rock star - singing in front of the mirror and all of that. I'm reconciled to playing live now and know it's something you must do, it's just that I still prefer the studio."
Something Ilk certainly sounds like an album that was a few years in the planning. It's a big-sounding record that has a huge diversity of ideas on it. In general terms, though, it fits into the elastic category of "alterno-rock".
"I like the diversity of it myself," says Davey. "Some of the songs on it are just silly in that they are just me having fun with ideas. There's a poppy side to the album and also more confessional/autobiographical type of songs. It's a real challenge not to be embarrassed about writing those sort of personal songs. You have to be careful you don't betray anyone by giving away too much information."
Something Ilk is released on August 20th on the Regal/EMI label. The single, Clean & Neat, is out now