Velodrome

Katherine Christie Evans, previously a bassist in Dream Nails, is pursuing her solo project under the name Velodrome by mixing a wide variety of genres. From funk to garage rock to psychedelia to classical roots from her training as a youth, her pursuit of a blurring of the lines between genres also extends to her medium as well; in the spirit of DIY that many others also work their art through, she’s putting her arts degree and experience in theater design to practice by incorporating theater into her live shows and videos, truly the definition of interdisciplinary.

In May, Kate released her first of a series of singles: the flexible and dynamic Baroque-influence “His Physique.” Where the genres she incorporates into her songs transcend traditional boundaries, the topics on which she writes also cover a wide variety of experiences and disciplines. Mental health awareness, feminism, economic status, the impact of all of these on Kate’s art, are just a few of the topics she writes into her music. “It’s hard not to be intersectional, because you’re writing about all your perspectives,” she says. “There’s a lot going on in ‘His

Physique’, but it’s a whole bunch of issues colliding for me. It’s a bit of body dysmorphia, which is from my anorexia, and then there’s also the gender issues.” In the video she starred in and wrote herself, Kate dresses up as men from various paintings ranging from medieval to renaissance eras, as well as more modern icons, to play out her gender fantasies and explore the interplay between dysphoria and dysmorphia. “Anxiety, I feel it comes across in my music; it’s very complicated, layered music, which really is me.”

Her next single, “Steady Girl,” deals with the interplay of OCD and anxiety and how those impact living as an artist with limited funds, something that still seems a bit of a taboo around it. “People don’t want to talk about how they’re poor, because there’s a shaming attached to it,” Kate says, “and it’s really important for people from underrepresented groups to be out in front of people. I don’t always find it easy performing, but I think it’s empowering.” Coming from the margins of society and standing in front of a crowd both makes her visible and encourages others from these underrepresented groups to pursue such a noticeable career path, inspiring them to be confident with who they are.

This goal extends beyond the physical stage for Kate as well. PR in a DIY manner means handling everything herself, and that took the form of teaser videos in Instagram and Twitter posts speaking about the topics covered by “His Physique,”

which also means admitting to struggles some of her friends didn’t know about previously. “I’ve come out with my sexuality years ago, but I feel like I’m only coming out to my friends now around this release,” Kate explains. “I’ve had to dig really deep with the social media campaign to put across what the song’s about, and I’ve been posting stuff on Instagram, like eating disorders and mental health, and I’m realizing a lot of my friends probably don’t actually know this. They’ve known me for ten years, but they don’t know Kate’s had anorexia since she was seventeen. Only my closest friends know that, and it’s just not something we talk about.” As Velodrome, Kate is putting herself on a vulnerable stage, literally and figuratively, in order to bring better to light the importance of mental health awareness.

Being in a band has to make it somewhat easier, just as it makes performing more comfortable; you’re up there with friends,

and you have someone to turn around to share a smile with and to bring your hopes up. When you’re a solo musician, especially a solo female or nonbinary musician, it’s so much more discouraging. Kate can see the difference clear as day. “There’s no one to turn around to and say, I feel really shit, and, maybe he’s right, I don’t know anything,” she points out. “Knocks still hurt me, but I think I’m just a bit more rational about it now, and I’m more aware that a lot of people talk shit. People have a lot of confidence in their own opinion, and I’m just aware to take it with a bit of salt now. I think it’s just being a bit more thick-skinned as a solo artist. It is hard, and it’s the same thing with going onstage; it’s fucking hard. I wouldn’t ever claim anything other than that - it’s really hard.”

Much of these knocks come from the idea that women carry different standards than

men. “If you’re a woman, you might be called something like ‘cocky’, whereas if you’re a guy that would be called ‘assertive’ or ‘confident’,” Kate notes. “I think I’m just learning from past experiences, so whereas before I might have let something really knock me, something that a guy said to me about a song, like this isn’t good enough, and it’s been so long since I wrote my songs now, and I really let it put me off for so long, and I’ve just got to this place where I’m like, actually, no? You’re not going to stop me. I think I’ve just kind of reached a place now where I’m a little bit older and I’m more self-assured.”

Kate is also pursuing another facet of music wherein women are sorely lacking: production. Currently in the process of completing a B-tech in music production, she hopes for her future music to avoid going through a man before reaching an audience, something her next single

“His Physique” actually did. “I really want to be more and more in control of my music, because I’ve played all the instruments on it, I’ve written it, I’ve written the lyrics. It’s all mine, and then

there’s this kind of irony that you then take it to a guy,” she says. Not that guys are incapable; it’s just too often that songs like this pass through some kind of “male filter” before reaching the outside world. Tove Styrke, an up-and-coming pop artist from

Sweden, spoke before about how she’d only work with one other female producer in the past, and this seems to be the same for all musicians. There just aren’t enough women producers working on others’ music, and not just they’re own (not knock-

ing you DIY ladies producing your own music; keep it up!). “I think it’s literally just girls aren’t cultured,” Kate notes. “We don’t tend to be given a drum kit or we don’t tend to be given music production software, and then it just gets harder and harder, because the older you get, you’re intimidated, because guys are using all these technical terms. I think, oh my god, I’m never going to catch up, but then luckily there’s this stronger half of me which is like, no! This is why I must catch up!”

It’s time to find and encourage more women to pursue these career tracks; it’s hard now to find even a woman sound engineer at a gig, and many note they’ve only worked with one in the past. Creating this more comfortable and integrated atmosphere would greatly benefit more women looking to pursue this career.