Kathryn Joseph on why she finds it 'weird to be headlining'

The Herald Scotland

25-07-2025

Artistically, at least. The City of Discovery has had more than its fair share of negative press recently, between the impact of its university's financial distress, and some sobering stats around the levels of deprivation endured by some of its residents.
It's in stark contrast to the cultural flourish the place has enjoyed. This month, it welcomes back one of its favourite sons, with Brian Cox stepping out on stage in the National Theatre of Scotland's satire Make It Happen, about the 2008 financial collapse and Fred Goodwin's role in it.
Meanwhile, across the river at Newport-on-Tay, a new boutique festival is enjoying its second year. Lughnasadh Festival is hosted by Forgan Arts Centre, staged in its grounds, one of four such events connected to the clicking-through of the seasons. Lughnasadh marks the beginning of the harvest period, and the female-led crop yielded this year is very healthy, with Sacred Paws, Free Love, Lacuna and Becky Sikasa, among the other names on the day-long bill.
Joseph is the headline act, but in typically self-deprecating style, wonders why. 'They've booked everyone I love to play with,' she says, laughing. 'So they have very good taste. I've been looking forward to seeing everyone else on the bill. I find it weird to be headlining, I don't feel like I deserve to be doing that, but I'm very excited to.
'Everyone else is better than me, the noises that they make and the humans that they are. I still can't believe I get to do this job.' Joseph's modesty is in contrast with her calibre. A Scottish Album of the Year Award winner in 2015, she's since gone on to enjoy enduring high regard as one of the country's leading indie acts.
Her fifth LP We Were Made Prey was released at the end of May, winning plaudits and an ongoing European tour slot with Mogwai, whose Rock Action Records label she's on. It is, she says, somewhat proudly, disgusting.
She says: 'This record has a lot of blood and references to things that I think other people find disgusting but that I think are lovely. So disgusting is a word I use a lot to describe myself. I always find it funny that I put people in a situation where I am talking about things that make them feel uncomfortable.
'My 14 year old daughter is now aware of the words and she's also horrified and thinks I'm writing porn, basically. I'm getting a row from my own kid now, so I'm feeling bad about that."
The album fuses her distinctive vocals – distinctive in raw content, as much as in unique tortured style – with the atmospheric washes of electro-composer Lomond Campbell's sonic footering. Since working together on an album of remixes last year, the pair have become a twin presence on stage. And he's got her standing up.
Joseph says: 'I feel easier about it now because I'm playing with Lomond, and I'm able to enjoy it more rather than thinking about what I'm doing. 'Standing at a keyboard when I'm performing feels like a completely different experience. It definitely feels easier to sing.'
The album was recorded in Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Lewis, and is, Joseph says, the album she's most proud of. 'I'm addicted to listening to it, just because of how it sounds,' she says. 'Listening to your own stuff is really strange but it's because of the noises Lomond has made on the record, every noise he made was perfect.'
Lyrically, it's a challenging listen. 'The songs are really dark,' she says. 'But we had a hysterical laugh most of time we were making it.' Lugnasadh marks a return to the coast where she found shelter at the height of the pandemic, having switched Glasgow for Broughty Ferry as covid made tenement living in the country's biggest city a challenge.
'That was my experience of lockdown,' she says. 'I was worried we'd never get to live anywhere again, so I went to live by the sea. It was very easy, it felt like where I was supposed to be at the time. I absolutely loved it. I love that bit of coastline and everyone I know who lives there, so I'm really excited to play a festival there.'
Afterwards, like the aforementioned Cox, she's on the bill at the Edinburgh International Festival, before heading back on the road with the supersonic sounds of Mogwai, to rattle eardrums across the Baltic countries. And she's learned tour bus etiquette from her earlier sojourn with Stuart Braithwaite and his band.
'I knew you're not allowed to do a poo on a tour bus, but you can't even put toilet roll down there either,' she said, semi-incredulous. 'I actually ended up getting really attached to sleeping in my little bunk. But one night as I was climbing into bed I accidentally pressed something on my phone and Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds started blaring out. It was my first time on a tour bus. I learned a few things.'
Mogwai would have a cheek to complain about the noise.
'The boys are great,' she says. 'People who like Mogwai are great human beings and I'm reaping the benefit of that. I feel really happy and comfortable, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts.'
Lugnasadh Arts Festival, 2 Aug, forganartscentre.co.uk; Edinburgh International Festival, Up Late at the Hub, 9 August.
We Were Made Prey is available from Rock Action Records, https://rockaction.scot/