Kate Simko Studiotalk about her album Lights Out

While making Lights Out, I was trying to bring together my influences into one flowing story. It was cool to be always thinking of this larger entity that didn’t exist yet.  It’s my first solo album, so I think the hardest challenge was a feeling that somehow you’re supposed to define your sound and who you are through the first album.  I‘m into house, techno, minimal, dubby tracks, tech-house, etc, so in a way, I didn’t know exactly which direction it was going to head at the beginning.  When it was just getting started, I’d make a new song every day or two, then go back at the end of the week and see how the ideas fit together.  This was the opposite of how I used to work, which was basically by finishing one song at a time.

Flight Into BA
Most of the album was written in Buenos Aires.  I usually feel not-so-creative in the Chicago winter, so I decided to rent an apartment in BA in January and February 2009 to get things started.  I brought a Roland TR-707, TR-505, Elektron Machinedrum, a MIDI keyboard, and small Genelec speakers with me.  This song is about taking a flight into Buenos Aires, alone at night.  It has the most melodic arrangement of the tracks on the album.  It’s a melancholic song that was inspired by the tango music of Buenos Aires.  When I played the album for a close friend, he suggested adding some vocals on this track, so I took the idea and San Francisco-based Kevin Knapp created some smooth vocal additions.

Mind On You
Mind On You is a Chicago song, with vocals by Chicago-based DJ and vocalist, Brenda D.   The song is a follow-up to Take You There (Spectral Sound), which was our first collaboration.  Brenda has a great voice and really understands the nuances of house music, so it’s been great to work with her.  The song has a sort of 80′s arpeggio and deep chords.  I finished this song up in Chicago using the Juno 106 keyboard.

Cairo
This song has Egyptian-style melodies and rhythms, hence the name Cairo.  I spent a decent amount of time programming the drums on this one, because I wanted there to be a feeling of randomness and an unwinding story, rather than loopy repetition.  I wrote the song in Buenos Aires but switched out the synth parts for the Dave Smith Polyevolver back in Chicago.  This synth has an eerie vibe so it was perfect.  A couple Egyptian friends in New York are helping gather video footage from Cairo to add to my A/V live set.  Can’t wait for this