The talented and dreamy songstress, Katia will showcase her fusion of soul, world, reggae and R&B when she plays Island Vibe Presents Triffid Reggae, which also acts as a launch event for the October festival.
“Island Vibe is going to be great. I've got two different shows for Island Vibe... one that will be more reggae/ world/ fusion, and the other one is going to be more like neo-soul, R&B.”
Already a seasoned veteran of performance and an experienced musician, Katia has no desire to slow down. “I like to ground myself and be as present as I can so I can really feel the music that I'm playing and really mean what I'm saying. I mostly play guitar and sing, but I play flute and saxophone as well and a few other instruments. I like mucking around on the bass and I've been learning a bit of drums and piano as well. And I play a bit of ukelele.
“I love languages as well; French was my first language, and my mother is Mauritian so I speak a bit of Creole; I do a couple of songs in Creole. I learned a bit of Spanish and Russian when I used to work in a Russian circus when I was younger. I guess it's the same as learning different languages; it does get easier the more you open your mind.
"I do a lot of projects: I love doing a lot of different sorts of music. It's so good to be versatile because you get to see different ways of expressing yourself and using your brain and imagination and creativity in different ways.”
Though music is her life now, it wasn't always so. “Some friends of mine in high school wanted to enter this talent show and they asked me to come and sing with them. We did an audition and they ended up wanting me to do a solo. It all kind of happened accidentally.
“So I started singing and the I joined a Maori band when I was 17 and started singing with those guys. And then I stopped doing music for a long time and I was doing telemarketing and doing jobs I wasn't happy with and eventually spoke to a friend of mine and was like, 'what am I going to do with my life?' She looked at me and said: 'Why don't you just do your music?'
“So I started busking and from there it kind of unfolded; I started getting gigs and I've been doing it full-time now for nine years. It's flowed for me really easily which has been magic to be able to dedicate myself to the creativity and the life I believe in.
“It comes down to your belief systems a lot of the time. If we have a lot of doubt and fear about how things are going to come about then we create a block with that. But when we actually put our hearts into it and make the right efforts to do what we think is right for our heart and what we want to do, usually it comes about pretty easily.”
Katia joins Paua, Fat Picnic and Die Rude at Island Vibe Presents Triffid Reggae at The Triffid 11 June. Katia also plays Island Vibe Festival 28-30 October.
