"Lyric and vocal virtuosity" (Aaron Foster -Chart Attack)
CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award Winner Peter Katz was supposed to make a solo
acoustic record… but, when the likes of Academy
Award Winner Glen Hansard (The Swell Season, Once), Canadian Folk darlings The Good Lovelies, and steel-town siren
Melissa McClelland agreed to sing
along… plans changed.
Nevertheless, ‘First of the Last to Know’ marks the
true arrival of Peter Katz, solo artist.
Even with the good company on the record, Peter’s voice and acoustic
guitar remain the focal point throughout. After years of touring solo while
selling a full-on band record, Katz got tired of the same feedback: “We wish
you would make a record that sounds like you playing live”
Katz
agrees: “My life is touring, and I’m dedicated to that, but at a certain point
your record needs to do some leg-work for you. If the only way you can win someone over is live, then you
need to go back to the drawing board and make a better record.
Working with long-time friend, tour-mate,
singer-songwriter and producer Rob Szabo, the two scheduled regular meetings
for 4 months, looking at every aspect of Peter’s songs. “There were some
definite tense moments, but I knew R …
"Lyric and vocal virtuosity" (Aaron Foster -Chart Attack)
CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award Winner Peter Katz was supposed to make a solo
acoustic record… but, when the likes of Academy
Award Winner Glen Hansard (The Swell Season, Once), Canadian Folk darlings The Good Lovelies, and steel-town siren
Melissa McClelland agreed to sing
along… plans changed.
Nevertheless, ‘First of the Last to Know’ marks the
true arrival of Peter Katz, solo artist.
Even with the good company on the record, Peter’s voice and acoustic
guitar remain the focal point throughout. After years of touring solo while
selling a full-on band record, Katz got tired of the same feedback: “We wish
you would make a record that sounds like you playing live”
Katz
agrees: “My life is touring, and I’m dedicated to that, but at a certain point
your record needs to do some leg-work for you. If the only way you can win someone over is live, then you
need to go back to the drawing board and make a better record.
Working with long-time friend, tour-mate,
singer-songwriter and producer Rob Szabo, the two scheduled regular meetings
for 4 months, looking at every aspect of Peter’s songs. “There were some
definite tense moments, but I knew Rob was right and I had to put my ego aside
and learn. We worked and worked
and worked, just on the barebones of the songs and of the guitar and vocals,
making sure every last word, every note, every groove, every picking pattern,
every tempo was exactly where it needed to be. It was an amazing and awful
experience,” Katz says with a smile.
When it came time to finally record, they set up
shop at the gorgeous Barn Window Studio on the escarpment outside
Hamilton. “I didn’t want to be in
a booth and then have to try to add vibe using the computer. I wanted the space to inspire, to have
its quirks and unique qualities in the moment. There’s no question when I listen to this record, I hear
that it was recorded in a big, beautiful barn. I mean, I got to sing while
staring out at the night through a huge glass window… You can’t get that in a
booth.”
One aspect of Katz’s sound that remains true from
his very first demos is his dedication to telling powerful stories. The
stunning ‘Oliver’s Tune’ is inspired by a CBC interview with the late Oliver
Schroer, a Canadian fiddle player who passed away from Leukemia but decided to
play one final concert a month before he died. ‘The Fence’ is a haunting song
that imagines the experience of Matthew Shepard, the Laramie, Wyoming student
who was tied to a fence and left to die one night because he was gay. And the
soaring, cathartic title track, ‘First of the Last to Know,’ explores the story
of anyone working to emerge as a fully realized human being.
Expressing both aching sadness and intense joy, Katz’
songs, carried by his passionate, intimate voice, guide us through the gamut of
human experience.
And if the record leaves you wanting more, he will
be continuing his habit of playing 150+ dates a year. With tours already booked throughout Europe and North
America in the first half of 2010, he’s likely coming to a town near you. And if he isn’t, drop him a line, he’s
known for making an effort to play wherever there are eager ears.
"Beautiful and intimate, More Nights is an album from a young Canadian artist that shows true musical brilliance" Jordyn Marcellus, Gauntlet
"A gifted, eloquent songwriter" View Mag
"One of the most promising songwriters of our times" B.Y.E. Germany
