“The balladry of Seattle singer/songwriter Katie Kuffel contains the sort of lived-in elegance that makes you feel you’ve been wearing her music all your life without even realizing it.” – Douglas Martin, KEXP
SEATTLE (January 19, 2020) – Seattle singer-songwriter, Katie Kuffel, announces the release of her upcoming album, Alligator, on March 19. Alligator is the relationship you need to end. It’s the truth that you need help. It’s knowing you only have so much control in the world. It’s the trauma you haven’t processed.
The album’s title is a reference to a line in “1999”, the second single off the album: “my brothers found a gator in the corner of my room,” representing the big scary things in life that are always present. The following line in that track goes “We counted teeth until I felt I had the strength to move,” reflecting that breaking down of what’s large into workable pieces. To own the “big scary” and be kind and gentle with it. And most importantly to stop ignoring it.
Kuffel says, “For me making music is a fundamentally vulnerable practice. For each song, I need to be honest with myself and uncover the things I don’t like to think about. I don’t always come up with something clean, or easy to understand, but it’s a step forward, and I wanted to really own that process with this album.”
Nashville based producer, Nick Bullock, and Katie Kuffel spent months planning, talking about songs to include on the record and what kind of sounds they wanted to go with it. Bullock originally planned to record at a studio on Bainbridge Island, with musicians Kuffel knew and had practiced with. But then Covid hit. And the studio on Bainbridge fell through. So, maybe brashly, Kuffel flew out to Nashville two days later, knowing she might get stuck there, and recorded with session musicians who had to cancel tours because of the pandemic. The result is a captured frenetic energy characteristic of the uncertainty of the moment.
Kuffel expresses an empowering depth and self-awareness throughout her album. Topics on Alligator range from intergenerational trauma viewed through kid glasses, a song about how a volcano would experience time, seasonal depression, and about her own disability. No matter the scale of her theme, Katie finds the universal thread to captivate her listener, reminding us we’re all human, and to embrace the messiness inherent in being alive during this turbulent, modern era.
Alligator Track Listing
- 1999
- Carillon
- Love Language
- Reminders
- Honey
- Ships
- Passerine
- Veil of Isis
- Wintertide
- Mt. St. Helens
About Katie Kuffel
Kuffel has had a fair bit of classical training, but her real musical education occurred in the opportunity to sit in and play with a plethora of diverse musicians. She’d play the cello and sing with her dad’s group of friends (all drinking beer and playing bluegrass on the porch). She’d sit in and jam with a Gypsy Jazz group at the farmers market. While living in Japan she learned the basics of Koto music. Then there was the Peruvian doomgrass band she played with when she first moved back to Seattle. She accompanied speakers, and slam poets in live, improvised events.
###
Live Streams
Praise For Katie Kuffel
“The balladry of Seattle singer/songwriter Katie Kuffel contains the sort of lived-in elegance that makes you feel you’ve been wearing her music all your life without even realizing it.” – Douglas Martin, KEXP
“Full of heart, vulnerability, and smoldering soul” – Mitch Mosk, Atwood
