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 Jakalope's Katie B. |
Right place, right time. It works for Katie B.
"That's pretty much the way my whole career has really been," says the vocalist for industrial pop band Jakalope.
Let's start with the right place growing up for her, which, for the first 17 years of her life, was 15 minutes north up Hwy. 2 in Airdrie.
It was there she was exposed to a great variety of musical styles and sounds, and it was there she first got a taste of what has become her life's pursuit.
"My mom got me into singing and once I started doing it and doing it in front of people I realized that's what I always wanted to do," the now 23-year-old says.
"And that's why I guess I've taken the risks I've taken because I've just known this is what I was meant to do. Sometimes you just have to go out and do it and not think about anything."
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For Katie, that meant a move to Vancouver where, in another example of perfect timing, she was discovered while working at Bryan Adams' Warehouse by famed Canuck producer Dave (Rave) Ogilvie, known for his work with everyone from Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails to David Bowie.
Ogilvie enlisted Katie for a project which would be Jakalope and its debut CD It Dreams.
For a girl who grew up in small-town Alberta, listening mainly to country and mainstream pop, being approached to front an act that was a little harder and edgier was a proposition she accepted with little thought.
It also didn't hurt that Ogilvie also asked for musical contributions from an impressive array of international artists including members of bands such as Sloan, Monster Magnet and Trent Reznor of NIN fame.
"I was definitely excited ... I couldn't wait to go home and tell everyone," she says of collaborating with those names.
"But I really wanted to the best I could which meant not thinking about what was going on and just making sure I was being as creative as I could -- trying to focus on myself and not being intimidated by the people around me."
Now, a core group of those collaborators has hit the road, bringing Katie to Calgary for the first time as a member of the band for a show tonight at MacEwan Hall.
She says she's thrilled to return home and play for family and friends, but she's just as thrilled for what she sees as a long career in the right place -- in Jakalope.