BY NICK CANTWELL
There’s a saying in life – ‘Go big or go home’ and never has it been more apt than right now in the career of Katie O’Malley. Manchester-based Katie has recently started a new band project entitled ‘Katie and the Bad Sign’, so recent in fact that their very first gig was just last weekend in Camden at the Dublin Castle, a venue very much in focus as it features heavily in the new Amy Winehouse movie ‘Back to Black’. I was lucky enough to be in attendance and it was amazing to witness the impact the artist and her band made. A recent Instagram post saw Katie proclaim that you should ‘Get ready for a new kind of rock and roll sound’ and this edgy new Americana sound will surely see the band achieve great success.
The Camden gig was the start of an eight-date tour, including a hometown gig at Night and Day in Manchester. And slap bang in the middle of this tour sees the debut single ‘Cruel to Me’ released. The track opens with a fantastic Darkness-esque timeless driving electric guitar intro that will have you rocking out from the start, before the drums kick in, followed by the introduction of Katie’s soulful and enchanting vocals.
The song starts with Katie proclaiming ‘Yeah my mood is like the weather, some days it’s down and then it’s better’, setting the scene for this hard-hitting track immediately. ‘Cruel to Me’ is about a relationship, the impact of the song almost telling its own story within the lyrics. Stood alone, lyrics such as ‘Cos I’m a bad girl, but I don’t want no punishing, I’m just a sad girl, that needs a little loving’ might paint a picture of someone pleading for more, but with the driving nature of the track, it’s more like a demand, it’s that powerful.
The highlight of the track is three minutes in when the band repeats ‘Why d’ya do the things you do’ again and again, building up to a fantastic crescendo, that when you see played live will blow you away (and yes, it did!).
If you’ve listened to Katie O’Malley before, you’ll already know she is one of the rising stars of the Manchester music scene, and this new project is somewhere between an evolution and a revolution for the singer. It’s an incredibly bold move, and it already seems like a winning one. If you like your Americana loud and with attitude, fronted by a distinctive and electric singer songwriter, Katie and the Bad Sign should be your new go to – an impactful debut.