The Crayonettes
Playing Out: Songs For Children & Robots
[One Little Indian; September 6]

Longtime fans of Kathryn Williams will know that she has plenty of weird and wonderful song ideas of her own (who can forget the early demo ‘Fandango Lasagne’?), but this debut album from side project The Crayonettes – a duo formed with fellow mother Anna Spencer, formerly of punk band Delicate Vomit – takes its inspiration from the imaginative playworlds of their two sons, Louis (4) and Lenny (3). Tired of the unbearably earnest singalongs found on your average children’s CD, Kathryn and Anna aimed to incorporate everything from punk and disco to hip hop and country into their version of a kids’ record.

“We would meet in the evenings when the kids were in bed…and play!” says Kathryn of the making of Playing Out. “It was so much fun creating with a friend. We would be crying with laughter and have to wait for the giggles to go before doing a take. When we’d written a song we would play it to the kids and get a reaction.”

The writing sessions weren’t the only fertile thing – both women became pregnant again during the project’s development; Kathryn’s second son Ted was born in April, and Anna is due in August. And to add further continuity, the album artwork is by Anna’s eldest son, eleven year old Sam.

Undeterred by their additional motherly duties, Kathryn and Anna plan to take The Crayonettes out on the road later this year. In the meantime, you can catch Kathryn playing the following dates in support of her recent album, The Quickening:

23.07.10 Trowbridge Festival, Trowbridge
24.07.10 Port Eliot Festival, Port Eliot
21.08.10 Beautiful Days, Devon
23.09.10 The Sage, Gateshead
25.09.10 Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Tracklist:
01 Robots In The Rain
02 Disco Teeth
03 Rainy Day
04 Hopscotch
05 Emergency
06 Sweet On The Floor
07 Let’s Dance On The Moon
08 Spooky Way Home
09 How Hot Is A Toad
10 Pirates On The Bus
11 Illegal

Source: Wears the Trousers:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/2010/06/incoming-the-crayonettes/

Original article by Alan Pedder:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/author/alan-pedder/

Related links:
www.kathrynwilliams.net

Speaking about the new single the songwriter said: “I was talking about all the nights of travel you have on tour and how you are always leaving a city and watching it behind you. I said that I imagined I was on the run, and that’s how this Bonnie and Clyde song came about. When I think of the song, it’s like a film. A close shot of two faces looking ahead to a border where they will be safe from what they are escaping. The adrenalin, the fast heart beat, thoughts flashing like car lights passing by ‘lights on the dashboard darting like fish/ if I can drive through this town I can vanish’.”

So that's it straight from the folk-horse's mouth as it were, no offence intended.

In other news KW will also be making appearances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's Southbank as a special guest of Robyn Hitchcock on January 30 and at The Barbican and Chris Difford's (of Squeeze fame) 'Songs In The Key Of London' event on March 9.

Kathryn Williams 2010 UK Tour Dates:

January 30 LONDON - QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL (in support of Robyn Hitchcock)
February 21 BIRMINGHAM - THE GLEE CLUB February
22 BRIGHTON - KOMEDIA
February 23 BRISTOL - THE TUNNELS
March 1 MANCHESTER - BAND ON THE WALL
March 2 GLASGOW - KING TUTS
March 3 NEWCASTLE - LIVE THEATRE
March 6 LONDON - PURCELL ROOM
March 9 LONDON - THE BARBICAN

Original Article:
http://www.rivmixx.com/latest-headlines/kathryn-williams-new-single-2010-tour...
[edited/updated slightly by Ryan Price on 05/01/2010]

Related articles on this blog:
http://www.uselessdesires.co.uk/?sort=&search=Quickening

Download exclusive content & Press Pack from Kathryn's previous solo-album, Leave to Remain:
http://www.kathrynwilliams.net/presspack.html

Thanks to Chris for supplying the info.