full circle with Ryo, Katie Dey
and two photographs
Arriving in Melbourne on the 22nd of July, I found myself wanting to catch up with Ryo and to re-familiarise myself with the gig scene here. Prior to the photos in this post, we caught up on the 24th of July, hanging at mine and catching TSVI.
It was a great first show to go to, and since then he released another EP with Avalon Emerson under his other alias, Anunaku. I’ve only heard the single, which I enjoy a lot, next up is to listen to their EP.
A week later, Ryo and I find ourselves at another show. This time at the Gasometer Hotel for June Jones’ single launch, the schedule being Hunny Machete, Katie Dey then June Jones. What drew me to the show though, was the undercard of Katie Dey.
Prior to the pandemic, in late 2019, I came across James Acaster’s video where he talks about his overlooked albums of 2016. The video accompanied his new book at the time, Perfect Sound Whatever, which explores all the great albums he listened to during that year.
Katie Dey’s Flood Network was highlighted in the video, a record where vocals are pitched up and mixing was done on broken headphones. Flood Network was also the last album where Dey’s music was more cryptic, later albums exploring more openly of navigating through life as a trans woman. Solipsisters was released in 2019, and was my entry point into her work.
I went to her show in late 2019, and was transfixed by her music. Her brand of pop, acoustic meshed with glitch, churned vocals, lyrics evoking themes of constant displacement. What resonated me was how raw and emotive she was on stage, a sole figure with queued backing tracks.
In the smoking area later that night, I wanted to go up to her and tell her how good the set was. This area was a balcony overlooking the busy streets below, she was having a cigarette and talking to a friend. She looked exasperated. I opted not to bother her PLUS I was and still am terribly shy of approaching people in general so there’s that too.
30th July 2022. Katie played a full acoustic set. Stripped bare of the synths and drum machines, she felt fully in control, self assured, confident, strong.
Her performance took me way back to 2019. How different everyone, everything was. 2019 was also the period where I met Ryo for the first time.
I can’t remember which part of this show I snapped this photograph, but he said that she was his favourite performer of the night. I believe that he mentioned that this might be up there in terms of his favourite gigs. Stoked for him.
When June Jones was performing, I spotted Katie in the crowd. She looked more at ease here, and I was just glad to experience her set, and to do so with Ryo. I remember in 2019, Ryo and I constantly listened to this Japanese song by Never Young Beach. We probably went back to mine that night, and this song was played again.
We had pizza together yesterday in between classes. He’s been swamped with job interviews for positions in Japan. Ganbatte Ryo!