Katie Gately

Using a plethora of computer programs to mutate her voice and found sounds into dense, unsettling sound constructions, Katie Gately’s music wavers between abrasive industrial collages and playful, abstract dance-pop with an absurdist sense of humor and an ear for rhythm and melody. On early works such as 2013′s sprawling vocal collage Pipes, she already displayed a knack for juxtaposing mischievous details with vast washes of sound. Later, she used this skill in increasingly expressive ways, bringing the whimsy and melody of her style to the fore on 2016′s Color and emphasizing the intense moods within her music on 2020′s Loom. On works like these and on collaborations with Björk and serpentwithfeet, Gately unites state-of-the-art technology and raw emotion in thrilling ways.
Born and raised in different boroughs of New York City, Gately grew up listening to the opera her dad loved as well as her mother’s favorite artists, which included Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and David Bowie. After earning a degree from Carleton College in Minnesota, studying sound design in New York City, and earing a film production MFA from the University of Southern California, she began making music. An avid field recorder, she contributed to the self-titled 2009 CD by collage ensemble Seattle Phonographers Union. The Los Angeles-based artist began uploading her compositions to SoundCloud and issued two acclaimed releases in 2013. Katie Gately, an EP that arrived on Public Information, featured a track made from samples of an ice cube rattling in a glass, while Pipes, a limited-edition cassette on Blue Tapes, consisted of dense layers of her voice and took more than six months to make.
After releasing a limited lathe cut 7″ single with Prayer (Joe Houpert) on FET Press, Gately contributed to FatCat Records’ split series, sharing an EP with Tlaotlon. In 2015, Gately appeared on Nosaj Thing’s Fated album and remixed Björk’s song “Family.” She then signed to Tri Angle for the release of her full-length debut, Color, which arrived October 2016 and added more structure and melody to her music. Gately then kept busy with sound design work for several short films, remixes for Björk and Zola Jesus, production on serpentwithfeet’s 2018 album Soil, and her own planned second album. However, when her mother was diagnosed with a rare and deadly form of cancer, Gately returned to Brooklyn. As she cared for her mother, she worked on wrenching tracks inspired by her grieving process. Following her mother’s death in 2018, those tracks became Gately’s second album, Loom, which Houndstooth released in February 2020. ~ Paul Simpson