Music Makes Better
Music is language, communication, ritual, party, invitation, past, present, and future, emotion, memory, time, and space. Sonic explorations lead to new realities that allow for non-linear experiences, triggered by physical responses to sonic vibrations. Music stimulates intellect, feeling, and the physical body, making it a useful tool for exploring complex inter-relationships, and for healing. It’s also really fun!
Raised in a family of composers, songwriters, singers, producers, and players, Kathryn (aka Kat) got into music when she was a kid. She started writing music as a teenager, setting Shakespearean sonnets to music, writing trios for strings, and experimenting with pop progressions. After an internship at Quad Studios in Times Square, where she got really good at making coffee, she worked on 4-track recordings at home and assisted on her friends’ studio projects. Early on, she heard some tunes at Coyote Studios in Brooklyn and Ira Heap's studio in Mount Vernon. Her first album credit was as Assistant Producer (credited as Kat Minogue) on the 2001 album, “Wasted Days,” by The Slackers (produced by Vic Ruggiero). (This album is really good!) After studying performance, design, art, art history, classics, and archaeology (at NYU, HB Studios, Hunter, Temple U, and Columbia U), Lewis returned to the stage and studio full-time in 2017.
Since 2017, Kat has co-produced 4 studio projects for Dobro-driven Americana band, Sheriff and The Deputy (released in 2017, 2018, 2019, and forthcoming as soon as we can get 7”s pressed), first assisting, then taking the controls in 2018 as the studio’s Recording and Mixing Engineer. Since 2019 she’s also been mixing, editing, and recording with producer and songwriter, Rob Taube, at his East Village studio, Groove Garden. She’s now building her own studio in BK! Kat loves using found sound because she hears a symphony on the streets.
Music in production:
Album of home-made recordings by Kat and Casio
“Wasted Love” Album by Country City
“Sheriff Singles” by Sheriff and The Deputy
Kat and Friends LIVE (compilation of live recordings)
Album of Improvised music by The Clarinettes (K. Lewis and J. Portney)
“Blame” ep by Untitled Brooklyn Reggae Band
Christmas Album by Van Kert
See Samples to listen.
The creation, preservation, and study of Art is critical to the health and wellness of individuals, groups, cities, nations, and global communities. Music and Art connect people beyond space and time while carrying traces of its own space and time. Public engagement is an important aspect of Lewis’ work because she knows that art and live performance are transformational for so many who don’t necessarily seek it out (and those who do). See Events for free live events!
You can support my ongoing work in Music, Sound, and Visual Arts by making a tax-deductible donation here!