Seeing how Katie Richardson had already racked up performances at Westminster Abbey and The Royal Albert Hall before she’d left school, it comes as little surprise to find the Ormeau Road woman such a natural onstage.

A teenage chorister, trained actress, and enthusiastic collaborator, Katie’s career path is more twisting back-road than straight autobahn. And likewise, the music she’s producing with her group, The Carnival, has a similarly quixotic and happily digressional feel – a little bit Shangri-las, a little bit medicine band, and a little bit snake-oil saleswoman. Early days, yes. But one thing is already clear: like all smart thesps, Katie isn’t keen on being typecast.
“I was heavily involved in choirs at school,” she says. “And I still love choral music. I still think there’s something incredibly magical about voices singing in harmony. But when I was young, I also fell head over heels in love with jazz – especially Ella Fitzgerald and all those smoky-voiced female singers. But, to be honest, I fall in love with new music every day. I don’t really think in terms of genres. I just go through phases. At the minute I’m a bit obsessed with Bright Eyes and Ryan Adams – but it changes all the time. I’m easily swayed. I go to a rock gig and come out shouting that I’m going to write a rock song. Come out of a folk gig and say I’m going to write a folk song. I’m all over the place, really.”
Following a spell studying acting in New York, Katie had returned to Belfast intending to pursue a career in theatre. A chance meeting with much-missed folkies The Delawares, however, led to her treading very different kinds of boards.
“I’d never really thought about being in a band,” she reveals. “But they were such great guys and such a great band I couldn’t help myself. It was amazing. I was 20. I can remember my first gig with them at The Empire – it felt like I was playing at The Brits: a mixture of excitement and pure terror.”
When the band broke up, Katie wasted little time getting busy. While she harboured solo ambitions, the slew of invitations (from what reads like half the NI indie phone directory) that seemed to land on her doormat meant she initially threw herself into showy supporting roles.
“Maybe it’s being an actress, but it’s always felt more natural for me to join other bands,” she says. “Listening to what other people want, trying to help them get there – it all comes very easily to me. I suppose I’m used to working to a spec in a funny way. It’s certainly much easier than being a band leader.”
So, what are the main differences?
“Admin,” she laughs. “Never mind writing the songs and singing, there’s six other people you have to worry about. So, it’s scheduling rehearsals, arranging shows, planning recording sessions. It’s a challenge. And on top of all that, they’re your own songs. There’s so much more at stake – it all feels a bit rawer and scarier and more exciting, of course. Someone said to me recently that it must be brilliant getting all the glory. But, hand on heart, I’ve never felt any glory. Terror, fear, failure, maybe relief. But not glory.”
Maybe not yet, but Katie And The Carnival’s splendid new EP – The Places We Go; The Darkest Depths – suggests she won’t have to wait very long.
Recorded with Barrett Lahey at The Start Together Studios in Belfast, it’s a bespoke collection of down-home aesthetics and magical realist flourishes. One that allows Katie to try out all manner of personas – one minute Loretta Lynn, the next Laura Nyro – while uncovering an individual voice of much potential.
“I might be stating the obvious,” she says, “but it’s all about creating work for yourself. Work that you love. I don’t mean to sound cheesy, but it’s the journey that’s important. I’m not worried about setting out a career path, I just want to keep on making music and working with great people. The rest, hopefully, will take care of itself.”