Just Be Good To B

UK post-dubstep soulstress Katy B (aka Kathleen Brien) has triumphantly topped the charts at home with her credible new album Little Red. But, while Brien recorded some grown-up 'pop' songs, she remains a club chick. Indeed, she recently enjoyed partying at the Brit Awards – apparently no typically “dry” industry bash. “It was really, really fun,” a chatty Brien confides. “Everyone was just going for it!”

Brien was raised in Peckham, South London, vibing to R'n'B, neo-soul and UK garage. Intent on pursuing music professionally, she attended the BRIT School, among its alumni her idol Amy Winehouse. Later Brien, then at uni, connected with Geeneus, founder of Rinse FM – the pirate radio station-turned-label empire. She burst out of the underground with 2011's hit-laden On A Mission. The following year Brien offered the stopgap Danger EP. Meanwhile, she toured Australia with Parklife, only to cancel midway due to “personal reasons” (she's desperate to return).

Many artists dread their second album – and Brien was trepidatious. “This time around I have been signed to a major label [Columbia] and my team has grown. I think I felt a little bit more pressure, certainly.” Nonetheless, Brien's label was “very supportive” of her vision for Little Red. “I wanted to keep the same ethos 'cause I still feel very much rooted in club music and club culture.” Brien was determined to again collaborate with Geeneus, and cutting-edge newcomers such as Sampha, yet she also reached out to traditional songwriters. “I really wanted to work with some people who write amazing chord structures.” One of them was pop maestro Guy Chambers, Robbie Williams' long-time associate. “I went to his studio and we got on really well. I think in the first session we wrote [current single] Crying For No Reason, so I felt really comfortable with him straight away.”

Brien has described Little Red as “darker” than her debut.“The last couple of years have been a bit of whirlwind, really,” she says. “Some life-changing things have happened to me and I think this album definitely is me trying to work them all out.”

Little Red is housier than its predecessor, too. The opener Next Thing evokes Kevin Saunderson's techno-pop Inner City. Brien has also resurrected Aaliyah – a duet with quiet stormstress Jessie Ware. When Geeneus gave her the instrumental, Brien visualised a club “with a lot of sexual tension in the air”. The Londoner imagined her DJ boyfriend playing to an alluring female dancer, named after the first act she spotted in her iTunes – Aaliyah. The title was meant to be “temporary” but, deciding that the tragic starlet was the song's “muse”, Brien retained it. “It's not about the singer Aaliyah,” she says, “but… she kinda fits the character. It's a kinda homage to her as well, saying, like, 'I can't compete with you'.”