Kate Nash returns with first album in six years, ‘9 Sad Symphonies’

Kate Nash has announced details of her first new album in six years.

9 Sad Symphonies will be released on June 21 by US-based label Kill Rock Stars, and is being previewed today by its first single, ‘Millions of Heartbeats’.

Speaking about the new track, Nash said: “‘Millions of Heartbeats’ is a song about losing your spark. It can be difficult to find hope in a world that’s constantly bombarding you with bad news, chaos and capitalism.

“It’s scary when you lose that spark and can’t lift yourself out of a pit. It can feel like that light you once had might never come back. The button to the song is that there’s millions of heartbeats on this planet and that’s the reason we have to try. All we have right now is earth and each other. And that’s actually a lot. So just keep trying.”

She added: “It’s about that point in the pandemic where I had lost my spark for life. And I’m a pretty sparky person, so it was really sad to me.”

Listen to ‘Millions of Heartbeats’ below.

Nash worked with producer Frederick Thaae on the album, who she had previously teamed up with on her musical ONLY GOLD.

She said: “We were in this completely different landscape for writing songs [on the musical], which was completely freeing. I was writing for a story, I was writing about a King and a Queen and a proper story arc. In that world you need the audience to understand the songs immediately, it’s very direct, and it has lots of editing which I’d never done.

“It changed my outlook on songwriting. Also, we said at the beginning that we wanted to make something beautiful, nothing harsh. I’ve done a lot of harsh stuff before. We wanted loads of beautiful string arrangements.”

On November 28, Nash will play a headline show at London’s KOKO, following an already-announced show at Hackney’s EartH on May 17.