Awash with twisting synths and big, woozy piano, Kathryn Joseph’s fourth studio album, WE WERE MADE PREY., is raw, tormented, and beautiful. The project sees the Glasgow songwriter revisiting her artistic partnership with producer Lomond Campbell, three years on from the release of her acclaimed LP for you who are the wronged, creating an album that sounds both fierce and timid at the same time. Between tour dates across the UK, she speaks to us about recording in the Outer Hebrides, what got her writing music again, and going ‘feral’.
Congratulations on releasing your fourth album. How do you feel now it’s out in the world?
Really happy and proud, which is quite a strange feeling for me. I really love it. And I mean, mostly because Lomond Campbell has made it sound so beautiful. I don’t take any credit for the good bits that I love, so I’m allowed to like it, which is nice.
With the title and the cover and many of the lyrics, there’s a lot of animalistic imagery in the project. Could you tell me about what inspired this?
I think it was just a weird time of my life where I was obsessing over wanting versus being wanted and trying to work out where I fit into that now, in terms of my own life, but also my age and what I look like. And all my paranoias that existed 20 years ago are still the same, but [I’m] also hating that and wanting to be better than that. So it just felt like I went full feral on it and I’m quite happy about that.
There’s quite a strong feeling of torment and discomfort on the album. Was it cathartic putting these feelings into your music?
So I hadn’t written for a long time. I feel like I maybe only write 11 songs every three years. I had just started doing a tour when I started writing again and a lot of the people that were supporting me are my very favourites. And I think it just made me want to feel and write it all again, you know? Just remembering how much music can make you feel and want.
And then the recording process was really easy and beautiful and funny and nice. We went over to Black Bay Studios on the Isle of Lewis and Lomond Campbell basically wrote all of his parts that week, and I recorded mine in two days. It was just a very, very lucky, very, very nice way to make a record. So I sound like I’m really raging and really unhappy, but in real life, I’m having a lovely time.
Did the remote setting of Black Bay Studios have any influence on the music itself?
Yes, I think so. I think it’s impossible not to be affected by where you are. It is so remote: we didn’t even realise that you’re on another island, you go across to the isle of Great Bernera. So it just felt perfect for what we were making. And I didn’t even realise how dark the sound was going to be. In my head for a time, before Lomond Campbell was involved, it was going to be a much smaller sound. And that’s basically what came out of him at that time, and that has to be affected by where he is. How it looks is also how it sounds, and I love that about it.
How did you choose the singles for this album?
I mean, ‘HARBOUR.’ for me was the first, and that was very immediately my favourite out of all of them. I still listen to it over and over again. Just the noise that Lomond Campbell added to it is so beautiful. It’s a song that I wasn’t very sure about – I didn’t think it was very good before he’d added to it. So it’s just so strange to go from thinking that something doesn’t work to it’s your most favourite thing you’ve ever heard.
But you just end up just asking other people what they like, which ones are affecting people more. So, you know, it’s hard to choose your children but I seem to be able to do it!
Are there particular tracks on the album that have stood out to listeners?
I think people seem to like ‘HOLD.’ quite a lot. And I was quite surprised by that. And also ‘CHILDREN.’. It’s about my daughter and my dog. When I’m playing live, I keep telling everyone that of course I love my dog more, as if it’s a joke… [She whispers] It is a joke.
You’re performing at a few festivals over the summer, you’re supporting Mogwai on a European tour, and you’ve got your own headline tour as well. What are you most looking forward to in the rest of 2025?
I mean, all of them really. What’s so nice about this record is we’re playing it live exactly as it sounds on the record and I’m loving it. Usually, when I’m playing gigs, by three-quarters of the way through I’m like, okay, it’s nearly done, and this time I’m starting to feel sad that it’s nearly over.
The Mogwai tour will be amazing. I was out with them in February as well, and Lomond Campbell’s coming with me for that one too, this time. So it’ll just be a lot of fun and a lot of nice dinners and a lot of wine. All of my favourite things.
WE WERE MADE PREY. is out now via Rock Action Records. Available here.
Kathryn Joseph performs at the Edinburgh International Festival on 9th August. Tickets here.
Main Photo Credit Marilena Vlachopoulou.
