Misses making it happen with fresh, folk-infused EP

IN the midst of the multi-national chaos that the Rugby World Cup has brought to Auckland, a little glimmer of Gisborne will be making itself heard.
But it was hard work making it happen, says Katie Scott, one-third of the Katie Scott & the Miss Ts ensemble she formed with fellow former Gisborne musicians, sisters Bronwyn and Kayla Turei.
“When we went hunting for a venue for our EP launch they were all ridiculously expensive or totally booked out because of the Cup,” Scott said. “Or else they would say ‘yeah, come and play’ but it would have to be after that night’s rugby game and we really didn’t want that.”
So the three decided to be little fish in the big city sea, booking tomorrow’s launch at diminutive Karangahape Road venue Backbeat Bar, which holds fewer than 100 punters.
“It will definitely be a squeeze but, in the circumstances, it’s perfect for us,” Scott says, multi-tasking by talking on the phone and serving customers as part of the Auckland gift shop job that helps keep her head above water.
“It is up some stairs so people there will be coming especially to support us and they won’t have to jostle for space with patrons who are really there to watch the rugby on a big screen. It is a real musicians’ venue . . . it’s above a music shop and its walls are lined with all of these beautiful guitars.”
Scott and the “Miss Ts” plan to deliver some beautiful guitar themselves come tomorrow night’s launch — Scott and Bronwyn Turei playing a folky kind of acoustic, laid on the foundation of Turei-the-younger’s quietly-rhythmic bass.
And it is a sound that will not be totally unfamiliar to audi-ences when they next month head to Gisborne for a hometown launch. Those are Scott’s ringing vocals on Cos I Can, the jingle Milestone Homes has for more than two years used in its high-profile television campaign.
When she wrote that song — a commission scored in 2008 after her very first live gig — Scott was going it alone, getting into a bit of music to provide some creative relief from the intense Bachelor of Performing Arts she was studying for at the time.
She and the Turei sisters are all Gisborne Girls’ High School alumni, but they hadn’t treaded the halls at the same time.
“Bronwyn was friends with my older sister — I was always desperate to hang out with them — and by the time Kayla came along I’d moved with my family to Christchurch,” Scott says.
“Bronwyn and I ended up flatting together in Auckland and we were both pretty full-on . . . me with my course and her shooting for Go Girl (the television show on which Turei plays practical tomboy Cody).
“But we would jam together in the evenings, which was a lot of fun, and when Kayla moved up to study at MAINZ (Music and Audio Institute of NZ), it all came together.”
It worked out from the start. Performing Scott’s songs, and with the added warmth of the Turei sisters’ genetically-matched harmonies, the trio played their first live gig at a Ponsonby venue last year and, Scott says, got a great reaction.
The buzz has continued to build — perhaps helped by Turei Snr’s Go Girls profile — and in May they retreated to Auckland’s York Street Studios to record their debut EP, That’s The Game.
They managed to entice some industry names on board . . . Chris O’Connor (SJD, Don McGlashan), Gareth Thomas (Goodshirt, Gareth Thomas Band) and Ben King (Goldenhorse, Grand Rapids) all play on the album and will perform at tomorrow’s launch — though Scott says it would be too costly to bring them down for the Gisborne show.
That the five songs they recorded were all written by Scott was more for practical reasons than anyone else.
“We’re all really busy — Kayla is full-time at Mainz and Bronwyn is out the door at six in the morning to work on Go Girls, and doesn’t get back until after eight at night — so we worked with the songs we already had,” Scott says.
“But we are definitely starting to talk about collaborations . . . That’s The Game is just the start of things. Our hope is that it will help us earn a fan base and build up our support networks in New Zealand, so we can record an album and tour . . . live the dream, really.”
Launching the EP with a gig in Gisborne came about through their links with local musician Jane Egan who had in the past taught all three band members, either in the classroom or (in the flute-playing young Scott’s case) in an orchestra.
“One day we texted Jane when she was in Auckland and she popped around to have a listen to the songs,” Scott recalls.
“She said, ‘wow, you have really got to come and play in Gisborne’ and after that everything fell into place.
“Bronwyn and Kayla are back and forth all the time but I haven’t been to Gisborne since we left when I was 13 so I’m really, really excited about it . . . it will be a real trip down memory lane.”
■ Katie Scott & The Miss Ts’ album launch gig will be on at Auckland’s Backbeat Bar tomorrow, followed by a hometown gig at Gisborne venue Bushmere Estate on October 22.