Girl Like Me by Katia, 2010
Website: Katia on MySpace
Home Base: New York, NY
Genre: Pop, Rock, Singer/Songwriter
Compared To: Alicia Keys, Cyndi Lauper, Bee Gees, Matchbox Twenty, OneRepublic
Influenced By: Annie Lennox, Madonna, Elton John, Eminem, Mozart, Michael Jackson
Bio.: A classically trained pianist who remains one of the youngest vocal soloists ever to perform with the Russian Philharmonic, New York-based singer-songwriter Katia has a pop music style as unique as her background. Songs like her debut single “Girl Like Me” reveal her classical melodicism within a pure pop context, in which her lyrics-about the “day-to-day stuff that girls go through,” she says in typically engaging perfect English-are nailed by her beautiful but insistent singing voice.
Ten years old at the time of her highly publicized performance with the Russian Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg native, who is now sponsored by the Baldwin piano company, came to America shortly thereafter. She has studied music on her own ever since, absorbing along the way influences ranging from Madonna to Norah Jones-both of whom, incidentally,have been mentioned among artists whom Katia evokes. Indeed, renowned producer David Kahne was so impressed by Katia’s talent that he offered to produce “Girl Like Me” in between recording projects for Paul McCartney and Sting.
But Katia has attracted other noteworthy collaborators as well for her debut EP, which is also titled “Girl Like Me.” Steve Greenwell, notorious for his work with Joss Stone, Vic Flowers, a producer and musician whose credits include Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, have assisted on the production side; producer/engineer Tony Maserati (Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey, Jason Mraz) did the mixing. Legendary producer Tony Camillo also contributed to Katia’s sound. The EP release is due in mid 2010, but Katia will continue her busy schedule up through then and beyond.
She has already written and performed the end-title song for “The Bleeding,” a horror film starring Michael Madsen and Armand Assante that is slated for release in early 2010. She also sat down a 40-minute interview/performance segment on the Internet’s cutting-edge BreakThru Radio site. Katia has been invited to play the Florida Music Festival in April of 2010 and has been offered a slot on the Fox TV program, Fearless Music in March. And of course, she is playing regularly with her band of like-minded musicians in numerous locations in her home base.
My Review: You don’t really notice it in the first two dance tracks, but there is something, how do I want to say this, unique but pleasing, about Katia’s voice. I don’t know if its her pronounciation or a slight accent or what, but it does make her stand out from other pop singers. Their was a big band singer from the maybe late 40s through early 60s with a similar voice and I can’t for the life of me remember her name. I even searched the internet for it because they sound so much alike.
Not that this is a bad thing. In the high competition world of pop music you need something to separate you from the crowd and make people take notice.
Personally, I like the two versions of Estatik, although Pretty Picture does showcase Katia’s superb piano playing and has some interesting catchy parts to it.
I’m really not much of a pop music fan, mainly because so much of it is “cookie cutter”, “formulaistic”, “you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all” style. Do this, this and this, and you’re guaranteed a hit song!
All that having been said; I’m still going to rate Katia at 10 stars and a “thumbs up”, mainly because I know she is a great pianist, she does have sort of a unique voice and I did enjoy the Estatik mixes as well as her piano playing in Pretty Picture.
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