This is the Kit: Team Kit

Kate Stables is the protagonist of This Is The Kit, an alt-folk act that links up a dizzying array of instruments and ideas to create a beautiful tapestry of delicately riotous sound. The band is already over a decade old – but their most recent release,  Moonshine Freeze, is perhaps the most important yet.

The record, adorned with Kate’s shouting face captured in black and white by a pinhole camera, demonstrate her ever-increasing talents as a bewitching storyteller. And it’s propelled the act into the consciousness of more hypnotised listeners than ever.

While Winchester-born Kate has lived in Paris for the past ten years, she attributes most of her musical upbringing to Bristol. “When I lived in Bristol I started playing with other people more and going to a wider variety of gigs,” she says. “I was taking more stuff in and getting inspired. I’d of course done a lot of musical growing up in Winchester too, but living in Bristol was a formative time for me.”

It was during her time in Bristol that Kate and Rachael Dadd formed Whalebone Polly, one of many projects Kate was involved in at that time. “There was such a lot going on that I found so inspiring,” she reflects. As well as Rachael, she also met a cast of creative friends that inspired her. “They were a big influence on me over those years,” she says, “and still very much so, obviously!”

Kate’s musical mates form the ever-changing lineup of This Is The Kit – though it’s somewhat less ever-changing these days. “Neil, Rozi, Jamie and Jesse are the band,” she explains, “but we are lucky enough to be joined sometimes by a saxophone section, which is a total pleasure. It’s always a pleasure to have friends join in on shows, especially when it feels like a kind of family home show. Playing in Bristol is always like coming home, and so it’s great to get as many musical family members in as possible.”

The ‘family home show’ Kate is talking about is Colston Hall’s Bristol Takeover on October 7. Kate will be headlining the celebration of the esteemed venue’s 150th birthday, and a mass of Bristol bands, DJs, musicians and labels – along with some friends from further afield – are set for an ‘all-Hall’ takeover. Kate’s picks of the day include the Bristol Fantasy Orchestra (who, she hints, might join This Is The Kit onstage), The Moonflowers, Fránçois and the Atlas Mountains, and Hands of the Heron.

Kate has played The Lantern, Colston Hall’s smaller sister venue, a couple of times – and she can’t wait to catch up with her favourite sound engineer. The show will also be a nice warm-up for the band’s tour with The National, the next thing on the horizon for this ascendant act. As a globe-trotting, community-creating, thought-provoking artist, Kate is the ideal pick for a headliner that sums up the power of the Bristol music scene – and proves you can never stay away from Bristol for long.

This Is The Kit headline Colston Hall’s Bristol Takeover on Friday, October 7. Find more information and tickets over at www.colstonhall.org/shows/bristol-take-over