Katie & Pat
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Katie & Pat

Band Folk Acoustic

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"The Ritz Theater"

"I love deep, meaningful music about love and life...however, I don't need to be bombarded with song after song after song about suffering, confusion, heartache, disease and death. Yah, life is hard sometimes...but not all the time. Lots of good things happen in everyone's life every day. Katie and Pat are one (two?) of those things. Pat's rock solid, confident yet relaxed guitar, combined with Katie's soaring, lilting buoyant vocals bring joy to the listener, no matter what the topic. Together they have the ability to take life's commonplace occurrences (like walking to the video store on an autumn afternoon) and squeeze the joy straight into a glass. A live performance is like going to a wedding reception without the formal clothes...you have fun, smile, laugh, want to sing along and leave happy. They have the warm, friendly rapport of two souls that have been together forever with the breathless excitement of love at first sight."
- Michael Allen


"Catching up with Katie and Pat"

Catching up with Katie and Pat
Folk/pop alumni duo discusses musical inspirations, meeting each other and memories of Bowling Green
By Andrew Clayman


Updated: Friday, April 24, 2009

Nobody can relive the past, but if you wait long enough, you just might get a shot at a sequel.

It’s been five years since singer/songwriter Katie Watkins first graced the cover of the Pulse. Back then, she was known as Katie Stanko — a 20-year-old University student and a local celebrity of sorts. Her numerous acoustic gigs at Howard’s, Grumpy Dave’s and other venues had earned her a devoted following across campus, and the Pulse had picked up on the buzz.

“I remember being so excited, because nobody had ever wanted to talk to me about my music before,” Katie recalls. “Opening the paper and seeing that article was pretty awesome, even though I felt lame for playing someone else’s guitar in the photo they used [laughs].”

To say a lot has changed in five years would be an understatement, but Katie’s passion for music has only grown since graduation. Today, she lives in Chicago with her husband Pat Watkins, another University alumnus with whom she has formed the aptly titled folk-pop band Katie & Pat. The duo’s second album, “On a Balance Beam,” drops May 9.

“To me, this album has much more of a full band feel than a duet feel,” Pat said. “All of the recording is still just Katie and I, but we incorporated more elaborate instrumentation than on our first record (2007’s ‘This Time of Year’), specifically live drums and piano.”

“‘On a Balance Beam’s” slick production and mature, dynamic songwriting are a far cry from the days when Katie and Pat were upstart solo artists in Bowling Green, still searching for their sound and each other.

“I was definitely listening to a lot of Jimmy Eat World and The Get Up Kids back then,” Katie said. “But I grew up loving John Denver, so it was like trying to be emo and folk, which wasn’t a great combination.”

“The first time Katie and I were introduced was during a Resident Advisor training session in the summer of 2003,” recalled Pat. “Katie was a bit punky then, with knee high socks and pigtails that went way past shoulder length. We would see each other from time to time after that, but it wasn’t until the spring of 2005 that we actually started dating.”

Naturally, a musical partnership soon followed suit.

“Katie had a much larger catalog of songs than I did at the time, so we started practicing a lot of her material. I would add little guitar licks here and there to fill in the gaps and sing backup vocals. That’s really how Katie & Pat was born.”

As they did for their debut album, Katie and Pat will be hosting their CD release party at Coffee Amici, just down the road in Findlay, Ohio. The duo still have a considerable following in Northwest Ohio, but as a new band in the vast Chicago scene, they’re trying to make their mark on an even bigger stage.

“Moving to Chicago has made us feel much more like small fish in a big pond,” Katie said. “But it has also been very rewarding. Life is a lot more fast-paced now, but we’re staying realistic, I suppose. We still dream big, but we don’t expect anything. That way we aren’t as disappointed if it doesn’t happen, and if it does, it will be even more magical.”

In the meantime, Katie Watkins is quite happy to be back in The BG News, a friendly reminder of those happy, pigtailed days of yore.

“I miss a lot of things about BG—Finders, Video Spectrum, Howards, and just all the familiar faces and general feeling of freedom. It’s just a wonderful little place.”

Editor’s Note: Guest Reporter Andrew Clayman was a Pulse writer in 2003 when Katie Watkins was originally featured. Currently a music journalist in Chicago, he couldn’t pass up the chance for his own nostalgic homecoming, and to chat with an old friend.

- The BG News


Discography

"This Time of Year" - April 2007
"On A Balance Beam" - May 2009

New Project in the works.

Photos

Bio

Like most things, it started in spring, when the world is an ice cream social. Pat -- the guy in the grandpa hat -- was tired of flying solo. And Katie -- with her hot and blue guitar -- had some songs that were still half finished. They’d seen each other around their little Ohio town, and they’d played the same stages, but they always seemed to be walking in opposite directions. Then, one day, Katie -- with her hot and blue eyes -- made contact with Pat -- as he walked right beside her -- and you can guess the rest.

Here comes Pat, stage right. He’s more the quiet type, but be warned, your lead guitar man’s a drummer at heart. And there’s Katie, stage left, the spunky acoustic Canadian. She’s got charisma coming out of her leg warmers, and yes, her sweet coos are reminding you of Jenny Lewis and Juliana Hatfield. It’s warm-hearted folk-pop, but it’s razor sharp, sister! Toss in Pat’s tender gusto de la Sufjan, and you’ve got quite the wicked pair - cuddly and burly, sunny and moody, Batman and Robin Hood! If you’d like to make those Mates of State comparisons, go right ahead. But hang around a while and you’ll want to get hitched, too. This is Katie & Pat.