As the founder of the Canadian synth-pop band Austra, Katie Stelmanis has toured with few breaks since 2011. “When I’m home, I scramble to do all the normal things people do, go the doctor, get my hair cut” Katie said from her Tornoto apartment a day before starting her current North American tour.
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Katie formed Austra in 2009 with Maya Postepski on drums and Dorian Wolf on bass. Austra’s 2011 debut Feel it Break featured minimal and dystopic synthesizer arrangements paired with Stelmanis’ booming choral vocals. Katie learned and wrote in MIDI with orchestral instruments in mind, but ended up becoming enamored with the industrial-sounding urgency she created. “It’s so easy to quantitize everything and make it perfect and it loses a sense of realness “Katie said, ”but there’s also something beautiful about the syntheticness of it.”
Feel It Break was nominated for Canada’s Juno Award for Best Electronic Album in 2012 and appeared on the Best of 2011 lists for New York Magazine, NME and PopMatters.
Austra last played in Dallas in February, opening for The xx at Granada Theater with a full band. Katie noticed herself progressing as a performer since she started touring “At first I was scared of performing” Katie said, “I always hid behind hair and big, frilly outfits, trying to make a barrier between me and the audience”
Austra’s second album, Olympia, released in June. Contrasting to Feel it Break’s album art, with Katie’s hair covering her face over an abstract, symmetrical pattern, Olympia’s cover features Katie with a pink pantsuit with a tropical island projected in the background. Katie’s writing traded cold, industrial motifs for her her own emotions and experiences. “I wanted to make songs that were more personal and direct about certain subjects to communicate more freely on stage” Katie said. The album was recorded in a Michigan studio with all hands on the now-sextet pitching in for fuller arrangements. “I’ve been willing to share a lot of power, but I still consider myself the maestro”
Austra performs at Trees with Diana opening, on Thursday, September 12. Doors open at 7:00pm