Katherine Priddy will release her third album, ‘These Frightening Machines’, on March 6th via Cooking Vinyl. In support of the album, Katherine will be putting in the road miles with an extensive series of In-store performances commencing on Saturday, January 31st, in Leamington Spa at Head Records. Not content with that, a full UK tour will follow in April/May of this year. A full list of all the dates and times follows, plus more about Katherine and the new album, including the video for the latest track released from the record ‘Hurricane’.
Katherine Priddy has announced the release of her third album, These Frightening Machines on March 6 via Cooking Vinyl. The new record follows Priddy’s highly acclaimed debut The Eternal Rocks Beneath and sophomore LP The Pendulum Swing which firmly established her as one of the most exciting artists on the contemporary British music scene.
Following the success of her first two singles “Matches”, a powerful feminist anthem, and “Frightening Machines”, a deeply emotive second track, Priddy has now shared a third preview of her forthcoming album: new single “Hurricane”, an expansion of her sound into a sultry groove with a cautionary tale of dangerous love.
“This is a love song about the kind of person who you know is going to break your heart and leave havoc in their wake, but you just can’t resist them, using the metaphor of a hurricane to describe the damage they do if you’re caught in their path. I really enjoyed recording it and having a bit of fun in the studio. I actually came up with the bones for this song whilst taking shelter from a tornado in Nashville and listening to the sirens outside. You never know when inspiration will strike!”
Katherine Priddy has announced a series of in-store appearances through January, February and March:
JAN 31ST – HEAD RECORDS LEAMINGTON - TEMPERANCE
FEB 1ST – ROUGH TRADE NOTTINGHAM
FEB 4TH – WAX & BEANS BURY
FEB 7TH – VINYL TAP – HUDDERSFIELD
FEB 8TH - APPLESTUMP NANTWICH
MARCH 6TH – BANQUET KINGSTON
MARCH 7TH - RESIDENT – BRIGHTON
MARCH 8TH - ROUGH TRADE EAST – LONDON
MARCH 9TH - VINILO SOUTHAMPTON
MARCH 10TH - TRUCK OXFORD
MARCH 11TH – ROUGH TRADE LIVERPOOL
MARCH 12TH – BADLANDS CHELTENHAM
Speaking about These Frightening Machines, Priddy shared: “If the first album was for building a foundation, and the second album was about reinforcing what I’d already begun, the third album felt to me like a chance to be bolder, push out and try something new.”
Produced by Rob Ellis (P J Harvey, Anna Calvi, Marianne Faithfull, Bat for Lashes) and recorded at The Glaucus House, Middle Farm Studios in rural Devon, These Frightening Machines was written over the course of a year as Priddy made the transition from her 20s to her 30s. She consciously kept an open mind during the making of the album, focussed purely on being creative, and determined to let the songs find their own form.
“At its core,” added Priddy, “I think These Frightening Machines explores the ever shifting relationship I have with my sense of self as a woman, my body and my place in the world as a 30 year old artist - but I’d like to think that whilst the songs are born from personal experience, the feelings expressed are widely relatable.”
The most sonically varied of her career, the songs on Priddy’s new album span a full spectrum of emotions from anger and despair to hope, longing and lust, from reclaiming the voices of women silenced by history, to expressing solidarity and love, to confronting illness, disconnection, the vulnerability and importance of relationships, and the general ache of growing older and not always wiser. They explore what it means to keep going when things fall apart, to hold onto connections in a world that sometimes divides, and to figure out where we fit into the machines and systems we find ourselves a part of.
“I wanted to end this album on a question mark,” said Priddy “as whilst I’d have hoped to have it all figured out by the third album and my third decade, I’ve come to accept that perhaps part of being human is being a perpetual work in progress. Could this collection of songs be enough? If it strikes a match and casts a little light for anyone who has ever felt their body falter, their love waver, or time slip through their fingers, then that’s enough for me.”
Notable guests on These Frightening Machines include American singer/songwriter Torres who duets on “Madeleine”, and Richard Walters who duets on “I'm Always Willing”. Revered, alt folk multi-instrumentalist Ben Christophers (Natasha Khan, Guy Garvey and many more) features on most of the album’s tracks.
These Frightening Machines track listing:
1. Matches
2. Frightening Machines
3. Sirius
4. Hurricane
5. Madeleine
6. Atlas
7. A Matter of Time
8. Table Four
9. I'm Always Willing
10. Could This Be Enough?
UK Headline Tour Dates:
Thu Apr 16 : Stroud The Sub Rooms
Fri Apr 17 : Brighton St George's Church
Sat Apr 18 : Southampton Papillon
Sun Apr 19 : Cambridge Junction 2
Mon Apr 20 : Norwich Arts Centre
Wed Apr 22 : Bristol St George's
Thu Apr 23 : London Union Chapel
Fri Apr 24 : Nottingham Metronome
Sat Apr 25 : Liverpool Tung Auditorium
Sun Apr 26 : Leeds Howard Assembly Room
Tues Apr 28 : Oxford Holywell Music Room
Wed Apr 29 : Manchester Stoller Hall
Thu Apr 30 : Edinburgh Pleasance
Fri May 1 : Gateshead Glasshouse Sage Two
Sat May 2 : Barnsley Birdwell Venue
Sun May 3 : Pocklington Arts Centre
Tue May 5 : Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre
Wed May 6 : Milton Keynes The Stables
Thu May 7 : Exeter Phoenix
Fri May 8 : Cardiff The Gate
Sat May 9 : Birmingham Town Hall
https://www.katherinepriddy.co.uk/shows/
Katherine Priddy biography:
Since emerging with her debut EP 'Wolf' in 2018, UK artist Katherine Priddy has quickly become one of the most exciting names on the British scene. Declared ‘The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year’ by Richard Thompson, who later invited her to join him on tour, Priddy’s haunting vocals and distinctive finger-picking guitar style have seen her sell out headline tours and support world class artists including Thompson, The Chieftains, Loudon Wainwright III, Vashti Bunyan and this autumn, Suzanne Vega. She has performed at the BBC Proms and played well-earned spots at prestigious festivals in the UK and abroad such as Glastonbury, where she also performed live on BBC 2, Green Man, Cambridge Folk, where she was awarded the Christian Raphael Prize for best emerging artist, End of the Road and Beautiful Days.
Her much-anticipated debut album, The Eternal Rocks Beneath, was released in June 2021 on Navigator Records to great acclaim. The album singles received 200+ plays across national radio including BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2, and upon release, the album received exemplary press reviews including Songlines (5 stars), and the Observer (4 stars). It reached No. 1 in the Official UK Folk Charts and No. 5 in the Americana Charts. Folk Radio UK made Priddy ‘Artist of the Month’ and said of the debut LP: “Foundations rarely come stronger than this. A debut of true substance, it’s like searching for a simple shelter and stumbling upon a diamond mine.” The album was later chosen as Album of the Week on RTE Radio 1 in Ireland and made Mojo’s Top 10 2021 Folk Albums, whilst national radio plays continued long after the release.
2022 got off to a flying start with Priddy taking her music abroad for the first time with a series of shows in Australia, including a performance at Port Fairy Folk Festival, as well as a showcase in Kansas City USA as part of Folk Alliance International. This was followed by an invite to perform one of her songs as part of the world-renowned BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra. 2023 brought a new single on Chrysalis Records as part of a Double LP of Nick Drake covers from artists such as Self Esteem, Aldous Harding, John Grant, Bombay Bicycle Club and more, as well as a show with Elbow’s Guy Garvey at The Roundhouse.
2024 saw the release of hotly anticipated follow up album, The Pendulum Swing, which was greeted with critical acclaim in the press, with many calling it “One of The Albums of the Year”. The Mail On Sunday said the album “deserves a Grammy”, The Observer described it as ‘a rich, poised second album’; and Mojo concluded “simply brilliant”. The record landed at No.1 in the official UK Folk Charts (2nd album running) and radio play included Iggy Pop, Guy Garvey (“Utterly brilliant…one of my favourite voices in contemporary music”), Craig Charles (“Exquisite”), Mark Radcliffe and Gideon Coe. The accompanying headline tour was her biggest to date selling out most cities and concluded with a concert in London’s Union Chapel - a performance that was recorded and later pressed onto a limited-edition double LP for 2025 Record Store Day.
With her reputation growing, Priddy has since written and released two songs with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, performed on the legendary BBC Later with Jools Holland TV show, recorded a duet with Johnny Flynn as the title track for 2025 feature film ‘Four Letters of Love’ and supported Suzanne Vega on her UK tour last Autumn.
With Priddy’s momentum showing no signs of slowing, the release of These Frightening Machines is set to take her star even higher.
