Katie first of all thanks so much for giving us an interview. We all thoroughly enjoyed your singing throughout the Berlin 2007(*) tour and felt that you really added something special to the overall

sound of the band.

Most of us hadn't heard of you before this tour. Tell us a little bit about your singing background and previous projects.

My last project was a soulful nu jazz affair of my own material which I ran for about the last five years, but I have always had my fingers in many pies and enjoyed so many styles of music, I'm moving on to live

dance now with my soon to be husband who is a drummer. Plus I work in the industry doing sessions which is how I know Rupert Christie.

We know that you became involved in the Berlin project via Rupert Christie. Can you tell us a little bit about when you first became aware of the project?

Rupert had mentioned a while back that he was working with Lou which I found so exciting when he told me about the New York gigs. He'd mentioned it would be coming to Europe and I hoped that I might get involved so when the call came in there was no question in my mind about dropping everything last minute-including all my wedding plans!

Rupert told one of our editors that when Sharon Jones became unavailable, Lou and everyone else were thinking about touring without a dedicated female backing singer. But Rupert said when Lou heard you sing he cried. How did you feel when you heard that?

I'm just so pleased that he liked me. And I like to think I am a dedicated female backing singer!

Can you describe your first meeting with Lou? What was it like?

He gave me a very firm and warm handshake and after hearing me sing was extremely welcoming.

The first time we all played 'Walk On The Wild Side' together was particularly special.

How easy was it arranging the different vocal parts for those concerts? Apart from Lou there were Fernando and the children's choir singing as well. Did it take a lot of work trying to figure

out who would sing what parts?

Fernando was very helpful in teaching me all my parts and we had it down pretty quick.

Your singing has elements of Blues, Gospel and Classical music. How easy did you find it to adapt to performing with a Rock ensemble?

Like I said I've always had a stab at everything so rock is firmly in my repertoire and actually I just love those old soulful session singers from the 70's that sang with people like Lou and Pink Floyd , Joe Cocker, T-Rex...

So this gig was perfect for me. 

Some songs like "Men of Good Fortune" featured your singing more prominently than others.

Did you have a favourite song that you would look forward to singing from night to night?

My improvisation in 'Oh Jim' was the one probably as Lou would really let me go crazy but at the same time it was always different. I used to watch him like a hawk cause you never knew where he would take it next!

But I loved the spontaneity of it all and once I start scatting I could go on forever!

The electricity in the concert halls seemed almost palpable during these performances.

Was there a particular night that stood out for you as being really special?

Actually there were several but if I had to pick one It would be the outdoors gig in Arezzo- Italy.

We were playing in the beautiful old town square and the crowd were so amazing! The atmosphere was

incredible and the way the sound reverberated around the piazza was sensational- I remember telling

myself to cherish every second of it as I think it's up there with some of my all time favourite gigs!

Was the relentless tour schedule something that you found difficult? How did you cope with spending so much time travelling?

Travel is something that all musicians are used to so it didn't faze me and we were all looked after extremely well. Lucky for the English musicians we spent about a week in the middle of it all back in London too so we could see family which helped. Plus I got to hang out in some amazing places like Amsterdam, Rome, Florence and we even got to go to the beach in Sardinia so it was fun. Everyone got on so well, you become like a family when your in a band, it's very special.

Do you have any amusing or interesting anecdotes from the tour that you could share with us?

The first that springs to mind is listening to Lou jamming ' Heatwave' by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in soundcheck, I doubt you could get much more further away from Berlin musically!

It sounded pretty good too!

It seemed that often during the encores you would stand up and start to really belt the songs out.

Did you find that the encores gave you more room to improvise than the main performance?

Yeah I did get to sing more in the encores but like I said you never knew when Lou might throw you into the spotlight on the main gig, the show was different every night so you had to be aware of that and as the tour went on I found ways of stamping my own identity onto the songs I sang in the main show.

Sometimes there would be little differences in the way you and Lou arranged the singing

of the encores from night to night. Like in London, on the first night during "Sweet Jane" you and Lou sang different verses, but on the second night you were trading lines with each other in the same verse. When did little variations like that get decided?

On the spot. By Lou!

What can newly-converted Katie Krykant fans look out for in the future?

Well I won't be Katie Krykant much longer, my stage name is actually Katie Leone which is my middle name.

I'll be coming back to the continent in the autumn to teach master-classes at a music school in Bologna, possibly gigging down in south Africa in the winter and I truly hope I'll be back with Mr Reed for more Berlin soon!

(*) This interview was done in the summer of '07, Katie was replaced in '08 by Jenni Muldaur.