Q&A: Kate Bollinger transfigures memories into an illustrious scrapbook for ‘Songs for 1000 Frames of Mind’
KATE BOLLINGER WELCOMES LISTENERS INTO A MYSTIFYING WORLD – with her latest release, a tender yet bold collection of tracks that seamlessly fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Bollinger has said it’s important for her songs to evoke some sort of visual in her mind, like a well-curated movie soundtrack, which her latest album, Songs for 1000 Frames of Mind, happens to do with ease. With a blend of genres from folk to pop to jazz and beyond, there is not a track on the album that won’t leave you entranced time and time again.
We caught up with Kate to discuss the process of creating said album, where her musical inspirations derive from and even which movie soundtrack she feels that Songs for 1000 Frames of Mind suits best. Read more below.
LUNA: Congrats on your release! I’m super excited about it. The album is titled Songs from 1000 Frames of Mind, how did you come up with that title?
BOLLINGER: That title just popped into my head one day when I was still living in Virginia—I live in LA now. I remember exactly where I was. I was sitting in a park in Richmond, where I used to live, and it just occurred to me. I first thought of it as Songs from 1000 Places and Frames of Mind, which I later shortened. To me, it feels like it captures the essence of the album, which was written in a lot of different places—both geographically and emotionally—over the past four years.
LUNA: One of the press releases around this album describes your music as “a soundtrack and scenery for a non-existent movie.” I think that’s such a perfect description. Listening to the album makes me want to go on a long road trip and pretend I’m in a movie, just looking out the window. It really fits well.
BOLLINGER: I love that. It’s a good sign for me because I’m such a visual person. I think whenever I make a song, I’m seeing some kind of visual thing to go along with it. So, I was happy to read that too.
LUNA: Absolutely. It translates so well across the whole album. I feel like I can visualize myself in all of these scenes you set with your music. It’s super cool.
BOLLINGER: Oh, cool.
LUNA: One of the most interesting things about albums is each track list and how each artist curates them differently. What was your thought process behind the ordering of the album?
BOLLINGER: A lot of my decisions with that were pretty subconscious and feeling-based, which is kind of how I write a lot of my music too. It’s not very technical; it comes from an emotional, subconscious place. I wanted it to feel like a mixtape you might make for a friend. Before I even wrote a lot of the songs, I knew I wanted to make an album that felt like going on a trip—it starts here, goes to another unexpected place, and ends somewhere else completely. That kind of informed the track listing. I didn’t want it to be like, “Here are the piano songs,” and “Now, here are the jangle pop guitar songs.” I wanted it to be like a mixtape, a collage, scrapbook kind of album.
LUNA: Is there a specific song on the album that you’re most excited for listeners to hear for the first time?
BOLLINGER: I think it changes, but right now I’m really excited about "Sweet Devil," partly because I’m shooting a music video for it tomorrow (this interview was conducted back in August). It also feels kind of different from any of my other songs.
LUNA: That was one of my favorites from my first listen through the album. I immediately went to put it on repeat again.
BOLLINGER: Yeah, it’s kind of like my jazz standard on the record.
LUNA: I absolutely loved it. It was hard to choose a favorite because listening through, I just wanted to keep listening over and over again. It’s really strong thematically, all around.
BOLLINGER: Thank you. That’s so nice.
LUNA: You also have a tour coming up in October. How does it feel to be back on the road so soon?
BOLLINGER: I’m really excited. I feel really good about the band that I have. I’ve toured a lot over the last few years, but it’s mostly been just for the sake of touring. This time, it’ll feel cool to have a record to play start to finish.
Photo by Gilles O'Kane
LUNA:I was recently looking back at your From the Road series with Luna from 2022. It’s amazing to see how much can progress in just a few years, especially since it was before "Running" was even released on streaming. It’s cool to see how everything has evolved over time.
BOLLINGER: Yeah, I’m trying to remember what tour that was. I feel like that might’ve been when I toured with Real Estate? Yeah, that’s crazy, that feels like so long ago.
LUNA: It was a super fun read. It’s exciting to catch up with you and for all the Luna readers to see how you’re doing now.
BOLLINGER: Yeah, that’s cool.
LUNA: I also see that you studied film in college. If you could choose any movie to feature one of the songs from this album, or even multiple songs, what would it be?
BOLLINGER: Whoa, that’s a great question. The first thing that popped into my head was Juno. I don’t know if that’s my all-time answer, but that was my instinct, just because I love so much of the music in that movie.
LUNA: That’s a good one. Your bio also mentions that your mother is a music therapist and your two older brothers were part of local bands growing up. How did growing up surrounded by so much music in your life influence your sound and direction as an artist?
BOLLINGER: When I was growing up, music was always happening in the house, it was just a natural thing to do. My mom was writing songs, and my brothers were writing and playing songs around the house and having band practices in the basement. That impacted me a lot because, as the youngest sibling, I idolized my older brothers. Seeing them make music and art and all these cool things definitely impacted me.
I was talking to a friend about how a lot of my first favorite bands were local bands, which now, in retrospect, that’s not super typical. My brother played the violin on this band called The Extrordinaires’ album, and then my dad and I got really into them. We would listen to this one local band all the time driving around in the car. So I think it impacted me in a lot of ways, having a musical family, but also living in a town with a music and art scene was really important. It always felt within reach or doable. I was never discouraged from making music or writing songs, it was just kind of a natural thing. Whereas I feel like kids who grow up in smaller towns, or cities that don’t have much of a music scene happening, can feel like music is this super far off, out of reach thing. So I feel very grateful to have had that.
LUNA: Absolutely, to have that community and those resources there is so awesome. Were there any specific artists or songs that you had on repeat during the writing or recording process of this album that inspired you?
BOLLINGER: Yeah, I was listening to this album called Grease Paint Smile by Elise Weinberg a lot, she was a folk singer, kind of like a folk rocker, songwriter from the Laurel Canyon scene in the ‘60s. I was listening to that a lot, and Cherry Peel by of Montreal and some of the other Elephant 6 albums like Her Wallpaper Reverie by The Apples in Stereo, Tone Soul Evolution by The Apples in Stereo. Lots of 60s and 90s pop, folk, and rock.
LUNA: You can especially hear the 60s influences on the album. It’s wonderful how artists incorporate elements from older generational music and create something new with it. Are there any specific songs on the album that you personally resonate with the most, or one that you felt is really the embodiment of the album?
BOLLINGER: That’s a good question, that’s hard. I think "Lonely" was one of those songs, it felt pretty effortless to write. I wrote that one in Virginia with my friend Matt, who is also a recording artist, goes by Matthew E. White. He and I started writing together at the beginning of the pandemic, we would get together at his studio in Richmond. In the early days of the pandemic, we would meet up on this little basketball court outside his studio. I just remember the feeling of writing that song was magical because sometimes you write a song and you’re searching for the words, it feels like you’re almost putting a puzzle together. It feels like a strategic or fun challenge, but with that song it just kind of poured out of both of us. So in that sense, it’s one of my favorites and I still resonate with it a lot now.
LUNA: If you could describe Songs from 1000 Frames of Mind in just three words, what would they be?
BOLLINGER: Collage, scrapbook, melodic.
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