kate graham profile picture

kate graham

katethefake

About Me

Born Kate Andersson raised in Eskilstuna, Sweden.
Decided at an early age to travel to the States to study, live and know soul music.
At the age of 22 I bought a oneway ticket to New York with one goal, "dreams are made to come true". I stayed for 5 years, it was truly the finest years of my life.
With lots of struggle learning the language and the music business I realized I had to have a daytime job. I put up an ad at the Swedish Church in Manhattan that I was looking for all kinds of jobs. Eva Andersson, former Miss Sweden (1980), called me a couple of days later and asked if I was interested in working as their maid.
From shopping bags, spoiled brats, I decided to study as a masseuse. After a year of a study, life changed quite a bit.
Eva introduced me to the Jetsetters of New York like the Trumps, Robin Leach etc, and they became my customers. Life looked brighter than ever but something was missing, I needed to find someone who believed in my voice. There was only one way.
I put an ad in the paper Village Voice that I would offer a Swedish Cleaning Service for offices and recording studios.
Since I had a Swedish accent and my pronounciation wasn't perfect I had to hang out a lot with the bums in the neighborhood to practice my American. I had a really a good time, the homeless took really good care of me. They walked me from the subway all the way to my frontdoor every night, just to make sure I was safe, they called me "The White Pigeon".
I was standing at 14th Street/Broadway every morning at a payphone making calls looking for a job as a singer, with no luck because of my accent over the telephone, on the other end I heard an angry voice asking me -Where are you from? I tried really hard to sound like a downtown girl, but my Swedish accent killed it all. He replied -I can't work with that.
Stubborn as I have always been there was nothing that could put me off.
With my ad in the paper I started to get calls on my answering machine. My first job was on 21stStreet/Fifth Avenue. My first morning, 8am, at the Epsteins office was very exciting. After I cleaned the floors of his offices an entertainment lawyer named Robert Maloney, former lawyer to Miles Davis, asked if I was interested in a job at a recording studio across the street called Perfect Sound. With a cloth in my hand, my hair in a ponytail and wearing sweatpants I could not resist his offer.
A couple of weeks went by and one morning Robert Maloney called me up and asked if I was ready to take on my cleaning job at the recording studio. Five days later I was standing in front of Bruce Springsteen cleaning the hallway and he asked me -Oh what a beauty, would you like to clean my place too?
Brave but a little shaky, I was very close to the mixing tables cleaning, I curiously asked if they needed a backup voice on their demos. One of the producers looked me in the face and said -Oh really. If you can sing as good as you look, go ahead and try.
I sang a song called Baby Love by the group Mothers Finest a capella, they were impressed, but very suspicious. I convinced them.
One month later I signed a record deal with Tavdash Records in Miami. Luck was on my side and I worked very hard with Tyrone Downey from Bob Marley and the Wailers. We made a record together in Miami but the record label had financial difficulties and decided not to release any of their artists' records.
I took a break and started to work with other artists and producers. A year later my daughter Victoria Graham was born and I began to think about moving back to Sweden.
In 1994 I landed in Stockholm with lots of self-esteem and confidence and a strong picture of what I wanted to do. Soon I met Anders Hansson former band member of Secret Service, and we wrote an album, I Wish I Were A Man. It became a number one radio hit in Greece, with the song Don..t Break My Heart (Eclectic Music). The album also sold well in Japan. I got very good reviews from the Swedish press but my record didn..t get any promotion from my record label Independent Records, and didn..t sell as well as it should have.
Since 1999 I have been working as a songwriter in several different studios. Today I am writing, singing and arranging all of my own songs. My new album My Living Room will soon be ready for release during early summer 2007.
I am not signed to any label but wish to work with people who truly believe in my originality and unique sound.
A winner always has a plan, a loser always has an excuse.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/28/2006
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None