Katrina's one of those names in music that doesn't really require a surname.
Just say it and people immediately begin singing "Walking on Sunshine," her band Katrina and The Waves' trademark 1983 song, written by the band's guitarist Kimberley Rew. In addition to cracking the top 10 in the U.S. and U.K., the song has appeared in commercials, films, TV shows and in cover versions by the likes of Dolly Parton.
Katrina – no longer a Wave – recently released "Blisland," her first record of new material in a decade, and now the ex-pat American lands on her native shores to undertake her first solo tour of North American in more than 25 years.
Still, she's walking on sunshine.
The tour lands at Shank Hall on Friday, April 3 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. Before she hit the road, we caught up with Katrina to ask about the new record, how she views her experience with the Waves and the seemingly never-ending run of success of "Walking on Sunshine."
OnMilwaukee.com: This is your first solo tour of North America in 25 years. Are you excited, do you have some trepidation ... a little of both?
Katrina Leskanich: Total excitement. I'm very happy to have the chance to play in my home country after so many years away. It will feel like the very beginning playing small clubs and bars and that's cool because that's just where I am right now. Madison Square Garden next year! Ha ha!
OMC: What can folks expect?
KL: I will be playing some old Katrina and the Waves material and some songs from solo material of mine and some tracks from my new album "Blisland." Also a fun cover or two. I have a cracking band of New Yorkers who have played with everyone from Joan Jett to John Cale. They rock.
OMC: Tell us a bit about your new record. Were the songs sort of piling up over time or did you decide to make a record and write them in a flurry of creativity?
KL: A couple of the songs had been floating around in my mind for years and the rest were written in a flurry. I just got down to it and didn't leave my apartment for days. I listened to some of my favorite albums and songs and drew inspiration from them. It was fun and I enjoyed the experience so much.
I found it enriching and it has transformed my relationship with music and the music business to feel I am contributing something more than just singing the same old songs the whole time. One song in particular on "Blisland" came bounding out of me and that was "Sun Coming Upper," which I see as my response to "Walking on Sunshine" and how things have panned out for me personally 30 years later.
OMC: Why such a long break between U.S. tours and between records?
KL: I don't know where the time went! It's an interesting phenomenon in the music business that if you haven't played in the U.S. for a while you lose credibility as an artist with U.S. tour history, so it was hard to get invited back.
Last year, I was invited onto the Retro Futura Tour with Thompson Twins, Howard Jones and Midge Ure and it put me back on the map in America. I knew those artists had new material so I thought I had better get writing and recording and that's how "Blisland" came about.
OMC: Looking back, how have you viewed your Katrina and the Waves experience? Was there a time you attempted to escape that association, to move forward, or have you always embraced it?
KL: I thoroughly enjoyed my role in Katrina and the Waves for the 20 years I was in the band and the association with a joyful song like "Walking on Sunshine" is an enormous pleasure. As a solo artist I was able to have some fun in some other areas and loved working as radio presenter on BBC Radio 2 and doing some musical theater in England was a blast.
OMC: What did the Glee cast hit with "Walking on Sunshine" mean for you in terms of this. Were you like, "oh, no, not again!" or were you more chuffed to see that pop culture still loves that song?
KL: "Walking on Sunshine" turns up in some of the craziest places! It's a cheeky little song that surprises me when it pops up in movies unexpectedly ("American Psycho") or when Dolly Parton not only covered the song but started opening her live shows with it. The mash up of "WOS" with Hero and Beyoncé in "Glee" was fabulous. Of course it brings a smile.
OMC: Will you play it when you're here? Do you feel like you have to or do you want to -- or both?
KL: I will be playing Walking on Sunshine in the live shows. It would be such a disservice to the song not to perform it. It's a wonderful song, it brings joy, it always will, especially to me.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
