Kate Nash

“An artist should be someone who’s sticking it to the man,” Kate Nash explains emphatically. “It’s about rebellion. It’s about your mom being like ‘turn that down’ and you slamming the door and being like ‘whatever, I need this music to help me get through my emotions!’” The 22-year-old singer has always had strong opinions but in the months since the 2008 release of her smash debut Made of Bricks, she’s found a new kind of fierceness in expressing them. After a whirlwind rise-to-fame that involved multiple world tours and more than a million albums sold, Nash is back with her sophomore effort, My Best Friend Is You. “I went from being really young and naïve and positive, like ‘oh my god I love life, everything is so fun, to being like ‘I hate the world, everyone’s shit, I want to die,’” Nash says of her ride to the top. “My Best Friend Is You is about trying to find a happy middle.”

Nash’s unwavering confidence in her new direction is based in large part on her faith in her connection to her fans. “It’s like you grow up together,” she says of the people who buy her records. “You might never meet but you have this unusual, deep communication. I love that. I don’t want the people who are going to be standing in the back of the gig talking. Go stand in the back of someone else’s gig! I want the people who are there to be nerdy. I want the people who are there to be real.”