Think Meadowlark, think pure perfection in a soaring vocal. That’s probably the first thing you’ll notice when you hear this exceptional Bristol-based electro/pop duo. The voice belongs to Kate McGill but she’s only half of the story. While she also brings her keyboard playing and song-writing to the mix, she is equally matched by partner Dan Broadly who is a multi-instrumentalist.
Meadowlark is the result of a culmination of years of work by two individual musicians whose joint output is greater than the sum of their parts. Both hail originally from Plymouth, but the pair hooked up in Bristol and, such was their reputation as individuals, they were invited to support Bastille at the Kasbah Club in Coventry as their very first live outing. Nervous, but undaunted, they went on to put a bunch of tunes together in a very short space of time and pulled off the show magnificently. There followed an Academy tour with Gabrielle Aplin and support for Elvis Costello at Thetford Forrest as well as slots at top festivals including the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury and Great Escape, plus appearances in Vampire Diaries and Made In Chelsea on TV. As well as strong radio support from their local Bristol BBC Introducing, they also made it onto the national airwaves with a session on Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show and repeat spins on Radio 1, 6Music, Virgin and Radio X. Extensive headline tours of the UK and Europe, further festival appearances and a series of single and EP releases won the hard-working pair further acclaim. In 2017, came their debut album, Postcards, a collection of catchy polished and perfected alt-pop. But with hindsight was it perhaps too polished? Fans loved it but ultimately the band weren’t so sure. In 2018 Kate & Dan signed to German label Guesstimate who are far more in tune with the direction they want to take than their previous stable. The pair are currently producing material for the second album, due this year, that is less intensely poppy, more mellow and minimalist. “New label, new found love for music and our song-writing that we lost in the haze of releasing a debut and trying to fit a mould,” says Kate. “I think it’s just good to get a sense of rebirth with this new stuff: our heads are out of the clouds so to speak and we’re excited to be releasing stuff we love again.” Not that there is anything wrong with their previous song-writing. If in any doubt they need only remind themselves that their song Fly, from the Postcards album, clocked up 25 million streams – in its acoustic version. And in total they’ve had well over 50 million streams on Spotify from fans all over the world. All this augurs incredibly well for the future and, having at last found their real niche, the sky will surely be the limit for Meadowlark.