Album Notes

The latest to come out of the musical Mecca that is Oberlin (Liz Phair, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Northern State), Katy vs Evil is an alternative pop rock band fronted by Katy Gunn, a classically trained violinist, vocalist, and former concert master of the Oberlin Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. Gunn's formidable, acrobatic voice, technical ability, and eclectic style - an amalgamation of electronic, pop, classical and rock - has drawn inevitable comparisons to fellow femmes Fiona Apple and Tori Amos, while subtly forging a vision uniquely her own.

Katy vs Evil's debut album was produced by film composer and programmer, David Majzlin, who has worked with artists Lou Reed and Fernando Saunders. Simply titled Volume 1, the group's first release reflects on the precarious nature of love, the simplicity of humility, divine tales of sexual obsession, and the superheroes we sometimes need to be in order to escape the mundane, monotonous existence that threatens all of us.

A writer who is anything but predictable, Gunn favors violin solos over guitars, hyper - kinetic breakbeats of Drum n Bass over anthemic rock, the cinematic drama of Trip Hop over the ballad, and the passions of the traditional Tango (which features renowned bandoneon virtuoso, Raul Juarena (Chesky Records). It's the kind of album you put on after a breakup, before being fired, and any time you feel the need to know where you've been, but are unclear as to where you need to go next.

One might ask, if this is Katy, who is Evil? According to Gunn, Evil represents "façade - the illusion of the importance of superficiality and the false notion that perfection is the ultimate goal. I think that mistakes are what make people human - living and learning - not packaged ideas and computer programs...although I have to admit - a computer-animated version of Katy Gunn is underway as we speak..."