Famed tattoo artist, entrepreneur and author Kat Von D has spent the last few years showcasing her musical prowess to the world and will be coming to the UK on tour in June.
In 2021, she released debut album Love Made Me Do It, with sophomore album My Side of the Mountain following in 2024.
‘I’ve been writing music for a long time’
On finally showing her musical talent to the world, despite being trained in music from a young age, Kat told AltCorner: “I’ve been writing music for a long time, and I started writing my first album while I was still on TV.
“But I think when you’re trying to balance so many different things – at the time, I was filming a TV show, and then I was doing a book tour, and then I launched a makeup line, and it’s almost like life gets in the way of life.
“I think, when I got, like, 10 years into creating my makeup line, I kind of just had enough of it.
“I’m very grateful for that chapter of my life, but lipstick isn’t really my passion, so I decided at that point, I had to really make a decision as to what I was going to cut from my life in order to make room for things I really love.”
So she sold her makeup line in 2020, and was able to make time to focus on her music.
“I think in a perfect world, I would have released music much earlier and made that my focus, but I think everything happens in the way that it’s supposed to, and I’m just grateful to be able to tour now.”
’Family affair’
On the tour, which sees Kat joined by husband Raphael Reyes under his stage name of Prayers as support, Kat said: “I think it’s almost been a decade since I’ve been back, so I’m really excited.
“It’s nice to be able to travel with your partner. I homeschool my son, so he’ll be coming, you know, it’s a family affair. We will be on a tour bus together and playing together.
“Prayers has his own following, and he’s really great at what he does, so I think it being his first time in Europe is very exciting for him and his fans. So I think it’s gonna be awesome.”
For fans in the UK, it will be the first time they’ve been able to hear any of Kat’s music live and they will be treated to an energetic show.
‘It’ll be cool to be able to finally play it live’
“I push myself vocally in production,” she said. “It’s been exciting and a lot of fun to be able to play these songs live.
“I feel like they’re very energetic, and people like to sing along.
“We haven’t played this album yet in Europe, so it’ll be cool to be able to finally play it live.”
Kat also gave us an insight into how she prepares for shows, saying: “I’m getting ready to play a festival on Saturday (Boardwalk Rock Festival), so my workout regimen is doing my vocals while I work out, because I try to sing my whole set while I’m active, to prepare for a stage performance.”
There is new music coming, with Kat saying it’s set to be released in July. She also has a tour in the States with In This Moment, and has further plans to keep busy by creating a homestead.
“We really want to start our homestead out here. So we want to have a little farm, and that’s going to probably start taking up a lot of our time. We’ll have goats, goats, chickens and ducks to start with, and then we’ll take it from there.”
She paid homage to her past experiences and how they’ve helped her to bring out the best production-wise in her music career: “I learned so much from filming TV for so long, and now I’m able to write and direct music videos and really storytell through everything, not just the music.
As Kat Von D prepares for the tour, she added: “I’m really, really excited for this tour!”
When we interview artists, we like to break the monotony with a little game. We asked Kat to pick a number from one to 10, with each number corresponding to a random question.
You have 24 hours left on Earth, how would you spend it?
You mean if I only had 24 hours left to live? I would probably just spend it at home with my family. I’m a pretty simple person. I love kid family, I love my cats. I love to stay at home.
You could have written any one song in history. What would it have been?
A Letter to Elise by The Cure.
Take us through a typical day in the life of Kat Von D
I wake up, I make breakfast for the family and then I homeschool my son for the first two hours and then I work out.
Then I take meetings, and then the usual stuff like lunch and dinner and all that.
On certain days I go to church and hang out at the house.
Kat Von D will be in the UK and Ireland on tour this June with support from Prayers.
Dates:
June 2025
17 – London, Scala
19 – Southampton, Engine Rooms
20 – Manchester, Academy 2
21 – Dublin, Academy