TakeRoot presents: Kaia Kater

Kaia Kater's music is dialogues with historical figures and meditations on her own modern life. Kater first went to film school to learn composition, then delved deeper into her songwriting to come up with her most personal album to date. Kater felt the pressure as a talented young songwriter, banjo player and bandleader with three successful albums and an NPR Tiny Desk concert under her belt, but struggled with the expectations of her genre, Americana. “I took other people's perceptions into account in my songwriting,” she says. “Would I write more honestly if I knew no one would ever hear this?” With that in mind, Kater retreated to her Montreal apartment. It was a long way from the bedroom recordings on guitar and banjo that spawned these songs, but with such enveloping arrangements, Kater's songs resonate. on Strange Medicine with a Personal Truth. In 2020, Kaia participated in the Slaight Music Residency at the Canadian Film Center, which led her to write original music for The Porter (BET+ 2022), for which she also wrote and performed music for the new film, My Dead Friend Zoe (March 2024).