Katy Steele, solo artist and lead singer of Perth band Little Birdy, has been busy preparing to tour for her latest album Undressed.
Undressed features stripped back versions of well-known Little Birdy songs including “Relapse” and “Beautiful to Me”; Steele’s solo songs “Rescue Boat” and “Signal to You”; one new song “Honest With Me”, and includes covers of “Because the Night” by Patti Smith, “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed, and “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths.
Steele is playing shows all over Australia in the coming weeks and, understandably, has been busy rehearsing and planning for the tour’s start. “I’ve just been doing last-minute packing and it’s all very hectic, mum-life and being a full-time musician. The kids stay and stick to their routine, which is good for them, they’re kind of used to me going away now. It’s almost like a fly-in, fly-out routine for the next few weeks,” Steele said.
To tie in with the stripped-back, raw feeling of Undressed, the shows on the upcoming tour will be played in a multi-instrumentalist duo format, which allows them to be shared in a minimal form. Steele says, “It’s great, I’m really excited for these shows, and I think they’re going to be quite emotive. They’re going to go in lots of different directions, and we’re using a lot of different instruments and sounds and stuff, they should be great shows.”
Steele notes that the full album title is Undressed – Volume One, meaning that she has ideas for future albums that follow the same style of stripping back her own songs, and some new covers. “There’s so many amazing songs in the world, so that’s why I’ve kept it open as a Volume One. There’s something less stressful about covering a song than covering my own songs, or releasing any new music. When you do a version or an interpretation, there is less pressure in a lot of ways, so I just embraced that.”
When asked about deciding which songs to include on Undressed, Steele said “I’ve always played “Rescue Boat” in my solo sets. Recently, I’ve started stripping it back and taking it right back just to the acoustic and the vocal and it’s just really responded well with audiences, so I’ve been using my gut to tell me what the best songs are for this.” Steele adds “I’ve done “Stay Wild” and I’ve really enjoyed experimenting with that. I play it on piano now, it’s always been known as a guitar song so it’s nice to just switch it up and change the dynamics of it. All the songs are from different periods of my career which I think is also pretty interesting.”
Steele said many other songs, from Little Birdy and her own solo work, could have been included on Undressed. “A song that I used to play a lot when I was playing solo was a song called “Somebody New” which was on the Little Birdy album Hollywood. In some ways, that song was overshadowed by the epic production and when I’ve played it solo in the past, it really does let itself lean into a really different song. I think that would be a really beautiful edition for the future.”
The re-recorded version of Little Birdy’s first single “Relapse”, which was released prior to the album, was done with stripped-back instrumentation in a slightly lower key than the original. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision to record it in a lower key, but Steele says “My voice has changed so much. I can still sing it in the other key, we still play it in that key with the band, but my lower register is so much stronger now, and there’s a lot more of a strength to my voice. I don’t think the lower register’s really been explored that much, so, there’s a couple of songs on this album, the other one’s called “Signal to You”, which showcases that lower register in the chorus. I think it’s really nice to explore the voice and that’s what this whole album’s about really!”
Little Birdy toured in 2025 for the 21st anniversary of their debut album BigBigLove. When asked how it was playing with the band again after a long break, Steele said “It was so good, they were huge shows, so it was just enjoyable. It was amazing to see that many people come out and support the tour. I think we were just really feeding off the audience and we’ve always had an amazing, loyal fan base. It’s been a long period of time, I don’t think that matters at all, I just really think that if music’s good, it’ll be around forever.”
As for what’s next, Steele is taking a break after the tour finishes but says “I want to start working on a solo record and then I’d love to get an Undressed Volume Two happening, and then I’d love to get some Little Birdy music happening. Whatever comes first I guess!”
Katy Steele’s album Undressed was released on 24 April and is available to listen to on streaming platforms. There’s also a limited edition signed vinyl available for purchase HERE.
The Undressed tour started in Hobart on 23 April, and tickets for the other dates are available HERE.
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