Katy Elizabeth Steele (born 9 September 1983) is an Australian singer, guitarist and songwriter of the four-piece rock band,

Little Birdy Little Birdy were an Australian alternative rock band formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 2002 by singer and guitarist Katy Steele, drummer Matt Chequer, guitarist and keyboardist Simon Leach, and bass guitarist Scott O'Donoghue. They gaine ...

Biography

Steele was born Kate Elizabeth Steele and has a

fraternal twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

brother, Jake. She and her brother are the youngest in the family. Her father, Rick Steele, is an accomplished blues musician who still performs today, together with Katy's oldest brother Jesse on drums, in his band, Rick Steele & The Hot Biscuit Band. Her other older brother

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...

, is the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of alternative rock band

The Sleepy Jackson The Sleepy Jackson are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Perth, Western Australia. The band's name was inspired by a former drummer who was narcoleptic. The band revolves around the distinctive vocal style of multi-instrumentalist ...

and also a member of the

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

duo,

Empire of the Sun ''Empire of the Sun'' is a 1984 novel by English writer J. G. Ballard; it was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story "The Dead Time" (published in the anthology '' ...

. Jake performs on keyboards with his own band, Injured Ninja. Steele grew up in the southern suburb of Jandakot and went to

Mount Lawley Senior High School Mount Lawley Senior High School is a public co-educational high day school in the City of Stirling, located in Mount Lawley, a northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The school consists of three separate sub-schools: Middle School for Yea ...

. She first started playing in Perth electro-pop band, The Plastik Scene, in 2001.

Little Birdy (2002–2009)

In 2002, Steele left the band and joined Simon Leach forming

. Steele won the inaugural

Jessica Michalik Jessica Anna Michalik (7 January 1985 – 31 January 2001) was an Australian girl from Sydney, born to Polish immigrants, who died as a result of asphyxiation five days after being crushed in a mosh pit during the 2001 Big Day Out music festival ...

Contemporary Music Award, presented by

The Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

on 8 March 2004. In 2004, she was also awarded the Contemporary Music Prize by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA). At the 2005

West Australian Music Industry Awards The Western Australian Music Industry Awards (commonly known as WAMis) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM). The WAMi Awards are Western Aust ...

Steele won the WAMi for 'Best Female Vocalist'. She also recorded a version of the classic, "Six Months In a Leaky Boat", on the compilation album, ''

She Will Have Her Way ''She Will Have Her Way'' is a compilation album featuring female Australian and New Zealand musicians performing songs written by Neil Finn and Tim Finn ( The Finn Brothers), members of Split Enz and Crowded House. A follow up album, '' He W ...

'', a collection of

Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ...

and

Tim Finn Brian Timothy Finn (born 25 June 1952) is a New Zealand singer and musician. His musical career includes forming 1970s and 1980s New Zealand rock group Split Enz, a number of solo albums, temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowde ...

songs performed by female

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

musicians. The song reached number 96 on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2005 In 2007, Steele won best female performer in the Australian live music awards. Katy has attracted comparisons to

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

and

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined loca ...

. Also in 2007, Steele was invited by Paul Kelly to open for him on his 2007 'Stolen Apples' tour. Faced with a long run of solo shows, Steele set about writing new material. The material was then adapted and forms the basis of Little Birdy's new album, ''

Confetti Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''con ...

''. In 2008, Steele relocated to Brunswick, with the other band members also moving to Melbourne. In early 2010 Steele announced on

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

radio that she would be moving to New York and the band announced that they would be taking some time out to pursue other individual ventures.

Solo career (2010–present)

Steele moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in March 2010 for a change of scenery, and to start work on her new solo project.

"I’ve always loved the idea of NYC. The largeness, the intensity, the struggle. A lot of my idols have either come from New York or moved there at some point, so it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. There has never really been a chance in my life before now to have a break, or to pursue other directions."

In May 2010, Steele returned home for a whirlwind sold-out tour to the major capital cities. She showcased her new material, along with some old classics, and stirred the audience with insights into her new life, and love, in New York. In July 2010, Steele was back in Australia supporting

Richard Ashcroft Richard Paul Ashcroft (born 11 September 1971) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their original split in 1999. So ...

(

The Verve The Verve were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones (musician), Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Simo ...

) on the Australian leg of his tour, and upon her return to New York, she announced her appointment as the Music Ambassador for the Williamsburg International Film Festival (Willifest 2010), for which a video for her song "Sorrow" was recorded. Steele collaborated with her brother, Luke on "Good Things" as part of a

Maurice Frawley Maurice Gerard Frawley (5 May 1954 – 16 May 2009) was an Australian rock and country blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Biography Maurice Gerard Frawley was born on 5 May 1954, the son of Gerard Patrick and Eileen Marie Frawley, he grew u ...

tribute album. In late November 2011, Steele featured in a new release singing harmonies with

Josh Pyke Joshua Jon Pyke (born 18 December 1977) is an Australian singer-songwriter, producer, musician and children's book author. Biography Josh Pyke is a prolific songwriter, with a successful and critically acclaimed career both domestically and ove ...

on the song, "Punch in the Heart". The video for the song sees both singers in a split-screen view performing twin one-take recordings singing to the camera. On 13 March 2013, Steele's first single, "Fire Me Up" premiered on the

radio program Home & Hosed. "Fire Me Up" was also available through

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

, where the track could be downloaded for free. Steele released her debut studio album ''Human'' in 2016. On 29 September 2022, Steele released her first single since 2013, titled "Feel So Bad".

Discography

Studio albums

Awards and nominations

West Australian Music Industry Awards

The

(WAMIs) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on annually by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM). Katy Steele won three awards.2005 West Australian Music Industry Award Winners
(wins only) , - , 2003 , Katy Steele , Most Popular Local Original Female Vocalist , , - , 2005 , Katy Steele , Best Female Vocalist , , - , 2006 , Katy Steele , Best Female Vocalist , , -

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Katy Living people 1983 births Australian songwriters Musicians from Perth, Western Australia Australian people of Māori descent Australian people of Russian descent Australian multi-instrumentalists People educated at Mount Lawley Senior High School 21st-century Australian singers 21st-century Australian women singers