Katie Schecter Discovered A '60s Artist Her Music Friends Haven't Even Heard Of

There’s been much discourse around showgirls (and even more high-kicking imitators teetering down the streets this Halloween), but Katie Schecter says she thinks of herself as a “Swinging Sixties pop” devotee. The artist has the Bardot fringe to show for it — which she fluffs from time to time when she calls ShelfMAG from her Nashville home — and a vintage-y new album titled Empress, produced by her husband, Cage The Elephant guitarist Nick Bockrath.

A sense of the handmade and time-worn comes through on the record, as it does on Schecter’s André 3000- and Beatles-referencing Shelf. Below, see the obscure track she says everyone in the world should know, a “gem” of a release that’s also an Empress crossover event, and the paradigm-shifting podcast featuring her dream collaborator (if you’re reading this, Mr. 3000…).

McCartney 3, 2, 1

“When that came out, it felt like a gift directly to me because I’ve always wanted to hear certain Beatles tracks isolated. Paul McCartney is just the coolest person on the planet, and he was talking about those songs as though he’s still an up-and-coming artist. But to think about these guys recording and all the intricacies and how even going about an edit could blow the entire project is so magical to me. I'm an analog girl, so I'm just like, ‘Wow.’”

Broken Record

“Full disclosure: I'm not a big podcast girly. I feel like my life is a podcast. But my husband is the one who put that on, and we ended up listening to the entire thing. And I specified the André 3000 episode because I thought the interview was so honest. I like when artists tell you why they do what they do. OutKast — they were on top of the freaking world, and they could have kept pushing. And he was like, ‘But I wasn't there anymore. It felt phony.’ And to then come out with a flute record, I'm like, ‘This guy just follows his creative heart,’ and I found that really inspiring.

My Home Is Not in This World by Natalie Bergman

“This is a dear friend of mine, and she is a wonderful, wonderful artist. This recent record is incredible, and there are a lot of crossover musicians [on Empress], which is cool to hear them in a different light. She made a song for her son called ‘Song for Arthur’ that is absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. But I’m a Swinging Sixties pop girly, so I love the song ‘Gunslinger.’ It's got a little nod to Link Wray’s ‘Fire and Brimstone.’ The chorus is great, and you're just hooked the second you turn it on.”

“Can’t Stop the Want” by Sandy Sarjeant

“I have a deep obsession with finding amazing recordings. My husband is a very avid vinyl collector, and he found me the 45 for this song, but I found that track. I was listening to a compilation that led me to something that then led me to finding this tune that somehow no one's heard of, even all my music friends who know everything. The second I pressed play, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is the best song ever.’ And I went to YouTube, where there's a video of her performing it live. She had an Edie Sedgwick tragicness about her — that's the vibe I get. But this song is, out the gate, an earworm. And it's just like, how does everyone in the world not know this song?”

The Shieldbreaker Saga by Thomas Clark Schecter

“My big brother wrote a book. He’s always been a great writer and a great musician. I grew up with him blasting Stone Temple Pilots and Alice In Chains in the next room, so we could always hear what each other was working on. And when I finally wanted to start making music, he was like, ‘Let me get you set up.’ He was a really good big brother in that way. And I just never know what he's going to come out with next. Out of the blue, he was like, ‘I'm thinking about writing a book.’ And then it was like, voilà. It's a thriller — and it's violent. If you complain about nowadays being violent, you should go back — the year 12 sounds like shit was really crazy.”

Empress

“I feel really proud of this record because I got a lot of, ‘Oh, now that you're a mom, are you still going to do music?’ So this record is for all those cats. And, yeah, I'm still going to do music — I didn't get a lobotomy.

When we went to New York to record the bulk of the songs live-to-tape at the Diamond Mine, I had my daughter in my belly. I was just waddling about, and we made that whole record in less than a week. And then, when we were back in Nashville, my husband was doing overdubs. When it got to the very end of that process, I had the idea to put a video of me when I first heard my daughter's heartbeat in one of the tracks. Ultimately, I felt like the final track of the album was the perfect spot for that, and my husband perfectly laid it into the intro. So it's sort of like the journey of recording: I was cooking her, and then she came to life, and I came to life, and the record closes. And that’s when my new existence began, in a strange way. So it feels like a full-circle moment.”

What else is Katie Schecter into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/katieschecter.