Biography
Hailing from Brooklyn, singer/songwriter Katie von Schleicher crafts songs that hook listeners immediately yet mirror the gloomier undercurrents running through her words. Her first major step forward capitalized on the built-in constraints of four-track cassette recorders, turning the devices’ characteristic compression and wavering pitch into assets that enhanced the bittersweet quality of her melodies and the inward focus of her material. She helmed her own critical breakthrough on the evocatively named 2017 album Shitty Hits, her third release, while 2020’s Consummation tested ways to pair her approach with brighter, more polished production values. On 2023’s wrier A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night she deliberately eased the lyrical mood and brought in strings and horns on selected tracks.
Born in Pasadena, Maryland, she first appeared with Silent Days in 2012, a concise, blues-tinged set recorded over three days at the all-analog Soul Shop studio in Medford, Massachusetts. Greater attention arrived with her second effort, shaped by time spent interning at Brooklyn’s Ba Da Bing Records. Label head Ben Goldberg proposed she assemble a cassette for the imprint, prompting her to deliver the fully self-produced and self-engineered mini-album Bleaksploitation in 2015. Crafted across roughly two years, the seven-track collection fused swirling, shadowy lo-fi pop with themes of paranoia, anxiety, and unrequited love. Its palette diverged sharply from the debut through slower tempos, fuzzy overdriven guitars, submerged drums, and von Schleicher’s reverb-drenched, melancholic vocals, drawing widespread praise for the raw emotional directness of the songwriting.
After Bleaksploitation’s reception, she began work on a follow-up. Two studio attempts—one involving an outside producer—led her to retreat to her parents’ Maryland home, where she again laid down basics on a four-track cassette before overdubbing at her Brooklyn residence. The resulting debut full-length, Shitty Hits, reached listeners in mid-2017 via Ba Da Bing Records and again earned strong critical notice. For her next album she pursued a broader scope, favoring clearer sonics and expanded electronic textures while retaining traces of her lo-fi origins; Consummation arrived in May 2020. During this period she also contributed keyboards to the Brooklyn band Wilder Maker.
With live performances halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, von Schleicher enrolled in creative-writing courses and began engineering and producing for other artists. After credits that included Cassandra Jenkins’ An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, she left her position at Ba Da Bing to focus on engineering full-time. She co-produced and engineered Frankie Cosmos’ Inner World Peace (2022) and co-engineered Son Lux’s Alternate Forms (2023) before returning to her own catalog. Co-produced with pandemic poker partner Sam Griffin Owens (aka Sam Evian), 2023’s A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night incorporated wry lyrics alongside strings and horns, captured with assistance from additional recordist Julian Fader and a circle of musical friends; the album marked her first release on the Sipsman label that October.
Born in Pasadena, Maryland, she first appeared with Silent Days in 2012, a concise, blues-tinged set recorded over three days at the all-analog Soul Shop studio in Medford, Massachusetts. Greater attention arrived with her second effort, shaped by time spent interning at Brooklyn’s Ba Da Bing Records. Label head Ben Goldberg proposed she assemble a cassette for the imprint, prompting her to deliver the fully self-produced and self-engineered mini-album Bleaksploitation in 2015. Crafted across roughly two years, the seven-track collection fused swirling, shadowy lo-fi pop with themes of paranoia, anxiety, and unrequited love. Its palette diverged sharply from the debut through slower tempos, fuzzy overdriven guitars, submerged drums, and von Schleicher’s reverb-drenched, melancholic vocals, drawing widespread praise for the raw emotional directness of the songwriting.
After Bleaksploitation’s reception, she began work on a follow-up. Two studio attempts—one involving an outside producer—led her to retreat to her parents’ Maryland home, where she again laid down basics on a four-track cassette before overdubbing at her Brooklyn residence. The resulting debut full-length, Shitty Hits, reached listeners in mid-2017 via Ba Da Bing Records and again earned strong critical notice. For her next album she pursued a broader scope, favoring clearer sonics and expanded electronic textures while retaining traces of her lo-fi origins; Consummation arrived in May 2020. During this period she also contributed keyboards to the Brooklyn band Wilder Maker.
With live performances halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, von Schleicher enrolled in creative-writing courses and began engineering and producing for other artists. After credits that included Cassandra Jenkins’ An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, she left her position at Ba Da Bing to focus on engineering full-time. She co-produced and engineered Frankie Cosmos’ Inner World Peace (2022) and co-engineered Son Lux’s Alternate Forms (2023) before returning to her own catalog. Co-produced with pandemic poker partner Sam Griffin Owens (aka Sam Evian), 2023’s A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night incorporated wry lyrics alongside strings and horns, captured with assistance from additional recordist Julian Fader and a circle of musical friends; the album marked her first release on the Sipsman label that October.
Albums
Singles
