Katy & the Null Sets shares music video for "Chlorine" from new album
VIDEO: "Chlorine" -
YouTube
“Dropping an alt-rock distortion bomb in the middle of a tasteful bossa nova tune is a great idea. It belongs to Katy & the Null Sets...trust me, you want to catch up on these songs” -Stereogum
“a quiet gem….emotionally resonant without overstating its case…a compelling moment of honest songwriting...radiates wistful nostalgia” -Audiofuzz
“...feels like the very end of summer, when you start reminiscing about the season and longing for a little more time to fit everything in….a fun, lilting track with oddly twanging guitar that is instantly infectious….sounds like a collaboration between Feist and Faye Webster" -If It’s Too Loud
Some words from Katy on the new video:
"It was shot somewhere on the Oregon coast (I don't remember where!) in April 2024. Eli Staats is the director/editor/mastermind, I met them online on Lex (the queer community app) and we decided to make the video. They had been sitting on the concept of someone covering themselves in beach flotsam for a while--we decided this song would be a good fit for the idea! We went to the Goodwill bins to find all the little pieces of ephemera to place along the beach. Oliver King helped out with the shoot as well (who also worked on the "F*** me!" video)"
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Troublemaker is the debut LP from Katy & the Null Sets, the wittily named solo project of Foamboy's Katy Ohsiek. The album melds vulnerable, biting lyricism with melodies that genre-hop from bossa nova, aughts indie rock and modern Americana. Its title gestures to the crux of the album's themes: we're never sure if bandleader Katy Ohsiek is the Troublemaker… or just ruminating on one.
The Portland-based Ohsiek grew up in a musical household in Monterey, CA and dove into all musical gateways from a young age; choir, school band, piano, musical theater, etc., “I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 16, prompted by wanting to impress a crush who was a songwriter.”
Influenced by the indie ethos of the 2010s (Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird, Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear, Feist) songwriting became, “the gift that keeps on giving… it's how I process my emotions and what's going on in my life.” Ohsiek confirms “I love writing lyrics mainly for the emotional catharsis.” This honest approach creates an album seasoned with angst, sweetness and self preservation in equal measure and via unexpected arcs.
Recorded in Portland between late 2023 and summer 2024 at producer Yu Kiatvongcharoen's home studio, the album features a cast of standout Northwest musicians: Keenan Dorn, Chang Park and Greyfaen Eastland who all play in the disco-tinged band, foamboy that Ohsiek co-fronts, in addition to Miguel Hernandez and Jill Sullivan.
Anchored by Ohsiek’s lilting vocals, the first single, “I Wish I Had Met You In The Summer” is a longing, upbeat reflection on a romance that may have had a chance in the sun versus the actuality of a cold winter attempt. “Granite skin and too many coats” and “an awkward Christmas gift, you spent too much money on.” Follow-up track, “Fuck Me” with its 90s alt rock stylings, plaintively asks, “do you give a fuck?” in an antithesis to apathy but also, at times, apathetic in tone itself.
Regarding album standout, “Last Time/Next Time” Ohsiek notes “I guess I was trying to evoke the feeling of putting on a calm face, but being on the cusp of freaking out.” Ohsiek recalls explaining “the bombastic, aggressive, fuzzed-out guitar bridge that totally doesn’t match the elevator music vibe.“ The album is balanced by cutting vulnerability such as the remembrance of “houses I was naked in” on "Shouldn't I Be Done” and Portland winter’s influence on the title track, "Troublemaker“ of which Ohsiek opines “...when it gets dark around 4:30pm and winter brings on a familiar grief, both an animalistic longing for the sun and an emotional pull for a long-dead relationship.”
TOUR DATES:
11/29 Portland, OR @ Mother Foucaults [tickets]
Katy & the Null Sets
Troublemaker
(Self-released)
Street Date: Oct. 24, 2025
Purchase it HERE
Track List:
F*** me!
Last Time / Next Time
Twin
Hhh
Chlorine
I Wish I Had Met You In The Summer
Pool
Troublemaker
Shouldn't I Be Done
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