Kaia Kater’s music consists of dialogues with historical figures and meditations on her own modern life. A young songwriter, banjo player and bandleader, Kater has three successful albums and an NPR Tiny Desk to her name. Despite that, she felt the pressure and struggled with the expectations of her genre, americana. Kater first went to film school to learn composition, then dove deeper into her songwriting to come up with her most personal album to date. “In my songwriting, I took into account other people’s perceptions,” she says. “Would I write more honestly if I knew no one would ever hear this?” With that in mind, Kater retreated to her Montreal apartment.

It was a long road from the bedroom recordings on guitar and banjo from which these songs emerged, but with such enveloping arrangements, Kater’s songs on Strange Medicine sound with a personal truth. In 2020, Kaia participated in the Slaight Music Residency at the Canadian Film Center, where she wrote original music for The Porter (BET+ 2022), for which she won a Canadian Screen Award. She also wrote and performed music for the new film, My Dead Friend Zoe (March 2024).