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Kat and Burn Album Release in Los Angeles |
Common Language
the new album by Katja Rieckermann (Rod Stewart, Lady Gaga, David Foster,
Nile Rodgers) and Bernie Penzias, a multi-instrumentalist, known for
weaving his magic in the recording studio and both a producer and
engineer, is an upbeat, energetic collection of songs. Backed by stellar
musicians, this record has been submitted for Grammy consideration and
if you are a voting member of the Academy it deserves your vote.
We have known Katja for a long time now and full disclosure, consider
her a friend and as for
Bernie, following our recent conversation, he does not have a choice,
his laughter, smile and warm nature are contagious.
So, we did not recall hearing or seeing them travel in the same music
circles in past years, so we wondered what led to this collaboration.
Bernie explains, “We had known each other for half a year, not much
longer than that. We had seen each other at parties or events. The
consulate general for Austria was hosting something and I knew Katja was
a musician, so I introduced
myself. I have never done a saxophone album, when the main instrument is
a saxophone. I figured why
don’t we give it a try and it took us another few months to get together
in the same room, which is my studio that you see behind me. I usually
(am a producer and engineer). We had our first meeting and we were
sitting in a room saying what are we going to do now? I had some idea,
but it didn’t really materialize that much.”
Katja
interjects, “That’s not true. If I may interrupt you, the very first
song that we worked on for the very first session was “Kruisin Kats.”
Bernie continues, “I was going to get to that. My idea was
to get to something in the vein of Khruangbin, if that rings a
bell. It is a Texas band, a trio, drums, bass and guitar (Laura Lee
Ochoa, Mark Speer, Donald “DJ” Johnson). They played groovy music that
goes on for a long time. They are pretty famous and instrumental for the
most part. I was going to have groovy music with simple arrangements.
Katja suggested a song by Dave Stewart and Candy Dulfer “Lily Was Here.”
Katja played on Dave
Stewart’s album The Dave Stewart Songbook,
Volume 1. It is an interaction between the saxophone and the
guitar, (a conversation between the two instruments). It got the whole
thing started a little bit.” Kruisin Kats,” was the outcome of that
first idea. It is simple arrangements with simple chords and then the
guitar. The only difference is in the main melody we are not doing main
melody and then the saxophone, we are doing it together. We did not want
to do a copy of it or anything and I don’t think it sounds like it at
all.”
Katja Rickermann plays, alto, baritone and tenor saxophone on the album
and as she says, “and for most of the songs I play all three, with one
of them as the lead instrument and then I added the trumpet and
trombone.”
Teasing she adds, “Bernie, I love when you say that the saxophone used
to be your second least favorite instrument until you met me (they burst
out laughing). I am very glad I changed your mind about that.”
Bernie responds with, “They always sounded like a crying baby to me,
especially the altos.”
Coming in at 4:03 in length, there are no crying babies on the song
“Contigo.” It is introduced by both Bernie’s guitar and Katja’s
saxophone, as an in-your-face anthem, allowing Katja’s self-described
“Rocker Chic,” persona to emerge, before becoming more subdued
about halfway through the song for about a minute, before building to a
final crescendo.
Talking about the song “Contigo,” Katja says, “Where the guitar solo now
is, we had this Spanish singing or speaking, actually more rapping chic,
who was very fast and super cool. A couple of weeks ago, very close
before we were going to release this album I had a gig at a party, (at
this point we need to point out they were both laughing pretty hard)
a house party and the guy had his own playlist when I wasn’t playing. He
played a song that is like a dance track and it had the exact same
spliced vocals on there. He kept playing that song and I was (thinking)
why do I know those vocals?
Then I was oh my god, those are the vocals from “Contigo.” This was the
only word that I could understand, because her speaking was so fast.
Because contigo was the only word I could understand we named it (our
song) “Contigo.” I said to Bernie, dude we need to remove these vocals,
because I just heard another song. This is the exact same splice. This
is the only song when we used spliced vocals.
“Katja sent me a text of a video where this song was played. She said we
need to change this. I said okay (he is still laughing). I
quickly recorded my guitar solo,” he
says.
We must confess that it is much easier for us to ask about the
songwriting process when there are lyrics, but hey that is just us, but
we asked.
Bernie says, “I can bail you out actually. We don’t have lyrics, but we
have a melody and an arrangement. We were both involved in (those), but
mostly Kaja. She has an amazing sense for melody, which is one of the
things that intrigued me about her playing and her musicality. Every
song had a bit of an origin.
Sometimes Katja would just have a melody that she demoed at home and she
recorded. There is one song
that the original demo is the track that is on the record (“Rainy
Daze”).”
Katja picks up the conversation from
here, “Most of the melodies and chord progressions that I brought
were sad (editor’s comment they do not sound sad!). This was one
of those. It was a rainy day and I was sad. I was blue. That one I gave
you (Bernie) the melody and the chords. Bernie just built the rest
around all of that. He came up with the ending part, and the guitar
solo. He added that.” 
About that guitar solo, Bernie says laughingly,
“I was alone in my studio, so I had all the freedom that I
needed. There was nobody to stop me.”
Pondering what a first-time listener might think of “Rainy Daze,” Katja
says, “It is hard to say we have been working on these songs for so
long. We have heard them so many times it is hard to imagine what
somebody who listens to this for the first time what they will feel.”
“The song I think has something very uplifting when somebody listens to
it. It depends on who listens to it and what mood they are in. I think
you can have something that is uplifting and encouraging, especially
that chorus part sounds very positive to me,” Bernie offers up.
Katja agrees with him.
As for when they started collaborating on this collection of songs,
Katja recalls, “I think the first time we got together was in March
2025. That is when I went over to his studio for the first time and we
created the first track, “Collateral Defect,” together.
Then all through the year of 2025 we would bounce ideas back and
forth. I went to his studio, I want to say once a week, at least two to
three times a month. I was also gone for two months in Europe. We were
pretty well done writing the music, I want to say, by the end of the
year. By November we had all the tracks.
Then we started to slowly replay some of the programmed instruments,
because Bernie did all of the drum programming and played the bass.
Slowly, but surely, we had the programmed drums replaced by a real
drummer and we added to the horns that I already played. We added
percussion.”
As for the other musicians who contributed to the album, Common
Language, Bernie says “On drums we had Thomas Lang, who is also a
fellow Austrian. He is a very accomplished drummer and he is amazing. He
has a studio in Westlake Village in California, so I was able to go
there and record on his drumkit with his setup. It was very time saving.
He had everything laid out already, so we started recording. We were
done in about five hours, with ten songs. It is very fast. He was
well-prepared and like I said a really accomplished drummer.
Then I went home and an hour later I found out we forgot a song. I said
we need to record that song, but he said don’t worry about it, I will
send it to you. Within another forty minutes I had that song in my
Dropbox and I was able to use it. The song was “No Blue Day.” That was a
pretty quick process with the drums.
Then we had Ben White as the bass player on some of the songs. He is
also a genius on fretless bass, which I haven’t recorded in a long time
since the 1980s. I play bass on the other songs. One of the songs has a
synth bass if I remember correctly.
Then we had MB Gordy on percussion. He is a Grammy Award winner and an
amazing percussionist. We went to his studio in Tarzana.
He has this oversized guest house. If you throw the name of any
percussion instrument at him, he wanders off into another room and he
comes back with three versions of it (he laughs).
We had Roch Bordenave on trombone for the horn section and Anne King on
trumpet.
Everything else is me or is Katja.”
“You forgot me on vocals. I
am rapping on “Collateral Defect,” Katja teases him and then adds,
“Sekou Andrews, (did the spoken word) on “Rainy Daze,” and he did the
monologue without a saxophone or guitar being featured, because he is so
amazing.”
Bernie explains while laughing, “I made Katja rap. I thought it would be
fun to have a German accent with the rapping. It turned out great.”
As for favorite songs from the album that they might enjoy playing more
than others, they really do not have any, although Katja says, about
“Common Language,” “it is like four on the floor. It is fun and
everybody is into it.”
Bernie adds, “Contigo,” is a little more fun to play, because it is more
guitar driven and “Pulse Point,” as well.
(With “Pulse Point,”) “I was sitting around with my guitar and playing
that riff and developing it on my own. This is not really a saxophone
driven song, because the saxophone plays the guitar riff basically. I
think it would be good variety to have something like that on the album.
Kaja liked it.”
Katja says, “I came up with the chorus melody and the horns at the end.
Sometimes you think songs that are repetitive get boring, because the
riff is being repeated so many times. I think it is the opposite; people
get into it.”
As for what is next for these two, they are in the midst of promoting
their new album for Grammy Award consideration, as well as a second
album release on November 10 th at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles. The
first release was held in June of 2026, but the album was not yet ready
to hit the road. The venue has to be booked months in advance, so it was
a bit of a false start, but apparently a fun night for all.
Katja continues, “For the next couple of weeks we will be busy working
on the promo for the Grammy campaign and stuff. It doesn’t only involve
just getting the word out for our project, but it also involves
listening to other people’s projects. You want them to listen to yours,
so you better take the time to listen to theirs.”
You can listen to songs from Kat & Burn, Common Language
here.
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