20/12/2024
In 2004, I went to IGUN at Uptown as soon as I turned 18. I couldn't wait to hear the music I had already been drinking in outside of the club, and I could finally officially be part of the scene. That was the first time I met Kat Paled.
I remember being intimidated but awed by her entire presence. Her sets left such an impact on me immediately, and so many songs I hadn't yet known not only became favorites, but became forever associated with her. She just elevated everything around her.
Only a few years later, I became a DJ myself, with her certainly as a huge inspiration. To this day, one of my happiest moments as a DJ was playing a song that I had first heard her play, now while she was among the clientele, and having her compliment it (for those curious it was Pigface's Mind Your Own Business, of course).
Over the years, she was always the pinnacle of what it was to be, not just a DJ, but a lover and promoter of music, a person who brings others together, a talent, and a tent-pole of goth industrial in the United States.
I feel so glad to have had the chance to know her a little, though of course it will always seem far too little. It is hard, very very hard, to imagine things without her. It may never make sense. To all friends and family, my deepest sympathies, and know what she made a lasting and irrefutably positive impact on so many, myself included.
I, and we, would not have been the same without her.
However far away, we will always love you.
