MAKING GENTLE WAVES WITH KATRINA

Artists like to think of themselves as unpretentious and down-to-earth. Nearly all insist they are. Most, though, are not. But when Katrina Leskanich, lead singer/guitarist of Katrina & the Waves, made a declaration of unpretentiousness, it rang true.

Pointing in the direction of the bathroom of her Universal City hotel room, she asked: “Do you know what I was doing before you came? I was washing out my socks in the bathtub. They’re still in there if you want to check.”

I took her word for it.

“Over there is my lone beer,” she continued, pointing to the bottle on the table. “No champagne and caviar, just beer. I’m so down-to-earth that it’s disgusting. . . . I leave the flash to all the other people in this business.”

At least the lanky, high-strung Leskanich seemed self-assured. “Not really,” she responded modestly. “But I am better than I used to be. Last year I started out as a real quiet person. But with all the attention we started to get last year, I was forced to be more outgoing and more confident.”

Her group made a big splash last year with its debut album on Capitol Records, “Katrina & the Waves.” Fans were attracted by the first single from the album, the exhilarating “Walking on Sunshine,” which radiated considerable intensity. This Top 10 single, which built to gospel-like fervor, was one of last year’s best.

Her robust, far-ranging voice sounds black at times. Her influences explain that. Four years ago, after being turned on to veteran R&B; singer Etta James, Leskanich went on a steady soul diet, gorging herself on Aretha Franklin, Junior Walker and Sam & Dave.

“For a long time I didn’t listen to anything that wasn’t black,” she recalled. “Everything else seemed so tame. Before I got into black music, I was into the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. After I got into black music, I melted down my Ronstadt records.”

Leskanich is still a bit leery of the group’s success. Based on one album, she doesn’t think she and the Waves--songwriter/guitarist Kimberly Rew, bassist Vince De La Cruz and drummer Alex Cooper--have it made.

“Not too long ago we were working ratty clubs in London for no money,” she said. “No one cared about our music. It seemed like we might get a record deal by the time I was 40 (she’s almost 26 now). I can’t forget that. This is still a transition period. I don’t want to get too caught up in this glitter. I’m not sure how long we’ll be around. If our second album fails we could be done for. And it could fail.”

Her raging pessimism seemed unwarranted. The new album, “Waves,” isn’t likely to fail. That first album, which has sold nearly 500,000 copies, was an up-tempo pop gem. The new one--offering more sunny, slick, rousing, soul-rooted pop--is nearly as good. Leskanich, who had no compositions on the first album, has five on this one, outdoing Kimberly Rew, who’s supposedly the band’s chief songwriter.

Relentlessly candid as usual, she had some criticisms of the first album: “There’s a terrible song on the album--’The Sun Won’t Shine.’ I don’t like the vocals, the performing or anything. The record company wanted it on the album.”

Also, she rapped “Machine Gun Smith,”another cut on the first album: “It says the same thing over and over. Our new songs are lyrically more adventurous. I love ‘Machine Gun’ but it’s limited.”

Leskanich was on a roll. She threw in a dig at “Is That It?,” the first single from the new album. “OK,” she acknowledged. “It is repetitious--’Is that it, is that it, is that it?’--over and over and over. It does sound good, but it’s no great, complex song.”

Before she was a serious musician, she was a serious athlete. “I was a good basketball player,” recalled Leskanich, who still moves with athletic grace. “I was the most valuable player on my team in my sophomore year in Holland. I was on the softball team and the track team too.”

Now she mostly swims and plays occasional squash. “I’ve been thinking about lifting weights too,” she said. “But I’ve got big muscles.” Rolling up her sleeve, she crooked her arm and her biceps sprang to life. It was impressive.

Leskanich used to be a tomboy, which curtailed her social life. “I never had any boyfriends when I was in school,” she admitted. “I couldn’t be bothered with dances and proms and and stuff like that. You had to wear uncomfortable dresses and I didn’t like that. Social functions like that just didn’t interest me.”

She still doesn’t do much hanging out, particularly with her musician friends: “I’m not into wild parties and the wild life. On the road, when the show’s over, I usually go back to the hotel and read.”

“The male musicians are always into finding themselves a girl. I don’t want to hang out with them because people might think I’m some available girl. Maybe I’d like to be with somebody sometimes. But it’s too risky. When I’m in the hotel room playing it safe, I can’t get into any trouble. At least I feel good the next day.”

The last thing Leskanich’s parents wanted her to be was a rock singer. They had loftier plans for her. “They wanted me to go to Kansas University and be a veterinarian,” she recalled.

Her father was an Air Force colonel who frequently shifted bases. A Kansas native, she lived in America until she was 10. Europe has been her home since then.

Singing became her passion in her teens. During her last two years in high school, Leskanich was in a rock band. A rock ‘n’ roll career is all that interested her.

“When I told my parents, they got angry and kicked me out of the house,” she explained.

“It’s hard for any father to see his 16-year-old daughter join a rock band. It was particularly hard for my father. He’s a strict disciplinarian. To him, being in a rock band was crude.”

Leskanich, bassist De La Cruz, drummer Cooper and guitarist Rew first worked together in England in 1981, starting out on military bases and then graduating to clubs.

Rew’s status as a former member of the acclaimed Soft Boys led to a deal with a Canadian label. They recorded two albums, one of them featuring “Going Down to Liverpool,” which was recorded by the Bangles and generated interest in Katrina & the Waves. Capitol Records signed the band at the end of 1984.

For Leskanich, one of the bonuses of success has been that she’s made peace with her parents. “When the band started to make it, things changed between me and them,” she said. “They saw I wasn’t fooling around, that I wasn’t flaky.

“I never got any encouragement from my parents before. If I hadn’t had some success, things probably would still be bad between us. But that’s OK. I’m not going to complain. Things are good between us. I’m just going to enjoy it. I know things could be a lot worse.”