It’s all go go go in the world of Canadian-born singer-songwriter Cate. She recently completed a nationwide UK tour with bestie Maisie Peters and is already ready to headline another one of her own. In October, she will tour up and down the country and will perform her biggest London show to date at Islington’s Assembly Hall.
In between singing to sold-out crowds, Cate, known for her storytelling, has also been busy following up the release of her second EP, Tell Me Things You Won’t Take Back, with a handful of standalone singles. Her latest offering, the fun and disco-infused “U Want Me,” is an evolution among her confessional pop tunes and a testament to how diverse she can be.
In a new interview with EUPHORIA., we find out more about her time on the Maisie Peters tour, Cate’s creative process, and her love for country music.
Photo: pressYou recently got off tour with Maisie Peters. How was that experience for you?
Oh, that was great. I loved it. It was really nice. We kept saying it felt like middle school camp the way it was laid out because we were all in bunk beds [laughs]. It was really cute.
It was quite a large tour. What was it like performing nearly every night?
Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. I loved it. I think the way they tour is so like wholesome and nice and very sustainable. Me and Maisie live together, but I’ve never like seen the insides of her touring life and they have really figured out how to do it and not be exhausted. It was just so great. And the shows were so nice, like the fans were so cool.
It must have been really comforting going on tour with an artist you already know as opposed to the opposite.
Yeah, totally. I think I was very spoiled on that tour. I have a really warped expectation of what going on a support tour will be like now [laughs].
Were there any standout cities or crowds?
Ooh, I loved the Leicester Show. We did Oxford and that was really cool. The London one, I’ll just never forget it because it was Hammersmith Apollo and that is just the coolest thing ever. But I loved all of them. When me and my band got off the tour, we were trying to figure out what our favorite city was and I was like, “It’s pretty good that none of them were bad.” I feel like we were pretty lucky that every crowd was really cool.
You’ve been spending a lot of time in the UK recently. Do you think the UK music scene has impacted your artistry at all?
Yeah, I think so. I was here during covid when I was making my first EP. It definitely impacted the way I was writing music and what I was seeing and doing. Now that I’m able to tour, it’s definitely impacted the way I think about the music industry and my music and everything. I love it here and there are so many great artists here. I’ve worked with a lot of Brits.
You were born in Canada but decided to relocate to the UK. Was there a particular reason why you chose the UK?
It was really expensive to get an American visa and I didn’t know this, but Canadians have a really easy time getting a Visa in the UK, so I was like, I’ll just try it. It’s the same thing with British people and going to Canada and stuff, we’re all under the Commonwealth. I was thinking I’d be here for around six months and I’ve been here for three years now. COVID just sucked a big part of the first two years of me living here and that’s why when my visa ended I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna have to get another one,” because I just felt like I wasn’t done here. But yeah, I go home a lot and I’ve been traveling around Canada to write, which has been nice.
I guess if people were to describe your sound, they might refer to you as a singer-songwriter making pop music. If we were to delve into a lot of your influences, a whole bunch of country artists would come up. Where does your love for that genre come from and when did you discover a love for country?
Oh my god, I think a lot of Canadians grew up on country music. I grew up on Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash and I was just so sucked into the storytelling part of it. I think that’s my favorite part about country music, which is really important to me. I find that if I don’t have a clear story of what I wanna tell that day of writing, I can’t write a song. I feel like when I was younger, I was around so much country music that when I was 13 I was like, “Oh, screw country music. It’s not cool!” But now I’m so back to it and it’s just amazing.
Last month, you released your latest single “U Want Me.” That song showcased a more disco side to your artistry. What influenced you to go down that route?
I was just listening to a lot more current pop music and I was listening to a lot of Dua Lipa. Me and my friend Nav went in with this producer Josh and he does a lot more dance music. I feel like that’s kind of where it opened that song up. We did it for fun and I didn’t really think it was gonna come out, but I’m glad it did and it went really disco-like afterwards. I worked with this producer Karl-Frederik and he’s quite disco and he put live strings on it. It’s really fun.
Your latest three offerings have all been very different but hear you turning it up a notch. They’re all quite poppy. Is that the direction you’re heading in with the music that is on its way?
I think I’m gonna go a bit more country pop in the next year, which is exciting, but I had my pop girl little trial. I feel like I need a balance of country pop songs and then straight-up pop. I feel like there’ll always be a mix of that in my music. Yeah. But I think for the fall I’m gonna write some sad country pop songs [laughs].
I feel like your projects have always had that mix anyway, so your fans expect that.
Yeah, totally. I feel that’s what’s so nice, especially in how releasing music is now. I’m not putting out an album yet, so it’s nice to be able to just drop a few singles and see what picks up. But when I make an album, it’ll definitely a bit be a bit more intentional but I still think even when I make an album, it’ll be kind of a mix of both though.
Do you think there will be another project before the album or are you just focusing on singles for now?
I’m just releasing singles this year, which will be really fun. And then I’m gonna write an album. That’s my plan in my head.
I think I saw in a recent interview that you did that you are going to Nashville this month to write more music.
Yeah. I’m really excited. I love Nashville.
Have you written/recorded there before?
I went there in June for the first time and it was amazing. I fell in love with it. I’m really excited to go back. I literally went there for five days and had like the best sessions. I was like, I need to go back.
What is your creative process like? Are you someone who records melodies in your voice notes app when you’re not in the studio?
I think it depends on the day or if I know the person well. If I’m writing with a new person, I try and have something prepared. Just because if we just hit a wall about what to write about, I’ll always have something, but I love just going in and chatting and then figuring it out. I do have a lot of voice notes though. I was looking at it the other day, it’s like 20,000 or something. If that app crashed, I’d be done [laughs].
Oh, wow. Do you name them all?
No, that’s how I found out because I haven’t been naming them recently, which is so bad. Or I’ll name like the first one of an idea and then I’ll leave like the next five.
That’s a body of work in itself.
Genuinely. I mean, nobody wants that body of work [laughs], but it is a lot of voice notes though.
And lastly, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
I did my first headline last November, so I’m kind of doing a similar tour but a bit bigger this year in October, which will be really fun. I’m doing more dates and I’m gonna perform in Ireland for the first time. I still haven’t toured outside of the UK, really. So I’m really excited to start doing that. I wanted to have more fun with music this year because I feel like the last EP I put out, I love the EP so much, but it was a lot of songs I wrote like three years ago, so it felt like that project was really old to me by the time it came out. So this one I just want to write songs and have them come out the year I wrote them and experiment and feel like I’m still really connected and attached to the songs that are coming out.
