Hot on the heels alt-pop music Star Cate reveals latest single ‘All Talk‘ from her upcoming debut EP ‘Love, The Madness’
Cate’s previous hometown of Vancouver and her new base in Camden, ‘Love, The Madness’ snapshots in real time the emotional turbulence of transitioning out of teenage-hood with a relatability that is both raw and uplifting.
‘Love, The Madness’ EP is the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Sad Song’, a track Cate quietly uploaded onto Spotify with no expectations – it went on to generate her over a quarter of a million plays and score prominent play-listing spots.
Cate says about ‘All Talk‘: “I wrote this song in a dream strangely! I woke up at 3am and voice-noted the chorus, then in the morning finished it with my roommates. I think that speaks to what this song means in some way. ‘All Talk’ is about wanting to be bold, and wanting to tell someone just how much they affected you but you can’t because it’s not in your nature. Especially in the second verse, it’s all about being the villain, putting on big sunglasses, and telling someone just how you feel! Just like they might have done to you. I think there’s some satisfaction in being reckless and not giving a f%ck, which is definitely something I have yet to master. The songs on this EP are a culmination of everything I wanted to say this year but couldn’t find the words.”
Cate soon felt the claustrophobic limitations of going against the grain in a society in which married-with-kids-by-25 is for many the established norm. Having grown up in music-obsessed household, a schooling courtesy of her Mom in Country & Western greats – Johnny Cash & Dolly Parton especially – was balanced by a passionate stan-dom for the likes of Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morisette and Shania Twain, “All the Canadian Queens!” Cate laughs.
By her late teenage years though, she was feeling burnt by the fall-out of leaving the country-influenced band she’d been fronting – and touring around Canada – through high school. Encouraged by ‘why not?’ parents – who’d themselves relocated to the West Coast from the isolation of Newfoundland – Cate cut ties to relocate to Vancouver straight out of high school.
Driving trips down the West Coast to cross the border from Vancouver to Los Angeles for writing projects – both for her own material and pitches for other artists – soon became as frequent as cash would allow, with Cate making a serendipitous connection with Cian Ducrot at a writing camp.
Finishing their first co-write within an hour of meeting, Ducrot then went on to long-distance produce the ‘Love, The Madness’ EP between his London bedroom and Cate’s digs in Vancouver. With visa issues nixing Cate’s planned long-term move to L.A., an impulsive Plan B instead brought her and Ducrot – joined by fellow Vancouverite songwriter Tessa Mouzourakis – together in a shared flat in North London which at last check was without running water; “My bedroom is the living room-cum-recording-room” Cate laughs, “It’s awesome!”.
‘Love, The Madness’ EP, a coming-of-age collection that documents the fall-out of glimpsing a safe, predictable future you’re scared by, upending everything to outrun it and, as Cate dryly notes, with understatement, “All the stuff with boys”. ‘Love, The Madness’ might be the culmination of 12 chaotic months spent, in so many ways, winging it – but it brims with an unmistakable focus and facility that you suspect won’t keep Cate consigned to the sofa in the living room for much longer….
The New Single “All Talk” by Cate is the latest single from her upcoming EP ‘LOVE, THE MADNESS’