CATT is a critically acclaimed Berlin-based artist who creates songs that move somewhere between playful pop, jazz and indiefolk. CATT’s ‘Curve A Line’ is the perfect piano ballade for the late summer. The VUT Indie Award nominated artist sings about meaningfulness in the face of uncertainty, the melancholy of beginning and ending and an underlaying feeling of connectedness. It’s a soft but brave and hopeful song about our changing world: “I’ve heard how stronger hearts than mine could ever be holdin’ the keys to tomorrow.” Her debut full length album ‘Why, Why’ will be out November 20 via Listenrecords.
FACTS:
1: I like forests and wine.
2: The world is changing and music and art are among the only qualities right now that can still connect people and not separate them. It’s such a beautiful power!
3: Don’t give up now, have a coffee!
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Nature, being on the road, emotional rollercoasters and joy.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
We always had a grand piano in our living room and I started playing and singing as soon as my fingers could touch the keys.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Damien Rice – My Favourite Faded Fantasy
Alice Phoebe Lou – Orbit
Charlie Winston – Hobo
Kings of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Food, colors, people, freedom and nights out. Noise, dirt and traffic.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
Spree at night with people I like.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Living in the nature and finding out about life’s secrets.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Norah Jones – Feels like home. I thought that might be a vinyl every household needs for beautiful morning coffees in autumn and I’ve already found out that’s true.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Jacob Collier, Sting, Florence and Bon Iver
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Playing my ‘Moon’ debut-EP record release show. Having many friends and strangers there made me feel deeply that I’m on my mission now.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Important. It gives me the possibility to go wherever I want, take a simple set up with me and create music.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
Yes I do and I don’t know. I think they don’t understand it yet because we’re really different.
Growing up in a three-house-village in the North of Germany, CATT was mostly surrounded by woods and classical music in her childhood. A grand piano has always been part of the family home, she played it and sang before she even learned to speak. The trombone and the trumpet arrived early at her musical scene as well, CATT learned to play them in the church choir and now transforms them into exciting sound carpets in her playful pop songs.
In 2014, she moved to Berlin to make music and study music production. Shortly after, she was already working as a musician and composer for artists like Judith Holofernes, Sarah Connor, Balbina and Filmorchester Babelsberg, just to name a few.
In 2018, she decided to release her own music independently and started with her first song ‘Moon’. First reactions flew in right away, Kat Frankie, Xavi and later Niels Frevert took her on tours through Germany, Switzerland and Austria as their support act. Always surprising at her live shows, even if one does not see her for the first time: CATT effortlessly switching between instruments and layering playful loops with her pure voice and brass instruments lightly dancing on it.
In early 2019, she teamed up with the Berlin indie label Listenrecords to release her debut EP “Moon“ in summer. CATT toured through German radio stations and played first concerts with her band. Her first own tour (spring 2020) had to be canceled due to known corona-circumstances and is now postponed to spring 2021.
Instead CATT focussed on new music, starting the process earlier this year at an artist residency at Roger Willemsen Stiftung in Hamburg where she recorded and produced new music surrounded and inspired by nature. In May 2020, the first song of a new chapter was released: ‘Again’ is a journey from self-doubt and fragility to hope and optimism. She again recorded all instruments herself and might creatively be associated with Peter Gabriel, Bon Iver or Feist. The song holds a calming message in a chaotic time: “Because there’s new beginnings all the time.”
Photo © Max Hartman
