With her new mixtape ‘Still Learning’, Caity Baser is embracing the crazy side of pop. From hyperactive chaos to introspective brilliance, her path to Main Pop Character looks set.

Words: Martyn Young.
Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

"It's been amazing, stressful, perfect, gorgeous, stunning and terrifying," says Caity Baser breathlessly as she describes her ascent towards the summit of Mount Pop over the last four years of madness. "Every single emotion that you could feel is how it's been. But mainly just amazing and exciting as it's been my dream forever, and now I'm doing it." Doing it would be an understatement; the 21-year-old sensation from Southampton is a living and breathing embodiment of all the joyous ridiculousness of pop music, doing things very much on her terms and bringing her huge personality to life in different ways. The bonkers journey of Caity Baser is firmly gaining momentum in 2024, though, with her second mixtape and biggest collection of work yet, 'Still Learning'. All in a day's work for a pop star who was born to do this.

There are a few artists in our orbit who truly embody the ethos of Down With Boring, and perhaps none more than Caity Baser. For Caity, the pop star life never stops. As we meet her today, she's preparing for a sold-out headline tour, getting ready for the Brits having just come back from the Grammys in LA. She's probably made around 179 TikTok videos, and she has a truly outstanding bright red hat on her head in the style of a massive strawberry, accessorised with an oversized pair of shades. An iconic look.

"I just decided to put it on my head today because I felt like it," she smiles. Things are swiftly ramping up for Caity as we approach release, and she's very much in the zone. "There's no such thing as quiet time," she says. "There's no such thing as quiet time. I'm at rehearsals, and as soon as we finish, I'm going back to rehearse. I'm a busy girl. I'm doing actual pop star work. It could be worse."

When Caity released her landmark EP 'Thanks For Nothing, See You Never' last year, Dork described it as "Pop chaos in the best tradition", so a year later, just how chaotic is life for Caity Baser? "It's even more chaotic than it was before," she exclaims. "Whatever I thought was chaos back then is just easy now. I'm very comfortable in chaos. I'm very sweet being everywhere and having all these things going on because my brain works at a million miles an hour. I love it for sure. It keeps it exciting and keeps you young."

Perhaps the secret to Caity's success is that hyperactive million-miles-an-hour brain. It's a frenetic sensibility that drives her impulsive and instinctive pop smarts and her ability to create a lasting impression. When you first discover Caity Baser, you're either going to fall instantly in love or be utterly bamboozled and retreat to something more sedate and gentle, but you'll certainly never forget her. For four years now, since she first emerged in the pop consciousness to brighten up the dark days of peak pandemic, Caity has been making a scene.

Caity's magpie-like impulses to try out numerous musical forms have been heard throughout her work so far as it jumps from classic pop to rowdy indie punk to smooth, luxurious jazzy stylings to big balladry, all centred with the throughline of her attitude and energy.

"I love everything," she explains. "I grew up listening to every kind of music, from Motown and 50s music to boy bands and pop girlies. I really love proper British-sounding music. I'm influenced and inspired by everybody. I've taken characteristics from loads of different artists, put them into what I like and what I would do, put my own little spin on it, and made a little crazy genre called crazy pop."