Continuing her fast-rising charge, CAT BURNS wants you to know you're not the only one struggling to work it all out. Read our latest Dork Playlist cover feature now.

Interview: Abigail Firth.
Words: Stephen Ackroyd.

Cat Burns has had quite a couple of years. Exploding onto the scene with a kind of understated but brilliant bravado, she's an artist with an energy that's as refreshing as it is exciting. Though she'd been working away for a few years before that big break, from the smash hit of her 2020 single 'go' onwards, it's only been a steep climb upwards.

It's an ascent which shows no signs of dropping off yet, either. Her latest single, 'know that you're not alone', is a song for those feeling lost in the march of adult life, not quite sure where they're supposed to be going or why. A unifying clarion call, it's designed to let them know that it's okay - they're not the only ones.

With a stint on the road opening for Ed Sheeran on the North American leg of his world tour, and her own debut headline run over the pond, Cat is set up for a big 2024. With the promise of new music, live shows, and maybe even more, we caught up with her to find out what's going on in her - quote - "boring life".

What a year you have had. How are you feeling? It's been quite hectic.
I feel all right. It's been a very hectic year, so I'm very grateful to be busy, and I just take everything as it comes. I'm happy.

You've got a new single out, which encompasses maybe how you're feeling about where you're at in your career?
Yeah. I wrote it before I turned 23. And I don't know, I just think I was having a lot of conversations with people in their 20s who just had the same experience that I had, which was feeling like they don't really know what they're doing. Not really sure where we're going, what the meaning of life itself is, and just what we're doing, really. And I thought it would be cool to make a euphoric movie-esque kind of song that people can just jump around to and listen to, and just some freedom to know that they're not alone, essentially.

It's a bit more upbeat than some of your other tracks that you've released recently. Is that an intentional change of pace?
No, it was just my mood that day. Sometimes, I go in with producers who are known to do more upbeat stuff to see what I make with them, and I think this song just wrote itself. The guitar chords and what was chosen sonically for the song, I think, matched the message. So it just happened to be that way, really.

Judging by the lyrics of the song, do you feel like you are currently where you want to be? How does this song fit in with your artistic vision?
No, I'm not where I want to be. Where I want to be is just truly content and happy, meaning accepting life's highs and lows and just taking it all in my stride. And I think it's just accepting, especially as an adult, if I'm only 23, I'm a five-year-old adult. So I'm like a child still. So, I still have so much to learn. I'm still finding my feet and understanding how to be an adult in this world. So, definitely not where I want to be, but hopefully, I can get there.

How would you characterise your journey as an artist so far?
It's been wild, I guess. I think lockdown helped me get on a few more people's radars. And then my song 'go' doing really well in the UK helped, I guess, start my career properly and have a few more eyes on me when I put out songs. And so now, I think I'm just continuing to show the kind of music that I have. And so I think it's just been a wild journey, really. That's the only way to describe it.

What's your vision for yourself as an artist? How are you bringing that to life?
My vision as an artist is just to continue to tell authentic and real stories, whether they're mine or whether they're other people's, and to remain grounded and humble, and just be open to creativity and open to receiving inspiration from different places. Just remain a good person and just remain nice.

You mentioned earlier that you pulled a lot of inspiration for this song just from having conversations with people. Do you generally get inspired by people around you in your life?
Yeah. I'm a massive people watcher, and when I hang out with my friends, I'm just asking them what's going on in their lives and how they view the world and their experiences. I find it really interesting to learn from other people, see how their brains work and their experiences, because sometimes my experiences could be quite boring. I think I live quite a boring life. I don't have many dramatic things that happen to me, but my friends have much more dramatic things than I do. So it's always nice to take some stories from them.

After being nominated for various BRITs, going on tour with Ed Sheeran, and an American tour, you've "had a boring life"?!
I can't write a song about that. That's just a thing that's happened, whereas they're having juicy things going on in their personal life. My personal life is boring.

So, what is coming up for you in 2024?
2024 is a bunch of new music. I'll finally be doing a batch of shows together, and people can stop messaging me about when I'm going to be performing live. I will be doing my own shows next year. So it's just going to be new music and live shows, which is very exciting.

Are you working on the big A word?
Yes. So, fingers crossed that is all good and comes out next year. That's what we're working towards. That's been my life, basically, this side of the year.

And this new single, is that going to be part of that, or are these just drops that you're doing?
We'll have to see.

We'll find out.
We'll have to see. Maybe. ■