Cate Le Bon has been a successful and acclaimed artist for a decade now, racking up four studio albums of diverse and idiosyncratic songwriting as well as a number of side projects and collaborations. There comes the point though for any musician when they need to step off the treadmill and reflect, re-evaluate and refresh. For
Cate, this period of tranquillity away from the daily grind resulted in ‘
Reward’, her fifth and most compelling album yet.
Following the touring cycle for her last album, 2016’s ‘
Crab Day’, the Welsh singer took herself off for a retreat into a secluded Lake District cabin. It was there that the roots for ‘Reward’ were planted and Cate was able to regain her love for what she does. “It was really nice taking some time off and prioritising,” she begins. “It’s always good to check in on your reasons for doing something, whether it’s become a habit and you’re just caught on a train. It was nice to take some time off for music to become a hobby again. It’s been a bit of a revelation doing other stuff than music and finding it’s a lot more freeing and enjoyable.”
The other stuff she talks about is a furniture making course she enrolled in that became almost all-encompassing and provided a different kind of creative stimulus to complement her songwriting. “It’s something I’ve been looking to do for years,” she explains. “You feel like you’re waiting for someone to grant you permission to do it. I realised that I could grant myself permission to do it. It seemed like the perfect time to book it and prioritise everything around that. It’s a lovely thing. It’s the opposite of touring and making music. All of a sudden you have this routine in your life and you’re working on something that’s tangible.”
