INTERVIEW: Caity Baser announces her new mixtape ‘Still Learning’ will be released in March 2024: "I like helping people. If you can't say, I'll say it, but you can sing it and it's all for you."
Caity Baser is one of the UK’s fastest rising young pop artists. First gaining attention mid-pandemic in 2020, she has since released a string of singles, racking up over 10 million streams on Spotify in the first year of her career alone.
Baser was first inspired to pursue music as a teenager when she saw Katy Perry performing her California Dreams tour at the O2 in London. Later inspired by artists including Lily Allen, Billie Holiday, Chet Baker and The Carpenters, she decided to pursue music after leaving school.
After turning 18 during lockdown, she used her spare time to create her first song ‘Average Student’. It was inspired by her life at that moment, being broke and weighed down by the sense of time passing by and not knowing where your career is going. Baser uploaded it to TikTok - the first time she had shared music online - and when, after a change of mind, she decided to delete the video the next day she was shocked to see the video had accumulated half a million views.
The subsequent exposure meant she soon found herself with a manager and in 2022 signed a record deal with EMI. She has subsequently collaborated with major artists including Joel Corry and Sigala, and her singles are each attracting streams in the millions.
Baser’s music is upbeat, charismatic pop which is driven just as much by her magnetic personality as it is by its quirky beats. Her lyrics are cheeky, straight up representations of the live of a young woman, from sex to careers. Part of the joy in her music is the unfiltered stories she tells in her music which makes her songs almost like mini movies where you can enjoy the story as much as the music. “I don't really do metaphors, I’d rather just say what I mean,” she says.
Today Baser announces her second mixtape Still Learning will be released on March 22. Featuring 14 tracks performed and co-written by Baser, it will be available digitally and physically on vinyl as well as a limited run of CDs. The largest release of material by Baser to date, it includes brand new songs alongside the singles ‘X&Y’, ‘Why Can’t I Have Two? (2468)’ and ‘Pretty Boys’ - her first ever UK Top 30 single. Also featuring is brand new single ‘I Love Making Bad Boys Cry’, which is released today. It is a smooth R&B-pop track which features Baser’s trademark wry lyrics as she disses men who take one night stands too seriously: ‘you’re so fucking dumb for thinking I’m the one / Last night was just some fun’.
"This mixtape is a window into everything that i've experienced in the last year or two: all the fucking nonsense from boys, the amazing times with my best mates, my fans, the mistakes I’ve made and everything else,” Baser says. “It's also me trying new things - there's some new sounds on there, stuff you've not heard from me before, but I love it all and it's honest and real to me and I hope you love it as much as I do!"
Baser today also announces her biggest ever UK tour will kick off in March next year. Maintaining her pledge to her fans during the cost of living crisis, Baser has ensured tickets for the tour will be made available at a capped, reduced price, motivated by her memories growing up of not being able to afford tickets to concerts herself.
“As I hope people know by now, I like to make everything I do as accessible as possible to everyone, and I wouldn't want someone to not come to one of my shows because of money or whatever - especially with everything that's going on in the world at the moment,” she says. “We’re all in this together and without all of my fans none of this would be happening. You got me here, so you should be there at my shows!”
Performing to just 100 people a night 12 months ago, Baser is now an up-and-coming superstar and the Still Learning tour will see her perform to over 40,000 people. A really exciting and special artist, expect to see Baser become even bigger and better in 2024. We recently caught up with her to chat all about her career to date.
Hi Caity! It’s so lovely to meet you. Can I just say you and your music and all the accompanying videos are one of the most delightful rabbit holes I’ve been down. The world has gone to absolute shit and your music is just making everyone beam with a couple of these middle fingers raised. It's really lovely.
That’s a lovely thing to say, thank you. I love doing it.
It's awesome. And you’ve managed to walk this really beautiful line of massive cuddles and huge fuck offs that are all incredibly welcoming.
That's exactly what I'm going for! It’s a hug until you piss me off!
First off, you’ve got new music coming out in March next year with your mixtape Still Learning, which is amazing. Tell me all about that.
It's a whole new load of songs, and It's called Still Learning because I still haven't got it figured out. Nobody ever really has it figured out, and I think that people are afraid to admit that they're still learning, that they're making mistakes. But these songs are kind of owning the mistakes and literally telling you quite bluntly what happened. Why I did it, how I feel, but that's totally fine, because you're still learning and feelings are temporary, situations are temporary. As long as you're learning along the way, that's all that matters.
You had a bit of a whiplash to the start of your career that feels like it belongs in a film. Like you were signed with a management company, like, the day after going viral on Tiktok. That's insane. Did you ever feel like that was the way it was going to go?
No, not at all. Well, I always had this weird feeling, I don't want to come across like a dickhead, but I always knew that I wasn't comfortable and happy with normal life. It was like a calling to do something more than the nine to five. Some of my friends are so cool with just staying and doing a job for the sake of earning money, and that's completely fine and I love that for them. But I've always had this drive to just be a singer and be a performer. I always sort of knew that something was going to happen. I didn't know what, I didn't know where or how much it would sort of fucking go crazy.
That's awesome and I also that very healthy to say that that's what you always wanted to do. Women in general, we're just told not to be proud and not to want things.
Yeah, exactly. I've had many big dreams that have kept me up all night. The song ‘A Million Dreams’ in The Greatest Showman literally describes me perfectly.
And now you're doing it, you're living the million dreams.
I am, every day. It's amazing. Sometimes I have to pinch myself, well it’s more like a slap now because it's just so ridiculous what's going on.
On that you're coming up in this era where it feels like there are these whole new avenues that was never accessible for young artists before to be heard and seen. How did you imagine navigating that beforehand?
Just doing stuff, going out and performing. My thoughts on it was I would go to the studio, release a song become famous. But to release a song there's so much stuff that goes on. I saw this picture the other day and it was an iceberg and it's like what everybody sees versus what goes on. And I could only see the tip of the iceberg and now that I'm in it, I know how many fucking people it takes to get this thing going.
That's so true. And you must get so much ‘where’s the next song?’ you're like ‘Do you know how long the last one took?’
Yeah, and things like TIkTok, they make things possible. Being a girl from a small town, it's very difficult to have this big dream and actually think that it's gonna come through. And I made a video and I put it on TikTok in my pyjamas and that's why I'm here. I think it's amazing. It's a great tool and it's fun that everybody gets a chance now, you don't have to be somebody you just have to have something that you love because then other people will love it. It's very cool.
That's it, the gatekeepers need to find a new profession because they're becoming obsolete. I like that. Your recent collaboration with Campbell and Alcemist ‘Would You (go to bed with me?)’ is a remix of a song that was playing when I first started going out to clubs but you've done such a delicious spin on it. What was it about that track that you thought needed the Caity Baser flair?
What I do in my music and what is important to me and everything that I do is just empowering people, especially girls to just be like yeah, would you go to bed with me. I just love it. It was me all over. I love all the stuff that she says, I would say that shit - ‘I find you very attractive’, I would say that. I love it, it's amazing.
On that, people you would like to go to bed with, let's talk about ‘DILF’. Talk to me about this track because it’s amazing. This is the one I'm hearing people want to talk about, they love it.
You know what? I've realised that too. I've been doing festivals all summer and people go crazy for ‘DILF’. I got asked to go to the studio as a set up for a session, and I have these days where I'm just a bit loopy, which is pretty much every day because there’s a screw loose for sure! I got to the studio and I felt like I had to make a song and I didn't know what to talk about because I was fried from working and I felt a bit drained. I have a list of song titles and concepts and every time I think of something funny, or anytime anybody says something interesting, I'll write it down. It's a big old list full of lots of weird shit. I was going through it and then I said ‘DILF’. And then one of the guys got on the piano and started playing and it was literally perfect and gorgeous. There was three of us in a room, and we were just like we will make it an absolute mistake, make it out to be a beautiful love song, and then the chorus comes in and it's like, there she is, there's Caity! We made it in about 10 minutes and then recorded it that day and never touched it again.
As you said before, a lot of women are really identifying with your music. I feel like there's such a kindness. and the aggression is not there, with yours, and it really feels much more relatable to women because the old notion was that women when they're hurt, they're always raging monsters or they're fighting each other.
Or they just sit and cry and they've got nothing to say other than cry and mope around and feel sorry for themselves know.
With regards to your songwriting, was this the kind of music you were always writing?
It was always sort of talkative, cheeky, what would I say to my friends sort of thing. I tried other things because it's very easy to go with what's trending. I went through a phase of being like, ‘I don't know what my sound is’, and then I was trying things that were trending, but it just wasn't me. And you could tell by the way I was singing and the way I would dance to it. Then I just went back to what I was doing originally, which was just talkative, funny little bops, you know? What would I say to my friends, I like being a friend to people and helping them along the way. If you can't say, I'll say it, but you can sing it and it's all for you.
I love that. Who were your musical sheros growing up?
My sheros are Amy Winehouse, Katy Perry, Meghan Trainor, Karen Carpenter, Stevie Nicks, Adele, Lily Allen, Kate Nash., Rihanna, Beyonce. I could go on.
That’s amazing. Your lyrics, they're very specific and very fun. Is that ever any concern about what you're releasing and the people you're singing about?
I mean, my outlook on life is say 3-2-1 in your head and then just do it. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission. If it's a song and you're hurt by it, I'm only speaking truths, sir! And if it's upset you, then don't be such an idiot. Or prick. Anything that happens to me, it's all in the song bank, the word bank.
Caity you’ve had some headline tours, you were just here playing shows in Australia. What has been one of the greatest things about performing these songs live?
Seeing everyone there and seeing everyone come together. It feels like when I perform, nothing in the world matters other than that moment, right then. Everything else that was bothering me, or anything that I was feeling before, I will go out on stage and just sweat it out, dance it out, sing it out, scream it out. It's like I heal every time I perform. It's like a warm hug, it's amazing. And I love seeing people love it as well, that makes me happier. I love seeing people happy, and that makes me happy. It’s like I'm infected with vibes!
‘I Love Making Bad Boys Cry’ is out now via EMI Records. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Caity Baser you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.
Still Learning tracklisting
I’m A Problem
The Plot
Showgirl
Pretty Boys
I Love Making Bad Boys Cry
Fuck Every Love Song
2468
X&Y
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Bicker
Grow Up
Oh Well
Choose Me
I’ll Be Here For You
Still Learning UK Tour Dates
26th March - O2 Academy, Leeds
27th March - Academy, Manchester
28th March - Rock City, Nottingham
30th March - O2 Academy, Liverpool
1st April - 3Olympia, Dublin
3rd April - O2 Academy, Glasgow
4th April - O2 City Hall, Newcastle
6th April - The Great Hall, Cardiff
7th April - O2 Academy, Birmingham
8th April - O2 Academy, Bristol
9th April - O2 Guildhall, Southampton
17th April, University of East Anglia, Norwich
19th April - Hammersmith Apollo, London
