Entertainment

CATE THE GREAT

the singer on touring with st. vincent, paris, and getting inspired in the bathtub.

by liza darwin

We first introduced you to Cate Le Bon when we crushed on the Welsh art-pop singer back in April 2010. Since then she's been making big moves, touring with our favorite guitar shredder St. Vincent and gearing up to release her sophomore album CYRK this January. On a rare break during her nonstop schedule, Cate filled us in on touring, old school obsessions, and why she gets inspired in the bath.

1. You just wrapped a tour with St. Vincent. The most memorable thing that happened on tour was...when all the ladies (myself, Annie and Toko) broke away from the tour for a night and headed to Paris where Annie played a private salon show in the most beautiful Parisian appartment that overlooked the Eiffel Tower. Toko and I drank white wine and sang backing vocals. It was much like being in a film.

2. The musician you were most obsessed with growing up was...Jarvis Cocker. I think I thought I was him for a little while, aged 14.

3. The story behind your song "Puts Me to Work" is.... It's a song about a person, or in this case a treasured object and how circumstance determines its value or worth and how it influences how forgiving one can be towards it.

4. Your secret to staying entertained on the road is...having ample good books that I intend to read but never do and trying to explore new places as much as possible at every given opportunity.

5. The place where inspiration usually strikes you....usually in the bath where I have no access to pen, paper or recording equipment. When I eventually forget what it was I composed i then have to convince myself it wasn't really all that good in the first place which isn't usually a hard feat.

6. If you had to describe CYRK in a sentence or two, you'd say....a time travel travelogue sang to the accompaniment of how I imagine a remote Island to sound if you split it in two and put one half to your ear.

Puts Me To Work by NYLONmag

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