On his BBC Radio 6 Music show (1pm-4pm), Craig Charles interviewed CMAT, ahead of her 6 Music Festival performance at Victoria Warehouse Manchester.
Craig Charles: “Tell us the story you just told us about Yard Act!”
CMAT (laughs): “No! I couldn't possibly. I couldn't, I don't know anything about Yard Act. I've never heard of those people before in my life! I definitely didn't go on an absolutely insane night out a couple of nights ago with the two backing singers.”
Craig: “And stayed out until 9 o'clock in the morning?”
CMAT: “No, no…”
Craig: “That would never happen!”
CMAT: “No that didn't happen.”
On making her new album:
CMAT: “It was intense, so my producer is a Norwegian man called Mattias Tellez, who has kids so his kind of rule was if I'm gonna make this album with you we have to be in the studio Monday to Friday, 9-5, because I have to go home to my kids. I was like “yeah ok”. But that's really the opposite of most studio experiences and it was weird to go from me and my normal personality of constant touring and drinking and carousing to basically doing an office job where I had to make the saddest songs I've ever made in my life. And also I was in Norway which is weird because it's really expensive there so I couldn't really eat food properly […] I also lived in a hotel because they don't really do Airbnb, so living in a hotel with no oven or microwave or nothing, so I was just eating crackers and cucumbers and this fish paste every day! Like I didn't eat any hot food for like a month.”
Craig: “You spoke to Chris Hawkins on his show not too long ago. And you sounded pretty determined to meet Kylie at the BRITS. Did that happen?”
CMAT: “It didn't happen, it didn't happen. I've been reluctant to tell people cause I knew it would break their hearts. She was sitting two tables away from me and I could have thrown a bread roll at her if I wanted and her hair was so fluffy! And someone came over at the start and said she’d really like to meet you. Can we organise it and I was like yeah! But the minute the BRIT Awards started, they were using her in every skit [..] She didn't have a moment to breathe the poor woman. People were crowding her as well. I didn't want to go near her in that context but…”
Craig: “You also mentioned how your nanna’s your ultimate fan and is all over Instagram in support of you. What was her reaction to you going to the BRITS.”
CMAT: “We’ve actually probably had a bit of a falling out about it, I'm not gonna lie. My nan is not happy with me, she's not happy about the bum.”
Craig: “Is it because of the dress?”
CMAT: “Yeah, well she's not happy because I told her she had to lay off the fan groups on Instagram. I was like, “it's a bit weird nanny you've got 16 other grandchildren and you pretend that they don't exist because I'm the only famous one”. So we had a bit of a falling out about that. And then I've heard through whispers that she's not happy about the dress. [...]”
Craig: “Can you explain to the listeners who don't know what we are on about, about the dress?”
CMAT: “So I wore a dress to the BRITS […] I also just thought it would be funny and fun and I thought people would enjoy it which at the actual BRIT awards they did. It was a wonderful experience. I was walking around and really famous people were just laughing and me as I was just walking away from them, it was really funny. Just like, I was leaving a trail of laughter behind because they wouldn't have seen from the front. And then they'd see from the back and be like oh my god! What's Paloma Faith wearing?? Was actually one thing I heard and I was just like… love that!”
[…]
CMAT: “We did have like rulers and measurements and we were really debating on how far the line should go in order for it to be a fashion moment or for it to be a public nudity moment so we were really careful about it. I'm quite surprised at the level of unhappiness [...] going around on Instagram.”
On advice for other artists:
CMAT: “Yeah, my number one piece of advice cause I think it is the thing that has benefitted me the most.. Don't be afraid to be bad! Like, I think it's really important, especially when you're really young, that whatever it is your writing whatever it is you’re coming up with you need to just publish it you need to publish it you need to get it out there put it on YouTube, put it on Tik Tok put it on whatever. Some people are gonna hate it, and you will slowly but surely learn when someone is being a hater or when someone is a bit right when you know “ok this is a criticism I get over and over again maybe this is something I should work on”, you have to be public. If you're gonna be a person who writes your music and creates your music and not just an innocent bystander then you have to just suffer the consequences of being bad sometimes. Even now I still write bad music but I think I'm good at knowing when not to release it at the moment, that'll change but you just have to not be afraid of what people are gonna think of you. I think it's really, really important.”
On touring and Yard Act
CMAT: “I was gonna say I've been on tour since 2021 I don't really think we’ve stopped at all! I love it, I actually… I'm in a much better place with it now than I was before because I really enjoy the shows. But it is difficult, it is you know… we’re talking about Yard Act earlier on. I became friends with them during the year that they did… I think they did 140 shows that year and I did like 110. So we were constantly at each [...] the small festivals and constantly bumping into each other because we were all bedraggled and twitching and like ill…”
Craig: “How do you pace yourself? How do you stop being bedraggled and twitchy and ill?”
CMAT: “I think the more experienced I became the easier it was for me to get on stage. So like now for example one thing that's definitely helped is my band is very dry. We dont drink on show days. We don't do anything on show days because it's like “ok if we’re fully sober on stage the shows are just going to be better and also we’ll wake up the next morning and not want to die. So that helps you look forward to the next show. You're not disgustingly hungover and wanting to just lie in bed for the whole day you know, you have a bit of get up and go. And you know the thing to keep in mind especially when you're doing headline tours is people have paid to see you no matter if I’m in Dublin doing a show in front of six thousand people or if I'm in Cologne and there are a hundred people there they've all paid to see the same show so you have to just put on the same show otherwise it's not fair. And that makes you really good as well, that makes you a much, much better live musician.”
