Ever since emerging from TikTok throughout the pandemic years, Caity Baser has become a pop staple to the UK music scene. Her ‘say it how it is’ approach to songwriting, together with her bubbly persona and recognisable Y2K fashion sense, has gained her an adoring Gen-Z fanbase and an ever-growing audience, on and offline. Baser’s latest and highly acclaimed mixtape ‘Still Learning’ was released in March, and we sat down with her to discuss all things music, girlhood, situationships and what she might indeed still be learning.
“I always knew that I wanted to be a singer. When I was a kid, I used to make songs and make everybody listen and watch my performances. So I feel like all of those years have been practice for what I do now,”, Baser confesses with a laugh and continues to reminisce. “My two brothers are quite musical. I used to sing with them in my kitchen most nights.”
Her passion for music becomes evident when asked about her sonic inspirations: “I feel like music generally inspires me, anything that gives you goosebumps or anything that makes you go like, “Wow, that’s amazing”. I don’t just like one genre of music, I like everything. There are some techno songs that would make me cry, there are some house songs that would give me goosebumps, there are some super happy songs, super jazzy songs – I love everything! And everybody.”
Even though her favourite part of being a musician is to perform live, Baser explains how she has always been a writer, first and foremost. “Whenever anything happened to me, no matter how old I was, I would always go and write a story or poem or a song. Now that is my job, all I do is write,”, she exclaims cheerfully and elaborates, “I have a list on my phone, called ‘song titles and concepts’ and I just write everything down on that list. And then I work in the studio, and I go, “Oh, yeah, guys, this happened”, and then I just tell the story and make a song, basically.” Most of the time, these happenings come from personal experience, but recently, her life has been “pretty chill” and filled with a lot of work, which is why she has been “living through one of [her] best friends who’s being an absolute idiot,”, Baser giggles. “I’ve been using her experiences, and she’s very cool with that because when she’s annoyed at someone, I go, “Don’t worry, I’ve written you a song”.”
As her lyrics can be quite specific, the question arises of whether pop newcomer gives people involved a heads up before the release, to which Baser replies with a laugh: “I mean, I just let them figure it out for themselves. It’s not my fault that I have this space to express myself, so I’m going to use it. I can’t help it, I’ve always been an expressive girl, I need to let it out. And I don’t care what those people think because most of the time, they’ve done me wrong. They shouldn’t have been a dickhead then.”
“I AM SO MUCH MORE THAN A TIKTOKER. I AM SO MUCH MORE THAN AN INFLUENCER. COME AND SEE ME LIVE AND I WILL PROVE YOU RIGHT.”
Baser’s confidence radiates, as well as her cheeky sense of humour and the fact she doesn’t take herself too seriously. “I just like to giggle my way through life. Even if I’m sad, if I don’t laugh, I’ll cry. I’d rather just see the positives in things,”, she explains her outlook on life, “And I’m not going to lie, I’ve had a few times where I’ve been like, “My life is boring at the minute I need to go out and be crazy”, and I’ll call my friends, and we’ll go, “Let’s just go have a crazy night, gals” and then we will, for the plot, right? For the story.”
However, it comes as a surprise when Baser confesses that it hasn’t always been as easy for her to connect with girls, which is the main reason why she is so focused on making everyone feel empowered with the platform she has now: “Growing up, I really wanted to have loads of girlfriends. But most of the girls were just so bitchy and mean and competitive all the time. It made my experience with girls just not nice. And I know the type of person I am and the type of friend I am. All I ever wanted was a friend like me. So I think the reason why I’m like that now is because I never got that growing up. All the girls would be nice to me at first but then awful about me behind my back. I can’t deal with that anymore. And I want people to know that if they’re going through that too, I will be their friend. You’ll have me, and I know what it’s like. Girls can be fucking shit.”
When asked about her relationship with TikTok these days, Baser is quick to state how grateful she is for having come up that way but that it also does not define her: “I’m so much more than a TikToker, I’m so much more than an influencer. Come and see me live, and I will prove you right.” In regards to Universal Music Group’s fallout with TikTok, which led to artists having their songs removed from the platform, she feels “sort of gassed” and less pressured to release music and check statistics now: “I feel like I’ve worked really hard, and I continue to work hard to just build bricks in my house, my musical house that I’m making. So even if one song doesn’t go viral, who cares? I’ll make another one, and it will do great in the real world. I’ve had times where I’ve been on tour and I’ve performed songs that I’ve literally never posted on social media and I got this weird relationship with them because I thought nobody knew them, but they ended up being the most popular ones. So it goes to show that it’s not the end factor.”
Baser’s new mixtape ‘Still Learning’ was released on March 15th and quickly entered the UK’s top 10 album charts. As the singer reveals, there were no specific ideas or concepts for the project: “It was completely random. And then, at the end of everything, they were like, “What does it mean?”, and I was like, “I don’t know”, and that’s literally where the whole idea came from, just me not knowing. I mean, I’m still learning.”
“I’VE WORKED REALLY HARD. AND I CONTINUE TO WORK HARD TO BUILD BRICKS IN MY HOUSE, MY MUSICAL HOUSE THAT I AM MAKING. SO EVEN IF ONE SONG DOESN’T GO VIRAL , WHO CARES?”
Considering the fact most of Baser’s songs talk about pretty boys, toxic situationships, and her claiming back her power, what is the pop artist’s advice on how to overcome those certain situationships? She takes a few seconds to gather her thoughts: “Okay, here is something that my friend told me – when you’re in a situationship, and you’re like, “I don’t know if he likes me”; if you’re questioning whether he likes you, or she likes you, or they like you, they don’t. Otherwise, they would never make you feel like that. You should move on and go, either out with your friends or find someone that makes you feel like you’re on top of the world. If they wanted to, they would.”
Out of pure curiosity, we ask Baser about a certain song she released a couple years ago called ‘Friendly Sex (Angrier)’, which not only deals with setting boundaries but also seeking out revenge. Did she actually end up getting revenge in real life? “Um, I mean, I did get revenge in the long run, if that makes sense? Obviously, at the start, I was so in love with this boy who just did not give a fuck about me, and then once I stopped giving a fuck about him, he started caring about me all of a sudden. But I was already over it, and I was already on to bigger and better. I’m not going to wait around for you to figure out that I’m actually amazing,”, she rolls her eyes and laughs.
Baser smiles wholeheartedly as she shares her personal highlight of her career so far: “Bringing people together. Bringing girls together. I love that my shows are a safe space for people to come on their own and make friends. That’s actually why I make music. Bringing people together, making friends, and relating to each other, because we’re all in the same race, honey.”
Her goal for the next few years? “Just being the biggest superstar in the whole entire world. That’s what I’m aiming for,”, she shakes her head with a twinkle in her eyes and giggles, but something tells us she’s definitely on the right path.
Written by Vicky Madzak // Photography by Lily Craigen
GEM Magazine 