DIY singer-songwriter Claudia Kate has had a busy couple of years, from numerous live shows to her EP release, ‘How Sweet,’ and her BBC Radio 1 debut. The London-based indie-pop artist is an opinionated young woman who isn’t scared of singing or speaking about what she believes in. We talked to her about her household of music fans, her songwriting inspirations, and how friends and family impact her art.
Music has always been a big part of Claudia’s life: “At home, we always had music on, it was a lot of Brit Pop. We always watched The X-Factor on a Saturday night! My nanny, she played piano and we put on family Christmas shows, that’s where it all started.” Growing up, she had a passion for writing poetry and was good at English Literature – one of her poems was published in a book at school – but not good at music. When she was 18, she decided to study songwriting and describes it as having a “light bulb moment” – “I just thought, if I don’t at least give it a go then I’ll never know”.
Since then, songwriting has served as an outlet for Kate’s feelings, but she is also inspired by the world around her: “I’ve written songs about my friends or injustice in the world. You are just constantly, whether consciously or not, absorbing everything around you and I find myself writing notes on my phone whenever I’ve seen something.” Claudia is outspoken, in her songwriting and social media presence, and gained over one million views on TikTok about her social- and politically critical song ‘BIG TALK, little girl’. “I’d love to make more of a name for myself as a political artist, but it’s not the only thing I write about. I’m so passionate about women’s rights and equal rights that I really want to write more songs about it, and I can feel it coming.” Naturally, that also attracts negativity, but Claudia states: “If you’re gonna say anything worth anything then you’re gonna get a bit of backlash, that’s why it needs to be said in the first place!” Sonically she is heavily inspired by Kate Nash, Remi Wolf, and Maggie Rogers: “I listen to them on a daily basis. I love the music I make and I’m so proud of it but I’m obviously always trying to get better. I listen to them and it kinda pushes me to keep making music.”
Claudia describes her most recent EP ‘How Sweet’ as “mature sounding”. “I think going from early 20s into mid-20s – your brain just develops!”, she jokes and further elaborates, “I wrote ‘Emma Got Married’ and in that song, I say how sweet life can be if I stopped sweating the small things. Then I wrote another song and found myself saying how sweet life is, again. I was thinking that would be a nice name for an EP. And my granddad opens the song ‘How Sweet’!”. Visually, Claudia wanted the EP cover to be simple but with a “pop of colour”, so she dyed her hair bright pink. “I wanted my friend to take the artwork because so many of my songs are about my friends. It just felt symbolic of that period of my life because when you think of sweet, you kind of think of pink. There’s a bit of body confidence to it as well and I like that!” Ultimately, she says, it’s the people you love that make life so much sweeter, and we agree.
In a world that often feels chaotic and uncertain, Kate’s music is a reminder of what’s worth holding onto: the power of connection, the courage to speak up, and the beauty in life’s little moments. As she continues to grow, both as an artist and as a voice for change, she shows us all how sweet life can truly be when you embrace it, flaws and all.
Written by Vicky Madzak // Photography by Mia Bird
GEM Magazine 