Name: BLUAI
Members: Catherine Smet
Interviewee: Catherine Smet (vocals, guitar), Mo Govaerts (drums), Caitlin Talbut (bass)
Nationality: Belgian
Current release: BLUAI's new single “Alive” is out via Unday.  

If you enjoyed this BLUAI interview and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit their official homepage. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and tiktok.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

The biggest source I draw inspiration from as a songwriter is my personal life. I’m constantly drawing inspiration from encounters with people i know or have known a long time ago, conversations, memories from childhood or from my coming of age.

For me it’s a way to put some feelings on a shelf so they can finally have a place and stop wandering around somewhere in the back of my mind.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Sometimes it helps to have an idea of what I want to talk about in a song.

But sometimes it just starts with a line. Rarely I write something that takes on a whole new meaning when it’s done. I’m mostly writing with a certain feeling or scenery in mind.

And it also just happens and then I need to create time and space to let it happen. In the shower, on the train, while walking to work there can be little signs of an idea. When I’m at home I have to drop everything and let the song happen.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

My biggest tools are my voice memo recorder and my notes app on my phone. I can write down or record anything anywhere. There’s no real research involved. I just have to be in the right moment.

These early versions of songs are rough and they don’t sound great yet. That’s exactly how i want it so they can become something totally different and I won’t be too attached yet to their shape or form.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Sometimes I’m reading a good line in a book or watching a movie and someone says something in a really cool way and I get inspired. But mostly I’m just thinking about conversations I had and I have to drop everything and grab a guitar. There’s no planning involved when it comes to early ideas.

When we sit down with the band and work further on ideas we try to create a good space for that. For our last two albums we went to a cottage at the seaside to have time and headspace to only think about music. All we need is a good view, a range of salty snacks and sodas and a good neighbourhood to take a walk when we need a break.

The fun thing about that cottage is that when you go out to eat in the neighbourhood, you’re mostly surrounded by elderly people which has a calming effect.

For your upcoming new album, what did you start with? If there were conceptual considerations, what were they?

The only concept we really had in mind for this album is that we wanted to live track as much as we could in one take to make it feel raw and like you’re in the room with us.

We see ourselves as a live band who don’t need a lot of fuss and we just want people to hear and feel that we’re having fun. All lead vocals are also just done in one take together with the band and we embrace the little imperfections and spontaneity that came with it.

So when we started writing these songs they had to be great from the start when we played them in the room because we knew there wouldn’t be much layering or overdubbing involved.

Tell me a bit about the way the new material developed and gradually took its final form, please.

We always start out with my phone demos because that’s where the base of a song and the lyrics come from. Then, as a band, we start shaping it. Mostly it’s me (Catherine), Mo and Caitlin and we like to invite our friend and producer of our first album Willem Ardui, to play with us as a guitarist.

We record really rough demos that can still take shape in the studio. We listened to these demos with Isabel Gracefield, the producer we worked with for our latest album and figured out some ways to elevate the songs. Even if it was just adding a twangy guitar strum on the backbeat. Just simple things working only with the instruments we can play in that moment because we wanted to keep the overdubs to a minimum.

In the studio there were some songs we completely switched around because they didn’t feel good. The feeling of having fun playing it in one take was what we were going for and if you listen back and as a listener it feels equally as fun you kind of hit the jackpot.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I’m quite literal when it comes to lyrics. I like to describe things exactly how I saw them or recount what someone said exactly how they said it. If I disguise it too much it almost loses meaning to me.

Lyrics also are instantly good in my eyes if it feels like nobody could have said it in that way but the person who wrote it.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

I return to relationships and childhood memories a lot.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Sometimes you just need to get something out of your system and for some that’s in the form of a song.

But of course you always have control over what you write in my opinion.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

The moment an idea happens or you write down a line and that just feels like you’ll never write anything as good again feels spiritual to me, yes.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece?

I don’t like to let songs sit around for too long. Songs are a snapshot of a period of time.

Of course you could always change it and try to improve it. For years you could do that. But the way we work is very quick. We plan a period of time to create songs and arrange them and then we record them in a week right after with little time to leave room for doubt and revision.

We don’t give ourselves the time or choice to sit around and start changing things around. We just decide they’re done.

How do you think the meaning, or effect of an individual piece is enhanced, clarified or possibly contrasted by the EPs, or albums it is part of? Does each piece, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

We like to have variety in the arch of the album but we’re not very strict.

Every song comes from a personal place there’s already something holding everything together.

Music and the accompanying artwork are often closely related. Can you talk about this a little bit for your current project and the relationship that images and sounds have for you in general?

Caitlin, our bass player, created the single artworks with embroidery.

We thought it really fit the album because we had such a hands-on experience. Doing it the old school way, live-tracking as much as possible. It only felt right that she could create something visual with handwork.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

As a songwriter I try to keep going.

But I have felt that right after recording an album there’s a little period of time where I just don’t feel the need to write because I put it all out there in a couple of weeks writing, arranging and recording. It’s like my head needs some space to get back to normal.

Also you just need some time to experience new things.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

We heard from some people that our last single ‘Alive’ can pull on your heartstrings as a queer person because it’s literally about missing another woman.

Originally the narrative of the song came about because I really miss my grandmothers who I’ve lost a couple of years ago. But the line ‘should’ve loved her when I had the chance’ in the bridge can of course give you the sense of a queer relationship.

This interpretation is something we played with in our music video.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

There’s nothing I could do other than write songs to let someone know how I really feel or what I’ve been thinking about.