Name: Katharina Schorling aka CATT
Nationality: German
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, trumpeter, trombonist and pianist
Current release: The new CATT album Change is out via Listenrecords.

If you enjoyed this interview with CATT, find out more about her and her work on her personal website, instagram or facebook account. To dive even deeper, check out our earlier 15 Questions interview with her.



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?

Creation for me is always triggered by something I‘m experiencing. It‘s me navigating through emotions or observations. Especially the album Change is a very personal journey.

When I don‘t know where to go with my mind: the moment I allow creativity to flow through, something opens up. After the initial spark which always has to be personal - I might already have a melody and a verse - I start to let go and suddenly I can tap into something like a universal field of that emotion. This field contains the stories of everyone. That‘s when a song starts becoming not only about me but about everyone who connects to that feeling.

That‘s maybe an abstract explanation but it‘s how I felt during the process of making the album. For example »Spell Me Free«: I was so sad. When I could let down the walls of my mind I could write the song. And it suddenly was like feeling the sadness of everyone.



The song has no answer but it gives a home. The pain of not knowing transforms into a deep acceptance.

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?

As I described above there must be an initial emotional spark. Then everything happens very intuitively. I flow between instruments, record, play, sometimes really raw, sometimes already bedded in some kind of production.

It‘s not possible to plan, it‘s about presence and trust. In that state I see magic beyond the linear mind opening up. When the essential idea exists there can be planning. “I want drums on this” or “I‘ll arrange something for violins to support the bridge”.

Finishing an existing idea into the final result can be about discipline, determination and structure.

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'?

It‘s only my second album now so I may not have a long history I can draw my experiences from. But so far I can say: Me taking the literal space was always the key.

Going to another place, renting a house somewhere outside, really taking time. I need to know “I‘m here now, I have three weeks and I have nothing else to do”. This is when I create the room and I can be sure it will be filled.

Another part of the more abstract preparation is that in the months before, I probably will have written down notes and inspirations in form of little texts in my note book or phone. I can take them out if I need to.

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?

A general ritual for my days that also applies for creative days is having my phone and all digital gadgets on flight mode after waking up. I‘m trying to enter every new day without outer stimulation.

I‘ll have a glass of juice or a fresh smoothie and then I‘ll make myself a coffee, take out my note book and write down everything that comes out in a stream-of-consciousness style. Without judging. Sometimes that means dreams, sometimes pure chaos, distorted mind patterns and sorrow and sometimes visions.

Whatever comes out in those moments in the mornings, this practice of writing and gifting the start of a day to myself always creates piece. It aligns me to where I am today, where today’s challenges and potential lie.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Freely playing on the piano. Sometimes already with a line of text in my head, sometimes only with a feeling that I try to give sound to on the instrument.

It‘s not difficult as long as I don‘t judge it.  

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Sometimes they exist before the music. For example

“Change
Change in the sky
I know where I will go
But I don‘t know why‘

came to me in the car while

“Driving in the morning
To a far away place”

Many weeks later I found the notes again while playing guitar with my band member Michèl. We initially just played around with it in that country pop style for fun. It could only happen because we followed the joy and didn‘t judge (because it’s not ‘typical-CATT-style’)

Sometimes I also have a piano theme first and the lyrics follow. In general for me lyrics and music grow together.

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

A unique perspective of observation or combination. A point of view that either surprises me or makes me feel understood.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

It follows the joy.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

That‘s true. It‘s important to practice letting go of control in the right moment. To let the song decide the route it wants to take. I‘m there to give form to it but I always have to be in service to the song.

It can be different sometimes because there‘s still our ego with a need to control, to always figure out the “right thing” right away or to even tell you “I want this song to sound like an uptempo whatever thing by whatever artist”.   

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?

To me creativity is about the perfect balance between physics and spirituality.

I‘m a human body creating songs with physical instruments. So I see myself as a vessel. I‘m like an instrument myself catching vibrations and making them accessible through my embodiment. The inspiration itself is spiritual. Creative energy is everywhere, boundlessly surrounding everything that is. Giving it form is the physical part of it.

Not only in music we as humans are manifesting the non-physical into the physical all the time. We are creating all the time. Everything that exists starts with an idea, with some kind of spark. I could talk about this for hours. You know, to me this is the simple and yet so difficult key of making the world a better place. We need to become more conscious about what we are manifesting.

The last song on the album, »Slow Motion Harmony« is about this remembrance. About slowly creating balance in our lives again.



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? What does this process look like in practise?

Mostly, when having finished a song, I know it‘s finished. The technical final touches regarding sound, mix and mastering might go through several feedback loops but then I try to let go fast and easy.

I‘m changing so much all the time so I rather set a release date that‘s not too far away from the creating moment. To authentically give what‘s been present for me while still being in that momentum. I don‘t want things to be perfect and to take them too seriously and make them “better” over too long of a time frame cause I feel it‘s important to move on and rather make something new. And to view creations not as ‘perfect’ but as a perspective of a moment that has been captured and therefore will be wholesome in itself anyway.

There is one funny example on the album how it can also go: »I‘m The Wind« ended on the record in form of its fragile demo.



I recorded it with only one microphone as a complete guitar beginner. Without even planning on keeping that version I just captured the song as a demo in a wooden cabin on a November afternoon. Later I tried to record other versions in the studio, with perfect microphone setups and “better” conditions. But in the end we found: There is no need for chasing an improvement when you have an honest moment.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

I think it‘s all one and I‘m completely involved in it until the last frequency is in the right place.

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?

“Mundane” tasks are often replayed routines. Creativity is about combining or making something that has not been there before.

So you can bring creativity to making a special cup of coffee. But you can not bring routines into pure creativity.