It wasn’t deliberate, but Cat Madden has undergone a valuable transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the early days of the lockdown, her husband was away working at camp and it was unsafe to see her step-daughter, so she ended up spending a lot of time alone.
“I literally didn’t see another person for almost a month straight,” the Squamish musician says. “I went nuts. I don’t like being alone. I have a lot of anxiety and I was confused about who I was—if I’m a good person or not. I was by myself; I had to deal with this. You’ve got to learn to like yourself because there’s no one else around.”
And that’s exactly what she did. She started biking every day and even went hiking into the backcountry by herself—“which might be stupid,” she adds, “but I found this confidence [from it].”
“I feel like I’ve really changed,” she says. “I think I’m the most confident I’ve been in my whole life. I feel really good.”
It was from that vantage point that Madden began writing new music that she hopes to someday soon put together as an EP.
“The songs are about the times. We have one called ‘Kiss My Apocalypse,’” she laughs. “It’s a dark comedy song because it’s based on how the apocalypse is fetishized nowadays with all the TV shows. Everyone has a fantasy about being in the Mad Max film or something, but the reality is it would be absolutely horrendous. It’s a play on ‘appreciate what you have now.’”
Madden and her band—made up of Marcus Ramsay, Andrew Crome, and Art Barrientos—have also started to experiment with different styles of music. “I started playing with a synthesizer and a vocoder on my voice. I have a robot voice sometimes.’”
With the pandemic dragging on, Madden and the band are looking to continue with their musical development and take steps towards releasing a new EP.
They’re working on grants and tapping a connection to a Vancouver music label, for one. But they’re also planning a (very) mini-music festival fundraiser as well. Set for Friday, Aug. 21, it will take place at the Second Chance Cheekye Ranch (with 20 per cent of proceeds going towards the ranch’s horse sanctuary) down Squamish Valley Road.
Local rockers Magnolia Street will open the show and the evening will also be livestreamed for fans who couldn’t snag the small number of tickets released.
There will also be raffle tickets for both in-person and at-home audiences with prizes ranging from coffee to Backcountry Brewing merch, jewelry, clothing and more—all from local businesses.
“At minimum, I want to raise $500 to pay the grant writers,” Madden says. “If I apply for a grant myself, it’d be like almost zero chance of me getting a decent-size grant. If they apply on our behalf, we might have a chance of $60,000.”
Looking ahead, Madden says she foresees changes for her band.
“We’re going to do this one show and show everyone where we’re at right now,” she says. “I want to go into hiding. As Cat Madden, I’m going to do every show in the world. But as the band, we’ll go into lockdown for ourselves, see what we’ve done with the EP, see where we’re at, come out with a new band name … Get a finished product and as soon as everything is polished, you’ll see us next summer or something like that.”
In the meantime, you can get tickets for the EP fundraiser show set for Aug. 21 at the Cheekye Ranch, as well as tickets for the raffle here.
For more information, head to facebook.com/CATMMadden.
