St. Catherine's Child
St. Catherine’s Child has just released the second single off her upcoming debut album; a concept album on the loss of her father.
Titled “New Eden”, the new single reflects on the last few months before her dad passed away.
St. Catherine’s Child has one of the warmest and incredible vocals I’ve heard recently. She is also a phenomenal writer who explores grief in a unique way. “New Eden” is the best song I’ve heard in a long time.
The debut album This Might Affect You will be available on June 15th, via Shamus Records.
Photo credit: Izzy Rubin-Burnett
Hi there, how are you? What's the story behind St. Catherine's Child?
Hi, I am great!
St. Catherine’s Child is me, Ilana Zsigmond. I discovered in the early days of performing that my name was a little too Eastern European to be a stage name, so I decided to name myself after St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is the patron saint of young women and debate, and also the topic of my undergraduate English Literature and Art History dissertation. Her story of strength and eloquence not only got me through that 10,000 word paper, but also guides me through my art when I need direction and inspiration.
"New Eden" is your latest single - what's the inspiration behind this song?
New Eden is the second single from my debut album, which is a concept album about the loss of my father to cancer in 2022. New Eden is about the few months before my dad died, during which I met my lovely partner, who actually drums on the album as well as being my emotional rock! To experience such joy and hope at the same time as such deep and traumatic loss was a cocktail of emotion I was absolutely not prepared for, and it left me extremely aware of the fact that life doesn’t care about our individual comfort, timelines, or plans. The world keeps spinning, life goes on, and proximity to death and loss gives those rare moments of pure beauty a particular poignance.
Could you describe the songwriting/production process behind "New Eden"? When did you start working on it?
New Eden came to me quite quickly! The vast majority of the album was co-written, my first time bringing other writers into the St. Catherine’s Child project, mostly because the emotional weight of the subject matter was easier to manage in the company of my dear friends (who also happen to be insanely talented songwriters - luckily for me!). New Eden was the first song, however, that I wrote alone since Every Generation over two years before. I sat down at the upright piano in my living room and it kind of flowed right out of me in one go. I knew that if Dave, my partner, got a song on the album, which he absolutely deserved, I had to write it alone, but I didn’t expect the process to be so fluid, so cathartic, and at the dinky second hand piano in our home. It was written all in one afternoon in October of 2023 and has had a special place in my heart ever since.
What did you feel when recording this particular song?
Dave drums on the whole record, which we tracked live in Tesla Studios in Sheffield, alongside our dearest friends over the course of one week in April of 2024. The way the keys and the drums were set up in the room meant that I was looking directly at Dave while tracking, which practically makes a ton of sense, but emotionally was hilarious when I had to sing New Eden directly to him and he just kind of had to sit there and take it. Dave is pathologically bad at taking compliments, and we joke constantly about how having a whole 6 minute love song about him on the album is probably his worst nightmare. But that take, even down to the lead vocal, is the live take. What you hear on the record is me and him playing that song together, while looking at one another across a room. It’s kind of magical, really.
What made you want to release "New Eden" as a single?
The singles from the album were chosen carefully, not just because they have the most straightforward choruses, but because they represent the message of the record without requiring the whole album or a descriptive blurb to understand. New Eden is really representative of the message of the whole record, that hope and love are integral to the experience of grief, and that felt important to set up for audiences ahead of the album release.
What message do you want to deliver through this single? What do you want people to feel when listening to it?
This single is an ode to all the partners of the suffering, the support networks that keep those in the trenches from losing themselves along the way. Dave appeared in my life at the worst possible moment, six months before my dad died of cancer, and rose to the challenge of supporting not just me but my entire family with absolute grace. I really hope that everyone in a similar position who happens across this song has someone like that for them, to keep the lights on in the dark, and that they know that even if it feels cruel or strange to find happiness during that time, that they deserve every precious, rare lifeline that comes their way.
What can you tell us about your upcoming debut album? What different topics will you be offering us?
My debut album, This Might Affect You, is a concept album about my grief after the loss of my father. It is a chronological story, separated into two halves, the first about the time before he died and the second about the aftermath. I co-wrote the majority of it, bar two songs, with dear friends, all of whom are bereaved in different ways, and what has resulted is an at times uncomfortably honest look at what loss does to a person’s life. It has been my fixed point on the horizon when I have felt lost and scared, it has brought me so much closer to my community of incredibly talented writers and friends, and it has helped me untangle the impact of something so senseless as cancer into a piece of art I really hope can reach people who need it. Grief is so isolating, and making a community centered piece of art like this record has felt like a direct challenge to the cruelty of this situation, and I hope that by releasing it it can help others who need to know that they’re not alone, or going crazy, either.
What does music make you feel?
Music is the great unifier, it can provide relief or plumb depths, it can be deeply personal or create entire communities. As a person who writes and makes music, it is my first language, it happens as easily as breathing and blinking, and it has brought me to everyone in my life who I love. I am grateful for it every single day.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
I think today’s music industry is simultaneously the best and worst it has ever been for musicians. Access to recording equipment, resources, other musicians and every song ever recorded has given people like me, a young woman without huge financial means, more chances at success than I have ever had. However, the market is saturated, the structures that used to pay musicians for their work have crumbled, and the average attention span of the everyday listener has been whittled down considerably. Choice paralysis is real, and the pressure to stand out among an ever growing crowd makes the job hard and at times frustrating. The one thing that I would change, and in my opinion the first thing that would have to change for any real progress whatsoever in the industry, is that streaming services absoultely need to pay artists appropriately. To convince the masses that music is something they are owed for free, not a product that is carefully crafted, edited, and slaved over by its writers and producers, is one of the saddest things that has ever happened to the industry. (I’m looking at you, Spotify.)
In your opinion, what would make the world a BETTER place?
Empathy!
What biggest life lessons have you learned so far?
Oh boy! I am only 27, so I would like to start by saying that I am absolutely not sage or wise or learned yet, but the life lessons that have helped me get this far have been to always take your work seriously but never yourself seriously, genuine apologies are they key to problem solving, and that life is very very short. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, do what makes you happy. The world will not stop spinning if you go where the water is warm.
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