“Blueberry Season” is an anthemic pop ballad that captures the essence of the end of summer and personal reinvention.
The title track of her upcoming EP, Blueberry Season, brings with it a sense of new life to Cate’s forlorn yet powerful songwriting. Blueberry Season is a soft ballad that builds into an anthem of strength and reinvention. Capturing the changing of the season in song form, Tomlinson uses metaphors to not only create that perfect end of summer feeling but the shift in her season of life.
A powerful and biting track, Blueberry Season, incorporates a nuanced version of her pop rock sound found on tracks like Hurt You and Notes App Apology. In the core of its story, Blueberry Season acts as a continuation of the second single from the project Damage Control. It breaks into a huge chorus with swelling instrumentation under Tomlinson’s almost twangy and gritty vocals.
Ya, I can fix myself / And you’ll go on to ruin someone else
In its delivery Blueberry Season feels like a marriage of ethel cain and drinking wine on the floor of your childhood bedroom. It brings a familiar sense of nostalgia that hugs your heart just a bit too tightly. It is an anthem of being hurt but coming out the other side not only stronger but wiser. It is a narrative of personal growth despite the pain and frustration that comes with the healing process.
About Blueberry Season:
“Blueberry Season came out of the same experience as my song Damage Control. Damage Control is about recognizing you’re not doing great but knowing you’ll eventually repair yourself and come out stronger, and Blueberry Season is the brutal in-the-moment experience where you just have to feel the bad feelings for a while before you get better. That’s something writing songs has helped me learn over the past couple years–even when it feels uncomfortable to be low, especially because of what someone else has done to you, the healing process doesn’t work unless you go through the gritty parts. You can’t really skip the steps to get back to your normal self. So Blueberry Season is about the gritty part.
It started as a slow ballad-y song on piano without the big chorus it has now. My producers immediately wanted it to be bigger and I pushed back on them for a second because the lyrics felt vulnerable and I didn’t think it should’ve gotten a bigger sound. But thank god I listened to them. I’m very grateful for how it turned out, and how it’s something that fits into my personality now. I actually texted John on Thanksgiving and said "I'm grateful you didn’t let me keep Blueberry Season a slow song.” - Cate Tomlinson
About Cate:
Cate Tomlinson is a 22-year-old singer, songwriter, and performing artist from Palo Alto, California. Her music draws from pop, soul, and rock. The young self-made artist is now based out of Boston and developed her unique voice as an artist at Northeastern University.
Cate is set to release her second EP in the summer of 2023. It is her first body of work with producers Fil Thorpe (Neck Deep, Worlds First Cinema) and John Sinclair (World’s First Cinema, Macklemore).
Cate spent her last summer writing and performing in the greater Los Angeles area, gracing the stage at Hotel Cafe, Breaking Sound, and indie festival NextFest LA. She has been praised by the likes of Rising Artists, Right Chord Music, Kings of A&R, Glasse Factory, Blurred Culture, and Spotify’s Fresh Finds playlist.
Coming in August 2023, Blueberry Season is a 5-song EP that dives deeper into the pop-rock landscape. The songs tell a series of stories from her late teens transitioning to her 20s. Vulnerability, heartache, anger, and self-reflection are the central themes that will resonate with listeners.
From gut-wrenching ballads to alt-pop anthems, Cate shows her versatility as an artist and innovation as a songwriter.
Links to socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catetomlinson/
Website: https://www.catetomlinson.com
Press Release by Hannah Schneider