There is something radical about releasing a song you wrote seven years ago: Not as an archival exercise, not as a collector’s item for devoted fans, but as a proper single – mixed, mastered, and presented to the world as though it were brand new. For Newcastle’s Cat Ryan, that is precisely what ‘Free From This’ represents, and the confidence of that decision says everything about where they stand as a band right now.
Written in 2018 by lead songwriter Mary-Anne Murphy, ‘Free From This’ predates the band’s formation, their festival runs, their radio plays and their growing reputation as one of the North East’s most compelling indie outfits. It is, by their own account, the song that started everything; the moment Murphy found the sound they didn’t know they were looking for. Coming back to it now, re-recording it and finally committing it to a proper release, feels less like looking backwards and more like drawing a deliberate line under one chapter before beginning the next.
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The track itself is bright and punchy, a compact rush of surf-soaked guitars and infectious rhythmic momentum that wears its influences openly without ever feeling derivative. There are echoes of Vampire Weekend’s melodic precision and Hippo Campus’s sun-drenched energy, but ‘Free From This’ has its own personality… something in the angular guitar work and the crisp, insistent drive of the rhythm section that feels distinctly Cat Ryan. Mixed and mastered by Tilly Louise, the production strikes exactly the right balance: polished enough to feel like a considered release, alive enough to retain the energy of a band that has been playing this song to rooms full of people for years.
That live history matters here. There is an ease and a looseness to the performance that you cannot manufacture in a studio from scratch – ‘Free From This’ sounds like a song that knows itself completely, because it does. Every note has been tested, every dynamic has been road-worn. The result is a debut single that arrives fully formed, unburdened by the tentative quality that can sometimes afflict early releases.
Cat Ryan situates the track in the territory of teenage heartbreak, and you can hear the rawness of that early emotional landscape in the urgency of the melody. The influence of Viola Beach – another band who distilled youthful feeling into deceptively simple indie-pop – is audible and fitting. What is striking, though, is how little the song feels dated. Its emotional directness translates cleanly across the years, which perhaps explains why it has remained such a reliable live moment.
Cat Ryan have earned their reputation steadily and without shortcuts: through consistent gigging, festival slots at Truck, Y NOT, The Great Escape and Kendal Calling, support slots alongside Sundara Karma and SPRINTS, and radio support from BBC Radio 1, 6 Music and Radio X. ‘Free From This’ adds a new dimension to that story. It is not simply a strong debut single; it is an origin point, finally made official.
With a second EP already on the horizon and a clear sense that the band’s sound is evolving into something more textured and ambitious, ‘Free From This’ arrives at exactly the right moment. A reminder of where Cat Ryan began, and a firm statement of intent about where they are headed.
Image by Ellen Dixon
