Peter Cat

“hello, devotees! here's 'Blue Raspberry' – the second single from the forthcoming Peter Cat EP 'The Magus'. following last month's lead single, 'Melon Dating Simulator!!', Blue Raspberry follows (somewhat accidentally) a similar fruity theme. so if you are feeling fruity – and if you follow this page, that's a highly likely state of affairs – do give 'Blue Raspberry' a spin today!

The latest single from Glaswegian sophisti-pop songmonger Peter Cat, ‘Blue Raspberry’ heralds the coming warm weather with a tight, sonically sweet, summery meandering number that’s the final single from upcoming EP The Magus (due Mar 18).

The opening notes of 'Blue Raspberry' summon a hazy bedroom pop feel, with wobbly, pitch-shifted guitar lines gliding over a woozy 808 beat. The nostalgic warmth of layered analog synthesisers hugs the ears from either side; you'll find all six of your inner meridians getting all warm and fuzzy here (it's a great soundtrack for a relaxing acupuncture session).

Drizzled with touch of nostalgia ‘Blue Raspberry’ recalls the fictional fruit that flavoured everyone of a certain age’s favourite ice pole, then takes us on wondrous hunt to locate an actual blue raspberry, a fruitless endeavour which results in a song grounded in chasing something that doesn’t exist.

Delving away from the guitar-pop of debut album The Saccharine Underground, ‘Blue Raspberry’ follows on from the oddball pop of ‘Melon Dating Simulator!!’ on another experimental electronic bent. While singer and songwriter Graham Gillespie's sonorous baritone is an ever present recalling the likes of John Grant and Neil Hannon, while his lyrics are as literate, sharp, brittle and candid as ever.

“When I was a kid, I was like, well I've never seen a blue raspberry, where are these mythical blue raspberries? Where do they grow? It's just a daft idea that became the jumping off point.

“It’s ultimately about chasing something that doesn't exist, some sort of thrill, an idea of a life better than the one that you have, that you maybe impose or see in another person that you try to glean that transcendence of them somehow. But ultimately, you're chasing something that doesn't ever exist in the first place. Something that purely if it does exist is inside your own head, it's an idea of a certain lifestyle of certain way of being that you've built up and you're never going to find because it was never there in the first place. I think everyone has their own blue raspberries.

“In terms of the music, it started off as an absolute joke. I tried to like write the most Tik-Tok-y song I possibly could, for a laugh. And it was never meant to be serious. But then it I decided it sounded quite good. I was like, alright, we can take this we can run with it. And eventually, it became one of the tracks I'm actually proudest of having written.”