The first foray into the next world of Cat & Calmell, new single "Overstimulated" is a hypnotic, beguiling journey that builds and crescendos in sensory screams as Cat & Calmell put their melodic vocal stamp on a song that does exactly what its name suggests.
Produced by Nick Ward, the song gives centre stage to social anxiety as they sing: “I’d risk my life jumping down the rabbit hole / It's too loud / Blindfold me just to calm me down.”
The stunning video shot on location in South Korea, collaborating with directors Joshua Moll and Oliver Kirby, is a captivating and evocative realization of the themes explored in the song.
“I think Calmell and I really try to uplift the things we genuinely believe in and are proud of and that’s why we’ve worked on a lot of this next project with our friends,” Cat shares. “We wanted it to feel like it was made by a community of people, because it was, but also the wider community as Asian women as well and trying to shine a light on how much creativity there is there.”
‘Overstimulated’ comes two years after releasing their debut EP, ‘Life of Mine’, which featured Cat & Calmell’s breakout hit, ‘Dumbshit’, alongside ‘Dramatic’ which appeared on an episode of Netflix series, YOU, and catapulted them onto the global stage. 73 million global streams later and a growing fanbase approaching 500k, Cat & Calmell scored a coveted support slot with Dua Lipa in Melbourne late in 2022. Acting almost as a sequel, their new project excavates the experiences and issues on ‘Life of Mine’ and re-examines them with the gift of hindsight.
“I feel like the last song on LOM was super vulnerable and sort of set us up for this new project. For the most part, on our last album, we were just having fun and writing about whatever, and then with the last song the ice had just started to crack. Now, with this project, we’re like, ‘OK, we’re dealing with it now. There’s shit we need to talk about’”, says Cat.
‘Overstimulated’ is out today with more music slated to be released in the coming months - and with a national Australian tour with Mallrat, 2023 is shaping up to be something special for the world of Cat & Calmell.
