Cat Burns at Together For Palestine: "Change is happening"

NME

Cat Burns spoke to NME backstage at Brian Eno's Together For Palestine concert, where she told us about speaking out as a minority, balancing a position of privilege with needing to give, and how "I just want innocent lives to stop being lost and for this to all be over"

Transcript

00:00Good evening, Cat Burns. How are we doing?

00:01I'm good. How are you?

00:02Yeah, not bad. It's one hell of a night, right?

00:04I mean, how does it feel to be here?

00:06It feels amazing.

00:08I mean, the fact that we're here for such, you know, sad reasons is one thing.

00:14But I feel a sense of hope with the amount of people that have shown up

00:19and the amount of artists that are here today all wanting the same thing.

00:24So it's a bit of sweet.

00:27Just knowing that we're all coming together is beautiful.

00:29But the reason why we're coming together is obviously really heartbreaking.

00:33Well, what made you feel like you just had to be a part of this tonight?

00:36Because I care. I care about things going on outside of me.

00:41I think as an artist, it's my job to care.

00:46It's my job to inspire people.

00:48It's to motivate change within people, whether that's with my music

00:51and helping people get through things one song at a time.

00:54But I'm also a black queer woman.

00:56So I'm already a minority within society.

01:01So I already see the indifferences and the inequalities that loads of people face every day.

01:08So I care and I want to show up and be here.

01:14And in the past, it might have felt that a gig for this cause and on this scale might have been unimaginable.

01:18What do you think it tells us that it's happening right now?

01:21That change is happening.

01:22And I think the use of social media and people just seeing more and more and more

01:30why we all should be here and be showing up.

01:34And I think it's sad it's taken this long.

01:37But it's also some level of hope being put in just to see that we can make something on such a grand scale

01:44and have so many people show up and be here.

01:46So, yeah, again, bittersweet that it's happened.

01:49It's taken so long, but also glad that it's happened.

01:53And have you experienced much backlash in being so vocal in your support of Palestinians?

01:56And do you feel like that's sort of diminishing as people are showing more solidarity?

02:01No, I think, again, I think people know me and know my music and know what I always support.

02:12And I've always been in favour of wanting people to be OK and wanting the safety of people.

02:17So I think it wasn't a shock to people that I would be in support of Palestine.

02:22I just want the innocent lives to stop being lost.

02:25And I want this to all be over.

02:27So I think it wasn't a surprise for people because I'm vocal about loads of other things.

02:33So it would make sense for me to be vocal about this as well.

02:36And to music fans watching at home who might be feeling a bit hopeless, what would you say to them?

02:40Still give, still donate, still do what we can because, you know, we can feel helpless

02:47where we're still in a place where we can have hopes and dreams and goals and aspirations.

02:52So look after yourself, you know, take yourself on a walk, do some self-care, mindful things.

02:59But just remember the position of privilege that we're in, not having to worry about where

03:03we're going to eat or having a roof over our head and things like that.

03:07So I think donate, try and help as much as you can.

03:11And just keep trying because there's no point giving up.

03:15Amazing.

03:16Kat, thank you so much.

03:16Thank you so much.

03:17Cheers.

03:22Cheers.

03:23Cheers.

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