pinkpirate
pinkpirate is the artist name of 20-year-old musician and producer Caitlin Brown. Despite growing up in Bognor Regis, a place that is best known for being “the UK’s sunniest town” – Caitlin felt the ever-present shadow of boredom and isolation often synonymous with coming of age in a regional setting. Being a young neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ person added extra layers to this, as did the unwilling attention they drew amongst peers for being “the quietest person at school”.
Early musical memories growing up include cherished CD copies of Girls Aloud’s Out of Control and the Hannah Montana debut, plus their family’s tradition of dancing to The Darkness’ 2003 hit ‘Friday Night’. Where early desires to pursue a music career were met with either laughter or suggestions to “enter The X Factor”, discovering the UK indie scene allowed Caitlin to envision an alternative path. The weekends (and savings) of their mid-teens were spent travelling to larger towns to catch their favourite UK artists live, namely The Japanese House, Wolf Alice, and The 1975.
Sonically, Caitlin describes hearing Bon Iver’s ‘Woods’ at age 13 as a catalyst for their musical identity – with the track’s emotional depth and affecting production having an enduring impact. As a non-male and LGBTQ+ producer, they are also passionate about representation in the industry, and feel naturally drawn to artists who embody this for them, citing Rina Sawayama as a particular hero.
“I wrote Can We Talk About The Past Instead about the fear I’ve always had about growing up,” they say. “I wanted it to be the fun song on the EP, inspired by Charli XCX and other more ‘avant-pop’ artists. I’ve always wanted to talk about my anxiety surrounding growing up within a song and I think the lyrics capture the ideas around the pressure to grow up and not be boring or simple, but simultaneously about how once you get to a certain age, you don’t really seem to matter to society anymore (especially on social media). The song originated as a bit of a joke as one of my friends wanted to scream on a song I wrote, so I got her to send me audio of her screaming and then wrote the first verse around that…” PINKPIRATE ABOUT THE SINGLE ‘CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE PAST INSTEAD’
“Exhilarating and breathless, pinkpirate has penned a banger that not only gets them outside of their head, but also bottles up the hedonistic ecstasy of youth – allowing them to pop the cork whenever such existential thoughts arrive. The party is disrupted momentarily when the song’s emotional core takes the place of the song’s heavy beat as they ponder, ‘I’m not sure that I really have the time to think about making everything turn out right.’ The dance floor fills quickly enough, though, as the song accelerates to a triumphant conclusion.” SINGLE REVIEW BY “SECRET MEETING”
“I started writing music from around the age of 8 onwards because I was getting bored of covering other people’s songs. I really started getting into recording and producing when I was around 14 because we got to use Logic Pro at school, then I would come home and record on my old iPhone through my headphone mic. I think being able to write my own music and lyrics from a young age really helped me learn a lot about myself, even if it was a load of rubbish.” FROM INTERVIEW WITH “CLUNK MAGAZINE”