Cati Landry on the Connection between Songwriting and Literature, Latest Single, “Overdrive”

Up and coming Canadian Singer-Songwriter, Cati Landry released her fourth official single, “Overdrive,” on November 6th of 2025. The single is a heartfelt track about the feelings associated with losing a loved one. With “Overdrive,” she continues the momentum she started with her debut single, “Mind’s Eye” in 2023.

Group Chat Mag was fortunate to be able to have a one on one chat with Cati where she told us all about “Overdrive,” the writing process, her humble beginnings, and more.

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GGM: Your new song “Overdrive” is a very personal lament of losing a loved one. What was it like writing down all those feelings that you had been bottling up and did you ever feel like maybe it was too personal to release?

Cati Landry: When I was writing it, it felt really cathartic. It’s like after you have a good cry and you’re like “Ooh, I really needed that,” you know? That was really the perspective that the song gave me and I like using art to explore things that make me feel a little uncomfortable or things that are hard for me to communicate to people otherwise. From the time I was really little, art has always been something that’s been a gift to me for that reason. I’m someone who can be kind of guarded and I trust my best friends or my mom when I need to talk about things like that, but songwriting allows me to feel like I’m connecting with other people on a deeper level, in a very real way, about those things that feel so personal and hard to talk about sometimes. I just remember watching people perform or hearing songs and thinking “Wow, they really got to something that feels so genuine to me and I didn’t know that other people might feel that way too.” I think that’s a really important risk for a songwriter to take, so I didn’t feel shy about releasing it because I just knew that I really needed to work on those feelings with someone who I trusted. I have had past experiences where I take something I feel really vulnerable about to someone who isn’t necessarily the right person to work on it with. I knew that I really liked my producer, Neil, who I worked with on another song called “Mind’s Eye” and I knew he had the right energy for this song. We have a really good bond as collaborators.

GCM: “Overdrive” is your fourth official single release so far, are there any plans for a larger project like an EP or an album?

Cati Landry: Oh, yeah, absolutely. The wheels are spinning up here and I have so many ideas and even vision boards that I’ve made all over my laptop and stuff like that. I think that, being someone who came from a really small community in Canada where there’s not a huge music scene, it’s taken me a while to find my footing. Going to music school was such an immersive experience and you really get to go inside that world of how songs and pop songs are written, so I feel like I became a real student of the craft and I loved that. It was really fun, but now I’ve retreated back to my own little world in a way. I live in Vancouver, which is close to where I grew up, so I’m back on home ground, but I also have this new knowledge and insight. I feel like it’s a perfect balance for me where I feel creatively inspired and really connect to my spark and essence as a writer while also having the tools to help me sharpen that. I think right now, I’m really just building on that vision. I’ve met some collaborators and am just in the planning stages, but I can’t wait to share all of it. I have so much music that I’ve written over the last few years before I started developing this project, so I’m always listening to my demos and playing them for my friends. They always ask me, “When are you going to put this song out?” I’m just trying to balance releasing all this music that I love, while still keeping that creative spark for what I’m currently working on. I definitely want to do a bigger project. I’m not exactly sure on the timeline yet, I have to figure it out a little more first, but I’m just really excited about that going forward.

GCM: Tell me about your writing process. Where do your songs come from?

Cati Landry: Well, it varies. I just went to watch the Bruce Springsteen movie, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, and I really loved the scene where he’s laying on his sofa and a movie called Badlands comes on and he sees a scene that elicits this inspiration for him. I’ve had that experience so many times where, maybe I’m feeling a little bit in a rut or I’m not super connected to an idea that I used to feel really excited about and then I’m watching a movie or having a conversation and even just one phrase really sticks to me. For example, with my song “Mind’s Eye,” I had written down Mind’s Eye as a potential title. And, I’m quite a dreamer, so any time there’s a blending of reality versus your inner world, that really speaks to me. Then, I was doing some free writing while I was at Berkeley where we had to use a 50s chord progression, so I just started singing and “Mind’s Eye” just came out. Sometimes I will get a glimmer of an idea and I think “I’m going to hold on to that, but I don’t know where it’s going to go yet.” Other times, songs come out really quickly like with “Overdrive.” It was almost automatic and I think that speaks to the fact that I really needed to write that song and it had been waiting inside just ready to come crashing out. I think it’s different with every song.

GCM: You have an educational background that includes both songwriting, but also literature. How do those two elements work together, or even against each other, when you’re writing a song?

Cati Landry: When I was going into university, I had already been a musician my whole life, especially a vocalist, so I was trying to find a major that still felt attuned to and aligned with who I wanted to be. When I lived, there wasn’t a music program that was the right fit for me, so I went to university and I just started taking courses I liked. I remember having the thought of “Well, what better education could I get than studying the masters of writing and storytelling?” I love artists and I’m such a sponge for them. I love hearing them talk about what they do and understanding their craft and the magic behind it. I think it was an education on what makes great writers and why we fall in love with them. It just really inspired me every day to read about these people who all had such different experiences and perspectives which they brought to the table. One thing I will say is that, as a performer and student, I came from a very traditional background. Growing up, I took vocal lessons, I was classically trained, I performed five nights a week in theatre and jazz and everything. When you’re in that space as a young woman, there’s a lot of tradition and expectations you have to adhere to. I think very often, your personality gets shoved to the back in a way because craft and discipline takes precedence. I love that in some ways; it’s such an escape. One of my favorite mentors would always say “Leave your problems at the stage door; for the three hours you’re here, this is your world,” but I think that at times, it makes you hesitant to open up and be vulnerable. I remember being eighteen and I was in a quite toxic environment that left me feeling really voiceless. I just remember thinking, I have spent so much time really honing my voice and my craft and understanding this instrument and I’m not using it to tell my own story or stories that make space for a perspective like mine. I loved studying literature and songwriting, but sometimes you learn the rules so you can break them.

GCM: You have a very classic, retro style. Is that something that was developed as you were creating this image of who you are as an artist or was it something that was there from the very beginning?

Cati Landry: I think that it’s a little bit of both. I grew up performing and I loved it when my mom got me a make up kit and I was allowed to do my own stage make up. I would sit backstage doing smokey eyes on all the girls and they looked terrible, but I was trying. We were having fun with it. I’ve always really loved glamour and theatricality and beauty as a tool of self expression. I remember when I was younger, I wore a uniform to school and then I switched schools and didn’t have to wear one anymore, so that was a big thing where I realized I had to figure out what I wanted to say with my clothes. At the time, I couldn’t afford to go to Aritzia or the other stores in my area where the cool girls shopped, so my mom and I would go to vintage stores and pick up clothes. She’d show me references from her era of 90s supermodels and we’d play with different styles. It’s always been something that I feel is an extension of the language of my personal expression. When I do visuals for my work, I try to be intentional and bring in a bit of understanding on what the mood of the song is or the story I’m telling. I’m really lucky because my mom has done a lot of costume work for theatre companies and my best friend, who has done all my visuals, has such an innate understanding of what we like and what we want to create.

GCM: The music video for “Mind’s Eye” was very cheeky and creative. Are there any plans to release a music video for “Overdrive” or any other upcoming singles?

Cati Landry: I would love to. “Mind’s Eye” was a really incredible, fun experience. Another friend of mine, Anne, directed that music video. I was lucky because I wasn’t sure if I was going to do a music video for that song and then she happened to be home and she was just looking for opportunities to do more creative directing work, so it was perfect timing. I think right now, I’ve just been trying to use what I have in terms of social media to build up a world for “Overdrive.” With “Mind’s Eye,” I didn’t totally plan it and when I’ve tried to force it in the past, it didn’t come out the way I was hoping for it to. Right now, I don’t necessarily have a plan for a music video for “Overdrive,” but I love visual extensions of all my songs. I usually have a vision board or a world for the song in my head. “Overdrive” to me has a very staring off the edge of the world at sunset sort of feeling, so I’d want to capture it in a way that would really honor that feeling.

GCM: You released your very first official single “Mind’s Eye” two years ago. What was that experience like and how do you feel you’ve grown as an artist since then?

Cati Landry: That was such a wonderful experience. I think that was one of the songs I did for my final portfolio at Berkeley and I loved it from the moment I wrote it. Part of why I really liked it was that it felt like it opened a new chapter for me in my own songwriting. I think songwriting is such a vulnerable and deeply personal and emotional thing and such a self exploration.“Mind’s Eye” felt like something that I always wanted to write, but maybe hadn’t necessarily found the key to. A huge part of finding that key was learning to make my own demos in Berkeley and just being able to play around with what I wanted the song to sound like long before I would go approach collaborators. I was so lucky to be put in touch with my producer, Neil Loganson, and the band he brought in. I just remember the first day they played the song and I was like “oh my gosh, I absolutely love what they’re doing.” It was almost like my demo was black and white and they made it technicolor. This song has been such a gift to me and it brought so many good things my way, like the music video. There’s just been so many times where I felt like that song has been connected to something special that’s happened to me since I released it.

“Mind’s Eye” gave me the confidence to proceed forward. It really felt like the kind of song me when I was five years old would love, but also me now loves and would listen to this song. From there, it allowed me to blossom into a new phase of my artistry and being ready to explore and try different things while also feeling really grounded and confident.

GCM: Who are some of your musical influences?

Cati Landry: I was just making a list for another thing I was doing and I struggled so much with narrowing it down. Stevie Nicks is definitely my lifelong one and my mom loves her, so we listened to her a lot growing up. I love the Dixie Chicks. What comes to my mind right away is Casey Musgraves, who I love. Her album, “Golden Hour,” was so important to me at a pivotal time in my life. I love Beach House; their album, “Bloom,” was really formative for me and I remember where I was when I heard it for the first time. I love Lana Del Rey; she has been such a saving grace and kind of like a big sister figure in my life in terms of songwriting. The music I grew up listening to was very influential. No one in my family is a musician, but they all love artists and music. There’s my dad’s music taste, which is like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, very singer-songwriter, but also Frank Sinatra and jazz. Then, my mom really likes pop. She loved Britney Spears, Madonna, and George Michael. She just likes a good hook and I think she gave me that love for that. My grandma really loved classic country, so I grew up listening to a lot of Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison. I think between the three of them, I got a good blend of a lot of different, very important figureheads of music that really shaped my love for music.

GCM: Do you see yourself touring in the future once you have more music out?

Cati Landry: I would love to so much. I made a video recently about a show I was doing in Vancouver and I was getting comments from people who were like “Do you think you could come to this area?” That was so great. I think I’m a little bit of a bird, like a free bird. I like to travel. When I was little, my mom worked in hotels, so I would go live with her in different hotels all over Canada, which I really loved. I know that for some people, touring is very draining and they don’t like being on the road, but I have a feeling I’ll really enjoy it. I love seeing new places and getting inspired. Definitely on the list of things to do in the future.

GCM: If you could open for any artist, living or dead, who would it be?

Cati Landry: Lana Del Rey and Stevie Nicks are always at the top of my list; they’re my dream ladies. Right now, I’ve really been loving Suki Waterhouse’s tour. She came to Vancouver right when I first moved here, unfortunately, so I missed her, but I’d love to see her.

GCM: If you could play one song to introduce someone to your music, what would it be?

Cati Landry: I gotta go with “Mind’s Eye.” It was kind of like my little intro song. I love all the other ones, but “Overdrive” is so personal and I almost think recommending a song is like the first conversation you have with someone where you’re just getting to know them and having fun together. I think “Mind’s Eye” is a little better for opening that connection between two people.