CMAT has spoken to NME about being nominated for the Mercury Prize 2024, as well as more music industry action being required over the situation in Palestine.
The Irish singer-songwriter (real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) was speaking to us on the red carpet at the launch of the Mercury Prize yesterday (Thursday July 25), where she was shortlisted for album of the year for the acclaimed ‘Crazymad, For Me’ – alongside Charli XCX, English Teacher, Ghetts, Beth Gibbons, BERWYN, Corinne Bailey Rae and more.
“Of all the things that have happened this year, this feels the most important, special and surreal,” Thompson told NME. “I’ve watched the Mercury Prize, listened to all the albums that get nominated and have followed it for years. I used to watch the stream as a teenager. I remember when Wolf Alice won: I was living in Manchester and it was really exciting.
“It’s weird to be here and be one of them. I feel like I’m in Miss America. It’s crazy.”
CMAT also plays Latitude this weekend, after being among the artists to boycott the Suffolk festival due to its sponsorship from Barclays in solidarity with Palestine. After a number of artists pulled out over to the bank’s ties to Israeli arms suppliers, Latitude, Isle Of Wight and Download all removed Barclays as a sponsor.
Check out our full interview with CMAT below, as she tells us about the power of a boycott, her Mercury chances, her ‘Brat’ summer, and progress on wild new material.
NME: Hello CMAT. What do you think of your competition on this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist?
CMAT: “The list is unbelievable. It’s really unexpected. I would put myself in that category of ‘People I Didn’t Think Were Going To Get Nominated But Who I Love’. I’m really happily surprised by people like Corinne Bailey Rae, because I loved that record [‘Black Rainbows’] and was obsessed with it.
“It’s an unbelievable achievement, but I wouldn’t have thought that the entire population would have known about it. For things like that to come up alongside my album and create the opportunity for more people to listen to it and realise, ‘Damn, this absolutely slaps’ – that’s really important.”
There’s been a lot of Charli XCX talk today too. Is your outfit a nod to ‘Brat’?
“The dress is very ‘Brat’ coded! I was doing the ‘Apple’ dance earlier on. I was actually teaching it to the very straight members of the CMAT band yesterday. I will never forget the look of concentration on my tour manager’s face. I’m a huge, huge, huge Charli XCX fan. It means the world to be considered in the same category as her. I owe her my life, I love her to death, I think it’s one of the best records I’ve ever heard.”
Are you having a ‘Brat’ summer?
“No! I’m not doing anything sexy or cool. I’ve been just doing shows and trying not to get a UTI from festival toilets. Life, oh life!”
You could argue that you were part of kickstarting the recent global country music phenomenon?
“You could, and you should! I mean there are a lot of people in there. I think I’m the only person from Ireland that’s in the conversation, and possibly the only person from this side of the pond that’s in that conversation and doing alternative country music. I think I’m doing a really good job of bastardising country music. Half of the country music fans in America who have listened to me, do not like me! But there’s this bubbling resistance to the super-commercialised, very tired country music tropes that we’ve heard for the last 35 years since.
“I’m really proud to be part of it, and I hope that the age-old saying of, ‘I like everything – just not country music or jazz’ becomes a thing of the past as people realise that there is a lot more in both of those genres beyond everything you’ve heard before. There are people making it who really care about it and care about pushing out.”
You’re playing Latitude this weekend, after your boycott seemed to prove successful…
“That feels particularly good, I’m not gonna lie. That whole situation was crazy. I’m happy to be playing because I’m happy not to be letting down the fans that would have bought tickets to see me there – but at the same time, I think there’s a real conversation that needs to be had about the industry’s ambivalence towards what’s going on in Gaza at the moment.
“I think it’s a disgrace. It’s crazy how many people in private conversations in the music industry are happy to say words like ‘genocide’, but will not say it on camera for fear of closing out some pretend music market that they don’t even have. I’m happy to be playing Latitude, but sad to be playing under the circumstances. We’re donating our entire fee so I feel kind of OK about doing it, but I really feel like more needs to be done to atone for what they did in the first place.”
The last time we spoke, you told us you were working on “the weirdest music of your life so far” and you could bosh out an album in two weeks. Did that happen?
“It’s actually really interesting to get nominated for the Mercurys at this point, because I’m so far into the process of the next record that I forgot that I released an album less than a year ago. It feels really nice because I don’t remember to take a breath and take stock of what’s happened in my life very often.
“It’s crazy to be nominated for this album because they might not like the next one! But that doesn’t matter, because I like it.”
If you do win the Mercury Prize, what are you spending the prize money on?
“I’ve been thinking a lot about vintage playing cards. I’ve been reading of 18th century novels recently where the characters are playing cards, and I wondered if these cards still exist. I fell into an eBay hole. They’re gorgeous and dusty as hell, and I really want to have an entire bookshelf of them. Also, I need somewhere to live. I don’t really live anywhere. I live in a suitcase, so I should probably do that first.”
Maybe kill two birds with one stone and build a house of cards?
“I could make a house of cards. It topples down so quickly… just like my personal life.”
The winner of the 2024 Mercury Prize will be announced in September.