It’s not my age, it’s music that matters
LIKE contemporaries such as Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, Tate McRae, 18, found fame early.
Originally from Calgary in western Canada, she lived in Oman until she was six as her family travelled with her father Todd’s work. He’s a lawyer of Scots descent and she’s excited to be playing her debut Scottish show on Monday in Glasgow.
Tate was a dancer before she was a singer. She started at six and by eight was travelling the world. She said: “I genuinely was just a really competitive person and I wanted to be the best dancer in the room, whichever room I went to.
“I trained my a** off and when I was eight I’d travel a lot for dancing, and my mom was my dance teacher. So it kind of took up my entire life.”
Her grandpa then bought her a piano when she was 13 and she began posting her original songs online and was signed at 14 on the back of her song One Day.
She said: “It’s so crazy because at 14 I had absolutely no idea what was happening.”
You Broke Me First became a viral hit in 2020 and reached No3 in the UK charts.
Her debut album I Used To Think I Could Fly, which reached No7 last month, was written when she was 17. Tate said: “The songs to me that are eight months old, people are going to be hearing them for the first time. It’s a very scary but superexciting thing.”
Tate met Billie Eilish and worked with her brother, Finneas, on the track Tear Myself Apart. All three have grappled with fame while young.
Tate said: “I have a lot of friends in the industry who are my age and go through the same s***. When you’re young and still trying to figure out what your identity is and who you are, and what kind of person you want to be, trying to navigate your career at the same time can be a really stressful thing because everything seems unclear.
“It’s just about the music. But it can become a lot more if you focus on the wrong things. I go to my friends a lot to talk about that kind of stuff, because it can be a whole mental thing.”
Although her debut album has only just been released, Tate is already looking to the future.
She said: “I obviously dream of big goals and big dreams. I want to be playing for big crowds one day and I want to have a few albums out.
“And I want to be really, really proud of every song I’ve put out – and that’s going to take time and take growth.”
Tate McRae plays The Galvanizers Yard SWG3, Glasgow, on Monday. Information and tickets can be found at www.tatemcrae.com