Test Card Girl is the solo project of Manchester singer-songwriter Catherine Burgis, making warm, wonky synth-folk for imaginary films, half-remembered summers and people who find themselves unexpectedly crying in the car.

Catherine began writing songs in 2019 as an escape from a life of perpetual admin. Before that, she spent a year travelling around the country as a musical comedian with a miniature Yamaha keyboard, somehow winning North West Comedian of the Year along the way. When she stopped doing comedy, she repurposed the tiny keyboard and used it to write her first single, ‘Holds Me Down’.

That song found its way onto BBC Radio 6 Music and Radio X, and Test Card Girl was named one of Steve Lamacq’s Ones to Watch for 2021. An Arts Council grant followed, allowing Catherine to record her debut EP, ‘Fly’, at Airtight Studios in Manchester with producer Seadna McPhail. Released in September 2022, the record moves between intimate indie-folk and huge, nostalgic synth-pop, with guest performances from Andy Hargreaves of I Am Kloot, Nathan Sudders, whose credits include Miles Kane, Guy Garvey and Nadine Shah, and co-production from Peter Jobson of I Am Kloot.

Along the way, Catherine was selected as one of ten Manchester International Festival Sounds artists, longlisted for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition and named Greater Manchester Mayor’s Artist of the Month. She has supported Lambert, The Slow Readers Club and Darren Hayman.

After taking some time out to have two children in quick succession, Test Card Girl returned in 2026 with a renewed desire to make music that feels handmade, peculiar and completely her own: songs built from vintage synths, small details, big feelings and the strange collision between ordinary life and cinematic imagination.

The first release was the double A-side ‘My Summer Song / I Wanted to Call You Today’, released on 6 June 2026 as a tribute to Catherine’s best friend, who sadly died from cancer. It was followed in August by ‘I Feel the Love on You’, a dense, euphoric rush of retro synths, vocal harmonies and unexpected nostalgia.

‘I Feel the Love on You’ is the first single from the forthcoming Test Card Girl album, ‘Songs for Films That Don’t Exist’ - a collection of music for missed calls, imagined endings, suburban adventures and the films playing inside our heads.