The Fly EP
Due for release across all platforms on 23rd September 2022, The Fly EP features three previously released and three brand new tracks from Manchester Synth-folk singer-songwriter Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis). Catherine began writing songs in 2020 at the dawn of the global pandemic in a bid to escape an admin-based existence. The songs encompass elements of finger-picking folk, 80's and 90's lo-fi synthezisers and lyrics about break-ups, depair, family, hope, happiness and (unintentionally) transport. Read more about Test Card Girl HERE
The EP was recorded partly at home in South Manchester, and partly at Airtight Studios Manchester, mixed and produced by Seadna McPhail (with Peter Jobson (Solitary Beat) and Ray Mitchell (We'll Always Be there), mastered by Two Zero Nine Mastering and featuring Nathan Sudders (Miles Kane) on bass, Andy Hargreaves (I Am Kloot) on drums and Danny Becker on guitar (Solitary Beat). Cover art by Spencer Robbens
"That has Manchester's musical heritage running right through it like the writing in rock - Blakpool rock."
- Guy Garvey (Elbow) BBC 6Music
"Life-affirming Mancunian electro-pop"
- Tom Robinson BBC 6Music
"Lush"
- John Kennedy Radio X
Picture credits: Debbie Ellis Photography, Karen McBride
For management enquiries or live bookings CONTACT US
Test Card Girl is hugely grateful to everyone who took the time to listen, feedback and mould her sound, and all the laughs along the way.
01
Like A Train
Written by Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis)
Vocals, Guitars, Synths, Clarinet: Catherine Burgis
Bass: Nathan Sudders
Drums: Andy Hargreaves
Mixed and Produced by: Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios
Mastered by Two Zero Nine Mastering
Like a Train is about a break-up that happened on an escalator many years ago and tries to capture the moment of descent (both physically if you're the unfortunate one left going down the escalator and matephorically) into the gloom.
02
Fly
Written by Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis)
Vocals, Synths: Catherine Burgis
Drums: Andy Hargreaves
Mixed and Produced by: Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios
Mastered by Two Zero Nine Mastering
Released as a single 25th February 2022
Written during the long hot days of lockdown, the song is about feeling trapped inside, whilst jealously watching a fly explore the four corners of the room, and then fly off through the window to freedom. Sonically, it is a result of hearing Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn' playing in the background while half- watching a programme about colliery bands in British mining towns. It's a rallying cry to stand up and walk to nowhere.
'Fly makes for uplifting company. The arrangement is slick but always with that warmness so we never feel like it is intruding on the day" MP£ Hugger Blog, January 2022
03
We'll Always Be There
Written by Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis)
Vocals, Guitars, Synths: Catherine Burgis
Bass: Ray Mitchell
Mixed and Produced by: Catherine Burgis and Ray Mitchell
Mastered by: Ray Mitchell
Released as a single on 25th June 2021
This song is dedicated to the Test Card Girl's father, and is about being there to support someone who's past can sometimes haunt them, through no fault of their own. It calls to mind images and sounds of the sea and memories of a lighthouse visited as a child on a storm- battered beach. The song encompasses Test Card Girl's signature sound - finger-picking folk interlaced with retro synth-sonics but shies away from her usual harmony layers to leave a more vulnerable solo voice to tell the song's story.
"The result is a bittersweet composition painted in hesitant arpeggio, sunken bass line quietly forming the groove from the back; warm keys fall left/right, saturated bronze, long protracted melodies extend out into the production; sound design creeps and ripples, metallic and ill-at-ease. Catherine’s vocal lifts and falls in absent run, often lost in the shadows of nostalgia; free of the listener-friendly sheen of modern production' - Tobisonics, Fresh on The Net, June 2021
04
Solitary Beat
Written by Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis)
Vocals, Synths: Catherine Burgis
Additional Synths: Peter Jobson
Guitars: Danny Becker
Bass: Nathan Sudders
Drums: Andy Hargreaves
Co-mixed and co-produced by: Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios and Peter Jobson
Mastered by Two Zero Nine Mastering
Released as a single 25th February 2022
Previously unreleased, Solitary Beat was written in the passenger seat of a car suddenly struck by the short nature of life and thinking about those who have been lost. It was produced in collaboration with producer and song-writer Peter Jobson (I Am Kloot) and echoes of the gypsy rhythms of the artist's great grandparents who settled in Hull in the early 1900s.
05
Fade Out
Written by Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis)
Vocals, Clarinet, Synths: Catherine Burgis
Piano: Seadna McPhail
Bass: Nathan Sudders
Mixed and Produced by: Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios
Mastered by: Two Zero Nine Mastering
Fade Out is the last of the un-released track on the EP and was written for Mike - the song is for times when you feel lost and alone and a reminder that better times are coming (and did come) down the tracks.
06
The Beyond
Written by Test Card Girl (Catherine Burgis)
Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Synths: Catherine Burgis
Bass: Nathan Sudders
Drums: Andy Hargreaves
Mixed and Prodcued by: Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios
Mastered by Two Zero Nine Mastering
Released as a single on 6th May 2022
The lyrics for The Beyond written during a long car journey, looking out of the window, watching the white lines pass and thinking about where life is going. It's about the uncertainty which, at times. can be all-pervading. How much do we decide for ourselves, and how much of our lives follow an inevitable path that we watch ourselves treading, often confused or resentful, but not brave enough to step off?
