"Cate's Brother" is a song by British singer-songwriter

Maisie Peters Maisie Hannah Peters (born 28 May 2000) is an English singer-songwriter. After independently releasing two singles, she was signed to Atlantic Records, with whom she released two EPs and the second series soundtrack to the British comedy series ...

, released on 6 May 2022 as a stand-alone single. It is Peters' highest-charting single in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

, reaching number 29 in the chart.

History

Peters has stated that the song, which is about an ultimately fictional relationship with her real life close friend Cate Canning's brother, started out as a inside joke amongst her friendship group after she met Cate's brother at a party and found him attractive. Peters posted snippets of the song onto

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

for fun, the first of which was uploaded on 25 February 2022. After a positive fan reaction to the first snippet, which was viewed over 10 million times, she posted further developments of the song onto TikTok, before eventually announcing an official single release of the song on 6 May. An

acoustic Acoustic may refer to: Music Albums * ''Acoustic'' (Above & Beyond album), 2014 * ''Acoustic'' (Deine Lakaien album), 2007 * ''Acoustic'' (Everything but the Girl album), 1992 * ''Acoustic'' (John Lennon album), 2004 * ''Acoustic'' (Love Amo ...

version of the song featuring

Matt Maltese Matthew Jonathan Gordon Maltese (born 6 October 1997) is a British-Canadian singer-songwriter. His style blends elements from indie pop, indie rock, and chamber pop. Since releasing his debut single "Even If It's a Lie" in 2015, Maltese has rele ...

, known as "Cate's Brother (Matt's Version)" in reference to the titles of remastered albums by Peters' primary musical influence

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bo ...

, was released onto streaming platforms on 1 June 2022.

Composition and lyrics

"Cate's Brother" has been described as

pop-punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti- suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...

arena rock Arena rock (also known as AOR, melodic rock, stadium rock, anthem rock, pomp rock, corporate rock and dad rock; ; ) is a style of rock music that originated in the mid-1970s. As hard rock bands and those playing a softer yet strident kind of p ...

and

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...

; Peters stated that she wrote the song on a trip to Stockholm at a time where she "was revisiting a lot of the pop-punk music I grew up listening to", such as

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist ...

Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy is an American rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. ...

and

All Time Low All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland, formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band to ...

as well as other rock influences like

Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. The group consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jamie Cook (guitar, keyboards), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Matt Helders (drums, ...

. Lyrically, the song is written about a largely-fictional romantic relationship between Peters and the Canadian brother of her real-life close friend and fellow singer-songwriter Cate Canning, whom she met at a

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. ...

party hosted by Peters in 2021. In the song, after being introduced to each other by Canning at the party, Peters and Cate's brother go on cinema dates, party together and

make out Making out is a term of American origin dating back to at least 1949, and is used to refer to kissing, including extended French kissing or heavy kissing of the neck (called ''necking''), or to acts of non-penetrative sex such as heavy pet ...

, before Peters questions whether the relationship will work out after Cate's brother returns home to Canada due to its long-distance nature. The song's final chorus closes with Cate's brother's reassurances that Peters can join him in Canada and meet his parents, concluding with the line "and now I date Cate's brother". Both compositionally and lyrically, "Cate's Brother" has been compared to "

Stacy's Mom "Stacy's Mom" is a song by American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It is the third track on their third studio album, ''Welcome Interstate Managers'', and was released to radio as the album's first single on May 19, 2003, through S-Curve Recor ...

" by

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, "

Sk8er Boi "Sk8er Boi" (pronounced "skater boy") is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne, released as the second single from her debut album, '' Let Go'' (2002). It was written by Lavigne and the Matrix (Scott Spock, Lauren Christy, and Graham ...

" by

Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. At age 16, she signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records. Her debut studio album, '' Let Go'' (2002), is the best-selling album of the 21 ...

and "

Teenage Dirtbag "Teenage Dirtbag" is a song by American rock band Wheatus. It was released on June 20, 2000, as the lead single from their eponymous debut album (2000). The song was written by guitarist and vocalist Brendan B. Brown and was inspired by a chil ...

" by

Wheatus Wheatus are an American rock band from Northport, New York, formed in 1995. They are known principally for their 2000 single " Teenage Dirtbag", which appeared in the films ''Loser'' and '' Bully'', as well as the HBO miniseries '' Generation ...

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal. *

–

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature * Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

, vocals *Max Grahn – composition *Fat Max Gsus –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

, drums,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

synthesiser A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, programming *

Randy Merrill Randy Merrill is an American mastering engineer who has worked with international artists including DAY6, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Harry Styles, One Direction, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Beck, Liam Gallagher, Jonas Brothers, Muse, Cage t ...

– mastering *

Serban Ghenea Șerban Ghenea (born October 13, 1969) is a Grammy award-winning Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. He later attende ...

– mixing *Bryce Bordone – assistant mixer

Charts

Release history

References

{{Maisie Peters 2022 singles 2022 songs Maisie Peters songs Gingerbread Man Records singles Songs written by Maisie Peters