TikTok hasn’t even been around for half a decade yet, but it has already completely changed the world and has spawned an unfathomable number of artists to create the soundtrack. One of these new artists whose launch into stardom came from the juvenile app is singer/songwriter Casey Baser, whose life went from south coast schoolgirl to superstar sensation overnight. 

An excitable Caity Baser sat down on a video call with journalist Mason Meyers to talk about her excitement to be in the early stages of an already impressive career and where this will be heading as she moves into her twenties. 

Tell me about who you are.

I’m Caity Baser, I’m from Southampton, but I live in Brighton. I make songs about things that happen to me; I don’t like beating around the bush, so if you’ve annoyed me, you’ll definitely know about it, my favourite colour is blue, and I can balance spoons on my face. 

Tell me about your career so far.

I’ve only properly been doing this since 2020, I posted a video on TikTok during the September lockdown, and it got 500,000 views. I was in a car park of M&S when it got to a million views, and we turned the speakers up as loud as we could, and we blasted this song I had posted and started screaming.

Then the next day, I got a DM from this girl called Dakota, and she gave me her number and said to give her a call, and I was like “Who is that?”. So I called her and said, “who are you, why do you want to talk to me?” I was popper gobby, so the next day I was in a session with future cut, and we recorded a song, and she is now my manager, and we’ve made an album together.

When I got discovered I had just gotten a job at the Co-Op, I was gassed, and then I did one shift and quit.

Your rise to stardom has happened very suddenly, has the rise to fame been scary?

It’s not scary; it’s just fucking sick. All I’ve ever wanted to do is music. So now that I’m doing it and people like me for me, which is something I always struggled with because I was a loud weirdo, I’m thinking, yes, about time, I need some love.  

Your latest single Friendly Sex, has been out for a couple of weeks; how was the release of that? Are you happy with the response?

I posted a TikTok after cleaning my room. It took five minutes, I posted it, and it blew up, and my manager called me and said I needed to record it, so I did that, and the following week it was released. It was so crazy. It was such a quick turnaround; I’m knackered. It has a million streams already, and I’m trying to keep my head fitting through the door.

Does that mean you sacrifice friendships for your music?

Nah, they get it; they’re like, do your thing, Cait. I usually get the weekends off, so it will be an intense week, and then at the weekend, I’m like, “yes, boys, let’s go”.

You’ve gone from filming TikToks alone in your bedroom to filming real music videos with film crews; what’s that like?

Oh my god, we filmed it the other day and the whole day I was like [smiling], throwing things and buzzing. There were so many people there. I had a makeup artist, I had a hairstylist, I had a camera team; I was like, “what?” the whole thing was crazy. It was the best day of my life so far. I felt like a princess superstar.

Doing TikToks is just me in my room bored, and then it turns into a weird thing, it’s a good thing, but it’s weird. It’s just so exciting I’m always smiling.

Are you trying to bring back the old school 2000s brit school (Kate Nash/Lily Allen) sound into popularity again?

A million per cent, you can listen to that kind of music all year round, and it just makes you feel happy and warm. And I think everything is so serious now and that British funny music, there just needs to be more of it. Everyone is crying, which is fair; life is sad, so I will provide you with the summer happy bangers. I choose happiness.

How many of your songs are actually true? Did your ex actually get an STD from cheating on you?

My boyfriend cheated on me, and I don’t think he got any STDs, but it made me feel better thinking that he did, so I just wanted to chat shit. It makes it funnier because I hate him. All the other songs are true, too; that’s how I like to write. I like to tell a story. I don’t like talking about my feelings with people, so if I put it in a song, I’ve released it all.

How much of your career is down to TikTok?

It is all because I got discovered on TikTok. One way or another, I knew I was always meant to make music, but I didn’t think I would blow up.

Is your music career reliant on TikTok?

I think it is still a big thing on TikTok because I make a lot of music, and it is the best way to reach the most amount of people, so if I like a song, I’ll post it to say, “here’s a thing I’ve made” and if it blows I’ll post. If I post a snippet of a song and it blows up, I’ll release the song. You have to be so on it and not get tired, even if you’re bored.

But also, I love talking to people and hearing their feedback and changing things; I really like that my “fans” –  that sounds horrid – my “friends” to feel separated from me. I feel like many celebrities – I’m not a celebrity, that’s not what I was meant to say – but when people are famous, they can seem so out of reach, and I want people to DM me to talk; I like keeping the closeness.

Do you feel like you have to compete with the other people that are blowing up?

Honestly, I don’t even compare. My for you page is mostly just weird videos, so I don’t even see it. If I do see it, I think, “yes, this is sick, I love this for you, get into it”, because there is so much negativity in the world, and then there is just being in awe; I’ve never felt like I wished I was someone because one day I’ll get there.

Do you ever struggle with admitting your own success?

Whenever I do anything and I think I’m not doing well, I think of a ten-year-old Caity Baser sitting in a room with me, and I’m telling her what I’m doing; imagine how gassed she would be. Whenever I perform, I imagine a ten-year-old me and a sixteen-year-old me, and I imagine they’re both there, and that’s why I get so excited.

Do you ever worry about your success not carrying on past now?

I mean, my view on life has kind of been fuck it. Right now, I feel amazing, and I think I’m doing great, but I don’t really think too much about it because right now, it feels amazing. Why would I dwell on something that hasn’t happened yet because it’s not happened? I really believe in manifestation, and you can’t predict anything, so why sit and worry about it.

Did blowing up overnight mean you have escaped the creepiness of men preying on emerging female talent?

I wouldn’t say I skipped the shitness; from school, it was fucking shit, I hated it. I hated everything, life, and thought I was awful, but luckily I blew up. But I guess luckily, I haven’t met anyone that’s creepy because everyone I’ve met are literally my family now. They know me and know to never put me in a situation I’m not comfortable in, and also, if I ever was, I’m not shy, so I would just say I’m not going.

I have never encountered creepy men in the music industry; maybe one day I will, I probably will, but everyone has kind of adopted me. At the start, when I first started in music, they put me with people they know really well so I would be safe, and they’ve all looked after me. I’m the child, I turn up, and they look after me.

I’ve only had one encounter, and he wasn’t even a creepy man; he was just a dick head, and I said I wasn’t doing it again. But so far it has been beautiful, it could not be better; I’m having the best time.