‘Make A Living’ started with the kind of comment that tends to stick around. At a wedding, someone who had known Cath as a child expressed their surprise at what she had made of her music career: they never would have expected it from her. There are probably nicer things you can say to someone who hates being underestimated. BLUAI’s answer comes with a spring in its step and a chorus that wastes little time getting lodged in your head: “I’ll make a living / doing my own thing.”
Then again, other people aren’t the only ones Cath has to convince. Halfway through the song, she catches herself in the mirror: “get it together.” ‘Make A Living’ doesn’t try to resolve the contradiction of putting your innermost thoughts on stage when self-confidence doesn’t always come naturally. The music, meanwhile, came remarkably easily: to the band’s own surprise, much of the song was caught within a handful of takes. Banjo takes a starring role, while Willem Ardui spontaneously added the viola solo from the stairwell at RAK Studios. Producer Isabelle Gracefield had fallen for its natural reverb and occasionally sent the band out into the hallway to make use of it. This time, it produced one of those little bits of studio magic you couldn’t quite plan for.
‘Make A Living’ is the final song BLUAI will share before their second album 'The Way You Talk Reminds Me Of Home' arrives on October 30. It finds Cath taking another minute while everybody else keeps going. By the end, she’s back where she started: “Doing my own thing, I’ll make a living.” Maybe being underestimated has its uses after all.