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Few artists can boast receiving career advice from Charli XCX. And not many would ignore a personal message from her. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, the Irish singer-songwriter, better known as CMAT, did both.
In 2018, when Thompson was in her early 20s, broke and working in a club as a “sexy shots girl”, she was invited to a focus-group style listening session hosted by Charli. Thompson gave the rave-pop artist critical feedback on several unreleased tracks. Charli, impressed by her attention to detail, told her to “figure it out” and make her own music.
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, better known as CMAT, has been called “Dublin’s answer to Dolly Parton”.
This advice changed Thompson’s life. She has since released two albums, the second of which (Crazymad, for Me) scored her a Brit Award nomination this year. Thompson assumed Charli had forgotten about their encounter until recently, when she sent her a tongue-in-cheek DM asking for Sweat tour tickets.
“She had sent me an incredibly kind, encouraging message on Instagram about a year and a half ago, but I f---ing left her on read,” Thompson, now 28, says. “If I had replied then, she probably would have sent another message. But now she’s the most famous person in the world, and I left her on read.”
For fans of Thompson’s witty country pop, this shouldn’t be surprising. Transparency, self-deprecation and a dash of chaos inform her brand. Crazymad, for Me is filled with similarly eccentric anecdotes, most of which tear apart the toxic man she dated about six years ago.
“What did I think / That a bouncy castle Catholic could give to me / But a little wine and God,” she sings in California. Dejection and failure define each song, yet they’re imbued with Thompson’s trademark wit and hyper-specific pop-cultural reference, which she considers inextricably linked.
The album operates as a 12-track therapy session for the brokenhearted. Since she was a child, Thompson says, music has kept her sane.
“Whenever something gets in the way of me making music, I go crazy – cut -my-hair-off-and-glue-it-to-the-walls level of crazy. Thinking God is talking to me through a hole in my Cheerios, that level of nuts.”