Kate is an American illustrator with a not-so-secret appreciation for the music of The Cure. Yes, she likes some other bands very much, but her first encounter with a Cure song came at that magical, behind-the-looking-glass, lost-in-the-labyrinth, moment in her life, where the yellow brick road of childhood ends, and that boring existence called "adulthood" feels wrong and far away just yet. But interesting...

She still vividly remembers coming home from school, heading straight to her room to peel off her Catholic uniform—but first, music! She tweaked the light grey dials on her portable pastel purple portable stereo to scrub the airwaves for her new favorite, student-run stations in the staticky, low-end frequencies of the radio. Aha! Kate pressed "record" and "play" as an R.E.M. song ended, and an unknown tune began, the silence broken with these five perfect words: "Why can't I be you...?" repeated, over and over, then "Ow!" reverberated, punctuated by a dancy beat, synthesized brass, punchy bass, and again, this peculiar, hyperventilating wail of some delightful, alien creature.

You turn
You turn my head when you turn around
You turn my whole world upside down...

This song, and specifically this extended radio edit of this song, "Why Can't I Be You?" by The Cure hit all the right dissonant chords in the right moment in the fourteenth year of Kate's life. It would become her benchmark for all music going forward. Little did she know what treasures awaited her as she continued on her quest to find all the things she liked, on her own, with zero influence from her very concerned parents. 

In an instant, the deep catalog of The Cure's music strung a sweet, shimmering lifeline to the hollows in her heart. There it remains to this day. 
🖤

Follow Kate on IG: @forgetaboutstars@katesnowbird