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Oct 25, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Nadia Wührnfeldt Hansen

Denmark-based band lil cat debuted last year with a pair of EPs, tunes and czech new wave, evoking a colorful indie pop style filled with equal parts raucous energy and disarming charm. Earlier this year they returned with another new single, the immensely biting and catchy “Fuck You Up,” and now they’ve shared a Halloween-themed single, “Monster.”

With “Monster” the band hints towards the toll that fear and anxieties take, personified in true Halloween fashion as a monster under the bed. Band members Cathrine van Leeuwen and Mads Vadsager conjure their own personal Halloween monster then disarm it with candy-coated melodies and slick pop production, rendering the track as an infectious indie pop gem.

The band describes the single, saying, “For us, ‘Monster’ is a song about all the issues and anxieties that you keep hidden behind a mask– or a Halloween mask to keep things seasonal. It can be terrifying to share what’s going on below the surface, even with family or friends, but at some point, that’s the only way you’re going to overcome those demons.”

Check out the track below, out everywhere now, along with the band’s accompanying Q&A.

On ‘Monster’ you sing about having a monster under your bed. Is the monster a metaphor for something else?

Cat: It is of course up to people how they interpret ‘Monster’, but for us the monster symbolizes the anxiety that you pack away and push down below the surface instead of confronting it. You know that at some point the emotions will pile up and overwhelm you, yet you keep trying to hide them. It can feel a bit like having a monster under your bed.

Cat: We have tried to add more monster hints into the track. In the bridge, where I sing “I can’t get you out of my mind”, there is, for example, a monster choir in the background, which is really just my voice pitched down. It somehow feels quite liberating to sing the duet with your own monster. Maybe a little something I didn’t know I needed’.

What do you hope the listener will take away from the track?

Mads: We hope that people will take a look at their own monsters under the bed and maybe get in touch with some hard emotions. We ourselves have a penchant for pop songs that bring heavier subjects into the light as it can be a rather uplifting way of confronting one’s feelings.

If you had to dress up for Halloween, what would you be?

Cat: We actually think that a monster is quite obvious. It’s always fun to look a little more dangerous than you really are. Monsters also allow a lot of creative freedom, as they can look in many different ways. And then you can do it with quite a few remedies. A wild make-up and some blood on the shirt, and then you’re ready for a Halloween party’.