Released in late October, the track arrives with the kind of title that immediately signals intent. Those three words\u2014plucked from an Instagram meme during a bout of creative block with collaborator Nick Rosen\u2014carry the weight of a thousand condescending dismissals, every time a woman’s been told to smile more, speak softer, take up less space. That Kate and Rosen recognized the song lurking within that phrase demonstrates the sort of cultural fluency that marks the best pop songwriting: the ability to pluck meaning from the ephemera of modern life and spin it into something resonant.<\/p>
Musically, “be nice princess” eschews the bedroom pop minimalism that’s become indie’s default setting in favour of something more robust. Shimmering guitars interlock with driving percussion, creating a foundation that’s both muscular and luminous. Kate’s vocals soar through the arrangement with an anthemic quality that recalls Olivia Rodrigo’s more defiant moments, yet there’s a vulnerability threading through the performance that prevents it from tipping into mere bombast. This is the sound of someone discovering they can be both tender and fierce, often simultaneously.<\/p>
The song ostensibly chronicles a friendship gone sour, but like all worthwhile pop music, it operates on multiple levels. Kate isn’t simply recounting interpersonal drama; she’s interrogating the versions of ourselves we present to keep the peace, the emotional labour of maintaining relationships that have calcified into obligation. The wit is there\u2014it’s impossible to sing a title like “be nice princess” without a certain archness\u2014but so is genuine feeling. Kate understands that you can mourn the loss of a friendship while simultaneously recognizing it needed to end, that affection and boundaries aren’t mutually exclusive.<\/p>
The accompanying music video leans into full-blown whimsy, casting Kate as Alice navigating a pastel Wonderland populated by her sister Ella and close friends. It’s a clever visual metaphor: Carroll’s Alice was perpetually being instructed to behave properly in a world that made no sense, told to accept the illogical as immutable law. Kate’s modern Alice, by contrast, seems more knowing, more willing to question the absurdity around her. The aesthetic\u2014dreamy, colour-saturated, unapologetically girly\u2014could easily read as frivolous in less capable hands, but Kate deploys it with purpose. There’s power in reclaiming the trappings of princesshood and reshaping them on your own terms.<\/span><\/p> Kate’s trajectory thus far suggests an artist refusing to be pigeonholed. Her previous single, “angel,” released in August, dealt with grief and loss in more sombre tones, while her most-streamed track, “I wish I knew (one more kiss),” explores romantic regret. Across her two EPs\u2014”just a kid” (2022) and “yearbook” (2023)\u2014and the steady stream of singles that followed her departure for Berklee, she’s been mapping emotional territory with impressive range for someone barely into their twenties.<\/span><\/p> The Sherman Oaks upbringing and Berklee education might suggest privilege, but Kate wears both lightly, neither apologizing for her Valley girl roots nor trading excessively on her conservatory credentials. She’s simply getting on with the work: gigging at venerable Los Angeles venues like The Troubadour and Hotel Caf\u00e9 when home from Boston, honing her craft in the time-honoured tradition of actually playing live rather than merely accumulating streaming numbers.<\/span><\/p> “be nice princess” represents a consolidation of Kate’s strengths and a signal of where she might be headed. The production is confident without being slick, the songwriting personal without being hermetically self-involved, the performance assured without sacrificing emotional honesty. It’s a song about finding your voice precisely when others would prefer you kept quiet, delivered by a young artist who’s clearly already found hers. If this is what Julia Kate produces whilst still completing her degree, one can only imagine what she’ll be capable of once fully unleashed. For now, “be nice princess” stands as a calling card: sharp, vulnerable, and utterly uninterested in staying small.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/www.juliakatemusic.com\/<\/a>\n\n\n\n\n
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