2022 has seen the UK and many other countries come full face with extreme and sudden climate change. Floods and droughts compete with wildfires and man-made food shortages for our attention. Meanwhile, our politicians disparage renewable energy and urge us to pump more oil and gas on land and sea. That dystopian vista was the creative spark behind Kat Bryan's new single, Centre of the Earth.

Says Kat, 'Centre of the Earth is a high-energy banger of a song with a serious message. I don't often write from a political point of view, but after reminiscing about my elementary school education and the emphasis then on recycling, saving the rain forest, and the hole in the ozone, I developed a bleak outlook and black mood about our efforts to fight climate change and otherwise 'save the planet.'

'It felt like we had been talking about the potential for disastrous environmental impact for at least 20 years but hadn't taken it seriously. Now we are facing unprecedented weather, natural disasters, famine, and disease seemingly every week. I couldn't help but think we could have done more to prevent this. This rather morose pondering led to writing the main line of the song, 'we should have seen it coming'.'

Kat's approach to the sound of the track was to capture not just the lyrics' message, but also their mood. 'Musically, the track is built around a warped, watery sounding piano that is heavy with reverb and echo. The exact piano I choose had a bit of clunky thud to it, with a fair amount of pedal noise. This added to a feeling and idea of something older that is a bit lost to time. The dark, low-end chords at the beginning are meant to create a mood of sad introspection. The first few lines of lyrics came from a sense of disbelief, moving into a tone of accepting there is a terrifying path ahead.'

There's a cinematic energy to both the lyrics and song structure, as it builds to a downbeat conclusion.

Kat explains, 'The shifting energies of Centre of the Earth elicit the chaos of the theme. Moving from the heavy, underwater intonation of the piano layered with echoing vocals, to the choppy beat driven pre-chorus and eventually a sweeping drum and bass chorus thick with background vocals leads the listener through the experience of seeing the worst coming and being unable to prevent it. I intentionally created a dense chorus with multiple vocal layers, bouncing bass beat and the addition of a high frequency piano melody to reference the way the world can feel like an overwhelming place.'

She adds, 'As with all of my other songs, Centre of the Earth is written from a personal place as a way of expressing my emotional state, however this is one of a few original tracks that brings in my political thoughts. I don't typically get up on a public soapbox but there are moments when my levels of frustration become too great to ignore.

'Reflecting on a world that sold children the idea of personal responsibility to save the planet while allowing massive corporations to continue to have little to no organizational responsibility is one of those moments. I believe in personal responsibility to make those necessary small changes every day, but I also believe that we can't continue to allow corporations and government bodies to be unaccountable for their massive contributions to climate change, food insecurity and the widening gulf between those with money and those without.'

Summarising the core message behind the song Kat reveals, 'I hope that Centre of the Earth makes people want to dance, but I also hopes it inspires people to think critically and to question.'