ABOUT
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Catherine Traicos is a songwriter and performer known for her strong yet vulnerable vocals, evocative lyrics, and a deep commitment to the craft of songwriting. Her passion for music has led her to perform on diverse stages including Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, the Quarry Amphitheatre, and the Junkyard. She has appeared at international arts festivals across Australia, the Americana Festival in Nashville, and Live at Heart in Sweden.
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She has supported a wide range of acclaimed artists, including: Beth Orton, Mountain Goats, Medium Build, Dirty Projectors, Simone Felice and Spiral Stairs. Her work has been praised by publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine, The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald.
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In addition to her music career, Catherine is a trained visual artist with a raw, expressive practice spanning painting, drawing, and printmaking. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, often blurring the line between visual and sonic storytelling. Early in her career, Traicos received a Perth-based arts grant to support her debut solo exhibition, launching her into the art world. She is currently creating a series of visual scores to accompany her upcoming record, expanding the album’s emotional and conceptual world through image as well as sound.
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A qualified music producer, Traicos studied audio production at SAE in Sydney. She was selected to take part in the 2023 WOMPP (Women of Music Production Perth) camp, and currently produces all the material for her electronic side project, Cate Kileva. She is also working with emerging artists in Perth, helping to shape and develop their debut releases.
Photo by Dan Grant and Bridget Turner
In 2024, she released her tenth studio album, SWANSONGS, produced by Anna Laverty (Stella Donnelly, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Florence and the Machine). The album blends electric, acoustic, and digital elements, highlighting her evolution as an artist unafraid to explore new sonic ground.
Praise for SWANSONGS
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“SWANSONGS is an exquisite musical journey of heart and mind that gazes upward to a
sliver of light beyond lovelorn tears.”
Chris Lambie, Rhythms Magazine, 2024
“A slow burning collection that builds to a gentle crescendo…”
- Samuel J Fell, The Weekend Australian, 2024
“Catherine’s art and music are sacred architecture, and “SWANSONGS” solidifies her status
as a peerless artist.”
- Dan Newton, Heavy and Weird, 2024
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“There’s enough nuance in it for multiple listens.”
- Graeme Smith at York Calling, 2024
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Further Praise​
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“...redolent in parts of the ragged, eerie estrogen blues of PJ Harvey or the gaunt bluegrass sonnets of Gillian Welch”
(Album of the Month) The Age, Melbourne Magazine, 2009
"These unsettling blues-influenced songs simmer with a sense of noir, an impressive meeting of the earthy song-writing of Beth Orton with the grim undercurrents of, say, Portishead."
Barnaby Smith, Rolling Stone Magazine, 2015
“This album may have been hard to make, but its eventual birth marks Traicos as an artist of exceptional poise and talent, as many of us have known for years.”
Samuel J Fell, Sydney Morning Herald, 2018
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Photography by Caitlin Worthington
Design by Studio Papa