After the release of her smoldering single ‘Cigarette’ earlier this year, Katie Belle is back with her second track of 2025, ‘Bad Dreams’, as another installment of her powerful sonic autobiography. This hauntingly sleek combination of electro-synth and indie-pop motifs has very much been worth the wait. An impatient insistency comes through Katie’s breathy vocal delivery as she captures the claustrophobic feeling of battling long-term insomnia. Her state of vulnerability with spiraling thoughts and dreams that seem just out of reach is reflected in straight-forward lines like, “doing bad things, I got bad dreams.”

Written alongside Fabio Campedelli, who also produced the track in his L.A. studio, the pair have worked together to place such lyrical frankness within layers of pulsating beats, shadowy synths and atmospheric textures. The shimmering chorus in particular encompasses Katie’s sleepless mind in which that hypnotic rhythm, which drives home the tension of needing rescue from this intangible threat. As well as a bluntly beautiful look into the human psyche, ‘Bad Dreams’ is yet another tantalising taste of Katie Belle’s forthcoming EP People Pleaser, which will take this artist’s exploration of anxiety, identity, and the price of perfectionism even deeper.

“Growing up in an Atlanta suburb, I always felt confined.  The influence of my parents, peers, and social expectations compelled me to adopt “bad” habits and suppress my true self, felt like I was living in a box. I feel like in the last 2 ½ years as I have search for my music sound I have found my authentic self.”

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