Mariae Cassandra discovers her first love, and the world around her, on “The City”

At just 18, Mariae Cassandra is already a rising force in Australia’s alt-pop landscape, with a gift for turning emotional moments into a widescreen feeling. “I wanted to build this world of fantasy; where I could bring a voice I wanted to hear and a person I felt was missing within my generation,” she says. “I did my very best to be someone that I always wanted to see up on a stage.”

On “The City”, the focus track from her debut EP Everything In My Backpocket, Cassandra trades intimate bedroom pop for something brighter, that captures the moment life cracks open for the first time. It’s a song that bottles the heart-racing rush of young love, and the way it can make even the most ordinary places feel transformed. In the chorus, Cassandra lets that feeling spill over: “I’m not afraid to die / That’s what the city does to you / to me.”

The track first emerged when Cassandra found herself falling for someone for the first time, and invited her into something thrillingly new. “I never used to go out, I hated it,” she says. “I was a homebody who just wanted to stay at home and focus on my passions and hobbies. But when this guy came along, I was shown life outside my bedroom. I just had to write about that.”

“The City” channels that revelation into fizzy alt-pop, pairing her signature soft vocals with crunchy guitars and a pop-rock brightness reminiscent of beabadoobee or Hayley Williams, and early 2000s TV soundtracks. It feels like the kind of song that would play as the cast of The OC pulls up to The Bait Shop to see live music or as Rory in Gilmore Girls walks through Stars Hollow.

It’s one of the most extroverted songs she’s released, for the introverts who are still coming into their own or remember the feelings of teenage exhilaration. The EP also marks a shift in Cassandra’s songwriting stitched from the emotional messiness of adolescence, from grief and heartbreak to friendship and first love. “I’m being unapologetically myself,” she explains. “I love my alt-pop and indie artists, and the 90s and 2000s music my parents played in the car. It all influenced this new song.”

While Cassandra spent much of her early years as a self-described homebody, she wasn’t creating in isolation. With her online following that has amassed millions of views across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Cassandra’s creative circle remains surprisingly intimate. The EP was built alongside family and close friends, turning a school practice room into a collaborative workshop with her dad on drums, her uncles on bass and guitar, and two friends on lead and rhythm guitar. “I’m so grateful they were willing to help,” she says. “No matter your age or background, music brings people together.”

Everything In My Backpocket traces memories she’s carried from age 15 to now: “like finding old jeans and pulling out random little memories you forgot were there,” as she puts it. “The City,” one of the last songs written on the EP, captures a rare, uncomplicated burst of joy immortalized in song. “I remember writing it when I was extremely happy and felt like nothing could break my smile. I wanted to keep that feeling forever.”

Cassandra will take these songs on the road, playing a debut headlining tour in 2026, including a date at The Grace in London. It’s a coming-of-age snapshot that’s timeless, earnest, and shimmering with possibility from an artist already carving out her next chapter.