Kat Greta has long been a favourite here at the antipodean outpost of Backseat Mafia, and her new single ‘I Know What This Is’ is a reminder of exactly why. Out today, the track finds the Melbourne/Naarm songwriter turning the particular sting of an unrequited, undefined almost-relationship into something you can dance to and wince at in equal measure.
We’ve followed Greta closely since premiering the video for her debut single ‘Let It Go’ back in 2022, through the elegiac ‘Farewell My Friend’, the sunlit ‘Summer Daze’, and last year’s glorious EP ‘Rhythm & Reverie’, which picked up support across Australian community radio and helped push follow-up single ‘Audacity’ to the top of the AMRAP Indie/Alternative charts. Add appearances on Nova’s Introducing with Tim Blackwell and airplay on ABC Rage, and it’s clear Greta’s stock keeps rising with every release.
‘I Know What This Is’ continues that trajectory while pulling off a neat trick: dressing a genuinely melancholy subject in some of her brightest, most propulsive production yet. Co-written and produced with Seetali Mack and mixed by Matt Voigt (Powderfinger, Midnight Oil, KISS), the track stacks roaring electric guitar, soaring vocal lines and driving, energetic beats into a sound that’s warm and inviting on the surface, even as the lyrics quietly unravel. The title phrase becomes a kind of mantra, repeated until it tips over from denial into clarity — that moment of recognising, in Greta’s words, when an almost’ relationship isn’t going to materialise.
Greta herself puts it best when she describes the tension she was chasing:
‘I Know What This Is’ is about an ‘almost’, and the moment you realise that sometimes silence is the answer. It explores uncertainty, anticipation and the feeling of knowing what something is without ever having it fully defined. Bright, energetic production sits underneath a more bittersweet story, creating a contrast between how the song sounds and what’s happening beneath the surface.
That contrast is carried through beautifully in the accompanying music video, filmed by Francis Biay. Set against rain-slicked city streets and neon light, it follows Greta pursuing a figure who stays permanently just out of reach — all anticipation and possibility at first, before the mood tips into something sadder and more self-aware. By the time the figure vanishes for good, what’s left isn’t heartbreak so much as release: the video, like the song, lands on acceptance rather than despair.
It’s a smart evolution for an artist who has always had a gift for wrapping real feeling in irresistible pop instincts, and it suggests there’s plenty more to come from Greta as she keeps refining her voice. ‘I Know What This Is’ is out now, and it’s another reason why we can’t stop championing her here at Backseat Mafia.
‘I Know What This Is’ is out today and available to download and stream here.
