Catbug

Catbug is the project of singer-songwriter Paulien Rondou, who grew up in Duisburg, a small Belgian village near Tervuren. After completing her studies in “Kleinkunst” at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, Paulien moved to her mother’s small farm in Westmalle. Although she left without a clear goal in mind, it didn’t take long before the first beautifully crafted songs found their origin there. With her debut album Universe (2018), she immediately made a mark on the Belgian music scene. Not long after, she and her then-partner ran the organic farm De Paardebloemhoeve in Malle, a place that became the fertile ground for her first Dutch-language album slapen onder een hunebed (2021): an intimate, poetic collection of songs that was once again warmly received at home. The album was also picked up by the Japanese label Think! Records. Despite the fact that Catbug’s lyrics are sung in Dutch, her music found a devoted audience in Japan. In 2024, her third album Musjemeesje was released in both the Benelux and Japan, an ode to the birds on the farm, which further expanded her growing Japanese fanbase and led to a successful tour in Japan in October 2025. For her fourth album, Paulien takes a new, darker direction. The record explores the grieving process of an ending you have initiated yourself, and the gradual realization that within every farewell lies the seed of a new beginning. Catbug’s fourth album will be released in September via On The Level (Benelux) and Think! Records (Asia).