Katie Belle *“Bad Dreams” and the Poetics of Sleepless Nights*

There is beauty in exhaustion—the kind of exhaustion that hums under your skin when sleep isn't happening, when that ceiling feels like it stretches into forever and the pulse of the city outside clangs with static. Katie Belle knows this ache well. Her new single, “Bad Dreams,” feels like a confessing secret in a neon light—a synth-electro-pop pulse that also shares the unease and consolation of sleepless nights.

Written with Belle by Kream, a long-time collaborator, the track was formed at Campedelli's LA studio, where the hum of analog synths are accompanied by Belle's raw, raspy vocals. It was a sound you could feel: like spilled beer over cheap wooden floors, flickers or blue lights, the taste of ash in the March air of dawn, and the soothing complacency of distorted memories. The song perfectly captures that feeling of being in a resultant mix of euphoria and anxiety that makes insomnia wear a mantle of shimmering beats.

“Music takes me out of my own head,” says Belle, her voice soft, and grounded but not ungrounded. It’s not just a line; this is a manifesto. For Belle, Bad Dreams isn’t about succumbing to sleeplessness. It’s about dancing through the sleeplessness, swirling intentionally, with intensity alongside each synth swell that washes over like a deep breath after panic, as if each lyric is a reflection for those who’ve been twisted through another restless night.

This single follows, “Cigarette,” a nostalgic haze of lost love and longing, the two songs preamble to her upcoming EP People Pleaser, a two-year personal exploration of anxiety, perfectionism, and the fragile negotiation of self-acceptance, where to be our true self is truly vulnerable.

Katie Belle, a Georgia girl with California running through her veins is the merge of vulnerability and polish. She’s not chasing trends in pop music; she’s etching emotional truth in concrete. Bad Dreams is not just a song but an invitation to engage with yourself in the static, dance with your demons until the sun comes up.