All too many Harvard musicians invest their time, energy, and sweat in their debut record, only to never return to the studio again. Singer-songwriter Catherine D. Tuttle ’09 may only be a first-year, but she’s already one-upped the one-disc wonders. At age 19, Catherine, who goes by Cat, has already followed up her debut, “Peel,” with a new studio album, “What They Will Find,” which was released on Nov. 15.

The Philadelphia native’s love affair with music originated with her family, who constantly played tunes around the house, paid for Cat’s piano lessons, and gave her the fateful studio time that began her career.

My mom and dad gave me a few hours of studio time for my sixteenth [birthday]. We met with this producer by my house and he was really into the material and thought there was a lot of meat there and asked if I wanted to sign on for a full project…We didn’t know we were going to make a full album but that’s what happened.

Cat loves to listen to the Smashing Pumpkins, the Beatles, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Janis Jopplin, Joni Mitchell and even the Postal Service. But she thinks of her songwriting as very unique.

Obviously you’re influenced by whatever you hear or that you like at the time. But I think when you’re songwriting it’s important to try to not draw from those influences and try to just sit down, be a blank slate and really just let it happen.

I started songwriting when I was 13 so there’s only so much life experience a thirteen-year-old can have…I used to just sit on a park bench and try to think about people’s stories as they walked by. Now that I’m older, I’ve had a little bit more life experience to draw from so it’s a blend. A lot of it is personal experience and a lot of it is observation.

Cat’s new album “What They Will Find” was released in the U.S. on Nov. 15.

They’re all original songs except for one, which is a cover of the Montel Bass song “Rescue Me.” It’s an upbeat, Motown kind of song, so we did a slower, more sultry jazz version. A couple of the tracks are from the first album I recorded that was an independently released album. I was 16 when I made it so we wanted to go back and revisit some of those songs, especially because it only was locally released so we wanted to spread that music out a little more…They were rerecorded, brought up to date now that my voice is a little more mature.

Though Cat will tour the East Coast and the U.K. this summer, she is making her education her top priority.

When I get out of college I’ll definitely focus more on the music. Whether it’s in a professional capacity or just for fun, music will always be my focus. But I think it’s important now to learn all different kinds of things. If I didn’t keep learning I would have nothing to write about.