The Cat Empire

[Foxy]

Randomly searching today for music, and came across 'The Cat Empire', and have downloaded quite a few of their songs. They have an air of Samba/Ska/Funk/Jazz around them, which is really top

Have a listen at HMV Australia!

Will Hull-Brown / drums · Felix Riebl / percussion/vocals · Harry J Angus / trumpet/vocal

Ollie McGill / Rhodes/melodica/banjo · Ryan Monro / double bass/ bass guitar

Jamshid ?Jumps? Khadiwala / decks/percussion

The Cat Empire, a six-piece combo from Melbourne with soul, funk and jazz at the core of their musical trip, have caused quite a stir with their free form and spirited ambition. Their charisma is written all over their sound. The group create music that is uplifting; that makes you want to dance yet still gives you room to be pensive. Their mission is very much about high-energy performances and creating soulful songs.

Led by the enigmatic vocalist Felix Riebl, the band is also made up of Harry Angus (trumpet & vocals) Ollie McGill (keys), Ryan Monro (bass), Will Hull-Brown (drums), and Jamshid Khadiwala aka. DJ Jumps (turntables & percussion). They?re a tight unit, one that rest their laurels on their instruments, and are purely in this for the love of music.

After 18 months of non-stop gigging and playing sell out shows around the country and the world, 6 Aria nominations, and their self-titled debut album just short of double platinum sales in Australia, it was time for The Cat Empire to head into the studio to pin down the new record.

To do just that, from late November 2004, until Christmas time, the band went to Havana, Cuba and shacked up in Egrem Studios where the Buena Vista Social Club, Irakere, Los Van Van, Ruben Gonzalez, Cubanismo, Chucho Valdes and many other legends made musical history.

The debut album had been recorded in Australia, over eight months, with Producer Andy Baldwin, so 28 days in Cuba presented an entirely new recording challenge and experience for the band.

?This record has been a long time coming,? says Felix. ?What we have done til now has been about learning, and going from jazz clubs, to larger venues and then to big festival stages. This record has got a lot of direction, it?s raw, it?s earthy and it?s live. It?s about six musicians who play together and perform together, and create songs that have a life of their own.?

While Cuba conjures visions of dreamy streets with old fashioned 50s cars, Mojitos and fine cigars, The Cat Empire did not head there to reproduce the city?s signature style. They were chasing a particular sound.

?Primarily, we decided to go to Egrem Studios in Cuba because we wanted a real, pure, live sound? says Felix. Secondly this record is about the stories for me. We also went to Cuba for the adventure. We didn?t want to go over there and sound Cuban. We wanted it to sound like an Australian record.?

According to Felix who has been making music since he was 16, ?In some ways I think when people hear this record they will hear something new. The approach to recording was very organic. If there was a mistake on the song and it was a good one, we?d keep it and if not we?d do the whole take again. There was a real commitment to it. This record is much more deliberate and much more direct than anything we?ve done before.?

The recording process saw all members of the group contribute artistically. While essentially The Cat Empire was Felix?s idea and he writes the Lions share of the songs, this troupe is very much about everybody being involved, and bringing the right people in to bring the band to life.

Producer Jerry Boys (UK) was on hand to lend his expertise to the recording project. With albums such as Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder, Ruben Gonzalez and other Cuban and worldwide great albums behind him, and years of experience recording at Egrem and learning to get around the subtleties of creaky floorboards and power failures, The Cat Empire felt he was the right man for the job. The guys also tapped into some local talent for the album, in the form of Cuban horn players and backing vocalists, ?we had these top class players who were amazing to work with.?

Trumpeter, Harry Angus, who also writes music for The Empire explains his take on the new album. ?This album is about such a physical sound, you can hear the drums hitting something; you can hear the reverberations. We?ve got air vibrating in a room and sound bouncing around. The experience recording it was awesome.?

The album is full of those heart shaking anthems and horns with a flirty vibe that have become a signature of The Cat Empire. Yet there is also a note of maturity coming through.

There?s a song called Miserere that may sound sad but it?s quite the opposite, suggests Felix. ?It?s hard to talk about your own songs because you don?t write them to analyse them. But Miserere is a special song for me because it was written equally from beautiful times as it was from sad times. I wrote the song because I wanted to write a beautiful song. It may sound sad and desolate, but it?s a song that can move you and takes you somewhere else. Beauty is always linked to sadness and that?s what that song represents to me.?

Then there?s The Car Song, written by Harry James Angus. ?Last year some time, we were doing a photo shoot where we all had to hover round the piano like smiling cherubim while Ollie played jazz standards. There was a piece of music called ?Sunday? up on the piano. I started screaming ?Sunday?... after a while it became ?Someday?... and then came the song about an old car I might buy some day.?

Another song, The Sly, is about a woman. ?It refers to a woman, but it?s also the name to the rhythm of the song. The sound sits somewhere between that James Brown funk and an Aussie rock AC/DC type groove. I remember listening to a lot of Aussie rock last year and this song has a lot of grunt to it. I wanted to create something that had the funk rhythm and the rock vibe.?

The songs are romantic without being soppy, they?re fun just as they are poetic expressions. But on the album and at the live shows, it?s the band members who create the backbone to the storytelling of the song writers, incorporating sensual rhythms, fun choruses and that funk driven vibe.

The Cat Empire are no overnight sensation, and perhaps the fact they have worked steadily to build a fan base will ensure they?ll be here for the long haul. When Felix had a vision to launch a truly Australian outfit that defied one particular genre a few years ago he knew it would work if it were held together by a love of music and life.

The Cat Empire originally began as a trio in late 1999. Ollie McGill on Rhodes, Felix Riebl on Timbales, and Ryan Monro on Double Bass. The trio played in underground bars and worked their instruments til the sun came up, perfecting their craft and gaining a following, however small. A year later Harry joined the band and Will joined on drums soon after that. Then came Jumps, who introduced the band to Hip-Hop culture.

Since then, with some good planning and a few bizarre lucky breaks, the band has toured non-stop in Australia, The USA, Europe, UK, and Asia, earning a massive following throughout the world.

?We have been musicians for a long time. I think some groups get together and they create a fantastic record and they start playing live and they skip a process of building their sound and the energy. For us we were playing long before we put out a record. We had a touring career before we had a recording career. It?s been quite a natural progression for us, and we love it.?

Courtesy of BMI Australia

[Jenny]

Some cool songs there, Foxy. I really liked Days Like These and How To Explain

[willowpunk]

grr i really dislike cat empire. Cause they're aussie and aussies dont make it into even our own charts often they play the songs that do to death, and it just annoys the crap outa me. I never really like it the first time i heard it, the music is good, but i feel like the singer has the same verse for every song which he doesnt really sing, he more says with a goofy look on his face and that stupid stupid hat and even worse haircut, lol.

[Foxy]

I think their music is really different, and quite refreshing!

[Ellie42799]

The Cat Empire rock... I'm so happy people from other countries have noticed some aussie music England rules to, some great music coming out of your country!

[katie_sane]

It is excellent to see more Aussie bands on the boards!! Some really great stuff comes outta Oz!! :guitar:

[gorgeous check out chick]

:beady:the cat empire is the best band to come out of Oz!(Apart from AC/DC)!They rock and are even better live and any one who says different don't know what they are talking about!Keep up the great work guys!!!MWAHH