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The Cat Empire

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The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire is a six-piece band, based in Melbourne, Australia. Their sound is often described as a fusion of jazz, ska, funk and rock with heavy Latin influences. The band has toured extensively throughout Australia, the US and Europe and has released four distinct albums with the first two reaching double platinum status and the third receiving an ARIA Music Award for best world album. Their fourth album, So Many Nights, was released on the 22nd of September, 2007.[1] Their song, Sly, was featured on EA Sports' FIFA 08 Soundtrack, it has sold 3 million copies worldwide.

Currently, the Cat Empire comprises Ollie McGill (keyboard and backing vocals), Ryan Monro (bass and backing vocals), Felix Riebl (percussion and vocals), Harry James Angus (trumpet and vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums) and Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwhala (decks, percussion). They also have recurring guest musicians. A strong, recurrent theme of their music is a rejection of materialism, war and intolerance and an enthusiastic embrace of cultural diversity and a simple, carefree life. The band treats their fans kindly, doing things like sending out personally messaged and autographed postcards to members of their volunteer promotional teams across Australia.

The band's name was taken from the title of a drawing by Felix Riebl's younger brother, Max, and its distinctive cat's eye icon, which is also known as "Pablo", was created by Ian McGill, Ollie McGill's father.

Beginnings

The Cat Empire began as a trio with Oliver McGill on keyboards, Felix Riebl on percussion and vocals and Ryan Monro on double bass in late 1999 and started playing a wide variety of gigs in Melbourne. The band soon expanded in 2001 adding Harry James Angus on trumpet, Will Hull-Brown on drums and Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwala as a DJ.

By late 2001, the band was appearing in the Speigeltent at the Melbourne Festival. The band prepared an independent single "Feline" (plus EP Live at Adelphia) at the end of that year. In early 2002, the band played a series of gigs at the Adelaide Festival of Arts. Later that year, they were the headline act at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and St Kilda Film Festival in March.

The band commenced its first overseas tour on the west coast of the United States playing to sellout crowds in the Matrix in San Francisco and playing at the Napa Valley Wine Auction in June 2002. The band received a Music for the Future to fund the recording of album The Sun at the Adelphia studio in Melbourne before flying out to the Edinburgh Festival where they played sixteen successive shows at the Late'n'Live show between 3am and 5am. The band returned to Melbourne for the 2002 Melbourne Festival and played a series of sell-out performances in Melbourne, with Kate Ceberano appearing as a guest vocalist at their final show of the year.

File:Cat Empire logo.png
The Cat Empire logo, combining a crown and a cat's eye, known as "Pablo".

Recording career

2003

The band recorded its debut studio album, The Cat Empire, in seven months during 2003 with producer Andy Baldwin in Melbourne. It recorded the album in between touring Australia playing at the St Kilda Festival with Kate Ceberano and appearing at the Byron Bay Blues & Roots Festival in April 2003. The band was nominated in two categories at the Australian Jazz Awards. The band successfully applied for an International humpways grant from The Australian Arts Council.

The band was featured in a BBC Television 4 on the 2003 WOMAD Festival where the band appeared. Their track "Hello" was placed on high rotation on BBC Radio 1 in August 2003. The band's growing live and critical reputation put them in a great position to approach record companies for a record deal for their self-financed, self-titled debut album in the middle of 2003. The band signed a deal with EMI Virgin Records subsidiary. The band also signed a deal in the UK with an independent company.

The first single "Hello" was released in October 2003 with a film clip that was Channel V's clip of the week. The Cat Empire was released in November 2003, debuting in the top 20 of the ARIA Top 50 album chart with Triple J nominating it as their album of the week in November. High profile TV appearances on Rove (Live) and The Panel helped the album go gold in Australia by December 2003. The band finished 2003 playing high profile gigs at festivals like Homebake and the Falls Festival before headlining the Melbourne New Year's Eve celebrations at Federation Square. They also played at Woodford Folk Festival.

2004

"Days Like These" was the second single reaching the top 40 of the ARIA singles charts in early 2004. The band would play a double bill with Ozomatli in Sydney and Melbourne in January 2003 before starting a 35 date 2004 tour of Australia playing to 100,000 and closing the main stage at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in 2004. The Cat Empire would also perform as a support act to James Brown in his 2004 Australian tour. Their debut album would go platinum in February 2004. Their third single "The Chariot" would also debut in the ARIA top 40 in May 2004. "Hello" would finish at number 6 on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2003, with album track "Days Like These" at number 37 and "The Chariot" at number 100.

In September, the band released a DVD entitled On the Attack.

2005

The Cat Empire released their second album, Two Shoes on 19 April 2005. The album, recorded in Havana, Cuba, contains many old favourites for those who followed the Cat Empire from the beginning, as well as some new tunes (the first single, "Sly", being released on 28 March 2005). The song was written by Riebl after he saw a girl, Louisa Mignone, dancing in the crowd. She would later become his girlfriend and feature in the videoclip for "Sly". Notably, the album debuted at number #1. The new songs are all much more Latin in flavour, and there is a higher proportion of songs written by Harry than on the first album. Two Shoes also contains a "hidden" track, not announced on the back of the CD case, called "1001". This was coupled with the song "The Night That Never End".

In July 2005, the band played two sets at the Cambridge Folk Festival (Cambridge, UK). Also in July 2005 they played a set on Sunday evening of Sheep Music World Music Festival.

In October, Two Shoes Deluxe Edition DVD was released.

The band also featured on a Triple J CD entitled Like a Version, featuring cover versions of songs performed by artists on Mel Bampton's show, Mel In The Morning. The track was a version of Hotel California (by the Eagles), sung in French by Harry.

In December 2004, they once again played at the Woodford folk festival.

2006

2006 was a busy year for the band, in March they participated in the opening of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, playing their own compositions for approximately one hour as the Games athletes entered the stadium, introducing the band to a worldwide audience of around one billion.

An American record deal was soon announced with Velour Recordings and on April 1, the band released a new album, Cities. It is described as "A tribute to our own city (Melbourne) and an experiment in sounds we've found abroad". A limited edition of 10,000 individually-numbered copies were made available. On October 29,the album was awarded an ARIA Music Award under the category: Awards for Fine Arts, Best World Music Album.

The band toured extensively over the year visiting Asia, America and Europe playing over 45 gigs in 12 countries.[2]

2007

The band started the year with a busy touring schedule and on 13 February they appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman across the US. They also appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on 1 March, and Jackson Jackson, Harry Angus' side project, released their first album, The Fire is on the Bird on 24 March. On 08 May the band performed on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. A major feature of the band's European tour was their appearance on the Avalon Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007, where the mud was so bad that Felix Riebl and Jamshid Khadiwhala performed the "gumboot shuffle".

The Cat Empire released their fourth album, So Many Nights in Australia on 22 September and the first single, "No Longer There", was released on 8 September.

Band members

As of 2007, The Cat Empire consists of:

Core members

The Empire Horns

A small group of musicians who play with the band and are basically full time members.

  • Kieran Conrau (trombone)
  • Ross Irwin (trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals)
  • Carlo Barbaro (Saxophone) [Who played with the band until the So Many Nights period]

Guest musicians

Other musicians featured on various tracks:

  • Jesus "Aguaje" Ramos (trombone)
  • Yauren Muniz (trumpet)
  • Javier R Zalba Suarez (baritone saxophone)
  • Idania Valdes (backing vocals)
  • Hitler (triangle)
  • Maritza Montero (backing vocals)
  • Virgillio Valdes (backing vocals)
  • Alyssa Conrau (violin)
  • Georgina Cameron (violin)
  • Kristy Conrau (cello)
  • Max Riebl (trumpet, soprano voice)
  • Jorge Yoandi Moline (congas)
  • Arnado Valdes Perez (timbales)
  • Greg Sheehan (percussion)
  • Richard Tedesco (guitar)
  • Kumar Shome (sitar)
  • Novak Conrad (guitar)
  • Daniel Abt (Vocals)
  • Jan Skubiszewski (guitar)
  • Cesari Skubiszewski (vocals)
  • James Wike (guitar)
  • Clarence DaFunk (guitar)
  • Sergio Ercole (guitar)
  • Julie O'Hara (vocals)
  • Nina Ferro (vocals)
  • Karishma Sadhai (vocals)
  • Alec Evans (guitar)
  • Bobby Singh (tabla)
  • Nasrine Rahmani (percussion)
  • Elana Stone (vocals)
  • Luke Farrugia (tuba)
  • Andy Baldwin (violin)
  • Carlo Barbaro (saxophones, flute, clarinet) ex-Empire Horns
  • Michael Ingle (trombone)

The Empire Dancers

  • Fay Khadiwhala
  • Anthony (Bboy Lamaroc)
  • Carlos (Bboy Pepito)

Discography

Albums

File:Twoshoes.jpg
Two Shoes (2005)

Compilations and independent releases

Singles

From The Cat Empire

From Two Shoes

From So Many Nights

References

  1. ^ http://www.musichead.com.au/site/artist.asp?actID=143602&news=1
  2. ^ http://www.musichead.com.au/site/tours.asp?actID=143602&tourID=318
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