The Cat Empire Biography
2000 was spent playing gigs, mainly at a gallery, a restaurant, and a jazz club. Later in the Year Felix met Harry Angus at Dizzy's Jazz club, and he started playing trumpet and singing for the band.
In 2001 Jamshid Khadiwala (DJ Jumps) and Will Hull-Brown (Drums) joined the band. On May 25th 2001 The Cat Empire as a six piece had it's first concert at The Commercial Club on Nicholson St Fitzroy. At that time the members were aged between 18-20 and there were many after-hours lock ups playing at bars around Melbourne, and many expeditions to the beach. During The Melbourne Festival the band played the first of many shows at The Famous Spiegeltent, a venue that became a special place for The Cat Empire to develop its sound. In December 'Live at Adelphia' was recorded in Fitzroy.
In 2002 the group played seven shows in The Spiegeltent at The Adelaide Fringe Festival, its first test of building a reputation based on word of mouth alone. After three nights the venue was full, by the end of the week there were long lines outside. The band also started performing regularly at another of its Melbourne favourites The Prince Of Wales. In June, they made their first overseas debut playing at one of the world's biggest charity auctions in California, and shortly after wards recorded 'The Sun' at Adelphia Studios. In August, on the back of their success in Adelaide, The Cat Empire was invited to play at the Edinburgh Festival. Their first Edinburgh experience was 16 straight shows from 3-6am, and it gave the band many friends and many stories. 20 people the first night, 60 the second, 80 the third, hundreds for the rest of the season. On that stage anything could, and often did happen, and the band not only featured other musicians, but wrestling comedians, side show performers, and bagpipers.
In early 2003 the band played the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival, the St Kilda Festival, and WOMAD festivals in Adelaide, the UK and Singapore. They did solid Australian East Coast tours, and a sold out show at Melbourne's Metro Theatre with guests from Circus OZ. Later that year they recorded their 'Debut' self titled album with Andy BaldwIn in Melbourne and Byron Bay and shortly after they teamed up with Virgin records. During that time they also found a few spare hours to put together 'Tapes Breaks and Out-takes', a collage of studio and live recordings. In October 'The Cat Empire' was released. The song 'Hello' could be heard on high rotation, it was JJJ's album of the week, and the band played on Rove, The Panel, and performed at Homebake, Woodford, and Falls Festival. The Cat Empire played Federation Square on New Years Eve surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people.
In 2004 the band continued its success in Australia featuring 3 songs in JJJ's Hottest 100. The debut album went platinum, the group did two sold-out laps of the country, and The Cat Empire was the first Australian band to close the main stage at The Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival. They toured Europe, made a DVD 'On The Attack', their manager Correne Wilkie receive the award for manager of the year, they won production of the year at the Urban Awards with Andy Baldwyn, they played Sydney's Darling Harbour to 40,000 people, were nominated for 6 Aria music awards, and in December went to Havana Cuba to record their follow-up record 'Two Shoes' with the great Jerry Boys, before returning home and playing Woodford, Falls, and Federation Square again.
In March 2005 The Cat Empire's debut album had hit double platinum sales, and their first single 'Sly' was receiving excellent air play. The 'Sly' tour reached over 120 000 people around Australia. In April 'Two Shoes' was released, came out at number 1 on the Australian charts, and hit platinum sales after three weeks. The Cat Empire then returned to Europe, the UK, America, and Canada realizing that the word of mouth following overseas, especially throughout Europe and Canada, had exploded. During this time, Felix was writing music for the opening ceremony of The Commonwealth Games. The band came home and played 'The Night That Never End' tour, and then supported James Brown around Australia, and once again wrapped up the year at The Falls Festival. By Jan 2006 four songs were voted in JJJ's Hottest 100, and Two Shoes was rated one of the top 50 albums of 2005.
In March 2006, The Cat Empire performed at The Opening Ceremony of The Commonwealth Games, the third most watched television sporting event so far in the 21st century. The brief had been: 'the music should culturally reference the continents emerging in the athlete's parade, but also reflect the city of Melbourne'. No band in the world could have done this with the same authenticity as The Cat Empire. In April The Cat Empire released its limited edition project album 'Cities'. They then set out on an extensive international tour playing Singapore, USA, Canada, Europe, the UK, and Japan. They were nominated band of the day at Bonaroo (USA), played to 150, 000 people on the street of Montreal Jazz Festival where they received massive media attention, they performed at Nuke, Quart, and Edinburgh Festivals, and finished the tour at Summersonic Festival in Japan. In September the band released the 'Two Shoes Special Edition' in Canada, and followed it up with another tour across The USA and North America. At the 2006 Aria's The Cat Empire's album 'Cities' won the 'World Music' award. In October, they played their 500th show in Aspen, and in November and December the band finished the year touring Australia.
2007 was the year The Cat Empire consolidated it's work overseas. In America they released 'Two Shoes' under the Velour label, and performed the late night show trifector: Dave Letterman, Craig Fergusion, and Jay Leno. Sly Hit #8 on the AAA radio charts, the band had a front cover on Pollstar, and the band's success hit a peak when it played a capacity Summer Stage Show in Central Park, New York. The response to the group in Europe and The UK was extraordinary, especially after performances at 'Rock am Ring' and 'Rock Im Park' (Germany), Glastonbury Festival (UK), and the Wireless Festival in London. The group joined with Universal Music for releases in Europe, the UK, and Asia. In the midst of the tours, the band rehearsed and recorded the album 'So Many Nights' with legendary producer John Porter in Melbourne and Malibu, California. The album was written during, and dedicated to the hundreds of performances, and experiences The Cat Empire had been a part of.
After having been abroad for so long, The Cat Empire returns to Australia with the release of their hird album, So Many Nights. Like always, the band is smokin' beyond belief. But this year, well, let's just say the party has crossed the line between mystery and light. And back. A few times.
"So Many Nights refers to the songs," says bandleader Felix Riebl. "They're little vignettes from our travels, stories that got etched out in the back of a tour bus over the years. You get to a point, living like that, where it really gets hard to distinguish between what's happening and what's a dream."
And so the strange, colourful trip unfurls from the airborne whimsy of "Panama" to the mystifying, swirling thrill of '"The Darkness". It's all melancholy ache in "Lonely Moon", funky as hell in "So Long" and "Strong Coffee", then freaky like a spaghetti western acid trip in "Voodoo Cowboy."
"We were keen to step beyond our regular party thing," says the band's other singer, trumpet player Harry Angus. "We were all ready to make something crafted, more musically solid. We wanted to try stuff that developed, maybe let the melody do the work, rather than trying to pack it with explosions."
Fireworks are standard accessories with this band - factor in Ollie McGill (keys), 'Jumps' Khadiwala (decks), Ryan Monro (bass) and Will Hull-Brown (drums) - but this year's new, smouldering shades of subtlety are likely to be a revelation to anyone who's caught one of the Empire's 600 roof-raising shows between Melbourne and Montreal these past six years.
The Empire's roots are in the late night jazz clubs of Melbourne, but they've since sprouted wings over the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, where they've negotiated a series of record deals without surrendering a note of their freedom. Like some kind of funky circus troupe, they roll into town, sell twice as many tickets as the previous visit, and a truckload of CDs on the way out.
Their self-titled debut album scored double platinum sales and 7 ARIA Nominations in '03. They recorded Two Shoes in the legendary Studio 101 in Havana, Cuba, in '05. It debuted at #1 and also sold double platinum.
Cities was the Cat Empire's idea of a little side project: an 80-minute soundtrack commissioned to open the 2006 Commonwealth Games, then televised to one billion people worldwide. The album - The Cat Empire Project - won the World Music ARIA that year.
From Letterman to Leno, the Glastonbury Festival to New York's Central Park, Japan to Barcelona, WOMADelaide to the Montreal Jazz Festival and rave reviews at all stops, it often seemed The Cat Empire were sole nominees for Superlative of the Year (Indefinable Genre Division) 2006/ 07.
So Many Nights was produced at Sing Sing studios in Melbourne in April '07 by the legendary John Porter (Roxy Music, the Smiths, BB King, Taj Mahal, Los Lonely Boys, Ryan Adams), and mixed by John in Malibu, as the Empire continued their relentless world conquest - night by night, to an average of 2,500 people per gig.
"I remember when I was young," says Felix, "I was longing for nothing more than to escape, to go into a circus or a band, go somewhere and play music at festivals. That came true for me.
"The result of that comes out in the songs - there's an emphasis on festive energy but also a lot of loneliness in the lyrics. There's also this very whimsical thing that weaves through from time to time. Those three elements are pretty much what makes up the band."
That said, to dig the whole periodic table, you'd need to factor in the astoundingly rich and varied moods of Ollie's string arrangements here - a new palette of textures for The Cat Empire - as well as the chemistry of one of the world's tightest rhythm sections. It was they who sparked up the slow funk finale, "Won't Be Afraid", the first song written by all six members.
There are also two outstanding songs on So Many Nights that bring together the diverse talents of the two main songwriters: Harry wrote the chorus of "Til The Ocean Takes Us All" and told Felix, "There's a story in this somewhere, so run with it". "We didn't discuss it any further," he says. "I guess Felix's lyrics in the verse are his impressions of mine in the chorus."
With its trademark Afro-Cuban spice and hip-shaking party intrigue, "Fishies" follows the band's classic format of co-writing, Harry adds. "We're rehearsing a song and you do something really cool and Felix says 'Hey! Do that again!'"
The poignant first single, "No Longer There" breaks more new ground. "It's the first time I've written a song about an issue, if you like," says Felix. "I live this dreamlike, magic life, where you don't have many responsibilities, but I also I know that people need to change the way they're living and realise a few basic responsibilities. It's been interesting for me to find that line."
It sways, you know, between a mystery and light. Like the girl in "Sunny Moon". The one you think you nearly met once. At a party. A great party.
"The idea of a sunny moon, the night never ending, is pretty romantic to me," says Felix. "If there was such a thing as The Cat Empire mythology, that would definitely be a big part of it."
