The Cat Empire Biography




The Cat Empire
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The Cat Empire

Background information
Origin Australia Melbourne, Australia
Genres Indie
Rock
Ska
Jazz
Latin
Reggae
Alternative
Years active 1999 – Present
Labels Virgin Records (2003-present Aus/NZ)
Indica Records (Canada)
Velour Recordings (US)
Universal Music Group (Europe)
Associated acts Jackson Jackson
The Conglomerate
The Genie
The Bamboos
Website http://www.thecatempire.com/
Members
Ollie McGill
Ryan Monro
Felix Riebl
Harry James Angus
Will Hull Brown
Jamshid Khadiwhala

The Cat Empire is an Australian eclectic band from Melbourne, Australia. Currently, the Cat Empire comprises of Felix Riebl (percussion and vocals), Harry James Angus (trumpet and vocals), Ollie McGill (keyboard and backing vocals), Ryan Monro (bass and backing vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums) and Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwhala (decks, percussion). They are also commonly backed by the Empire Horns, a brass duo, and have recurring guest musicians.

They met when well known Melbourne jazz identity Steve Sedergreen decided to form, mentor and develop a group made up of very talented young musicians from different schools and backgrounds. The band was called 'Jazz Cat', was a nine-piece and had its debut at the Manly Jazz Festival in Sydney in 1999. They gigged around Melbourne's jazz scene in clubs like Dizzy's (Sedergreen was a part owner of this club at this time). The Cat Empire, originally a three piece grew out of Jazz Cat - and for a few months the two groups were performing alternate Thursdays at Dizzy's. 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, Canada 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 22 September 2007.1 Their song, "Sly", was featured on EA Sports' FIFA 08 Soundtrack and has sold 3 million copies worldwide.

A strong, recurrent theme of their music is a rejection of excessive 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 the globe.

The band's name was taken from the title of a drawing by Felix Riebl's younger brother, Max,2 and its distinctive cat's eye icon, which is also known as "Pablo", was created by Ian McGill, Ollie McGill's father.

Contents

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 clubs like Dizzy's and Bennett's Lane 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.

The "Cat Empire" name originated from a picture of cats wearing hats and holding guns drawn by Felix's younger brother.

By late 2001, the band was appearing in the Spiegeltent 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 the 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.

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 Pathways 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 played 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 also performed as a support act to James Brown on his 2004 Australian tour. Their debut album went platinum in February 2004. Their third single "The Chariot" also debuted in the ARIA top 40 in May 2004. "Hello" finished 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, which offered an insight into the touring life on the road with the band. The DVD contained live footage & recordings from their March/April 2004 tour of Australia, 'band antics', backstage interviews, and was accompanied by an 8 track bonus disc of live and in-studio recordings. The band once again played live at the Woodford Folk Festival in December.

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). Later in the month, the band performed a set on Sunday evening of Sheep Music World Music Festival. In October, Two Shoes Deluxe Edition DVD was released, which contained live show footage of Lullaby and The Car Song, a documentary of the making of the album in Cuba, the original video clips created for the album, and behind the scenes footage of The Cat Empire Two Shoes video clip. 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.

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.3

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 8 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. 'So Many Nights' finished at #50 in the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2007, and 'No Longer There' finished at #62.

2008

In February 2008 the band concluded their Outdoor Australian Tour, concluding with Launceston on the 19th of February. In addition, the band had performed in various cities earlier including Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Newcastle, Canberra, Geelong, and Townsville. The band later played at a Melbourne Grand Prix event, sharing the stages with the likes of KISS. The band's song "Two Shoes" also features in the mountain bike video The Collective Seasons

In March 2008, the band headlined on the sunday night at the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival - Bluesfest. On the tuesday after the festival the band played on the streets of Byron near the beach, and a few members played at a local Backpackers later in the week.

2009

In January 2009, the band opened the first night of the Sydney Festival 2009 at the domain. In early February the Cat Empire performed at Hisense arena as part of the Australian Open for A Day On The Baseline.

In February 2009, the band released three major items: 'LIVE ON EARTH' which is a live album featuring 22 songs recorded around the world and also a DVD 'LIVE AT THE BOWL' showing their performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, featuring other performances they have done over the years as well as other on-the-road videos. They also released a boxset which was limited to 2000. It contained the 'LIVE ON EARTH' CD and DVD as well as a passport style booklet which has a tour diary written by Ryan Monro, 4 fan badges and a 'The Cat Empire' bag PLUS a set list signed by the entire band. On February 28th, the band played two free shows at Bondi Beach and Circular Quay, welcoming donations, in an effort to raise funds to be put towards the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

In early March 2009, the band played at the annual BASSINTHEGRASS festival in Darwin, Australia to a crowd of 5000. The band played several songs from both their EP and their newer albums.

After touring their home nation earlier this year, the band completed a tour of the UK with Balkan support act, Paprika Balkanicus. The UK tour started on 1st July at O2 Academy Oxford. The boys are now back on home soil, and have upcoming shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Northern Territory, before heading off to Canada for a short tour.

On 28th August, 2009, lead singer and percussionist Felix Riebl confirmed on Dools' segment on youth radio station, Triple J, that the band were working on new material and an album would be out mid 20104.

Recently, the band has also been playing a new track, believed to be called 'Karna' or 'Call Me Home' at many gigs 5.

Band members

As of 2009, 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 (Tenor 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)
  • 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 Christoph Abt (Vocals)
  • Jan Skubiszewski (guitar)
  • Daniel Head (slide guitar)
  • Brendan Schlosser (trumpet)
  • Gash Wilson (saxophone)
  • Dick Slider (trombone)
  • Keith Dimech (Hi Hat)
  • James Forde (oboe)
  • 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)
  • Sam Soldani (banjo)
  • Carlo Barbaro (tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet) ex-Empire Horns
  • Michael Ingle (trombone)
  • Alex Quayle (guitar)
  • Anthony Ficior (triangle)
  • Alexander Jackaman (Trumpet)
  • Mitchell Peck (Guitar/Violin)
  • Ignacio Alarcon (Drums/Triangle)
  • Daniel Bech (Saxaphone)

Empirical Strings

Live/Touring String Musicians (2008 national tour + Byron Bay Blues n Roots):

  • Jonny Ng (violin)
  • Adam Cadell (violin)
  • Neil Thompson (viola)
  • Dale Rickert (cello)

The Empire Dancers

  • Fai Khadiwhala
  • Anthony (Bboy Lamaroc)
  • Carlos (Bboy Pepito)
  • Keith (hiptacular) Dimech
  • DJ Rude Bouy
  • Benny 'BJ' Riley

Discography

Two Shoes album

An extensive discography of all known Cat Empire releases can be found at The Cat Empire Fan Blog.

Albums

Live albums

Singles

From The Cat Empire
From Two Shoes
From Cities: The Cat Empire Project
From So Many Nights
From Live on Earth

Other releases

Bootlegs

Many bootlegs in both audio and video format have been made of The Cat Empire concerts and recording sessions. Some more notable recordings include entire live recordings of Bennetts Lane Jazz Club gigs and video footage of their performances at various venues such as the Coogee Bay Hotel and Darling Harbour in 2004.

Live website releases

Released in 2007
  • "So Many Nights" (recorded at Burnie, Tasmania, 2007)
Released in 2009

DVDs

References

  1. ^ :: THE CAT EMPIRE NEWS: musichead Australia::
  2. ^ "The Cat Empire - History"
  3. ^ :: musichead Australia::
  4. ^ The Cat Empire Fan Blog
  5. ^ The Cat Empire Fan Blog

External links

v • d • e
The Cat Empire
Ollie McGill · Ryan Monro · Felix Riebl · Harry James Angus · Will Hull Brown · Jamshid Khadiwhala
Studio albums
Live albums
Other releases
Singles
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