THE CAT EMPIRE
‘Stolen Diamonds’
Out Feb 15th 2019
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The storied career of The Cat Empire receives a new chapter with the release of the brand new album Stolen Diamonds which is out on Two Shoes Records, Feb 15th, 2019.
Captured over a fertile autumn recording session with long-time collaborator and producer Jan Skubiszewski just outside of Melbourne, Stolen Diamonds documents one of Australia’s most successful musical exports at the zenith of their creative powers. Revealed to their global fanbase one song per month over the course of 2018, the album represents a blueprint containing all of the elements that the band have distilled and combined over the years to create their unique brand of sound. It’s a sound that continues to galvanise and levitate their fiercely loyal supporters.
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The album starts on a high with Kila, an opening salvo armed with one of the biggest choruses the band has ever written, which for a band that’s known for delivering a killer chorus, you know that’s saying something!
“Kila is one of those songs you write and know that an album will be built around it,” explains Felix Riebl. “Lyrically I wanted to write something edgy, joyful, mysterious, where people might mistake the words and that be a good thing. Kill a man Jaro – Kilimanjaro.”
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Stolen Diamonds, the album’s title track is a Harry Angus special with urgent horns and a relentless rhythm, in fact the heaviest on the album. Stolen Diamonds is all soul groove and celebration, the sound of a well-oiled band being put through it’s paces by one of the best song writers and sublime vocalists in the country.
As his bandmate Felix Reibl describes, “Stolen Diamonds is one of those songs where you can’t tell where things are happening, but it’s got this really infectious rhythm to it. The horn line is amazing and the rhythm section is playing just about as heavy as it can play!”
Oscar Wilde has a Melbourne via Soweto swing which transports another beautiful Felix Riebl vocal evoking warm memories of the past, both his and ours, while introducing yet another trademark Cat Empire hook that wouldn’t be out of place on the classic Graceland album.
“I can’t help but think that Paul Simon had some part to play in this one,” Felix confesses. “On tour, I’ve always come back to Graceland as a reference for music that just floats and makes me feel good. It reminds me of why I’m anywhere.”
Another big moment comes from Ready Now, the first taste given to fans in the song a month reveal that happened across 2018. A track that displays the past, present and future of the band, this is an anthem.
“Ready Now,” Felix explans, “began as an accidental one hand arpeggio on a keyboard with an obnoxious synth horn sound on. It turned into a hard hitting and fairly epic sounding fanfare that sounds like a dark marching band in flight. Lyrically it’s full of frustration and conflict, but the music gives it an edge of joy.”
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Barricades begins with a wonderfully fractured skank driven by an ominous resonant piano riff hammered out via keyboard master Ollie McGill that opens up into a ethereal vocal delivered by Harry Angus. The track then transforms into an urgent reggae funk with the rhythm section taking over before again breaking and heading again into the ether.
Felix shares, “this is another one written by Harry that’s again one of the heaviest on the album, on one hand it’s very, very dubby and hard hitting, then on the other it’s got almost this Miles Davis like quality to it with the horns on it. It’s by far one of the most intricate and experimental songs on the album”.
The next slice of joy comes in the form of Anybody, the first song that was recorded for the album. Furnished with a boyant musical bed that has some deeper lyrical themes tucked away under its covers.
As it author Felix explains, “The line ‘What a f*#!ing joy, what a f!*#ing mess’ follows me around everywhere – on tour and in the most domestic spaces of my life. It’s about that moment where you could fall down and crumble, or realise that the feeling that’s getting you down is also the source of your happiness as well.”
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Sung predominantly in French by guest vocalist Eloise Mignon, the slow burning La Sirène is somewhat of a departure for The Cat Empire, though a definite nod to the devoted fan base in French Quebec,which has been a home away from home for band for over a decade.
When describing the song’s genesis Felix explains, “Eloïse Mignon, who co-wrote the song with me and Ollie came into the studio to do a demo of how the French words should be pronounced and something just felt right. It had character. It stuck. Some female presence did the band good.”
Echoes is a wonderful rock steady moment that provides the vehicle for yet another warm Harry Angus vocal resulting in one of the most tender moments on the album. Some deft turntablism from Jumps punctuates this beautiful piece and takes it somewhere special.
“It’s a deeply melodic song,” Riebl continues. “It’s one that kind of plays itself and as a musician it’s one of those songs that’s a pleasure to be a part of, you don’t have to think about it, it just works.”
The vocal driven Who’s That sets off as a spartan piece propelled initially via claps, clicks and percussion that builds slowly with each key modulation, each time threatening to become an opus only to exit too quickly, leaving behind a lingering hook rattling around in the listeners imagination.
Felix describes it as, “a song about the evening (evie) – about what might happen unexpectedly. I’ve realised after all these years, that that’s the atmosphere people who come to The Cat Empire shows bring each night. This song tips our caps to them.”
A cascading rhythm gives way to a striding euphoric groove on the mighty Adelphia which has a flavour like no other track on the album. Spicy latin breakdowns resplendent with horns and vocal hooks prove that The Cat Empire recipe for perfect roots pop has been refined to the point where it has become a life affirming elixir.
Felix describes, ‘this is another song written by Harry and is the perfect example of a song that starts somewhere and ends up somewhere else, again it’s really heavy and has an outro that’s almost as long as the song itself. It’s just a moment that the band loves – there are songs that the band plays and songs that the band loves, and I think this is definitely the latter.”
Saturday Night is a tour de force of horns blazing over a rolling Will Hull Brown summertime bounce, that as the name suggests celebrates carefree weekend nights where music can save your soul.
Riebl thinks that, “Saturday Night is a throwback to the old Cat Empire I think, especially The Cat Empre that travelled over to Cuba. It has a great horn arrangement done by Ross Irwin and a kind of a 90’s or early 2000’s hip hop thing combined with it which gives it’s uniqueness within the band. It’s really just a celebration song, it’s about exactly what it says, Saturday Night getting down”.
The busy and bustling Bow Down To Love, with it’s circular bass pattern care of Ryan Munroe propels relentlessly as Harry James Angus exercises another sweet vocal as the singer ‘bows down to love.’
Of the song Felix explains, “it’s more or less a one chord song, but it’s got so much rhythm in it and such an interesting horn part to it. The lyrics that he brought to it were so unexpected and uplifting that it forced its way onto the album.”
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Featuring Spanish solo star and Calexico member Depedro on co-writing and vocal duties, Sola is another track that tips the hat the The Cat Empire’s international fan base. Sung mainly in Spanish, the languid cumbia of Sola frames a softer, less frenetic side to the The Cat Empire and closes out the album.
The song’s other co-author Depedro reflects, “I met The Cat Empire guys in Canada, we did a gig together and we had an instant connection. This is a very emotional tune and because it’s sung in Spanish and English it fits perfectly with the crossover way of thinking that The Cat Empire has, and this view of getting people together with the most powerful weapon: music.”
The thirteen tracks on Stolen Diamonds come together as a whole to represent some of the most assured music The Cat Empire has ever committed to tape. Their combined life experiences, the thousands upon thousands of miles travelled, the numerous sold out shows, and of course the joy reflected back at them from the many faces in the crowd inform the sounds and echo throughout the album. The amazing story of The Cat Empire continues, here is another volume that will add to the legend.
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The Cat Empire – Stolen Diamonds is out on Two Shoes Records, Feb 15th, 2019
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THE CAT EMPIRE
NORTH AMERICAN DATES (2019)
Thursday 28th February, Brooklyn NY – Brooklyn Steel
Friday 1st of March, Philadelphia PA -Theatre of Living Arts
Saturday 2nd of March, Boston MA – Royale
Sunday 3rd of March, Quebec QC – Capitole
Monday 4th of March, Montreal QC – MTELUS
Thurdsay 7th of March, Toronto ON – Danforth Music Hall
Friday, 8th of March, Waterloo Ontario – Maxwell’s Music House
Saturday 9th of March, Chicago IL – House of Blues
Monday 11th of March, Minneapolis MN – Varsity Theater
Tuesday 12th of March, Winnipeg MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
Thursday 14th of March, Edmonton AB – Winspear Centre
Friday 15th of March, Calgary AB – MacEwan Hall
Sunday 17th of March, Vancouver BC – Commodore Ballroom
Monday 18th of March, Vancouver BC – Commodore Ballroom
Tuesday 19th of March, Victoria BC – Royal Theatre
Wednesday 20th of March, Seattle WA – The Showbox
Thurday 21st of March, Portland OR – Wonder Ballroom
Saturday 23rd of March, San Francisco CA – The Fillmore
Monday 25th of March, Los Angeles CA – El Rey Theatre
Tuesday 26th of March, San Diego CA – House of Blues
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THE CAT EMPIRE
BIO
While seemingly distracted by our own deep love affair with the band, The Cat Empire have steadily become one of Australia’s most successful musical exports. Garnering frenzied devotion across the globe the band regularly generate more international business than any of their local peers, all without anyone at home really noticing.
Hardly ones to boast (they are Aussies after all), the six bound together by a love of music since their teens have gone humbly, yet deliberately about their business. That business is crafting infectious, genre-embracing anthems, releasing them on chart-topping, multi-platinum selling albums (both on major labels and independently), and playing hundreds of world class, awe-inspiring shows a year, all the while sustaining and growing an army of ardent fans at home, and in even larger numbers, across the globe.
It’s not unusual to find the band mobbed by fans and media at airports in Spain, appearing live on iconic TV shows hosted by the likes of Letterman, Leno, Wogan and Ferguson, riding high at the business end of international album charts, dominating airwaves and main stage bills at all of the iconic international music festivals you wished you could go to, Glastonbury and Bonnaroo included. It seems The Cat Empire brand of feel good, high-energy, smile-inducing, euphoric roots pop that we all know and love, has had a global address when it comes to the winning of hearts.
When asked about the overseas reception offered the band, The Cat Empire co-lead vocalist and songwriter Felix Riebl explains, “at some level I think that The Cat Empire appealed to our Australian audience because the sound was influenced by so many different places. But when we went abroad our international audiences heard something distinctly Australian about us. It meant our music could travel in a really interesting way. What’s amazing for us, is for all of the love we get from our home crowds, and there’s been plenty, support for the band overseas has continued to grow. It’s exciting.”
From the very get go, and off the back of a hugely successful, double platinum debut album, The Cat Empire’s sights were set on international climes. An early invitation to play in the U.S. coming out of one of their very first Australian shows whetted the appetite for the sextet and put in motion a plan to devote as much energy to international touring as they did at home on the road. The results elevated The Cat Empire’s status, and demand as an international commodity as reflected in the achievements that the band were rapidly stacking up. Culminating in the opportunity to record their second album Two Shoes in Havana, Cuba.
As Rob Zifarelli from Paradigm Talent Agency, the band’s agent for North America observes, “The Cat Empire are one of the best live experiences ever and because of that their fan base only grows, never diminishes. From New York to Montreal to San Francisco to Vancouver and beyond. It is pure JOY on stage and the audience feels a part of that. These guys seem to showcase what it means to be Australian. They are vibrant, talented, self-deprecating, original, and world class.”
Early forays into the European market fruitful with the high rotation airplay secured on the prestigious BBC Radio 1 for the single ‘Two Shoes’. Further exploration by the band into the US, and then into Canada saw the band completely sell out their 2005 tour, in the process setting themselves up for key festival dates the following year. The band featured on Bonnaroo (USA), Toronto & Montreal Jazz Festivals (Canada) Nuke, Quart, Edinburgh Festivals (Europe) and Summersonic (Japan), plus their own headline shows across the world. The following year while at the same time being profiled in Rolling Stone in Australia, the band appeared on the front cover of U.S. music trade publication Pollstar, further cementing their recognition stateside as major international players.
Festival appearances followed including Summer Stage New York Central Park, Quebec City Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park and Wireless festival which lead to an incredible string of late night TV performances including Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson and a coveted Letterman performance. Sold out performances continued to punctuate the band’s touring schedule and included a house full sign affixed to the front doors of The Brixton Academy in London.
The band’s album releases continued to have significant chart impact across the globe, with their 5th, Steal The Light, the first to be released on the band’s own independent global label Two Shoes Records after a decade on a major label, achieving top 20 chart debut in 5 countries including Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and of course in Australia. The album, the first release on their global independent label, triggered more touring including the band’s first shows in Rio, Sao Paulo, and South Africa. Festival credits stacked up in North America with headline spots at Montreal Jazz, Calgary Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Ottawa Blues Festival and Vancouver Jazz Festival.
After even more international travel, and another prestigious full houses at every stop, including this time at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the band released their 2016 album Rising With The Sun. The album debuted Top 10 in 7 countries including; Australia, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Canada, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Top 20 debuts in 16 countries including; Malaysia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, South Africa, United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain. The debuted at #9 on the Worldwide I-tunes charts.
Now as the band regather after a break from the road, and on the eve of a brand new album, the loftier global peaks our musical adventurers have unfurled their feline emblazoned flag upon are sure to continue to accrue. Perhaps now though they might be a little more ready to let you know about them, but then again, we kinda doubt it…
AMNPLIFY – DB
My nickname is “The Amnplifier”. Why? Because around here my focus is on being a conduit for providing greater outcomes that people come here for. My day to day “work” is living in the moment, and I love helping others concentrate on finding their connection to themselves through their experiences.
Why start a music environment? The truth is I love music, I love writing, and I love life. I work with musicians every day, and I feel certain that I will be until they put me in the ground. I have been managing people in businesses of some sort for over thirty five years so along the way I have developed some “wisdom” from my regular and constant “observations”.
Amnplify your experience. That is what we want you to do here, and if you want to let me know why you do, or don’t, shoot me a message on Facebook.
Hope you enjoy yourself here and find something that hits you somewhere.
