The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire is a jazz/rock/hip hop band from Australia. Their debut album, self titled, features among the traditional guitar, drums and vocal sounds, jazzy brass and funky keyboard tunes. It was released in October 2003 and went platinum in Australia in February 2004.

Contents

1 Early career 2 The Cat Empire's albums 3 Band members 4 Discography 5 External Link

Early career

The Cat Empire formed as a trio with Oliver McGill on keyboards, Felix Riebl on percussion and vocals and Ryan Munro on double bass in late 1999 and started playing a wide variety of gigs in Melbourne. The band soon expanded in 2000 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 a couple of independent singles "Feline" and "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 crowd 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 Sun album at the Adelphia nightclub in Melbourne before flying out to the Edinburgh Festival where it played 16 successive shows at the LatenLive show between 3am and 5am. The band returned to Melbourne for the 2002 Melbourne Festival and played a series of sellout performances in Melbourne with Kate Ceberano appearing as a guest vocalist at their final show of the year.

The Cat Empire's albums

The band recorded its debut studio album 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 "Two Shoes" was placed on high rotation on BBC Radio 1 in August 2003. The bands 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 Records Virgin Records subsidiary.

The first single "Hello" was released in October 2003 with a film clip that was Channel V's clip of the week ahead of Justin Timberlake. 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 appearances on Rove (Live) with Rove McManus and The Panel on Network Ten helped raise the profile of the album helping it to go gold in Australia by December 2003. "Hello" would finish at number 6 on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004, one of the biggest music polls in the world with album track "Days Like These" at number 37 and "The Chariot" at number 100. 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.

"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 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.

The Cat Empire released their highly anticipated 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, was released on 28 March 2005). 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 - that is, one which is not announced on the back of the CD case - called 1001.

Band members

As of 2004, The Cat Empire consists of:

• Oliver McGill (keyboard and vocals) - however he is not notable: see [[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Oliver_McGill)]
• Ryan Munro (bass)
• Felix Riebl (percussion and vocals)
• Harry James Angus (trumpet and vocals);
• Will Hull-Brown (drums); and
• Jamshid "Jumps" Khadiwhala (decks, percussion)

Often accompanied by The Empire Horns:

• Ross Irwin (trumpet);
• Kieran Conrau (trombone); and
• Carlo Barbaro (saxaphone)

Discography

• "Live @ Adelphia" Album (2001)
• The Sun (2002)
• The Cat Empire Album (2003) - #15 Australia
• "Hello" Single (2003) - #12 New Zealand (no commercial Australian release)
• "Days Like These" Single (2004) - #37 Australia
• "The Chariot" Single (2004) - #34 Australia
• "One Four Five" Single (2004)
• "Sly" Single (2005) - #23 Australia
• Two Shoes Album (2005) - #1 Australia
• "The Car Song" Single (2005) - To be released 19 June 2005 (Australia)

External Link

• The Cat Empire site (http://www.thecatempire.com/)
• The Cat Empire unofficial fansite (http://www.thecatempire.info/)