When The Cat Empire’s first album reached no 15 on the Australian chart and the second went to number one there was no-one more surprised than them. The Cat Empire were not set up as a “op” band. They were jazz musicians playing jazz music in late night bars in Melbourne and the audience loved it.
The Cat Empire’s Felix Riebl recalled those early days for Noise11.com. Felix said, “It was kind of incredible. When we started out, we were essentially young jazz musicians, I guess. There were a lot of different influences there. We rarely ever got booked before midnight. We were playing a lot of late-night festivals and after parties. A lot of very small clubs. The idea of releasing an album or getting played on radio was very much off our radar. We were not set up to do that. We were working musicians from the very beginning. We paid our rent from doing gigs around town. When that first album came along, and we had songs on the radio we were all of a sudden thrust into the mainstream at that point. It was baffling after having been a word-of-mouth street band”.
Over the next couple of years The Cat Empire started earning Gold and Platinum record awards. “It was a rollercoaster. It was amazing,” Felix said. “I think probably what was the most foundational aspect of the way that we played was we would get things at a fringe festival, and no-one would know us in that city. On the first night we would play to 20 people, and you’d have a residency over seven or eight nights. The challenge was that by the end if this room wasn’t packed out with a massive queue out the front we weren’t doing our job right. We would try and play in a way that was so engaging that people would talk about it and come back. A festival where there is lots happening is wonderful for that word-of-mouth thing. We really prided ourselves on that in the beginning. I think a good work ethic musically for the future is if you can say, regardless of popularity is if you can play every night, which respects yourself and the audience and leaves ‘blood on the stage’, that was foundational for the band.
Watch the full The Cat Empire interview with Felix Riebl at Noise11.com
The Cat Empire will release their 10th album ‘Bird In Paradise’ on 21 March 2025.
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