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The Cat Empire

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Feeling's Gone

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Released: Jan 1, 2010

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Feeling's Gone
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Beyond All
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How to Explain (Live)
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Dumb Things (Live)
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Fishies
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Total Plays: 2,725,464 / Plays Today: 31See All Featured ►

General Info

Genre: Other
Location Melbourne, Victoria, AU
Profile Views: 1868224
Last Login: 9/9/2011
Member Since 2/15/2005
Website www.thecatempire.com
Record Label Virgin (AUS), Maple Music Rec (CDA), Velour (US)
Type of Label Indie
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So Many Nights
15 Songs | Jan 11, 2011

THE CAT EMPIRE VIDEOS

The Cat Empire News

THE CAT EMPIRE NEWS

February 4, 2011

10 YEARS YOUNG IN 2011

Where hip-hop meets reggae, where jazz is played with dirty hands, where a Cuban line meets an Aussie rule, where nothing seems in place but sounds like many places played in one earthy chord. This is the island where THE CAT EMPIRE was born.

Some of you may remember this spiel from the early days of THE CAT EMPIRE, and we are bringing it back this year in celebration of the bands 10th birthday! Can you believe it's 10 years since our very first show in Australia in 2001?

In celebration of our 10th birthday, an Australian tour has just been announced for April/May.

You can find all the info right here, and tours for the rest of the world will be announced soon!

Look forward to seeing you.

October 20, 2010

OUR 800th SHOW TONIGHT

Tonight, THE CAT EMPIRE will take to the stage for the 800 th time. This will be followed later in the week by a sold out show at London’s Brixton Academy. Thank you to every one of you who has supported the band to this point. We could not have done this without you. Celebrate with us - Cheers!

October 15, 2010

HELP US WIN AN ARIA

Please go to www.ariaawards.com.au/venergypopularvote and cast your vote for THE CAT EMPIRE for the first ever Popular Voted ARIA Award. You can also vote at www.facebook.com/aria.official.

June 22, 2010

LISTEN TO CINEMA

If you missed the launch of CINEMA on the weekend (poor you), this week you get a chance to attend the CINEMA LISTENING SESSION.

Available here for a short time, a sneaky listen to all of the tracks from our new album at http://thecatempirecinema.com/. .

If you love it, rush out and buy it this Friday when it hits the shelves in Australia, June 29 in Canada, July 6 in the USA and elsewhere in August. Or order your signed copy from our shop for immediate delivery http://www.thecatempire.com/Empire-Shop/Recordings.

May 20, 2010

THE CAT EMPIRE’S BIGGEST SMALLEST ALBUM LAUNCH

YOU are invited to attend the launch of THE CAT EMPIRE’S new album, CINEMA.

From wherever you are, anywhere in the world; from your lounge-room, from your desk, your friends backyard or at your own album launch party (hook it up through your tv!) – we want YOU there as we play the new tracks LIVE for the very first time.

The ACTUAL event will take place in our home town of Melbourne. But in an ‘Australian band first’ (as far as we know), it will be streamed worldwide with a one second delay so you can all ‘virtually’ be there, for free.

Worldwide times for this unique event are:

Melbourne time: Sunday June 20, 10.30pm

NYC: Sunday June 20, 8.30am

Toronto: Sunday June 20, 8.30am

Vancouver: Sunday June 20, 5.30am

LA: Sunday June 20, 5.30am

London: Sunday June 20, 1.30pm

Berlin: Sunday June 20, 2.30pm

Paris: Sunday June 20, 2.30pm

Tokyo: Sunday June 20, 9.30pm

Or to check your city: http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html

To register your intention ahead of time to join us for the launch, go to www.thecatempire.com, click on ATTEND ALBUM LAUNCH and follow the prompts. Type in MYTCE when asked for your PROMO code. We will do ‘live’ shout-outs to fans who register in advance!

Who would have thought technology would reach the point where we could invite all of you to a gig in Melbourne...?! We look forward to ‘seeing’ you at the launch, and are really excited to be able to present this wild opportunity to our fans all over the world.

April 30, 2010

So we’ve just wrapped up the recording of our 4th studio album at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne, with producer Steve Schram. Titled CINEMA, it’s an album we are really proud of and can’t wait for you to hear it.

It is an album we are all really proud of, and can’t wait for you to hear it... The track BEYOND ALL (a band favourite) has gone to Richard Kingsmill at Triple J, with the official Australian radio single coming soon...You can download BEYOND ALL for free on our website www.thecatempire.com

CINEMA will be out June 25 in Australia, June 29 in Canada, July 6 in the USA and about a month later in Europe and everywhere else.

Stay tuned for more news...including your personal invite to attend THE CAT EMPIRE’S biggest smallest album launch....

February 23, 2010

Yes it is true, The Cat Empire have announced our biggest UK tour to date, and along with our European tour, you can find all the info right here.

And watch this space....because the North American July run...

AND the August Australian tour will be announced shortly...it’s a packed calendar this year.

And a NEW ALBUM coming your way too...

Forget the year of the Tiger, 2010 is now the year of the Cat!

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THE CAT EMPIRE TEN YEARS YOUNG IN 2011

Where hip-hop meets reggae, where jazz is played with dirty hands, where a Cuban line meets an Aussie rule, where nothing seems in place but sounds like many places played in one earthy chord. This is the island where THE CAT EMPIRE was born. (Written by the band in 2001)

The youngest Aussie band to turn 10 years old, in 2011 THE CAT EMPIRE celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first show as the 6 piece which went on to become the Empire they are today. In an industry where few bands survive beyond the first album, if even making it that far, 10 years is a fantastic achievement. Considering they are still all under the age of 30, and have consolidated themselves as a world class Australian band on the International touring circuit, it's outstanding.

This is a home-grown success story, which shows that a combination of hard work, great songs, a good vibe, a genuine vision, and a little bit of luck go a long way. The first Australian tours were undertaken in a convoy of cars handed down from parents, or borrowed from friends, sleeping on the floors of friends of friends, and putting up their own posters at each stop. Word quickly spread about this young band that could deliver a party like no other. Soon they were undertaking national tours, and financing their first album, all under their own steam. "We all borrowed some money from a parent or friend, to pay for the first album. We promised we would pay them back within 9 months - we paid it all back within 3!". By the time they signed their first record deal (with EMI, who they are now into their 3rd deal with) they were packing out 1500 seat venues in each Australian major city, and had a solid fan base all over the country.

The Cat Empire is the band which possibly best defines the over-used marketing term "word of mouth". They played their first show to a room packed with family and friends at The Commercial Club Hotel on May 5, 2001. The band played weekly until the end of that year in and around Melbourne, building their local fan base while developing their songs and stagecraft. In 2002 they kicked off the year with their first interstate show at Adelaide festival. By the end of that year they had played in the USA as well as completing their legendary 16 night stint at Edinburgh festival. 2003 saw the band make their way around the rest of Australia, as well as their second UK tour, finishing the year off with shows in New York and DC. This was also the year they signed their first record deal and released their self-title debut album in Australia. 2004 saw the release of the ON THE ATTACK dvd, and a solid 118 shows in the year including multiple Australian tours, supporting James Brown, and their first foray into continental Europe. The band capped of the year in Cuba at the famous Egrem Studios, where they recorded their sophomore album. They didnt slow down much in 2005, releasing TWO SHOES, wracking up 114 shows; in Nz, two tours of the USA, Europe and a couple of tours through Australia. 2006 & 2007 followed pretty much the same pattern - touring twice a year through each of Australia, Europe, the UK, Canada and USA where they played Letterman and Leno. The band released CITIES in 2006, a soundscape written and performed for the opening of The Commonwealth Games, and SO MANY NIGHTS in 2007, recorded in Malibu. 2008 was a quiet year by The Cat Empire standards, as they all took time off to be with family and dug through the recording archives to create their first live album. LIVE ON EARTH was released in Feb 2009, along with the DVD LIVE AT THE BOWL, and the guys were back on the road in 2009 & 2010, with tours each year to Europe, the UK, Canada, Japan, and through Australia.

There is no doubt their 2003 radio hit HELLO helped their career along, the cheeky catch-cry "Hello Hello" getting stuck in the nations head, propelling their debut album to PLATINUM status in a matter of months.

While it looked as though THE CAT EMPIRE had come out of nowhere, it was very much the determination and design of front man Felix Riebl which made this band a solid reality on the Australian Music scene. Felix met a few of the early recruits (ollie, Will and Ryan) in a youth jazz project arranged by Melbourne Jazz musician Steve Sedergreen. He then set about recruiting front man/trumpter Harry Angus, followed by DJ Jamshid Khadiwala. His final recruit to the line-up was Manager Correne Wilkie who was just 24 at the time she took on the role, with no music industry experience. The line-up proved to be the winning combination, and the sum of the parts and a shared vision added up to ensure this band had all bases covered. “We have always ben committed as a band to taking calculated risks, creating our own musical opportunities, and continuing to do things our way. I guess it’s a case of ‘be careful what you wish for – it just might come true’” The Line-up has not changed since the beginning, the band known to describe themselves as "a weird little family".

It wasnt long until the rest of the world heard about the Empire. The band members credit their Australian fans and international backpackers in Australia for marketing them overseas. "Everywhere we went overseas, people would come up to us and say a friend in Australia sent the album to them, or one of their mates who traevlled through Australia brought it back and we all burned it." In fact, The Cat Empire suspect illegal piracy of their album in countries where it was not available overseas ended up being their greatest marketing machine. "We would arrive in cities like Berlin and Barcelona for the first time, and everyone in the audience would already know the words to every song. I guess the money we lost in cd sales through those territories, we have made up in ticket sales many times over, so although we dont endorse it, we certainly cant begrudge the file sharing."

The band has now sold over three quarters of a million albums and dvds in all corners of the world. They have headlined global festivals, won ARIAs, and played on Letterman and Leno, contributed where they can to a range of causes such as the environment and more recently the Asylum Seekers plight in Australia. When asked what their biggest achievement is in 10 years as a band, there is a unanimous "staying together". While other 20 somethings were going to uni, working odd jobs, hanging out with friends in share houses, Ryan, Will, Ollie, Harry, Jumps, Felix and the Empire Horns - Ross and Kieran, spent their twenties trawling across continents in tour buses, playing to audiences night after night, honing their stagecraft, quietly building their Empire, and making you-tube videos to pass the time. This experience has brought them together as a band, and defined them as individuals.

To celebrate 10 years, the band will start 2011 off by re-visiting the Australian venues they worked their way through as they gained fans and playing chops. From the small jazz clubs, crazy late night party places, to the band room pubs and the concert halls and theatres. "We feel incredibly grateful to the venues and the super-fans who supported us and took a punt on us in the early days, and have continued to support as our career gained momentum. The venue crawl is a tribute to those people and really unique times". May 2011 gives Australian fans the chance to revisit some of those moments with The Empire.

The band will also tour Europe and North America in 2001.

Congratulations to THE CAT EMPIRE; celebrating 10 years, 800+ shows, over 100 songs, 5 albums and a massive international following as a result of hard work and great musicianship.

....

Member Since:

February 15, 2005

Members:

Felix Riebl - Percussion/Vocals
Harry J Angus - Trumpet/Vocals
Will Hull-Brown - Drums
Ollie McGill - Keys
Ryan Monro - Bass
Jamshid Khadiwala (aka Jumps) - Decks/Percussion
Ross Irwin, Kieran Conrau - The Empire Horns

Influences:

Sounds Like:

"a six-piece with no guitars!"

"Your set was off the hook, balls out awesome!"

Record Label:

Virgin (AUS), Maple Music Rec (CDA), Velour (US)

Label Type:

Indie

The Cat Empire

Feeling's Gone

Beyond All

How to Explain (Live)

Dumb Things (Live)

Fishies

Bio

Members

Influences

Sounds Like