Interview: Cats And Cats And Cats

How the devil are you?

Absolutely smashing thanks. Although Eve, our violin shredder, recently left the band to become a full-time real person. So get in touch you violin kids and come and play in our mega fun band (catsandcatsandcats1@gmail.com). In other news, we’re currently on tour with the fantastic Ladycop from New York so life is good.

Have you been spending any time at home recently, or has the touring schedule been taking up most of your spare time since the summer…

We had a pretty busy summer, what with the album launch, festivals and two tours, but in the breaks we’ve managed to move to South West London, which has basically meant that any time not playing gigs was usually spent going to them. If we’re not all deaf by December I’ll eat my cake.

If people haven’t seen you play live before, give them a reason to pop their Cats And Cats And Cats gig cherry this month.

Well we’ve been working on some very special costumes which include waistcoats, bow ties and knitted woollen cat hats, making us come across as some very distinguished felines. We’re also sliding in some new material to our sets, so if you want a preview of what’s to come then you need to make it to a show. And if that wasn’t enough then how about I mention our backing tracks with all the instruments from the album, making us seem that much more like the pop band you know we’re destined to become.

Have you been pleased with how your album’s been received this year?

The reception’s been fantastic. It was so nice to get so many different opinions from all sorts of places. We really have Function Records and A Badge of Friendship to thank for all their hard work. It was a great spread as well, we had a couple of gushing “album of the year” type reviews, then some that basically said we’ve ruined music forever and I’m pleased to have created something that can divide opinion that strongly. It reminds you that you’re not playing it safe.

Do reviews matter to you?

I think it would be impossible to say no, it’s someone’s opinion on something you’ve put a lot of yourself into. I couldn’t pretend to not be effected by that, at least momentarily. But I think they’re quite separate from the creative process, I never read a load of reviews and think “OK people don’t like this about us so we’ll change”. It’s more just a way of seeing what people think of a piece of work after it’s finished.

After this brief October jaunt, what do you have planned for the rest of 2010?

We’ve just booked up studio time in December and January to record album number two. We’re recording on a boat which is moored opposite the millennium dome, it’s an incredible studio (called Lightship95) and I absolutely cannot wait to get in there and start blowing up amps. So the rest of 2010 will be practisepractisepractisepractisepractisepractise recordrecordrecordrecord Christmas.

Have you come across any new bands or songwriters on your travels who Artrocker should be keeping an eye on for the future?

Plenty, there seem to be so many amazing bands springing up all over the place at the moment and it’s lovely to be involved in a healthy scene again. Our tour buddies Ladycop have a new album out which sounds like a blissed out Sonic Youth covering the Pixies. Deaf to Van Gogh’s Ear are an amazing math pop rock gang with time signatures and hooks coming out of their every orifice. And Ute are a folk rock trio with lovely vocal harmonies and great stories.

If you could steal/inherit a member of any other band to plonk in your own line-up, who might it be?

We’d probably get Bono but instead of letting him sing we’d just tie him to the middle of a huge target at the back of the stage and each audience member gets a bag of tomatoes when they enter the venue. Imagine a big tomatoey Bono trying to escape, we’d fill up Wembley stadium with that stage show.

Aside from music, do any of the Cats have a curious ‘other’ talent that we should know about?

Ben can sleep backwards, Doug can talk to conkers, Jamie can survive underground for a month and Tom once set fire to something using nothing but his bum.

Has 2010 gone too quickly?

Well if time and space are relative, then it’s only gone as quickly as the distance you’ve travelled in that time. We’ve travelled quite a lot, so yes, but if we’d just sat down and watched Hollyoaks (this is what happens when you’re not in a band I’ve been told) then it probably would’ve taken ages to go by. So the answer is what?

The album If I'd Had An Atlas is out now