Inspired by a local, infamous neighbourhood cat that spent her final years living with Stella Anning, 'Miss Doug' is the newest single from Stella's guitar-bass-drum jazz-blues-rock instrumental group the Stella Anning Trio.
Joined by musicians Joshua Barber (Kerryn Fields) on drums and Claire Cross (Oh Pep!, Danika) on bass, Stella Anning Trio offer eclectic jazz/ blues grooves inspired by the likes of Khruangbin, John Scofield, Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes, Bill Frisell and Sydney band The Alcohotlicks.Affectionately known as Princess Doug of Fitzroy, sadly Doug passed away but her spirit lives on through the people she connected with; Stella wanted to capture Doug's quirky charms in song, so wrote the bluesy bop that is 'Miss Doug' that's the Stella Anning Trio's first single from their debut EP 'STAT', which lands late August.
"A cat of pure sass, attitude and a general vibe of not giving a sh.t, Miss Doug was definitely no longer a Princess, but more like an old hag, with a strong smoker's meow," Stella says.
"She had a great strut and was surprisingly friendly, but you had to earn her respect. Rest in power, Doug."
A noodling, hypnotic, dusty jazz groove purrs to life with slumbering drum rolls and bluesy guitar licks that ooze feline sass (and is that a sparkly cow bell in the background?!), 'Miss Doug' captures the 'bouncing strut' of Princess Doug.
"When Doug was happy, she had a bouncing strut that I thought could be captured through the chord hits that you hear at the start of the song.
"Even though she was sweet and very small, she had a horrible meow that made her sound like she had smoked many cigarettes. The song needed to capture this roughness, which led to me playing the guitar with a bit of grit."
Ahead of the song's release at the weekend (21 August), scenestr is stoked to premiere the music video for 'Miss Doug' that brings Doug to life in human form (sorta). Enjoy.
"The video storyline was easy to come up with, I knew it had to be a cat walking around as if she owned the place, with not a care in the world, smoking a lot of cigarettes," adds Stella.
"The music video was so much fun to do. I filmed it and managed to hoax a few friends into being in the clip, including my neighbour who is the cat!
"When you watch the video, there is one bit that I find so funny and it was just timed perfectly – after the cat meets her friends in the park for some drinks, she decides it's time to leave, but then bumps into another friend.
"As they are hugging and chatting, you can see in the background a French bulldog who looks at the cat suspiciously. It's hilarious! I could not have directed that dog better!"
'Miss Doug' features on the 'STAT' EP that will be released 28 August.
"The 'STAT' EP is a small chapter of my life from just pre-COVID to post-COVID. There is a tune that came out of lockdown ('Killing Time'), a tune about the first year of my baby's life ('Growing So Fast', which features a cute little giggle from him at the end of the song!), to a tune about being reunited after a stint of long distance, with my partner ('Reunited').
"The inspirations for this EP are vast – from Khruangbin to John Scofield, Brittany Howard and the Alabama Shakes to Bill Frisell.
"Some more local inspiration would be Sydney Band The Alcohotlicks with guitarists Aaron Flower, Ben Hauptmann and drummer Evan Mannell, Melbourne pianist Barney McAll and so many other amazing guitarists such as James Muller and Craig Fermanis.
"I would say the tune 'Empty' is inspired by local songwriter and musician Lisa Baird who is the front person for Melbourne blues band Bitches Brew, which I play guitar in.
"She always has a new, brilliant song she's written every time we catch up, which is always so exciting. And at the time I wrote 'Empty', she had just thrown a tune at me that she wanted me to play slide on, which I hadn't really delved into much at that time.
"So she definitely got me back into the slide, which although I would say I'm still a hack at, I absolutely love it!"
Stella Anning Trio 2022 Tour Dates
Sun 28 Aug - The Jazzlab (Melbourne)Sun 23 Oct - Lazybones (Sydney)
Thu 3 Nov - The Paris Cat (Melbourne)
