Few bands have achieved the legendary status and longevity of The Cat Empire.
Twenty-plus years on, they embrace and entice crowds with their infectious energy, skilled musicianship and a hefty helping of brilliant songwriting.Multiple platinum records, awards, sold-out tours and over 250 million streams later, the band are just as enthusiastic about their art and collaborating with amazing musicians, compiling their latest record 'Where The Angels Fall' (released last week) with the assistance of no less than 75 musicians.
"It's probably my favourite recording that I've ever been a part of," frontman Felix Riebl shares. "There is such an abundant crop of musicians and a collective of people who contributed to it.
"Some songs, we would say 'let's start it with a Brazilian percussion ensemble', and some, 'why don't we get a ten-piece orchestral string section'. With everything we're thinking, let's make it this overflowing feeling.
"So we started from a more expansive perspective musically, and got into that space of overflowing, abundant music. It's just what you need for your heart."
Always pushing the boundaries, the band enlisted 49 instruments to bring their record to life, stuffing it full of history, culture and unique sounds that draw the ear and the soul.
"We recorded in a music space full of old instruments, Merri-Bek City Band, a community music space with instruments that are 100 years old, and it has pictures of old, black and white marching bands from the day, and people, when they died, left instruments there.
"So there's collections of African drums, collections of old brass instruments and marimbas and timpanis and all that weird percussion. So in that spare time, you look around the room and think 'how do we get that on there?'.
"At the end of 'Thunder Rumbles', we put really interesting Balinese percussion instruments. We had the Heidelberg Wind Symphony rehearsing in the space, and they performed on 'Money Coming My Way'.
"This album was produced by Andy Baldwin. I love working with him because he's a big kid, and we all get into that headspace of 'what can we add to this? Oh, let's try that!' So it's like going back into that child mentality of 'let's just experiment with lots of different things'.
"When you have people like Ollie [McGill], who is one of the most gifted natural musicians I've ever met, he's got that rare ability to go to any instrument, and within a few minutes, have a basic understanding and be freakishly good at playing instruments he doesn't know.
"So he could go around and figure out some rare wind instrument within a few minutes, and we'd put that on there. Having said that, all things that we do are very solid on this album, but it had that playfulness which we all needed at the time to get out of our own heads a bit. Just pure music again."
Off the back of a largely sold-out European tour, and heading into an Australian tour from September followed by a return trip to North America, the band have been easily translating the new songs from album to stage, and enjoying the crowd response.
"I think this album is gonna be one that goes from the studio to the stage really naturally. We wrote with the stage in mind a lot of the time and big festival moments.
"There's a song called 'Owl', which is one of my favourite recording moments ever. It's flamenco, and it's as musically tough as we played on this album. I think that's gonna become a cult song for us, it's just got that feeling.
"'Be With You Again' is very special, that's the song I wrote for my late little brother. He was involved in the band a lot, he performed with us at the Royal Albert Hall in London and played on 'Miserere'. That's the song that I'm excited to play and remember him well with a big group of people.
"The last song on the album 'Drift Away', I'm really excited to play. It's a really beautiful island ballad. We've been singing that on the tour bus. I think it's just melodic enough to fill up the room.
"I think all of the songs, if we put the work in and give it the energy, are gonna fly off the stage and that's an exciting prospect. For this show, what I'm excited about is bringing in Brazilian percussion, bringing in that overflow of instruments and sounds."
Not satisfied with having eight musicians on stage, the band are well known for opening up the floor to celebrate live collaborations.
"It's always been part of the band that it's a very open stage. After having toured for so long and having a break and going through things in life, the thing I treasure most is the friendship of the musicians that's based on playing music together really well and with a very open mind.
"We're serious about having a good time in terms of the musicianship, and we're learning songs as we go and learning about different cultures and different sounds. It's a great time for this band, for me personally, because I need to be around really gifted musicians, it's infectious being on stage with them."
Riebl even sees the crowd as part of the band, and enjoys each gig as a singular moment in time to be enjoyed and cherished for its uniqueness.
"I look back over 20 years and the intent to play music really well, the quality of musicianship and the dedication has always been there. It's what separates a show just about popular moments, to a show that you gotta be there that night to experience, you go somewhere with an audience on that collective journey.
"When the audience is with you, they're almost part of the band, that's the experience that you can't translate to a press release, the power of live music.
"Without that, it's easy to go through the motions and then you deny yourself this great experience. People have come along the journey with us, because the music was part of their lives in a way.
"But they also knew that when they arrived there, there was this sense of occasion, we're gonna do something together. This is our secret tonight. We're gonna do something special collectively."
The Cat Empire's love of live music was fashioned at a young age by the generosity of the Melbourne music scene and a hunger to learn and be more.
"We're a Melbourne band, heart and soul. When we were 16 year olds, we'd sneak out and see bands like Los Cabrones and Rumberos and Quarter Street and Julie O'Hara. We also had incredible rock bands play in this amalgamation of the Melbourne scene that we grew up in, where all the musicians would also really embrace us.
"We'd finish our early gig, and go knock on the window of some club, and play with amazing musicians until sunrise. So the approach of The Cat Empire in that lifelong pursuit to try and believe in music is really a product of those amazing musicians we were surrounded by in Melbourne, the generation who schooled us, who were generous and gave us an amazing experience and a confidence to try and play like that for the next generation. And that's so beautiful.
"For me, music is an experience and a pursuit that happens when you know extremely gifted, talented musicians are able to play. And sometimes they do it hard in music. They don't have that breakthrough success, but they keep on showing up.
"They do their gigs, they play, because they need to, because they live by it. And when you see that as a young person, it never leaves you. That's one thing I'd like to hand down to the next generation of musicians coming up is that you play with that sort of commitment."
'Where The Angels Fall' is available.
The Cat Empire 2023 Tour Dates
Fri 15 Sep - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)Fri 22 Sep - The Fortitude Music Hall (Brisbane)
Sat 23 Sep - The Green Room (Byron Bay)
Fri 29 Sep - Hindley Street Music Hall (Adelaide)
Thu 5 Oct - Forum Melbourne
Fri 6 Oct - Forum Melbourne* sold out
Sun 3 Dec - SummerSalt @ Torquay Common (Torquay)
Sat 9 Dec - Music In The Park @ Mornington Park (Mornington)
