Interview 1

1.How did the Cat's Miaow get started? could you briefly tell me the story?

we formed in 1992. looking back, the cat's miaow began as an outlet for us to write songs and andrew to record them on his 4 track. andrew and i had known each other for a few years but were playing in different bands. andrew was in the ampersands and cam and i were in girl of the world. i had been in a band briefly with kerrie a couple of years earlier so i gave her a call. we made cassettes and gave them away to friends. no one was really interested in us at all until about 1994 when clint from four letter words asked us to go on his compilation cd "going against mazs advice" and pam berry intervied us in chickfactor. after that bus stop wanted to do a cd which took forever to come out. 

in 1995 quiddity/drive in took us in out of the cold and gave us a home and continues to look after us to this day.

2.From where does the name Cat's Miaow comes from?

it's an old american saying. i think it roughly translates as "excellent".

3.Your songs are very sweet and sad pop melodies. How would you describe your music and which are the stories you always like to tell about?

our music is quite simple pop music, with very few adornments. the stories we tell are usually relationship type songs, snippets of conversations, things i would have liked to say, letters i should have sent.

4.Which bands have inspired you most in your music? being the motive for you to start create music.

i am a big fan of the wedding present. i think i once said that i wanted the cat's miaow to sound like an accoustic wedding present with a woman singing. we were also heavily influenced by the bands from new zealand on the flying nun label, particularly the clean who also recorded a lot on 4 track. beat happening's bedroom approach to music we found very inspiring. i think the band we sound the most like is veronica lake. the reality is the cat's miaow were just a bunch of veronica lake wannabes.

5.Was Sarah records a big inspiration for you?

no, not at all. i like a lot of the records the label released but we never really aspired to be on sarah or to emulate the bands. but i am a big fan of the field mice and the sugargliders were friends of ours.

6.Listening to your music seems to me that you're very romantic and sensitive persons. Am I right?

no. maybe once, but now we're just grumpy and bitter

7.The duration of your songs usually lasts 2 or 3 minutes or less. Why is that? 

we don't have a lot to say. im happy just giving people a little glimpse and not explaining the whole story in detail. im not afraid to leave a few questions unanswered. musically tho, it was a reaction against padding out a song so it goes for a certain length of time.
we just wanted to be concise and economical

8.How did it happen that you've made a "bliss out" for Darla?

we had been involved with darla for a couple of years, james regularly asked us to contribute to the "little darla has a treat for you" compilation cds. he asked us if we wanted to do a bliss out cd and the idea of remixing some of the older songs appealed to us. for several of the songs we only kept the original vocal track and completely rebuilt the song from there.

9.What do you think about the current independent music scene in Australia? Are you buying records and what are they?

im not sure that there really is an independent music scene in Australia. most of the australian bands i like are either friends, on drive in or my label, library records, so i dont have to buy them.
anyway, here's a list of bands i like;
99, steinbecks, sleepy township, tugboat, cannanes, lucksmiths, huon, robert cooper, dunnaways, other peoples children, super falling star, panel of judges, minimum chips, sodastream.

im very happy to say about half the bands on that list are on library records

10.It also seems that you like to make some cover versions. Tell me more about it?

yes, in a lot of ways its a homage to the original performer but we approach it as if we wrote the song so we often take quite big liberties in the interpretation. i think my favourite version was making the st etienne song "nothing can stop us now" sound like galaxie 500. a tribute to 2 of our favourite bands within one song

11.Tell me about France and Paris. Have you ever been there? and what's your relationship with this country?

yes i've been to paris twice and its probably my favourite city. i love the atmosphere and its extremely beautiful. we're particularly fond of french music from the 60's especially francoise hardy and france gall.
katerine is an immense talent and his cd's largely inspired us to record the "j'en ai marre" single, which were old cat's miaow songs translated into french and re-recorded.

12.What about live-shows? How often do you play live and how is a live show of Cat's Miaow?

the last time we played live publicly was in 1994. we occasionally play at friends party's and we played a couple of songs at cams wedding. im not really interested in playing live, i think the time spent rehearsing to play a show could be better spent writing and recording a new song.

13.Tell me more about Drive in records. How it all started?

the drive in story would make an entire interview in itself.
i think its best if you contacted mike

14.Apart from the band what other things are important to you in your life?

friends and family are the only really important things. other little diversions for me are my label, reading crime fiction, collecting soda syphons and sleeping.

15.Which are your daily jobs? if there's any.

yes, we're are all quite busy with our day jobs. i'm a librarian in a public library

16.Is there something that you have done and you've after regret it?

no, i only regret the things i haven't done. missed opportunities that i'll never get again.

17.Of all the songs that you have written which is your personal favorite and why?

i think one of my favorite cat's miaow songs is "aurora" which was written by andrew. of the ones i've written i have no one particular song that means more to me than the others. but more importantly im happy to say theres none i really hate either. some i quite like for a guitar part, or kerrie's voice or the way the drums and bass sound together.

18.Which are the memories and feelings you have from your childhood?

when you say childhood the first thing that comes to mind is growing up on a farm. the pets i had (dogs and cats) and the weather being really hot but mostly wet and cold.

19.Have you dreamed all your life of being a musician? and how has your life changed being in a band?

it seemed really important to me from when i was 16 to be in a band, but looking back on it i cant remember exactly why. it's become a part of my life but im not sure how its changed my life. the cat's miaow are very normal people.

20.What are your plans for the future?

the cat's miaow don't have any plans for the immediate future. we are involved with hydroplane so we are still making music together.

21. How you got involved with Hydroplane?

hydroplane evolved out of the cat's miaow, but it has become the main band.

22.What do you think is the difference between Hydroplane and Cat's miaow?

while there is a lot of overlap between the 2 bands, the main difference is that hydroplane is andrews band and the cat's miaow was mainly mine. the cat's miaow had a more traditional approach to songwriting and instrumentation ie vocals, guitar, bass & drums.
with hydroplane songs can often start with loops and samples and build up from there. but haiving said that, those descriptions dont hold true for every song, but only as a general description

23.How difficult is it for you to describe what your music is all about?

i could explain an individual song, how it was written, what influenced it musically, anything unusual about how it was recorded. but i dont think i could describe what the band or its music is all about. so yes, very difficult. 

24.You have also many special guests in your albums. Tell me more about it. What does this mean to you? 

the special guests are just friends. sometimes you get them in because they play a particular instrument (eg trumpet) that we cant play and sometimes we get them in because its interesting and fun to play with other people. it stops us from getting in a rut. other people sometimes approach things in a very different way

and what about the Bart and Friends album?

that expands on the previous reasons really. tho with the Bart and friends a lot of the people like josh and laura co-wrote the songs as well. it was like forming a new band for each song.

25. Have you ever been in a previous band before Cat's Miaow? If yes, tell me more about it.

cam and i were in girl of the world who put out a few singles on parasol in the early 90's. it's so long ago it's all just a vague memory now

26.What's your relationship with other kinds of music ? like jazz, punk etc.?

i think it is important to have an awareness of the history of the music you're making. we drew influences from a wide range of areas.
in regards to other genres like jazz im a big fan of bossa nova and retro cocktail music. it seems so otherworldly today. regarding punk i go thru phases where i get interested in it. im more interested in the post-punk period of 79-81 with bands like magazine, wire, joy division. the buzzcocks spiral scratch ep is one of my favourite records and is the main reason we released so many 4 song 7 inch eps.