Chords for THE CAT EMPIRE - BPM Interview with Felix & Harry

[G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _
I walk down the street with some evil in my eye and some thoughts [E] in my head that won't
make me [A] feel high.
Yo my head was a hoodie and my ears was some bass.
Hey guys I'm Lindsay Rodrigues for BPM and I'm hanging out with the Cat Empire.
_ Felix, Harry how are you guys?
Very good, good thanks.
So new album Cinema coming out, how are you feeling?
It's album release day, it's my mum's birthday [C] _
and I get the keys to my new house.
Even though I won't be there for it, I'll be in Sydney doing promo for the [B] new album. _
But [D] yeah, very [A] excited.
_ _ [F#] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [E] _ _ [A] _
So [F#] I just want to take it back a little bit.
[D#] The year I believe was [C#] 2005 and I was working at a record store and we were given this CD,
it was your single Hello and we were told you have [A] to play this [G] and [C#] we just remember
listening to it and just going who are these [B] guys?
_ Nothing has ever sounded like this before.
[E] So what are your memories of that time?
_ That was when the band was just _ [G#] _ _ [A] breaking in Australia and [E] it was great.
Considering where we came from which was pretty much _ [A] very _ underground, jazz musicians playing
parties or playing clubs [E] or playing really late night festivals or whatever and then
all of a sudden we had _
[D] _ this track [F] which had just [G] formerly been kind of just a party [E] track
and _ [B] it was just being blasted on the radio [D] everywhere and it was quite [C] bewildering but
it was also a pretty [D#] fun time.
It was amazing.
I think we got our first _ _ [E] big festival that year and our first tour [F#m] overseas.
_ It was great, it was a really cool [F] time.
And [F#] I read somewhere [B] that you guys actually made a debut, albeit under a different name,
at the Manly Jazz [A] Festival in [B] 1999.
[D] What was that like?
[D#m] Yeah, that's right.
That was our [F#m] first _ [F#] teenage proper band and it was actually full [G#] of some amazing musicians.
[C#] _ Guys who had gone on to being [G] a lot of prominent [F] Australian bands were [D#] in that one and that
[N] was the Can Empire rhythm section really.
Ollie on [G] keys and Will on drums [C] and Ryan on bass [A] and I was playing [Bm] percussion.
So that was sort of the [Em] basis of _ _ [B] the energy behind the band and we had a great show at
Manly and a really cool weekend.
[F#m] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] Incredible creature [A] wanna treat ya fine, let's [A#] have some fun, get [B] some fuckin' flick that
is a grind.
You're the [D] mind, it's a vibe, I work it for my own [B] mind.
So I want to know, whose idea was it to mesh all these different styles of [F#m] music together?
Because you've [B] got your jazz in there, obviously your Latin, your pop, your ska, you _ name it,
it's in there.
Whose idea was it to kind of make all [E] of those things stick together?
You did really.
I suppose so.
I _ knew all these musicians _ _ [A]
and I knew how good they were.
I mean for instance, I met Harry one night and I [Am] heard him play trumpet and I'd never
heard anyone play trumpet [C] like that before.
And then I heard him sing and I'd never heard anyone sing like that before.
So I thought he should be in [E] the band and so a lot of it was writing songs [A] for quite
a strange line up of [A#] instruments and characters and so I did that in the first [B] place.
I think since then the band's actually evolved into something which is developing its own
[Em] sound which isn't _ _ just attaching to genres and smashing them [N] together.
It's actually developing a sound that comes from the personalities and _ something different
[Em] and that's quite exciting for [Am] us, not to be releasing another _ kind of genre mixing album
[A] but an album which sounds like the Cali Empire and which is actually quite [F#m] _ _ [Bm] unique I think.
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [F#] _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
So what can people expect from your new album Cinema?
It's very _ _ [D] cinematic, _ believe [Bm] it or not.
_ _ [D] No, [F#] it really is. _
It's [B] like there's a lot of kind of mood changes and scene changes.
[Dm] In a way it does [Bm] the job that the other albums did by kind of [D] going from _ [B] Romania to Africa
with all these genres.
[B]
It does that without having to [D] travel anywhere.
[Bm] _
I guess _ _ [D] it [A] still sounds like the Cali Empire but it's also very different in a lot of ways
to what we've done before.
So what are you [F#m] most proud of [B] about the new album?
[Bm] I'm most proud of _ just the _ _ [C#] band's creation I suppose.
I think more than any other album we've ever done before. _
When we started this one it was a blank canvas.
We didn't know what it was.
_ _ [F#] Harry and I didn't come in with a collection of songs and [G] say this is what you've got to play
or this is how it's going to work.
We started off with [F#m] no songs really.
It's a [B] very creative, group orientated, [F#] exciting, _ surprising album.
So with six of you do you find that you butt heads quite often or is it all fairly harmonious?
We often butt heads, although with six people in the band there's a lot of people to butt heads with
so you kind of share it around.
_ This album has been great.
It's been a real document of _ [E] _
a really [Bm] positive experience.
It's been a matter of writing the music together and coming together
and _ _ almost _ rediscovering _ [D] the joy that we have for playing music together
after so long touring and living in buses and being in and out of hotels
[A] and just _ circling the world, which is amazing [Bm] but also very tiring.
You've got to keep it fresh [D] and you've got to keep it honest
[G] and I feel like _ [Bm] _ _ [C#] this record has always been about finding the way to be creative and be [Am] fresh as well.
_ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [D] You guys have done [G] a lot.
You've released a ton of albums and singles.
[D] You've toured [G] everywhere.
You've won an ARIA.
You've been on the soundtrack for an EA Sports game.
What is [N] left for Can Empire?
What else do you guys want to achieve?
Well there was a time when I had all of this list in my head of these things that I wanted to do with the band
and I saw its potential and I sort of thought I wanted to play big festivals and _ TV shows and [Am] everything.
I _ [Em] felt driven towards those things and [D] one of the nicest [C] things about this album for me
is [Am] that _ we didn't [C] expect to make an album necessarily.
We weren't [G] put under pressure to make an album
_ and we made it because we enjoyed the last tour that we did and because it felt natural. _
_ [Dm] For me now [F] it's quite a nice position.
[B] I don't really have [F] that many goals.
[G] The band has achieved a lot of the things and more than I hoped it would
and now it's just a matter of [B] _ enjoying the performances
and trying to give as much as we can to each other on stage and to our audience
and just embrace [E] the band for what it is.
That's a pretty nice _ goal to have that and whatever else happens is a surprise.
_ [C#] Cinema [C] is out now so congratulations and happy [D] birthday to your mum Harry
and best of luck with the movie.
Thanks so much for [Am] chatting with us guys. Pleasure. _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ [C] It's already strange not