By Gianni Borrelli
Transitioning from virtual obscurity to being one of Australia’s most popular new acts of 2011 is no easy feat, but electropop duo Gypsy & The Cat have made it a reality. Between landing three songs in the Triple J Hottest 100, performing at the Big Day Out festivals and releasing their critically acclaimed debut Gilgamesh, the year is already shaping up to be a busy and exciting one for the Melbourne boys. Not to mention they’ve just been added to the Future Music line up. Xavier Bacash, one half of Gypsy & The Cat (the gypsy or the cat? I should have asked perhaps…) spoke with GLAM Adelaide writer Gianni Borrelli last week.
GB: So you just finished performing at the Big Day Out festivals around Australia, how was that?
Xavier: Really incredible. I was so shocked because it was our first real run of shows that we had done since our record was released, and it’s awesome to see it reacting. It was so overwhelming to see so many people coming to watch us play, because we were on so early. But they were singing along, obviously to songs like Jona Vark and Time to Wander, the obvious ones, but they were even singing along to the tunes that weren’t even on the album, which is nice to see.
GB: Do you ever get time to actually see any acts perform on the day?
Xavier: Totally, I saw LCD Soundsystem twice, and Iggy Pop. Myself and Matt Johnson, who is actually Jeff Buckley’s old drummer, watched the whole Iggy Pop set in Perth which was awesome. And Wolfmother were awesome too. It just depends on tired you are.
GB: I go to a lot of music festivals, I’m always interested to hear what happens behind the scenes. Do you interact a lot with the other artists? Any wild nights filled with partying?
Xavier: Yeah (laughs) we’re not really like that. We’re daggy, we don’t really subscribe to that. Sometimes we do, in Perth there was the after party for the last Big Day Out, which was pretty nuts. I don’t remember a lot from that night. Most of the artists were there in the pool. Andrew [Stockdale], the lead singer of Wolfmother, was the first one in the pool so that was crazy. It was a pretty nuts night. But there are no photographers at those parties for a reason, so I guess I can’t divulge too much.
GB: What happens at the after party, stays at the after party.
Xavier: Yeah it’s like a code, really!
GB: You’re based in U.K now where you’ve performed at the NME Festival and Freeze Festival, but how different is the live music scene there compared to back home?
Xavier: Australia, you know we love our live music. They rival each other pretty heavily and solidly, I would say we match up pretty closely. I guess over in England, because it’s the centre of Europe, a lot of really, really, really great bands move through quite frequently so if you’re a punter you’ve got so many great acts to see, whereas if you’re in Australia you usually have to wait for a festival, like once or twice a year for really big bands to come through.
GB: Before I forget, congratulations on having 3 songs in the Triple J Hottest 100. You have had a lot of airplay on Triple J but were you expecting to have 3 songs in the countdown?
Xavier: Well we spoke to our manager the night before and he was like ‘Don’t expect to get a song in the top 100’. He managed Pnau and when their album was out it reached top 5 in the ARIA Charts and yet Wild Strawberries was only number 99 or something? And he said ‘Your album has only just come out’ and then we ended up having 3 songs in there and we were chuffed at that.
GB: Last year you were nominated for an Unearthed J Award, how much have things changed for you since then?
Xavier: Yeah, sh**loads. Just because the album is out and has just started to react I guess, and prior to that we’d only had one single, Time To Wander. Jona Vark was never released, Triple J were just playing the demo. Lots of things have happened, Coachella and Big Day Out have happened since; it’s been quite a big progression since then.
GB: Your music style is very eclectic and doesn’t adhere to just one genre, who are some of influences?
Xavier: Yeah it’s true! Well, hmm The Bee Gees, Toto, The Police pretty massively. I’m a sucker for Air; Air is probably my favourite band in the whole world. Savage Garden is pretty awesome too.
GB: It’s funny you said Savage Garden. I loved them back in the day but I hadn’t heard their music in nearly 10 years, and now every time I’m at the gym I hear their music playing.
Xavier: They were huge! They sold like, 25 million records. It’s nice to know I have a friend in that belief, a lot of my friends hate me for liking Savage Garden (laughs).
GB: You and Lionel were DJs before you both formed the band right – what marked the shift from DJing to Gypsy & The Cat?
Xavier: We were making dance music together, and we got pretty sick of that. So we were trying to write songs and we wrote some songs that didn’t end up on the record, but that was the moment we realized that maybe we should write an album, so after that we begun writing an album together. We didn’t have a name at that point but we just figured we’d write like 10 or so songs. By the fifth or sixth song we had a name, Gypsy & The Cat, and it was the beginning of something.
GB: Speaking of which, how did the name Gypsy & The Cat come to be?
Xavier: Well I was with my girlfriend at the time and her mum at some antique market and we bought a book called 365 Bedtime Stories, it’s from the 1930s, and there’s a bedtime story for every night of the year. I just thought it was awesome. There was a story in there called Gypsy’s Cat, and when we were writing Jona Vark, I was reading through it looking for some interesting stories, and I came across this one story, and I thought that Gypsy AND The Cat would be pretty cool name, so we started talking about it and we were actually going to make it a song title, but it ended up being the band name.
GB: Another name that interested me is the album name, Gilgamesh. I Googled the word and I think Gilgamesh was a Mesopotamian king or something like that?
Xavier: Yeah, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a long story. I read the story and it was about a king who was at war with another king, so he built a wall around his city to protect his people. I had just broken up with my girlfriend; I was pretty depressed, you know, she broke my heart. So I used the word Gilgamesh as a metaphor for someone putting walls around me. Someone putting walls around themselves and shutting me out of their life. That’s what the song Gilgamesh is about.
GB: That’s very clever. I don’t think many people would have read that much into the name when they first saw it.
Xavier: Yeah I didn’t want it to be obvious, I mean I didn’t really want people to know about that, but a lot of people have been really interested in the name Gilgamesh so I guess I’m happy to divulge (laughs).
GB: You’ve supported Foals and The Strokes on their previous tours, what is like supporting artists with such a large and already established fanbase?
Xavier: It’s awesome, I mean I’m a massive fan of The Strokes, so to play alongside them was pretty amazing and a privilege. And with the Foals guys, you just pick up a lot about playing live and different things you can do, you get inspired by them. And hanging out with the Foals, you just make friendships most importantly which is great, making friends with people doing the same thing as you.
GB: I was watching the Time to Wander video on YouTube last night. I hadn’t seen it until then but it’s a very interesting video, lots of people walking around a city and catching public transport with silver boxes over their heads and whatnot. What was the inspiration behind that?
Xavier: Our record label was talking to us about doing a viral video with a specific director and he just had this idea.
GB: It did have a viral feel to it, almost like a flash mob.
Xavier: Yeah, we just thought we’d check it out. And it’s meant to be a bit stupid, like the Praise You film clip by Fatboy Slim, a bit cheap and whatever.
GB: You’ve just been added to the Future Music line-up, will you have any surprises up your sleeves for those performances?
Xavier: Hmm I don’t know! We just got booked for it so I’ll have to figure something out. Maybe another cover?
GB: What are some covers you’ve done live?
Xavier: We do a Justice We Are Your Friends cover, and Daft Punk’s Da Funk. We don’t really cover other bands though.
GB: After Future Music, what’s next for you guys?
Xavier: We’re going back to England to do a few shows, and then we’re heading over to America to do Coachella. We’re shooting our video for Jona Vark tomorrow so that should be released soon. Lots of things, busy busy busy!
Gypsy & The Cat’s debut album Gilgamesh is out now. They perform at the Future Music Festival, Monday March 14 at Rymill & Rundle Park. Visit www.futureentertainment.com.au/futuremusicfestival/adelaide for more info.
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