Xavier Panades and the CAT
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The band was formed by an accidental encounter between Errol Hewitt and Xavier Panades at an unusual local place, The Circle (formerly known as Circle Books), a second hand book and coffee shop, in Bedminster (Bristol). Both had previously been playing, roadie-ing, jamming with bands in England and Catalonia. Xavier had also performed successfully in several drama plays.
Since, that initial meeting two projects have grown from this fertile ground: The First Invisible C.A.T. , and Xavier Panades and the C.A.T.
The former is a rock-metal project with full collaboration of the members of the local punk-rock band The Get Outs ,. It uses Catalan, English and Euskera (Basque) languages, and combines trashy songs with operatic ballads, and more rhyming tunes with an outstanding physical and energetic performance by Xavier on vocals. This band has been intermittently playing (with some member changes sometimes) locally. The members are now focusing on producing their first album in the studio, and it is a real secret what the band will release in the near future!
During this time Xavier developed the idea of internationalising the music from the Catalonian countries in an acoustic set playing covers from classic Catalan folk musicians and poets. Indeed, the Catalonian countries have produced some astonishing folk- rock and avant-garde music over the years, but this fact is still largely unknown to the rest of the planet.
Xavier approached James Hollingsworth (front-man of JEBO, and an exceptionally talented English singer/songwriter) and he agreed to help record an album of updated covers from Catalan musicians. James was curious as he had previously noticed the idiosyncratic personalities of Errol and Xavier, and their atypical way of approaching music.
After six hours of recording James stopped it because he realised that the talented but bizarre Xaviers voice did not fit with the music he was trying to sing... except for one song, the largely spoken-word production of Els Amants, which with its powerful restless and quick mood changing from sweetness to anger, passion could comfortably be expressed.
James realised that this performance of Els Amants, revealed Xavier as a unique mixture of a reciter, comedian, declaimer and singer, in other words a ?rhapsodist; and proceeded to point out to Xavier that this may be his real path in music art.
Therefore Els Amants, became the platform and benchmark from whence Errol and Xavier began to develop their unique style.
After having turned Xavier's life upside down in this fashion, James sent him home and suggested he and Errol create their own songs to accommodate his voice. Although, Errol had initially agreed to recording only two songs, after only three weeks of intense inspiration and creativity, he and Xavier returned to James' studio and recorded in just one day the mini-album Per que no li dius? , which James subsequently mixed and mastered, adding some additional instrumentation and superbly sparse sound effects.
In Xavier Panades and the C.A.T. (Creative Artistic Temperament), a new form of transcendent music has been born.
It breaks through any musical classicism so that people can directly experience the feeling that the words are expressing, regardless of their complexity or the language in which are expressed.
It is heavily laced with Xaviers talent to switch and combine poetry, comedy, acting and tireless recitation. Many musical influences can be seen in the tunes, including the great names of the Catalonian countries from the 1970s like Pau Riba, Jaume Sisa, Guillem dEfak, or even Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, or metal gods like Black Sabbath, or grunge like Pearl Jam, or even classical music etc.
Their performances are a combination of two extremes working in total harmony. Errol is calm, mysterious and quiet, like a reversed volcano, in huge contrast to Xavier with his chaotic bursts of feeling and Rabelaisian passion.
The album artwork for Per que no li dius? has been designed by the collaboration between Joan Fontcuberta and Darrell Codrington.
The music has drawn burgeoning interest from peoples of very different cultural, class, and international backgrounds, as a glance at the band's MySpace page will demonstrate: it is like a party of joyous diversity!
James curiosity paid off and after his experience with the band in the studio he describes it as the Poetic Performance Genius of Tom Waits meets Warhol-esque artistry inspired by the Catalan heritage of Dali and Gaudi (though he's surprised to be quoted on this first suggestion!); Highrise Music says: a stunningly raw and passionate performance! which is perhaps a more accessible description; and "damn good sounding - the voice is one of the strongest imprints I've heard in a while." - Associated Minds.
The band has been gigging around Bristol and already captured media interest. Even before the release of their first album a recent performance was filmed in Bristol for TV3 (The National Catalan TV), with an interview in the authentic atmosphere of the Anglo-Italian venue. Cultural organisations from Catalonia and Euskadi have also showed interest in the band performing in their coming festivals.
The band is currently negotiating their record and distribution deals; composing their second album with the inclusion of some special guests from the worlds of Jazz and Blues; and setting up a concert program for what looks likely to be a very busy 2007!!READ MORE
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