The Cat Empire Brass-Man Is Getting Up Close And Personal

At the end of the last The Cat Empire tour, Harry Angus realised that through years of being in a hugely successful band, playing to crowds of thousands of people, he'd lost some basic skills.

"Me and Ollie McGill, the keyboard player for Cat Empire, we did this competition for fans where we'd come and play in their houses before our big concerts," Angus tells. "I really enjoyed the experience. But I also realised that I was really out of practice, because I used to do a lot of that kind of thing when I was starting out in music, like busking at the markets or playing in people's houses. And there's a certain art to it, you've got to be very spontaneous and you've got to really connect with people in a way that it's kind of harder [than] playing to thousands of people, I think."

And so, for his current solo tour, Angus decided to team up with Parlour, organising intimate gigs in people's houses. "It's a great way to do a new project just because it's a proper concert but it's very informal so that you can really try things as well. It's a really good way to get something new sounding like it's well seasoned."

The intimacy of the gigs makes for some interesting moments, says Angus. "I've noticed, especially with a lot of older men, kind of business types who maybe don't go to see a lot of live music, they're actually very emotionally susceptible to music and it's like it unlocks something in them. I could profile them. They're like, older men who've had a very successful career and who work hard and who maybe have a bit of a closed experience in life, even though they're real confident. They're the guys who, I play them a little ballad, and they lose their shit, something happens and they just tear up and it really makes you think that music is this way to tap into people's emotions, even if they don't realise they've got the emotions."

The tour is called Struggle For Glory, and the concept of the new material is the stories of Greek mythology set to gospel and jazz, which will get its first major airing as part of the Mullum Music Festival. "I've always loved gospel music but I've always felt like a bit of a fraud. So I've always thought it would be great to write music that was inspired by black gospel music but that's lyrically different, to take away that element of almost like parody or something."

Reading Greek mythology stories to his six-year-old son, the concept to combine the two popped into his head and he ran with it. "I just really love the stories and they have that similar quality that the bible stories have, of being archetypal, just having these really simple but big concepts. And gospel music's simple, it's just a few chords, simple melodies, simple lyrics, and there's not that much to it in that respect. So, it's just a good fit, it works."