How do you celebrate a decade of existence as a band? Ten years of recording, touring, arguing, drinking and partying? If you’re Melbourne’s The Cat Empire, you set yourselves the biggest project of all.

To celebrate a decade of recording and touring consistently, each member sat through hundreds of hours of concert recordings, some dating back as far as 2002. Each picked their favourites, and over a few months a collection was pooled together of old and new, precocious and introspective.
“We recorded a lot of different stuff, and then forgot about it,” explains lead vocalist and percussionist Felix Riegl over the blower from his adopted home in New York. “Then, we took some time off and went back home to relax. After a few months, we started thinking about touring more and getting back out there, so as a precursor to that I went into storage and got all the old tapes and began listening to all of them. It was pretty surprising, as we learned some of the things we thought weren’t great were, and vice-versa. It’s a privilege having the opportunity to go back and listen to shows. It made everything around the band lighter and more enjoyable.

The result was February’s astounding live collection, the band’s first proper, titled simply enough, Live on Earth. While much of the collection is centered on two specific shows, one in Montreal and the other in Melbourne (the latter was also made into a concert DVD released the same day, entitled Live at the Bowl), as a whole it represents the core, innate emotion that drives every moment watching The Cat Empire - it’s loud, boisterous, spontaneous and downright lovely.

“It was hundreds of hours of listening in the end,” says Riegl, “but quite enjoyable and really important for the band to do. Plus, we have always been a band that was born and raised in the live atmosphere, developing a word of mouth following. That is how we developed our identity. So it seemed like the most natural release for us.”

Other than a few fan-only live releases, The Cat Empire stuck to releasing studio albums throughout their decade long career, preferring to keep their live show and its reputation within the theatre or concert hall. Yet, The Cat Empire is not a studio band. Never has been.

Instead, the band thrives in the live setting, as their fused blend of funk, Caribbean melodies and indigenous Australian folk is allowed to breathe, experiment and divulge more live, as it’s music that sounds better in cohesion than pieced together over tracks in the studio. This is not to say the septet has not made a strong studio record. Last year’s So Many Nights is just that, but it pales in comparison to seing this band live. Without a guitar, the band is a melodious beast, armed with turntables, percussion, horns and heavy handed, frolicking drums. The studio simply cannot capture this perfectly. It does alright, but the best atmosphere to experience The Cat Empire is in the flesh.

Live on Earth marks the end of the first stage of The Cat Empire’s career. The material, culled from various tours in various places, shines a light on what the band do best, and provides an accompaniment to their recorded output. It shows a band of twenty-somethings traveling around the world learning about themselves through their songs, regardless of whether it was performed in front of forty or 40,000.

It reveals a crossroads of sorts, a band aware of their past and thrilled to bask in it, but ready to move on and see what lies next simultaneously. There are no new songs on the live album; instead it is a greatest hits of sorts, material culled from all four studio albums, all representing different stages in the band’s development.

“The live album sums up ten years of the band,” affirms Riegl. “We travelled around the world so much and these songs carried us through all of that. In a way, we are honouring that. It’s the story of our late twenties and now that we’ve celebrated and marked our past. Plus, the studio recordings have been increasingly song-focused. I think with the early ones we were definitely replicating the live sound, but not so much anymore. Our first album was trying to create a big festival sound, but the next ones have been more focused on the songs.

“Yet we are always touring and playing the songs, which is completely different experience. And as such, we are aware we have a dedicated live following, so aside from the studio, we started recording shows because pretty early on, six or seven years ago, we knew we were going to release a live album.”

Aside from yet another worldwide tour to support the live album - the American one just wrapping up two weeks ago - The Cat Empire are moving forward sonically, and Riegl is promising something unexpected in terms of the next studio output. No timings have been set, but Riegl is based in New York for now instead of Melbourne, writings songs to demo to the band over email. “To be honest, [I’ve been] writing all sorts of music,” reveals the vocalist. “This is truly an exciting place to write. It’s so noisy and alive, and the theatre of it all is a muse. I feel this will turn into something quite removed from what we’ve done so far. Plus, now we can be more patient, as we don’t feel rushed. Thankfully, we are in a developed place and allowed some space, so I see it from here, things will be quite different. I don’t know how yet, but be assured of it.”

Until then, The Cat Empire will finish promoting Live on Earth, and two sold out shows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire are the largest the band has ever done in the UK. They sold out weeks ago, too, evidence of a fervent following both in and out of Australia.