INTERVIEW - An exclusive and unconventional interview with Confuse the Cat to discover how the music sounds in Europe. Fasten the seat belt, get ready to take off.

 PillBox: First of all, what’s the meaning of Kericky (title of their last album)?
Geert Plessers (singer and frontman of CTC): Actually ‘Kericky’ is the name of a poker game that we’ve played several times in the past. About 10 years ago we (my former band Reiziger) toured Europe with an American band. And as you all know, touring means spending tons of time in a tour bus. So, our friends of the Van pelt introduced us to ‘Kericky’. The only thing you need to play Kericky is 3 dice, a pen, money and the skills to lie by using your best pokerface. If you’re lucky you are able to buy a bottle of Chivaz at the next gas station. According to the people of the van pelt, Kericky was invented by the members of fugazi. It’s worth enough to call our latest album after a game fugazi invented!.

PB: Can you guys tell us the story of your album? What inspired this work?
Geert: We’ve spent a lot of time writing Kericky. Unfortunately in the middle of the writing process my father died of Alzheimer. Of course the fact of losing someone who meant a lot to me had a massive impact on some of the tracks. For instance, Paul’s eyes is dedicated to my father. The lyrics are based on his way of communicating after suffering 5 years of Alzheimer. Beside this strong and emotional experience, a lot of feelings and strong images give sense to write songs. To me it is still a mystery, but most of the input is an unwitting process. Sometimes I try to analyse those inexplicable ideas. But also I can find the answer in ordinary daily facts, like a bike ride, the view on a mountain in Basilicata or the sound of trains in the distance.

PB: The most difficult thing in creating this album was… (I’d like to have the answer from all of you Geert, Dirk, Sven and Dirk N.)
Geert: Mixing a record from a distance. Our record was mixed at the temple studio’s in Malta. Due the lack of time nobody of the band could fly to Malta and support the mixing process. So every night Luuk cox (Mixing credits) send me a pre-mix of each song. After a brief discussion we’ve had to decide if we could go on with the next track in line.
Sven: Halfway the recording process I joined the band. It wasn’t easy to catch the other band members’ drive and Ideas. I had to deal with their strong points of view. I was dropped in an unstoppable train of ideas. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun. But sometimes you think you gonna end up somewhere else. It can surprise you in a good or bad way. It will always be a matter of compromises.

PB: What’s changed from your previous album -We can do it- to Kericky?
Geert: First of all we’ve got a new bass player. Sven’s influence is a strong element of this record. The dubby, wobbly atmosphere is a new ingredient on this record if you want to compare it with “We Can Do It”. Dirk T. takes a lot of the guitar parts. He’s the one who comes out with the sweetest overdubs and very nice backings. Like I said, we took much more time to write this album. Comparing to the older records we’ve invested a lot more in sound and production. This time we’ve also spent more time on pre-production. We can do it was more a first take record. Kericky is a record built up in different stages. Hopefully you can hear the difference.

PB: Choose three tracks from Kericky, that summarize Confuse the Cat style and mood.
Track opener Koi is a song that I like a lot. It’ s a song tangled in different styles. This song can shine, but on the other hand you can feel the desperation, the dark side of the band. It’s that contradiction that we often try to use in our songs… sunny, but watch out, the weather can chance quickly.
- Black Birds describes the dynamic of the band. The cat can threaten and sometimes sounds unpredictable. Kericky is an album going from pop over dub to noise. Emotional elements are very important in our music. Our goal is to move people’s feelings and if we also can move their feet, we’ve succeeded.
- Cut On The Money feels cold, but if you listen carefully you can discover the warmth of that song. Listen to the harmonies. Confuse the Cat uses also humor in their songs. It’s up to you to find out what’s funny or not.

PB: “The dub-influences recall to memory the great London riots, though be it in white tennis slacks and with a large emphasis on dance, equally due to the portion (collaboration!!!) of Luuk – Shame on you Boy – Cox (Buscemi, Tim Vanhamel, Arsenal), operating from a Malteser mixing table”.  We can perceive the big importance of the dub-influences especially in tracks like Jackal at 10 O’Clock. What happened in London?
Geert: The guy who wrote this part of our bio tried to describe our sound with strong images. At that time he was listening a lot to ‘Sadinasta’ from The Clash. Jackal at 10 O’clock is also 100 percent white mans dub. The song doesn’t breath the atmosphere of a sunny reggae beach, but threatens and predicts a….. hhhmmm a riot in a very lyrical way.

PB: The best place you have played in and the best audience ever.
Geert: Somewhere in Italia I guess.. We’ve had many good memories of touring Italia. One memorable show I did was in a place called Baca in Pescara. The crowed was outrageous. “A semtex atmosphere”, but in a positive way. After that show they closed the club, too much rock ‘n' roll. They couldn’t handle it anymore. Have you ever heard about that? Too much Rock ’n Roll! Once we were a headliner of a festival on beach. From stage we’ve had a massive view on the Ocean. During our set the sun went down the horizon and the flame of the light tower was a beautiful part of the show.

PB: The most difficult thing in being a rock band nowadays is…
Geert: To get attention in this whirly, swirly river of releases. How many releases do we have each day? 10 years ago it was much easier to find your release in a record store. Of course you’ve got the digital download story. But I prefer to hold something in my hands like an album. There’s too much offer and concurrence. You still need a lot of money to get attention. Nowadays record labels don’t invest that much in their talents. Kericky was possible because of 4 hard working cats in a rehearsal studio. The whole amount of fees goes to studio time, promotion and if we’re lucky we can buy our strings and plecs ;)

PB: Confuse the Cat would be very happy to kick the ass of…
Geert: Sara Palin “in a gentle way”. Almost 40 % of the Americans believe that she can be the next president of the US of A after Obama. Can you imagine Palin as a first lady? YES WE CAN, on another planet far enough from mother earth. We also want to kick the ass of the great Houdini, Lance Armstrong, Annie, Mini Mouse and The Kelly Family, starting with the little boy. And this for many reasons.

PB: Try to convince someone to buy your album in few words.
Geert: If you buy our record we will find a planet for Sara Palin!

PB: I already bought all your albums, but I’d like to buy some music: can you give me an advice?
Geert: If I understand your question and if you don’t know anything from rock music I would suggest you a lot of things from the past.. to me 2008 wasn’t that special in musical terms.  I’ll give you 100 euro and go buy “Let It Be” The Replacements, “Funeral at the movies” Shudder To Think, “What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye, “In one Out The Other” The Movies, “Celebration Castle” The Ponys, “Gang Of Losers” The Dears, “From The Lions Mouth” The Sound and Script Of A Bridge” from the Chameleons.

PB: Do you think PillBox.it rocks?
Geert: It not only rocks, it grooves, bites, it melts on the top of our tongues.

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