by Dave Schaefer
The band officially released their CD “Apart of Someone” at a show at The Basement this past Friday night, heralded by a spectacular lightning-laiden thunderstorm. Supporting the ticket were James & James, Couch Forts, Karate Coyote, and Chicago’s Company of Thieves. A nice line-up, and each band fit in with the listening crowd. Of those bands, I was most taken with Couch Forts, who exhibited an energy and musical fun-ness that was catching. Company of Thieves also excelled. A tight sound that clearly showed their experience with touring and maturity as musicians.
But the night belonged to Our Cat Philip and they delivered what turned out to be one of their best shows. It was chock-full of their typical fun exuberance and cheeky banter, but added to it was an excitement that was infectious. They’ve got a lot of good things going on and the band feels they may well be on the brink of something bigger.
And they may well be right. Since I last caught up with them, a lot has happened. They began recording their newly-released CD “Apart of Someone,” officially added Emily Ng and her viola to the band’s line-up, and supported the Ohio leg of indie darlings Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltzin’s tour (along with regular Columbus visitors Ha Ha Tonka).
Emily has long been a standard on stage at Our Cat Philip’s live shows, so officially adding her to the roster wasn’t much of a leap. I asked Emily how it felt being an official OCP bandmember.
“I just think it’s cool that I can be a part of a band that’s a little different,” she told LotC. “At first, I was a little embarrassed to be playing in a ‘rock’ band with my viola because it looked a little dorky holding something so inherently classical up to your neck while you’re rocking out, but I think I’ve gotten better over time.”
Indeed. Watching Emily attack her strings during the crescendo of “Dana’s Song” is alone worth the price of admission.
“Opening for them was incredible!” said Max. “If we weren't asked to open for them, we would’ve driven the two hours to see them play just as adoring fans.”
“We'd been giggling and screaming about it like little girls for months,” added Emily, “And to actually do it was better than we expected. They're such great musicians and to be around that is a great experience.”
Nick agreed. “It was awesome, in every sense of the word. Being able to play those shows with a band we respect and admire as much as Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltzin made it the coolest nights of music we've ever been a part of.”
LotC spoke to SSLYBY’s Phil Dickey about Our Cat Philip and started by asking Phil about what he finds so appealing about the band.
“With so many bands, the main thing is so often working at trying to find a cool sound, but Our Cat Philip is more about being musical, about trying to write really good songs without worrying whether it’ll be popular. That’s one of the reasons I like them so well. They’re just friends making music, and that’s awesome.”
And will Our Cat Philip ultimately be successful? Phil seemed to think so.
“The reason that I think OCP will be successful is that their songs have a lot of repeat value. You can really get into both the lyrics and the music and because of that, it has a lot of repeat value -- they’re interesting enough to hold up and I think that’s one of the reasons that I think they’ll have real success. On the new CD they’ve become really imaginative, coming up with creative things that I know I couldn’t have come up with. They’re really progressing into an awesome band.”
Of course, Our Cat Philip is hoping that this CD will be the jumping point to getting noticed outside of the Columbus scene. And at first listen, they may be right.
“We're really excited to get the new songs out there,” said Nick. “At it was great to be able to go back and really rethink the old ones, and be able to get the really full sound on the songs that we always wanted.”
Max shares Nick’s enthusiasm. “It's the most incredible thing that I personally have ever been a part of. Jeremy, Nick and I got to experience with the [original] EP how much closer you get just by sharing in the accomplishment, but this time around, to experience it with Emily, it just brought the four of us so so much closer. It's practically all I think about!”
That passion definitely comes through. The CD was produced by Dan Johnson, who also took their original recordings and produced their earlier demo EP, except this time it’s bumped up several notches and sounds much more professional and tight, but not over-produced.
Jeremy said that working with Johnson was a great experience. “Having our CD in the hands of someone we know understands what we’re going for was a big plus. And we knew what we were doing this time! A year of experience playing together helped.”
And that’s an interesting point. This band has accomplished a lot in the short time they’ve been together -- much of which has been grassroots efforts of building a fan base that help spread the word about the quality of their live shows. Now, however, they have a quality CD to back it up. And that definitely can’t hurt their chances of success.
