We first met studying live sound reinforcement and studio production in around 2003. We spent a few years as most musicians do, playing in different lineups, getting gigs and tours under our belts and just generally enjoying the life of young crazy musicians.
I think most people would naturally assume when they hear The Puss Puss Band that we've always been making the chilled jazzy sound we're kind of known for but we come from a rock band background with a real love for 70's rock music as our staple. Maybe we'll include a link to a Creme Brûlée track below?
After taking a break from the industry we began forming the idea for something completely new. We both share a mutual love for Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Roger Waters, David Bowie, and quite a few other great songwriters and always been really drawn to the simplistic yet complex genius of their works. I think also their ability to make arrangements so expansive and epic fit into three maybe four minutes was another thing that fascinated us and became something we wanted to attempt ourselves.
We began work last summer on what would go on to become the album Echoes Across The Cruel Sea with the aims being
a)It would just be the two of us and that we'd cover every instrument between us to maintain control over every aspect of the performance
b) That we'd engineer and produce every too, also for the same reasons
If this album was going to be a disaster we'd have no one to blame but ourselves!
The album is essentially a journal/biography of the both of our lives over the last few years and we aimed to be true and honest in that regard both lyrically and musically with every track - we really hope that comes across to the listener.
We put out a few early mixes to test the water around October last year and the response we got was staggering and really gave us the push to go on and complete the finished album.
Then we broke rule a)! We are both fans of The Who and Asa happened to know that their long time keyboard player of 30 odd years John Rabbit Bundrick (also Free, Bob Marley, Roger Waters, John Martyn,..it's a long list!) was now selectively taking on session work. We cheekily sent him Feline Fine and unbelievably he liked the track so much he waived his fee and got to work on the piano?!
We finished mixing the track and sent it over to Rabbit and he was thankfully pleased with it and asked to hear some more of our songs - One song then turned into a whole album!
We released the album Echoes Across The Cruel Sea in April and have again had such a great response from so many people and such great support from the online indie music community. It's been a huge challenge but a thoroughly enjoyable one and we just hope that everyone who takes time to listen to the album enjoys it too and finds something in there they can relate to and take something from...even if it is just for three minutes thirty seconds.
Puss Puss Band Social Links:
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/puss_band
BANDCAMP: https://thepusspussband.bandcamp.com/
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/pusspussband