Songwriters are usually meant to write about what they know. But The Cat Empire’s Harry James Angus treads a slightly different path.
A little ditty to be found on his solo album, Little Stories, among other tales about buried bones and sentimental capitalists, is The Batsmen, a satirical and subversive tune that plays with the myth of sporting legends. Even though Angus’ love for the game doesn’t extend further than the occasional barbecue or beach-side hit.
“(I try) to imagine what it’s like to be a great athlete, the greatest batsmen ever, but I don’t know what the feels like, obviously,” he says. “I’m not part of the local squad.
“I guess it was a bit of a satire as well. The batsmen who’s not such a great guy... almost a cross between Bradman and Warnie (laughs).
“He’s a bit of a lost cause, a bit of an arsehole, but he’s still the greatest batsman ever.”
In a similar vein, Angus also penned the theme song for fledgling AFL club Greater Western Sydney, even though he’s no major fan of the oval ball game.
“I like songs to be old fashioned, rather than something modern, I wanted it (the GWS theme song) to be traditional,” he says.
“I also wanted to write a song for one of the new (AFL) teams... so I sent it in.”
While the ideas behind Little Stories are widely disparate, Angus says they come together like a “patchwork sail”.
“They’re not clear cut stories, I’m trying to flesh out the characters and not make them black and white,” he says.
“Make their motivations not so simple.”
LS has also been a welcome break for Angus to indulge himself.
“It’s come in dribs and drabs over the years,” he says of the opportunity to go solo.
“I believe you can have an idea anytime, but you need a bit of peace and quiet to let that idea come into fruition in your head.
“One of the great things about being a songwriter I think is that you need to give yourself that quiet time. To let the songs come to life.
“My time has been occupied with a little baby which really changes your headspace.”
Seven-month-old Louie may have changed things for the better, but it hasn’t made his father’s lifestyle any more domestic.
“We live a pretty freewheeling lifestyle, he’s already toured around Europe with The Cat Empire... and he’s about to go to Canada again,” Angus says.
“He’s a chilled out kid, he doesn’t mind being on tour (laughs).”
For the past decade, Angus has been best known for his work with Empire; a young brass beast who many would argue are trailblazers; a live phenomenon who introduced a whole new generation of cool kids to the sometimes overlooked, and often improvised, delights of jazz.
“We always kind of laughed about that,” Angus says. “That we tricked people into coming to our gigs.
“In the early days people would rock up and have no idea what they were in for.
“We had some 15 minute improvised keyboard solos that went to some really weird places
“You come off stage and think, great, some of those people have never heard anything like that before.”
Angus says the Empire has endured because of its ability to keep things fresh.
“We’re never bored. Some bands play for a couple of years and they know ever note,” he says.
“Their minds (during a gig) are on ‘Did I leave the oven on before I left the house?’
“For us it’s always a surprise, because we improvise.”
The band’s international success has also proved popular music doesn’t have to be plastic or meaningless.
“It shows that music is a very broad and diverse kind of experience,” he says.
“The music business tends to narrow things sometimes... the options can be very narrow.
“Unless you’re really prepared to do some digging for yourself, it’s hard to be exposed to new sounds.
“The Cat Empire broke through that wall, not being a rock ‘n’ roll band, a folk band, nor a hip hop act.
“It just goes to show it doesn’t really matter if the songs are good, people can get into it.”
His love of jazz came hand in hand with learning the trumpet at high school.
“When I was about 17 or 18 I realised I really wanted to play jazz,” he says.
“It was the improvisation that got me. That element of music which is spontaneous and you can really challenge yourself to be creative.
“I was always really attracted to that. It’s (jazz) the backbone to all the music I play, I always come back to it.”
Despite having practically no love for TV or sport, Angus has become a gun for hire in both fields, with the GWS experiment and producing television soundtracks like the ABC’s Small Time Gangster.
“I never watch TV,” he admits.
“I’m not madly into sports. I couldn’t care less about much pop culture. I would almost argue most of my reasons for writing a footy song is because I’m anti pop culture.
“I don’t really know what pop culture is, it’s out there somewhere and I guess I’m part of it sometimes
“I just do my own thing, I don’t think too much about that whole world.”
Harry James Angus plays the Port Fairy Folk Festival March 9-12. Little Stories is out now.
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