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Cat Dowling Announces New Single and Album ‘Animals’

September 21, 2021

Dublin-based Kilkenny-born indie pop artist Cat Dowling presents her new single ‘Animals’, a song of movement, sensuality, wildness, love and freedom. A song about that beautiful part inside the human make-up that can’t ever and should never be tamed.

Dowling has also announced that her new 11-track long-player, to be released via Forever In Financial Arrears Records (FIFA Records) on November 12th, will also be called ‘Animals’.

This single comes on the trail of two singles, the latest of which is ‘Freedom’, a lush slice of soulful pop perfection for which Dowling worked with film-maker Alba Lahoz, featuring her three free-spirited children doing their thing on the beach. The video for the earlier single, ‘Trouble’, made by BAFTA award-winning director Fergal Costello, tells the story of a dark, comedic and violent tale set outside of 1981 Belfast.

“I wrote Animals during a busy period of my life when to find those rare moments to write music meant I had to be a thief elsewhere. But it was these stolen moments that gave me oxygen and a beautiful almost supernatural energy,” says Cat Dowling.

‘Animals’ was written when everyone was sleeping. It started with the driving repetitive rhythm which had to be restrained so as not to wake a soul. It thus became hypnotic.  It starts as minor and ends up major. It’s about the major and minor of life and of love and the constant pull in everything between major and minor and the light and the dark. It’s a song ultimately of passion, wildness, sensuality and love.”

Lauded as one of the most wonderful and evocative vocalists in Irish contemporary music, Cat Dowling’s beautifully dark pop songs and those husky and achingly intimate vocals will grip you from the outset. The former Babelfish and Alphastates frontwoman creates well-crafted songs that inspire.

Produced by Gerry Horan with Dowling as co-producer, and mixed by Ger McDonnell (The Cure, U2, Van Morrison, Martha Wainwright, Shane McGowan, Sinead O’Connor), Dowling’s latest output was partially recorded at Crossroads Studio in Kilkenny with support from Ireland’s Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.

In 2013, Dowling debuted with ‘The Believer’ LP, ranked in numerous ‘Best of Year’ music polls, including The Sunday Times. The title track featured in the second series of ‘Banshee’, produced by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty, True Blood) and the ‘Witches of East End’ TV series, featuring Julia Ormond. The song ‘Somebody Else’ was also used in ‘My name is Emily’. Cat has also lent vocals on many collaborative projects, including for ABC’s ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ with Emmy-winning actress Viola Davis.

FIFA Records is a steadily expanding label, who have continuously worked with exciting new Irish talent (Fight Like Apes, One Morning in August, Klubber Lang, Hope is Noise, Dae Kim, Lorraine Nash), as well as releasing material from more established names on the Irish indie scene, such as The Frank & Walters, Emperor of Ice Cream, August Wells, Power of Dreams and Whipping Boy.

‘Animals’ is out now everywhere digitally, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. As of November 12, fans can expect the release of the full ‘Animals’ album digitally, as well as on CD and limited-edition cassette.

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