Renowned Melbourne band The Cat Empire return with their brand new album ‘Steal The Light’. Their first fully independent worldwide release, the record will be out 17th May 2013 on Two Shoes Records through Inertia.

The album began its conception in the European summer of 2011, when vocalist Felix Riebl was in Athens working on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Special Olympics. “I was living in a two-star lodge in Monastiraki and wrote many early ideas on a small keyboard in that room, with a view to the white city haze, the riots, the strange furniture shops, and the Acropolis”.

The ideas continued to germinate following a tour of the USA, when Felix fulfilled a long time dream and attended the New Orleans Jazz Festival. “What started as a planned week turned into 2 months. I was captivated by the mystery of the city, its extraordinary history, it’s Caribbean colours and European architecture, it’s relentless and deep music.”

“It brought me back to a feeling I had at the very beginning of my career with The Cat Empire. There was also something wild about the place – the dancing, the ghosts, the sadness and celebrations in the old haunted streets. I loved being trapped there, and many of the melodies started there.”

The resulting album, ‘Steal The Light’, comes after more than ten exhilarating years together, which has seen the six-piece traverse the musical landscape to forge a signature sound that transcends genre by virtue of its pure improvised energy.