Cat Dowling of Alphastates has died

Everyone at Hot Press is very sad tonight to hear of the death of Cat Dowling, solo artist and former lead singer and main songwriter with Alphastates.

"Cat worked with Hot Press in the commercial department way back," the magazine's editor Niall Stokes said, "so we always took a close interest in her work. The truth is that neither she nor Alphastates ever needed any special privileges or favouratism. The band were really interesting, original and good – a fine outfit that really should have been afforded greater recognition both in Ireland and internationally. From a Hot Press point of view, they were among the most compelling outfits to emerge in Ireland during the noughties.

"Cat had a lovely slinky sort of appeal that suited the electro-pop vein that they operated in perfectly. She was a very fine singer and front-woman. And the band – one always suspected with Cat to the fore – wrote really good, carefully crafted songs.

"And Cat carried on in the same vein as a solo artist, carving out an aesthertic and appeal that was all her own. Both as a lovely person, and as a hugely original musician, she will be greatly missed."

Alphastates – Gerry Horan (guitar and keyboards), Stevie Kavanagh (bass and keyboards) and Graham Gilligan (drums) completed the line-up - released Made From Sand in 2004 and Human Nature in 2009. They split in 2010, but returned to sporadic action later. At least we have two albums to remember them by...

More recently, Cat had been working as a solo artist, keeping the indie flag flying. She released two albums – The Believer in 2013 and Animals in 2021, the latter on FIFA Records.

She had a number of successes with tracks being used in films and TV soundtracks, including 'The Believer' in Banshee and The Witches of East End; and 'Somebody Else' in My Name Is Emily.

Over the years, she had been compared variously to Liz Frazer, Beth Gibbons, Karen O, Amanda Palmer, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Feist and Kristen Hersh – all marvellously distinctive artists who have that element of darkness that made Dowling's work so intriguing.

Cat had spoken about being diagnosed with breast cancer, whi h greatly disrupted her career – but ut was something she showed great dignity in rthec way she handled it.

She had three children.

"It's the longest day with the greatest amount of light," Cat wrote on her Facebook page on June 21 this year. "Light always overcomes darkness, no matter how dark this world gets painted at times. Let's keep shining and spreading our light. I have so much new material and I really hope I can get to record it this year. Art conquers the divide. We need more coming together. Always keep her lit my friend."

Thise words read even more poignantly tonight. Our hearts go out to her family, her froends, her fellow musicians – and especially her children.