Cat Power

It’s possible to make quite a few deductions about Cat Malojian on the basis of their terrific, self-titled, debut album. For a start, we can confidently state that their CD collections bulge with the collected works of Messers Dylan, Young and Drake. Likewise, we wouldn’t be going out on too slim a limb by suggesting the pair are every bit as comfortable keeping the regulars happy at a chimney corner session as they are going toe-to-toe with the indie kids on much larger stages. It’s also fairly obvious that the boys are self-sufficient characters, unafraid of rolling their sleeves up and doing things themselves.

But there’s something else that strikes you when you listen to the record.
Take, for example, these lines from ‘Leave Me Alone’: “I want ice cream for my dinner.../I like chips they’re really tasty/Burn my lips I eat so hasty.” Or from ‘Parsnips And Carrots’ – “Got a rabbit’s habit and it makes me strong/ I’ve been eatin’ carrots far too long.”
They could well be two of the North’s most promising musicians, but Stevie Scullion and Jonathan Toman seem to draw their inspiration from their stomachs.
“I don’t know what that’s all about, to be honest,” says main songwriter and vocalist, Scullion. “But it has been noticed. We were toying with the idea of releasing a suite of songs based on eating, and calling it The Food E.P. We’ve also ‘The Breakfast Song’ and ‘Teatime Song’. The chorus to ‘The Breakfast Song’ is just the contents of a really great Ulster Fry.”
Of course, and this is one of the joys of this very special outfit, there is much more going on here than meets the eye. Scullion and Toman’s material conjures a very particular kind of poetry from its ordinariness. Listen carefully and you’ll find much more than the contents of their fridge.
“They’re actually about loneliness and a few other things,” reveals Stevie. “I wrote ‘The Breakfast Song’ for one of my mates who had moved to the States. It’s about homesickness. There’s something behind all of the songs – whether they’re serious or just a bit of craic. I don’t really rate myself as a lyricist, I’m not that sophisticated, but what I do write, I mean.”
It’s a trick that Cat Malojian seem to have mastered: using their air-light, singalong melodies to send the rich emotional subtext of their songs airborne. Establish any kind of relationship with their record, and – such is its unhurried confidence (imagine Harry Nilsson turning up on McCartney’s farm during Ram), its surety of tone, its apparent timelessness - you will no doubt come to the conclusion that it’s the work of musicians at the top of their game. Not only that, it also seems to have been produced by a pair of very happy and contented men.
“I used to do the typical indie boy thing and write really self-pitying and depressing songs,” Stevie chuckles. “But once I started going out with my girlfriend, Julianne, I didn’t see the point in that. When we had our baby, Eve, that was doubly the case. I’ve nothing to complain about.”
According to Stevie, domesticity is an underrated creative motivation (“Well, the first Band record in some way is all about setting up a home, isn’t it? And the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album.”), and Cat Malojian is undoubtedly a record of contentment: a record about getting the girl, then having the kid, and at some point, sitting back and not quite believing your luck. That it manages to convey a sense of personal gratification, while avoiding sickly sentimentality, is laudable. Hell, they’ve even managed the trick of penning a lullaby for a newborn (‘Goodnight’) that is touching rather than toxic.
“It’s one of those things that you have to be careful with, alright,” Stevie admits. “But it had been playing on my mind even before she was born, so I just gave it a go. The ironic thing is she hates it. I tried singing it to her a few times and she bawled all the way through. She much prefers ‘Shining Light’.”
Stevie claims that if the record was a person, “I’d definitely go out for a drink with it.” I couldn’t agree more. In fact, why don’t you all get in touch? Trust me: Cat Malojian will be a friend for life.

Cat Malojian is out now on Bad Paw Music. They play The Errigle Inn, Belfast (June 27), and Groucho’s, Richill, Armagh (July 1)