Voyassitude

October 18, 2023. It happened on my way to Ponte Vedra Beach. I was gearing up for the concert by listening to a playlist with the entire band’s recordings when a song titled “The Scream” came up. It wasn’t one of their most popular ones; I didn’t remember listening to it before, and I certainly didn’t expect to hear it live later that evening, but it was the one that captured the turmoil inside me, a song that related to the depressive episode I’d been undergoing for the past few months. I played it over and over again, on the bus and by the ocean as I waited for The Cat Empire to kick off their Where the Angels Fall tour in North America.

Originally from Australia, The Cat Empire is a band that has made the world its stage many times over, touring for more than twenty years all around with explosive fusions of ska, jazz, reggae, and Latin sounds. When you attend one of their concerts, a force deep within you awakens to connect with the crowd and the musicians as they bring the house down thanks to vibrant rhythms of trumpets, drums, keyboards, and trombones. That’s what happened to me that night of October 18 in Ponte Vedra. It was very fitting that the concert took place at a church turned into musical venue, because the band delivered what at times felt like a spiritual experience in which the nostalgia of past albums seamlessly blended with the effervescence of the new one in an exhilarant act that invited to clap, jump, and dance in a joyous, liberating frenzy.

But the flawless integration didn’t stop at the sounds of past and present; it was also represented in the communion between band members as well, something worth noting considering that some of them are quite new to The Cat Empire. Neda Rahmani is one of them. She joined the band in 2022 following years of passionate dedication to music, live performances, and multiculturalism. You could perceive Neda already leaving her mark with the roving entry made by the band at the start of their show, an entry that’s become sort of an emblem of hers from her years as a performer. I recently had the privilege of asking her a few questions about being a musician, traveling all over the world, and finding time and space for herself.

The Cat Empire is always on the move, playing in different venues and festivals internationally. What’s your favorite place in the world to play?

Neda: Santiago de Compostela, London, and New York in Halloween have been my top 3 cities to entertain while travelling. In those locations, it was a mixture of their street atmosphere, walking around pre-show, and a musical connection to the audience on those evenings that help me to always recall these locations.

There is, however, an unbeatable location for you to play at in your home country of Australia.

Neda: My very top number one place to entertain is Fed Square, Melbourne/Naarm City, on New Year’s Eve. I’ll never forget the occasions that I have done this, and I love it when a city turns up en masse with all of their hopes and dreams for a brighter new year, and are ready to jump and dance for hours together before a countdown. These are the moments I was born to deliver and I’ll never forget the many times our city has trusted me with this. The jumping, dancing, smiling happy people sharing those concerts with me, the musicians, my media team, family, agents and dancers I always bring with me… I’ll never top those feelings, finished with fireworks and people occupying the main roads as dance floors all packed in for a view of the lights, firework stages, and big screens. What an honour to entertain for these moments!

Do you have a special place to relax and be on your own, somewhere to connect with yourself?

Neda: I am very lucky to have a home that I fought for with my partner to relax and enjoy time together and alone. For eight long years we tried to buy this home, and finally we were successful and boy, was it worth the wait… We were ready to afford this location we had rented for eight years, so, so long ago and holding so many memories. I travel so much for work that when I am home I do really appreciate the challenges, peace, and respite this home, its design and its maintenance bring. There is always something to do here: A shelf to build, a pot to nurture, a corner to restore, a meeting to host, a rehearsal to have. Tucked away in the back streets of Thornbury, Melbourne, is this home and it has everything except an outdoor garden and wider family members. So, when I need nature I head over to visit my mum not too far away or head out into the world walking and talking with the community.

Two days after the concert in Ponte Vedra, The Cat Empire was scheduled to perform in St Petersburg, FL. It was there that, by a curious circumstance, I met Neda and helped her get into the Jannus Live, the concert hall where the show would take place. On stage, she flourished and exuded charisma. Her talents as a percussionist came into a thunderous, tenacious display to accompany her dancing skills, which were all the more impressive given the high heels she wore for the concert.  Once off stage, she was kind enough to grant me some moments for a quick chat and a picture. I then met not the performer but the human being, a down-to-earth Aussie with exuberant hair and music running through her veins who is at her happiest when playing and bringing joy to the audience. I failed to properly thank her for the great show, to express just how much the band’s music meant to me during 2023. But every time I listen to their timeless hits or newer tunes, I’m reminded of their never-ending power to touch deep fibers and boost one’s spirit thanks to music that comes from the heart.

October 19, 2023. It happened at the beach. Long after the concert was over, lights went out, and buzzing streets turned into a ghost town, I wandered around until I ended up at Jacksonville Beach. It was past 2 a.m. I contemplated the black ocean, the starry sky, and that undefinable weight on my chest. There were reasons for my depressive episode, but conjuring them up hadn’t been sufficient to exorcise myself, to get away from the incessant pain and gloom. But that night, when the band played “Be With You Again,” something unlocked deep inside me to produce tears that rolled down my face like never before during a concert. And then, alone on that beach with the moonless horizon before me, I put on my headphones to play “The Scream” once again. I’d just discovered that song hours before, but it suddenly meant so much. It spoke to me, it reverberated through me, it defied me to scream and let go of everything hurting inside.

I didn’t scream, but in singing the newly-learned chorus, it was as if I had.

Sometimes I want to scream like that, Sometimes I want to hear that sound, Sometimes I want to hold my face, And feel the world turning upside down and all around.

That precious instant at the beach was as memorable as the concert itself. The vastness of the sky with its flickering, comforting stars embraced me while I confronted intrusive thoughts and open scars that burned for endless weeks. And, even though I didn’t know it at that time, I had finally started to heal. Two songs and two separate episodes, both linked to The Cat Empire’s music, became the antidote to cure me at long last.