Existential Boozer: A Proustian pint with Luvcat
Through the existential mind of Marcel Proust, we learned that Luvcat‘s greatest achievement is going from waitress to rock star in just a matter of years. So it’s only right that we can reflect on the life and times of this exciting new artist in a pub, over a drink, in the humble beginnings of what is now a dream.
But Luvcat isn’t a wide-eyed amateur, struggling to grasp the realms of her fame. She’s at home on stage performing her grand brand of romantic songwriting as she sits with a glass of red wine, musing on her fears, friendships and regrets. In fact, both feel like the natural home for a musician so deeply observational.
But in this instance, Far Out catches up with Luvcat in the Existential Boozer. Far away from the green rooms and screaming crowds, and in the intimacy of a craggy corner where each answer feels like the beginning of an anecdote which could lead to a new song. A family piano, a famous ski-trip and a chance encounter with the set designer of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Have we had too many beers, or is Luvcat’s life really this interesting? Every new answer confirms it is the latter.
Her latest EP told a grand story of intimate romance, whereas Luvcat’s appearance in the Existential Boozer tells one of personal humour. Like all great pub conversations, this one ebbs and flows through different emotions, making the two people involved better friends at the end of it.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
“I think in my grandparents’ garden with tea and scones, and a phone full of secret new demos.”
Playing out of the phone or headphones?
“No, just there on the side. Like a secret, just for me.”
What is your greatest fear?
“A plane going down while listening to a really terrible song is a big fear of mine. So they look at my phone and go, ‘I wonder what she was listening to in the last moments?’ and it’s something awful.”
Is there a guilty pleasure song that comes to mind?
“I don’t think this is a guilty pleasure because I think it’s one of the best songs ever. But it’s a song called ‘Me and My Monkey’ by Robbie Williams, and we listen to it religiously before every show. It’s like seven minutes long, and there’s a big brass section in it, and, and it’s just, I’ve listened to it before every first date I’ve ever been on as well.”
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
“Lust.”
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
“Lack of lust.”
Which living person do you most admire?
“My mum, definitely my mum. She is 60 years old. She’ll hate me for saying that, but she’s so glamorous. She still wears mini skirts and stilettos, and yeah, I love her to bits.”
She’s obviously shaped you personally; that sounds like a given. But has she in your artistry as well?
“Yeah, definitely. And the visual side of things, because she’s always had that sort of glam goth thing going on. She’s got a hair and beauty salon that she’s had for like 35 or something years. So I grew up in that environment just outside of Liverpool.”
What is your greatest extravagance?
“Probably when I signed my first record deal last year, and I went to Venice, and I met this guy. He had a tiny little shop off Saint Mark’s Square, and he was playing Joni Mitchell and Fleetwood Mac, and he had all these amazing massive art pieces, and I bought one, and he shipped it over to me, and he did all the stuff for like, Eyes Wide Shut and yeah, it was, it was expensive, but worth it.”
What is your current state of mind?
“Charmed.”
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
“Abstinence.”
On what occasion do you lie?
“When you’re passing another band backstage at a venue, and you tell them a great set, but you’ve been in the dressing room eating cheese while they were playing.”
Do you find it difficult to watch other bands play when you’re preparing for a show?
“Yeah, I’m just not very sociable before a show at all. I’m really nervous, and I just hide away and do my makeup, and the boys will sing to me to calm me down.”
Do you have a pre-show ritual, it sounds like meditating a bit?
“Not really. I don’t know what to do…I’d like to know how to meditate. But it’s more just a glass of red wine. The boys will sing some old standards to me, and I’ll just do my lipstick 12 times.”
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
“I used to really not love my nose because I thought it was like a witchy nose, but then, I realised it’s my nan’s nose, and I love my nan.”
Which living person do you most despise?
“I would say my old next door neighbour because she cut down a healthy, huge blossom tree from the front garden and then moved house. I just think that’s so cruel. It was so beautiful, and I could see it from my bedroom window.”
What is the quality you most like in a person?
“Imagination.”
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“‘That’s boss!’. Magical, I say magical like a million times a day.”
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
“Music.”
When and where were you happiest?
“When I’m in Paris, probably at Chez Janou, which is a little restaurant that stays open really late. So, like, after you play a gig, you can go and get an amazing meal and a chocolate mousse. So I love going out with the band after we play the show.”
So far, we’ve had Paris and Venice. Do you have a special place in your heart for Europe?
“Europe kind of evokes a lot of…I just love playing in France. I mean, it’s not a secret that I love France, and I just ask my agent if I can just keep going back. But I’ve never really played a lot in Italy, only in Turin. So my goal for the next few years is to break Italy.”
Which talent would you most like to have?
“I want to speak to my cats. Actual verbally speaking, not just an emotional connection. Understand what he’s saying.”
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
“I wish I was a better reader. I’ve bought so many books over my life, and they’re all gathering dust. I can’t finish them. I’m still finishing A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket from when I was like seven. So I just wish that I was a better reader.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
“I think going from being a waitress to a full-time musician, pretty much my own doing and not having to answer to the man.”
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
“A black cat.”
What is your most treasured possession?
“Probably my upright piano that my grandad bought me when I was eight. It’s got a double seat and when I was in the music shop with my parents, he said, go and choose a piano. And I went there, and I fell in love with this piano.
“My parents were like, ‘Don’t ring him and ask him for the double seat because he’ll buy it’. And I was like, ‘But I really want to sit with my friends and play’, and he was like, ‘Just get it, kid!’
“That’s been the best thing because it means you can sit with your lover and sing to them. So it’s like a really social part of the house.”
Have there been any musical moments in your career that have been made on that piano?
“Yeah, so many of my first songs were written on that piano. In fact, I did my first ever YouTube video when I was a really young teenager that I shouldn’t have been allowed to upload on YouTube. I covered ‘The Love Cats’ by The Cure and lit all the candles on top of the piano. And, it’s kind of funny now because I’m Luvcat. Yeah, I would try and save it in a fire. I don’t know if I could.”
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
“When I’m writing boring songs.”
Even though you’re still being creative…
“Just boring, stagnant songs. Like I can’t help it just, really, really gets me down.”
What is your favourite occupation?
“Prima ballerina.”
Do you have a ballet background?
“I did it when I was a kid, and I think I did, like, two lessons and made my mum go and buy me all the gear. So all the gear and no idea.”
What is your most marked characteristic?
“My evil streak.”
What about from a personality standpoint?
“Maybe my storytelling. Yeah, I love telling a good story, and they’re always true.”
What do you most value in your friends?
“When my friends let me dress them up as Victorians and act in my murder mystery plays and stuff when they’re up for it.”
Who are your favourite writers?
“Growing up, it was or still is Lewis Carroll, Spike Milligan, Doctor Seuss. And in music, I’d say Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell are the top three for me.”
Who is your hero of fiction?
“Truly Scrumptious from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
“Maybe the lady from Lady And The Tramp.“
In any specific way?
“I just see it, and I’m like, that reminds me of me. Eating the spaghetti, happy and with a big scary dog on the side.”
What are your favourite names?
“Morticia.”
Why?
“Because she is just the sexiest lady on the planet. And The Addams Family is a massive influence on everything that I do. I love that sort of toxic, unhinged love romance.”
What is it that you most dislike?
“Carnations in a bouquet. I just hate them. They have no place there.”
I feel like they have a sole purpose, and that’s like weddings?
“Keep them away from my wedding. I’m more of a rose lady.”
What is your greatest regret?
“The thing I think about a lot is not going on the school ski trip in 2013, because all my friends still talk about it.”
Where was it?
“Somewhere on the border of Italy and France.”
So, all your friends still talk about this ski trip? And you, a musician, get to play on stage and have all these great experiences…
“But I can’t ski.”
How would you like to die?
“I was watching Baxter’s interview with you, and he said erotically. And I also would go for that, too, I think.”
What is your motto?
“It was one that my grandad always said, which is ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down’. But like my personal one would probably be ‘You snooze, you lose’.”
One for the road… What is your favourite song of the last five years?
“A song called ‘Wristwatch’ by MJ Lenderman. I love that man. And I love that song.”
Can we get a reason as to why that song?
“I think it’s a perfect song, and it reminds me of my childhood. It sounds like a lot of the music my dad used to play in the house. It’s kind of like the music that, and I mean this in the nicest way, that you put on when you redecorate, or you’re painting a wall. It’s just got that, like warmth and homeliness to it.
“But his lyrics are just kind of kooky and cool, and we shared the stage with him over the last summer festivals, and it just reminds me of, like, the coolest summer of my life.”
Why was it the coolest summer of your life?
“Just doing 101 shows across the year, and then 35 festivals and travelling all across Europe, getting our first tour bus. It was totally wild.”
But imagine what that ski trip was like?
“But I could have been on the 2013 school ski trip.”
You snooze, you lose.
