Marina & The Kats

Marina & the Kats (c) Tim Cavadini

INFOBOX

Genre(s): Indie/Alternative
From: Styria, Austria
Label: www.parramatta.at
Booking: uwe.hager@o-tonemusic.de
Contact: office@mauerhofermusic.com
Website: www.marina-thekats.com/
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UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL SHOWS

Check band website for international concerts.

BIOGRAPHY

MARINA AND THE KATS do not worship the past, but they do use it with merciless intensity to create their own niche in the present. What happens when you combine the charm of nostalgia with the pulse of time?

Musically, Marina and the Kats are right on the mark with their unique Neoswing sound. They take inspiration from everywhere, including the silence, even though their concerts are rarely serene affairs. M&TK also strike a political note without ever pointing a moral finger, and they tell stories that move, that occupy, that leave a mark, even when the last note has long since slunk into the hollows.

The band celebrated a brilliant debut with “Small” (2015). For the two songs “Small” & “Dirty” they received the 2016 Songwriter Award from the Austrian Association of Composers. The album “Wild” followed in 2016 and band started touring relentlessly, playing around 90 shows a year. Their shows lead them from Israel (Hot Jazz Israel Tour) to Russia (Jazz at Hermitage Garden), Germany (Jazztage Ingolstadt, Jazztage Dresden, etc.), France (Jazz aux Sources), Spain (Festival International de Tarragona, Feira Modernista Sada), Austria (Jazzfestival Saalfelden, Konzerthaus, Jazzfest Wien, Musikverein), Switzerland (Musikfestwochen Winterthur, Jazzfestival Ascona) to Tunisia (Jazz a Chartage Tunis) and the USA (Jazz Summer Fest in San Jose). 
It is probably due to this fact that the album “Swingsalabim”, released in 2019, is noticeably rougher. In 2021, after a forced break in 2020, they released their new indie swing album “Different” (Parramatta / Sony) and consolidated their sound with their trademark “Shared Drums”, a drum set they share among each other during their set. The ubiquitous Marina heads the band and inspires the audience with her expressive voice as well as with her metronome drumming style. Emancipated from the mundane music of bygone times, “the world’s smallest Big Band” is an absolute novelty on the stage. Neoswing from their own pen? That’s how it feels to fall head over heels for the music.

Marina Zettl – Vocals, Snare Drum
Thomas Mauerhofer – Guitar, Vocals
Peter Schönbauer – Bass, Bass Drum, Vocals
Harald Baumgartner – Guitar, Percussion, Vocals


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