Teesside indie-folk outfit, Cattle & Cane, are gearing up to release their new album and will also play Hardwick Live in Sedgefield shortly, so Lee Allcock caught up with siblings Joe and Helen to find out more about the release, their biggest ever headline show and more.
You’re set to play Hardwick Live this August. Are you looking forward to it? And what can we expect from your set?
We can’t wait! It’s actually one of our favourite festivals we’ve ever played. There’s always an amazing atmosphere and we always have loads of fun. You can expect a mix of old and new from us. Obviously, we have new music coming out so we’re excited to be playing a little bit of that.
You’ve just announced that you’re releasing a new album, haven’t you? Can you tell me more?
For the first time since we started the band, we took a step back last year and actually thought about how Cattle & Cane should sound and where we want to take it. We’ve been working with a brilliant producer called Pete Hammerton and he’s really helped us bring out the best in our music. We did one song with him, our new single ‘Mexico’, and we knew he had to do the rest of the album. This is undoubtedly the most excited we’ve ever been about sharing new music.
You’re releasing the album with your biggest ever headline show – a date at Tyne Theatre and Opera House. What can gig-goers expect from your set? And how are you preparing?
This is the most beautiful venue and will be the first time we’ve ever played there. We’re going to try and make it as special as possible, as we always do with our album launches. We are locking ourselves away in our rehearsal room to perfect the show.
The 2018/19 season Middlesbrough kit had lyrics to track, ‘Infant Hercules’, printed inside the t-shirt. How did that come about? And you must have felt so proud…
To have our lyrics printed on the Boro shirt was a real privilege – that definitely wasn’t something I thought would happen when writing it! I feel Teesside should be celebrated. There’s so much in our history that we should be phenomenally proud of. I love the hard-working ‘get on with it’ attitude of this area and I tried to get that across in the song. There’s something about the area that you can’t quite identify in words, I guess spirit would be the closest I can get. It’s not just locally that Infant Hercules seems to resonate, though. Playing it across the UK in places like Sheffield, Cardiff and Manchester too, you really sense that people embrace our spirit.
You’ve been a major part of the music scene here in the North East for some time, but what has been your favourite North East gig to date and why?
It’s difficult to choose just one! When we played Middlesbrough Town Hall with the Northern Orchestra that was pretty special and surreal. And the Sage in Gateshead has always been a dream as we love that venue and spent so much time watching other artists on that stage. So they would be our top two!
And finally, what other North East artists should our readers be listening to this year and why?
Cape Cub, Talk Like Tigers, Eve Conway, Shields, Mouses – we love them all. There’s so much talent in the North East and we’re very lucky to have the music scene we have!
Cattle & Cane head to Hardwick Live this August. Tickets, priced at £99.00 for the full weekend, are available from hardwicklive.co.uk. To find out more about the upcoming album release, head to cattleandcane.co.uk.
