FEATURE:
Spotlight
Luvcat
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I have had my mind…
on The Cure recently, because BBC Radio 6 Music had them in for a live session and, this being BBC Radio 6 Music, they went on about it for some time! Fair enough I guess. One of their songs, The Lovecats, is a tenuous link to Luvcat. A mysterious and hugely intriguing artist, I wonder if her fans are calls Luvcats?! In any case, I will focus my thoughts entirely on her. I am going to get to a couple of recent interviews. There are few recent interviews out there with her, though that is likely to change very soon. This fascinating young artist has a backstory and sense of allure which is hard to ignore:
“Born in Liverpool with a longing for mischief, Luvcat ran away with a Parisian circus on the eve of her sixteenth birthday. There she became a magician’s assistant for many years; in feathers, silks and sequins. After a tragic trick gone wrong, Luvcat performed a final disappearing act, fleeing on a train through the ocean to the heart of London and slinking back into society. Inspired by the dark, playful romance of Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave & The Cure, Luvcat began penning songs of her travels and all the lovers and libertines she met along the way”.
With a few singles under her belt so far, there is this early anticipation and expectation. A distinct sound and something special that has emanated from songs like He’s My Man. I am very new to her music, but I am already really invested in Luvcat. An artist who is standing out from her contemporaries. I think so much is given away in the current scene. Artists revealing so much about themselves online. Although we can gleam a little about Luvcat, there is a lot kept back. I guess it makes you focus on the music. Taking everything from that rather than being distracted by the artist and their personal life.
Rather than label Luvcat as a solo artist, they are actually a band, though their lead is the one who handles interviews by and large. I want to come to the first interview. Take a few snippets from it. Next year is going to be a massive one for Luvcat. She and the band are playing The Great Escape festival in May. There are other dates in the diary, though this showcase will be a big one. I would not be surprised if there was a slot at Glastonbury beckoning soon. At the end of last month, Rolling Stone spent some time with Luvcat. She discussed the mystery behind the name. How she does not give too much of the personal away. Also, as she is called Luvcat, that is indeed connected to The Cure:
“Congratulations on writing a song called ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel’. It’s about time that place got the recognition it deserves. I’ve got to say it’s very affordable.
I really love it. It’s my favourite spot in Soho and I was just going there over the years and every so often I’d think I’m going to marry the first man who takes me here on a date, so that’s why I wrote that song.
And has that happened?
Yeah, there’s been a few. I think the place should endorse me and give me free prawn cocktail for life now.
For someone who hasn’t heard your music before, how do you describe Luvcat?
I think, sound-wise, it comes from what I’ve grown up listening to. It’s my dad’s record collection combined with my grandad’s. My granddad raised me on Sinatra, the Rat Pack and musical theatre, while my dad raised me on The Cure, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. It’s all about mixing those two into this strange cocktail of Gothic romantic drama.
There’s a lot of mystery in the theatrics of your backstory too. Your bio manages to speak of being born on a riverboat in the River Seine and running away to join the circus…
Well, I guess I got a little bored of knowing the ins and outs of artists that I love. I miss those old days when there was an element of mystique and a bit of playfulness where you don’t quite know where the line is drawn between truth and fiction. Isn’t that just a bit more fun?
And I grew up with bands where they had fun names you know, like Rat Scabies from The Damned. I love all that stuff, rock and roll has lost a bit of mischief and playfulness I think. It also came from when I was just sitting at home and I had to send a bio for the first show we played in Paris last year and the promoter wanted a biography about Luvcat. I sat there and thought I could state the facts, or I could have a bit of fun. I wanted to dance that line because the stories I sing about are real, but some of them are even toned down because I choose that life of chaos.
The name Luvcat…does that stem from your love of The Cure?
Absolutely, they influenced me since the age of maybe six or seven when my dad first showed me the ‘Lullaby’ video of Robert Smith in the candy striped pyjamas and the dead marching band.
All of that was just me all over because I was obsessed with vampires and dark stuff growing up. He showed me that and it went hand in hand. The tunes are so cool and when I was naming this project I had a few options for names. One name was Elisa Day from Nick Cave and Kylie’s ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’, but Luvcat just felt fun and summed it up. The minute it came out of my mouth it felt like everything else made sense.
There’s been a pretty receptive reaction among your fans too…
It’s been really overwhelming. I’ve been making music since I was a young teenager, but this feels very much a whirlwind all of a sudden. Suddenly, quite a few people care about the tunes I’m writing and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to comprehend that. You know, people are flying in from Berlin to come to a show at the Kazimier Garden in Liverpool and last year I was begging my family and my mum’s mates to come down. I was just talking to the boys in our band and we did a rehearsal yesterday because we’re going to Paris at the weekend for our first headline show. We had this nice rehearsal room and we had it for six hours.
I’ve never done a rehearsal more than two hours with the boys because I couldn’t afford it and we used to rehearse in an ex-public toilet the size of a postage stamp in Kentish Town under the ground. And now suddenly we’re in a nice room. That’s all I wanna do, you know, be in the room with the lads making music and then being able to go on the road. That’s the difference of 12 months”.
@luvcat.mp3 me & my man 🌡️ #fyp #foryou #myman ♬ me and my man - luvcat
I am going to come to an interview from NME to end. In fact, when I said Luvcat had some good gigs planned for next year, it is worth noting that there are some incredible live dates in the diary for this year. They are currently playing gigs in the U.K. and have already visited Brighton and London. Getting around the country and playing to some incredible crowds. If you can grab a ticket to go and see Luvcat, then make sure you do. This is an act that is going to go a very long way. One of those names that you know if going to be in the mainstream before too long. Even though Luvcat is a band on the road, there is focus on the lead, Sophie Morgan. In terms of the talking and the music itself, the spotlight is very much on her. I know that magazines and websites will be proclaiming her as one to watch for 2025. Recently, DORK hyped the brilliant Luvcat:
“The theatrical nature of Luvcat’s work stems from influences that read like the record collection of a particularly dramatic teenager who’s just out to start a rebellion. “My Chemical Romance were my childhood band, so I think a lot of their gothic theatrics seeped into me,” she explains. It’s a foundation that makes perfect sense – take MCR’s flair for the dramatic, add a dash of decadence, and you’re getting close to Luvcat’s particular flavour of musical absinthe.
These influences run deeper than mere aesthetic choice. “I’m the only person in my family who actually plays an instrument, but everyone is completely mad about music. My dad’s taste has completely informed mine, which I feel very lucky about.” It’s a musical education that has allowed her to build something both timeless and distinctly modern – as if The Cure’s Robert Smith had a torrid affair with Liza Minnelli, and their love child grew up watching old Hollywood films in Liverpool basement bars. Which, frankly, might be yet another potential Luvcat origin story.
The path to releasing music wasn’t exactly straightforward – but then again, nothing in Luvcat’s world ever is. “I definitely wasn’t planning on releasing any music for a while, but a video from one of our first gigs in my local pub in London blew up online, so we released the single independently as quickly as we could.” From there, things escalated with the kind of dramatic pacing usually reserved for more fantastical novellas. “We put out another single and have been playing as many shows as possible, including our first headlines in London and Liverpool at the Kazimier Garden.”
These shows have become notorious for their intensity – and occasional drama when ex-lovers attempt to gain entry [Proper Heathcliff-at-the-window stuff, this – Ed]. The story goes that, at that Liverpool show, Luvcat was greeted by three former beaus gawping back from the crowd, and another trying to break in up
Away from our less romantic haunts, Paris remains central to the Luvcat mythology, a city that seems to have been waiting for her arrival since the days of Edith Piaf. “Our first headline show in Paris will stay with me forever, definitely,” she reflects. “Seeing beautiful people in another country singing every word to unreleased songs was kinda overwhelming. Especially because our first show ever was actually on a riverboat on the Seine last May. I only had about four songs to my name, so we played lots of Leonard Cohen – it felt like a proper full-circle moment to be back.”
The dark romanticism that permeates every aspect of Luvcat’s work isn’t just for show – it’s the engine that drives her creative process. “The twisted romance thing has always been my muse,” she acknowledges. Her songs feel like love letters written in lipstick on mirror shards, beautiful and dangerous in equal measure. When asked about her recreational pursuits, her answer is characteristically direct: “I really like kissing. That’s fun.”
Even the Halloween release date of ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel’ feels less like a marketing strategy and more like cosmic alignment. “I love it, yeah. Something about the air always smells different on All Hallows’ Eve,” she reflects, before revealing a delightful crack in her gothic facade. “But for someone who writes dark songs, I am actually such a scaredy-cat. When I was a teenager, I once worked as a ghost actor for a Halloween event at an old stately home in Liverpool. They sent me home because I was more scared than the guests.” Her Halloween costume of choice? “Morticia Addams, always.”
The autumn holds both glamour and shifting fates. “We’re going to be on the road for most of November,” Luvcat recounts, “which I couldn’t be more excited for, opening for The Last Dinner Party in Europe in some of the dreamiest venues I’ve ever seen.” While the full European run has since been condensed due to The Last Dinner Party’s need to prioritise their wellbeing, Luvcat is still gracing stages from Paris to Prague, including stops in Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin. It’s a perfect pairing – both acts understand the power of presentation, though Luvcat’s take feels more like cabaret noir to TLDP’s baroque pop fantasia.
And for those seeking a piece of that thickly layered mythology to take home? “We’re just about to have merch silk panties available on our website shop,” she reveals. “They are so cute and cheeky and always get snapped up after our shows.”
Wherever the truth and fiction actually do meet, Luvcat’s particular brand of dramatised truth-telling feels like rarified air – albeit air perfumed with incense and expensive French cigarettes. She’s writing her own deep lore in real-time, one that exists in the spaces between story and substance, between the grandiose and the intimate. While other artists recount their real lives in lurid detail, Luvcat is weaving an augmented reality that understands that escapism is a balm to the grey skies and daily churn. Her songs hang in the air behind her – intoxicating, mysterious, impossible to replicate.
That twisted romance that defines her music shows no signs of fading. If anything, it’s growing stronger with each release, each performance, each dramatic tale of love gone wrong. As ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel’ arrives, it marks another chapter in a story that began on a Parisian riverboat – or maybe on a Liverpool street corner, or perhaps in a circus tent. The truth is complex and layered, revealing different notes to different noses. But with songs like these, who really needs to know what’s real? Sometimes, the story is sweeter than reality could ever be”.
I am going to wrap up with NME. With three songs out, it shows how potent and original Luvcat is that she has already got such attention and love from the press. NME featured her on their Radar feature. Reserved for breakout artists that we need to keep an eye out for, it is going to be exciting to see what next year offers for Luvcat. Maybe there will be an album coming at some point. As she says in the interview, her and the band will hopefully be making space for an album next year. At the moment, Luvcat is taking things are her own pace and does not want to give too much away just yet and rush in:
“It’s been a big year for you. Have there been any smaller, more inconsequential moments that felt significant to you?
“Something funny happened a couple of days ago, which might seem silly to some people, but we were rehearsing for this tour coming up, and I’ve only ever been able to afford a two hour rehearsal with the boys. And it was the first time we’ve had six hours in a rehearsal room, and I didn’t have to settle at the door, because obviously they’ve got people looking after that now.
“We used to rehearse in – it’s actually brilliant – but it was an ex-public toilet in Kentish town. I’m not dissing it, but it suddenly felt like, ‘Oh my god, we’re actually progressing, because now we get to rehearse.’ I get the privilege of playing with the boys for longer, which is all I really want to do.”
Do you think walking that line and maintaining some level of mystery is the reason fans are so desperate for a full album?
“There’s always space to uncover more things. I think it’s all in me, I’m just slowly uncovering and bringing out certain things and when the time is right. I get a lot of questions about ‘when are you putting an album out?’, and that obviously is something that I’m dying to do. It’s lovely that people are hungry for it, just got to make sure the art is right, and then we’re working as fast as we can to get it all out and keep feeding it.
“Hopefully by next year, there’ll be a bigger body of work. I’m not in it for anything other than to be able to get on the road and make an album. I want to do something outrageous for the cover – I can’t tell it here, because I’ve not fully decided it in my head, but I want to do something naughty.”
Outside of an album, is there anything else in the distance?
“We’re going to Tokyo in January for a show, and I think we should film while we’re there. We’ve got my best mate, Barnaby, who’s an amazing photographer and videographer with us, and I just want him to film everything. All the fights, all of the highs, lows. Because I think this year, it’s never going to happen again and everything’s new.
“I’d love to be able to look back and have it documented and how it all feels. Even the past month, that much has happened, I can’t remember half of it, there’s been so many cool things. I love those docs about life on the road – Dig! is one of my favourites, so we’ll see what we get”.
If you are new to Luvcat, then make sure you follow her (them). Catch her and the band on the road if they are playing near you. Festivals are sure to be lining up to book her for next year. It is an exciting time for a young artist with many years ahead of her. What we have seen and heard so far is testament to the fact that Luvcat has the talent…
TO endure for a very long time.
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Follow Luvcat
