Sometimes the apparent ease and naturalness of a performer belies a long and difficult struggle to find their true voice. South African singer Cat Isaacs has followed her calling for many years, only to have Cambodia lift her up into the spotlight.
Ironically, her first obstacle was her rather musical family. “I grew up in church where we used to sing,” she explains. “All of us play – my dad still plays guitar in the band, my mother sings, my sisters sing and one also plays the bass, my niece is an incredible vocalist, my grandfather was an amazing saxophonist, my cousin is a famous pianist in Durban and his wife sings. While I always wanted to sing, in my family it’s not regarded as a real job. My parents worked really, really hard to provide for us and to make sure that we got better than they got, sent us to private schools and so on.”
Despite a parental wish that she study business management, her eldest sister insisted that Cat be allowed to study dramatic arts. “I registered late, I handed in my portfolio late, I auditioned late – all because my parents said no. Only once they started coming to shows did they admit that, okay, maybe this is possible, you’re good at this.”
Still the lack of encouragement made things difficult. “I didn’t have the courage to sing – I used to cry when I sang. I was not secure in my technique. I was the little engine that couldn’t. I had a huge mental block against self belief, massive self doubt. If there’s anything I would say to young girls it is that although it may take time and you may struggle against people in your life, you must believe that you can do what your heart tells you you can.”
She still cherishes her love of theatre. “I’m a theatre baby. I auditioned for 11 years before I got into my first professional musical theatre show. My look and demographic meant that typecasting was a real thing – because of my stature, my height, my colour, my size, the tone of my voice I cannot play a damsel in distress, I cannot play the ingenue. And when I got into my first show, in the ensemble, I didn’t know it at the time but I was hired not because of my acting ability but because of my voice.”
Despite the career misdirection, the home was full of music. “I’ve always loved Etta James, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone. The stories that these women would share – not that it was ever my struggle, but I hear all the pain in their voices, and I could feel as if I was living with their pain, maybe not their circumstance. It helps. There was always music in the house – Michael Franks and George Benson, The Temptations, Boney M. All my sisters and brothers are from a different generation to me, so I got to listen to all of their music throughout the various phases in their life. I’m very grateful for the music education I had growing up. It’s still far from where I want it to be though, I have a lot to learn. If somebody comes to me and says: you have to listen to this, I say yes, absolutely. If I’ve heard it before, maybe you’ve heard something I haven’t, so let me try again. People introducing new music to me is everything. If you send me a song and say: you have to listen to this, I’ll say thanks, you have educated me today!”
As for so many others, Cambodia proved to be liberating and uplifting for Cat and her music – a place where she was heard. “I feel so blessed that I landed up here, where the music scene found me. There were people in my life who said please sing for my birthday party, or let’s do karaoke, and somebody hears you and is impressed. What? I don’t believe you, but okay. The most gracious, amazing people – I find in Phnom Penh there is less ego involved, everyone understands that we’re all one community, we’re not competing. Where I’m from it’s all competition, all the time.”
The first version of her current act, The Broken Cymbal, was a quartet that centred around jazz, funk and RnB. Once the keyboard and bass players departed for different lives, drummer Anthony Armenti moved onto guitar, and they rewrote the repertoire as a duo while retaining the name for ease of promotion. And indeed the repertoire is markedly changed. “We love swing, and we change the style on some songs to play swing. I’m obsessed with jazz and songs that sound jazzy, and we do some bossa nova. We both adore Disney, so we get excited when we can play Disney songs. We try to be relatable and entertain the audience, to put on a show. God bless the people who come to multiple gigs, we love you, thank you so much. We do understand that listening to the same songs over and over again does get tiring so we try to change it up every now and then.”
Coming up next Wednesday is a rather different event, a collaboration by four singers – Cat, Mirasol, Intan and Sitara – called The Queens of Blues, with The Blue Souls as backing band. Cat can hardly contain her excitement about the chance to work together on stage with other female singers. “We all get to work together. The four of us never get to be on the same stage at the same time, and it’s such a privilege to work with these women who I admire and respect and revere.”
Given the elastic notion of the blues, the blend of the voices is as much about contrast as similarity. “Sitara is more of a softer blues style, Mirasol has got the absolutely beautiful rock voice, and Intan is all about jazz. Feeding off each other on stage, having interactions, conversations, and above all getting to share the history that those women had – we get to channel that power into one performance, and we all get to experience it together. Being the only vocalist gets tiresome sometimes, and when you work with a band it’s fantastic, but as women getting to share a collective experience – it feels like this is what these singers had in mind, that one day women would come together in this way, through music, to share that joy with each other and audiences.”
Cat would like to see more of the same, too. “I believe there’s a space here for shows that are ticketed, that create theatre culture, are well put together and well rehearsed, with good sound and lighting, maybe one day in a real theatre. We all play every weekend around town, so you can go to any venue and see the regular shows, but really tailoring a special event is an entirely different experience for the whole community.”
The Queens of Blues will be held at The Birdcage Boutique on Wednesday 25 January at 7.30 pm. Tickets $10, pre-booking available by contacting 070217424 on WhatsApp or Telegram.
You can find The Broken Cymbal at Botanico on Saturday and Tacos Kokopelli next Friday.
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