They've been the local standard bearers of quirky, cool rock music since they emerged in 2002, and after a few quiet years 22 Cats are back with a new album and eager to again show why they're the band to watch. The band - comprising singer-guitarists Chan Lam-por and Chan Kwun-kit, bassist Chan Wing-yin and drummer Tin Lap-for - combine noisy guitar pop with experimental programming, and their return has been eagerly awaited by their many followers. Rewind to 2004, when their debut album, All the Good People Will Shine, was released to critical and underground acclaim. With radio support and a series of celebrated live shows, including a super-charged set at the inaugural Rockit Festival, things were seemingly on the ascent for the band. But then everything went quiet. 'We've been focusing on our recordings during the past few months,' Tin says. 'We haven't really had a break, although we did feel we needed some time away. Maybe audiences wouldn't notice our musical evolution if they kept seeing us play every month. We wanted to make this return more of an event.' They're marking their return with the follow-up album She Will Eat You, which was recorded between September last year and April. 'The approach for recording the album was almost the same as for the last one, only this time we had better equipment,' says Chan Kwun-kit. Released on Harbour Records - the local imprint that's also home to acts such as False Alarm and My Little Airport - She Will Eat You will be in shops from Monday. What's with the curious moniker? 'One night while out drinking a colleague kept saying to me, 'She will eat you, she will eat you',' Tin says. 'For the next few days I couldn't get that sentence out of my head. It seemed like an interesting title and everyone agreed.' Chan Lam-por says the concept of the album is 'just how 'she' will eat you. The 'she' represents different things in different songs. For example, in New Animals, the 'she' is the government. Our own desire, though, would be that audiences like the lyrics and try to find their own personal meanings within them.' Chan Kwun-kit says that, unlike on the first album, 'most of these songs were composed by all members of the band. Last time, it was always a case of me and Por writing the music. This was a total band effort. Musically, we now have more acoustic tunes, which shows a different dimension to our sound. 'We also used lots of human voices as backing tracks, which was influenced by classical music. As usual though, we were largely influenced by [US guitar bands] Nirvana and Sonic Youth and how they use guitar noise to sculpt their songs.' These influences give some indication of what to expect at Sunday's show. 'Band shows are all about entertaining the audience,' says Chan Lam-por. 'Good musical technique isn't necessarily bad, but the moods we create are more important to us when playing live.' She Will Eat You release party, 22 Cats with Reonda and Innisfallen, Sunday, 7.30pm, Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre, 11 Clear Water Bay Rd, $72 (students/elderly/disabled), $80, Urbtix. Inquiries: 9559 7916
