Fantastic Cat is a collaboration between four New York City songwriters. We heard songs from their new release, “Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat,” before they played Club Cafe on Wednesday, Aug. 21. They spoke with WYEP’s Joey Spehar.
Set list:
Later on
So glad you made it
Fiona
Ain’t this the strangest town
Interviewer: Joey Spehar
Engineers: Thomas Cipollone, Tom Hurley
Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity:
Joey Spehar: Now we are live and direct today with Fantastic Cat, a kind of super group playing Club Cafe tonight. They have a wonderful new record out, and we’re hanging out with a room full of WYEP members. Great to see everyone! The full litter couldn’t make it today, but we have two members of Fantastic Cat, Don DiLego and Brian Dunne, and they’re going to start us off with a song.
If you’re just tuning in, we’re live and direct this afternoon with a couple of members of Fantastic Cat, Don DiLego and Brian Dunne. They’re in town for a show tonight at Club Cafe. Guys, my first question—this one comes from my cat Norm. I was talking to him before I left for work this morning, and he wanted to ask you a question. I didn’t read it ahead of time, but it just says, “Cats are number one,” and there’s a little piece of a hairball. I guess you understand.
Speaking of cat stuff, I’m sure people in this room are dying to know how you got your name. Is there a good story there?
Don DiLego: There’s a real story. This is not a made-up press story, which the rest of it all is. I had thought about getting some songwriters together to make a record for fun, not worrying about touring and press and all that stuff. So, Brian, Anthony, and Mike—we carved out a couple of weekends in the Poconos in Northeast PA to record a record. After COVID started to dissipate, we thought, “Let’s do one show for fun and get in front of our friends to say, ‘Hey, look what we made.’”
When we were at a bar, we realized we needed a band name for the flyer. We said there are no good band names and that no matter what we came up with, it would sound silly. So when the bartender came back, we asked her for a band name. We shook hands and said, “Whatever she says, that’s our band name.” She came back, and Brian said, “If we were a band, what would you call us?” She didn’t hesitate and said, “Fantastic Cat.” That was it. We marked it down. She could have said “cats,” but she said “cat.”
Brian Dunne: We were pretty half in the bag at the time.
DiLego: We think she said “fantastic.”
Dunne: We were like, “That’s amazing! You’re amazing! We love you!”
DiLego: She might have said “Metal Face,” but we heard “Fantastic Cat.”
Spehar: And now you’re a cat band, which is pretty cool. I love the visual artwork that surrounds this project too. I know people on the radio can’t see it, but it’s all over your guitar strap. How did that come together?
DiLego: For that very first show, we had a photographer friend take some photos. We said we needed a press photo, and when we looked at the first one, we thought, “No one wants to see this.” So we had the idea of throwing together some cartoon cat heads as a kind of joke, but also because no one wants to see us. Then it stuck, and we decided to stay with it.
Dunne: For what it’s worth, for anyone listening on the radio, we have movie star good looks
DiLego: We didn’t want to intimidate anybody with our looks.
Dunne: Yeah, we wanted to seem humble.
Spehar: It’s working! Does everybody already know each other, or how did the band come together?
Dunne: Yeah, we all kind of met through the New York scene—the larger touring scene that comes out of New York. I met Don at a bar, I toured with Anthony before, and I met Mike through Don. It all fell together very naturally. And now we’re all being sued by the same person!
Spehar: I really liked your debut album, but I really, really like this new one. It sounds like Fantastic Cat as a cohesive band, not just a bunch of solo artists. Can you talk more about that?
Dunne: Yeah, that was a conscious effort after the first record. We toured and started to understand what the sound of the band was. The goal for the second record was to come together. We figured out our sound, and then we wanted to write that record. The first one was just us playing around and having a good time, which created a joyous record. But the second one reflects the sound of the band.
DiLego: Not having a good time.
Dunne: Very stressed out! We’re like the Eagles if they really didn’t get along.
Spehar: It must be different approaching a project as a band versus as solo artists, right?
DiLego: Yeah, it is. As Brian said, the first record was easy to make because everyone is a great songwriter. They came in with songs, and we just recorded them as is, jumping on different instruments. On the second record, we made a conscious effort to ask, “What should this band sound like?” and “How can I incorporate Mike and Anthony and Brian into my songs?” That’s how it worked out.
Spehar: The new album is called “Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat.” I struggle with that one, but I’m working on it! You’re playing Club Cafe tonight. We’ll come back and talk more, but I’d love to hear a couple more songs from you.
So glad you made it
Fiona
Spehar: That is music from Fantastic Cat. They are playing a show tonight at Club Cafe but dropped by this afternoon to play for some WYEP members and everyone listening out there in radioland. Brian, I apologize if this is calling you out, but I don’t know if it was a mistake — your little voice crack in that song was a big mistake! I don’t know what it is about that, but it’s so perfect.
Dunne: Thank you. I get my pay docked for that, but yeah. Okay. No, I’ll do that in the exact same spot tonight.
Spehar: And Don, you were pretty okay, too.
DiLego: Thank you! I really tried to get a crack, but it wouldn’t come out.
Spehar: So, listen, I was at the Flaming Lips show here in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago, and I saw a guy wearing a Fantastic Cat t-shirt. I had to approach him and said, “Man, I love that shirt.” I think he was a little defensive — he said, “Do you know this is a band?” I was like, “Yeah, I know they’re a band.” And he said, “Did you know they’re coming to town?” I said, “Yeah, I know they’re coming to town.” Then he asked if I knew they were coming to the radio station, and I said, “That’s incredible.” This has nothing to do with anything, but it’s been on my mind. Are you the kind of people who wear a band’s shirts to that band’s concert? I think it’s very telling.
Dunne: I don’t understand when it became taboo.
DiLego: Brian got upset.
Dunne: We were discussing this last week in the van. I don’t understand when it became uncool to wear the band’s T-shirt to the band’s concert. That seems like the obvious place to wear it, right?
Spehar: Have you been noticing Fantastic Cat shirts in the crowd? Is that cool for you?
Dunne: Yeah, we like to joke that we don’t have any hit songs, but we do have a hit T-shirt. We love to see them out in the wild.
DiLego: We’re basically a merchandising operation that puts out records to sell our T-shirts.
Spehar: Whatever works in 2024!
DiLego: You’re also speaking to the two most muzzled members of the band, so it’s good that I pulled the catalytic converter rather than before the show.
Spehar: Well, regardless —
Dunne: That may or may not be true.
DiLego: No one will ever know.
Spehar: Regardless of how you come to the show and what you’re wearing, I think everyone, no matter which side of the stage you’re on, is really having fun. Can you talk about how having fun and being loose plays into how this band works?
DiLego: I’ll tell you what happened early on. Even though it seems calculated, the heads and everything were very organic. From the very first show, we didn’t want to be four guys on a stool playing acoustic guitar with a hired band behind us. We said, “It doesn’t matter; we’re not a band.” We just figured out that we could all play different instruments. There are no drummers in the band; most everyone doesn’t play bass. We just said, “You play bass on this; you play drums on that.” The switching became an organic thing where we were having fun doing that and making fun of each other, which is the highlight of each of our days.
Dunne: My God, when we get a good one off, you wouldn’t believe it! God forbid somebody’s voice squeaks during a song because they’ll never hear the end of it.
DiLego: I’m sure the guys are listening right now and heard that. They heard the voice crack, and I’m sure it’ll be played back for me later.
Dunne: Anthony was like, “Get us to the station quick so these guys can hear!”
DiLego: Anthony likes to joke that we have a band ethos that’s very George Costanza-esque, which is, “Let’s just do the opposite of whatever we were doing before.” And it seems to be working out great.
Spehar: Well, the first song on the new album is one of those that made me laugh out loud when I heard it—it’s called “Own Omen,” and it’s about people whose lives ended up in different places than they planned. For example, you plan to move to California, run out of gas in Indiana, and now that’s your life. Are these real people that you write about?
Dunne: Yeah.
DiLego: Somewhere in Indiana.
Dunne: It’s our only song about selling feet pics, I will say. It might be the only song ever written about that.
Spehar: You gotta have one!
DiLego: For clarification, this is not about picking things out of your feet—just for clarity!
Spehar: Hey, we got a couple selling now. It’s a good song!
DiLego: It’s a good song.
Dunne: People are into that. That’s like a thing these days. Let’s talk after.
Spehar: Well, then we should just play another song. We’re live and direct today with Fantastic Cat. We’ve got the comedy/music show taking place tonight at Club Cafe, and their new album, Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat. Let’s hear one more song, guys!