Caterina Torres
Biography
Somewhere in the back of the club, amidst the late-night haze and hoods, is where you’ll find the sound of 20-year-old singer-songwriter Cat Torres.
As much about tell-it-like-it-is (with two fingers) attitude as she is the soulfulness of girl-next-door urban, garage and dub beats and rhythms, Torres is every bit a new-gen Australian performer, her talent already seeing her travel the world to work with both underground and renowned producers and songwriters, from London to Miami.
Before we get to those collaborations, however, to get to know Torres is to go back to her childhood in the no-frills outskirts of south-west Melbourne. The daughter of Columbian and Uruguayan immigrants and the middle child of three girls (“the problem child,” she says with a laugh before adding, “Nah. Well, that’s what they say”), Torres spent her early years listening to the Latina and old American greats coming from her family’s stereo.
“We’d always be listening to Paul Simon, Chubby Checker, Gloria Estefan, Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee – we were always playing their cassettes. I remember us cleaning the house and hearing, ‘I’m going to Graceland, Graceland,’ and I loved it.”
That exposure led to a precocious Torres embarking on singing lessons at the age of six. However, it wasn’t any overbearing talent manager reaping the rewards of her young, developing voice, which was already showing signs of the natural flexibility of R&B songstresses of the genre’s heyday. It was the Spanish community which surrounded her that took Torres under its wing and spurred her on. Each weekend, Torres’ family would join in local celebrations and Torres – dubbed “the little girl with the big voice” by those around her – would be called to the mic.
“When I was nine I was practically on tour with the Spanish community because every weekend it was the fiesta of the Sixties or something at the Uruguayan Club, so every weekend I’d be performing,” she says, remembering back. “They kind of adopted me in a way.”
It was, perhaps, that nurturing foundation that gave Torres the down-to-earth quality of her singing style, but Torres also counts her heritage as an influence on her rebellious side. With a Columbian mum and a Uruguayan dad, it’s a “fiery, dangerous mix” that has had Torres unafraid to follow her own musical path and cross boundaries others wouldn’t dare look at.
Fearlessness and an independent streak revealed itself in high school, where Torres focused on her music while refusing to join the school choir. Accepting that their daughter was more interested in locking herself in her room and spending hours listening to Nina Simone or Sarah Vaughan, mimicking their frills and exploring the range of her own abilities, Torres’ parents forewent checking homework to instead ensure she had enough singing time.
“School just wasn’t for me and I’m kind of glad I realised that,” Cat says. “I guess I just didn’t really connect to it that much. But music class was fun for me. When I was younger it was all about honing my voice and I never really paid attention to songwriting, but then in music class I saw that all the boys were writing songs with their guitars and that really interested me, so I started writing some originals.”
With those originals in hand – mostly softer R&B ballads she’d composed on the piano – Torres hit up local producers to record demos. In the midst of Year Twelve, at a showcase organised by her singing teacher, she met manager Michael Parisi and was in his office the next day. Through Parisi, Torres signed an international deal with recording giant Sony RCA UK just after her eighteenth birthday and embarked on a year-and-a-half journey across the world, writing with the likes of hit-making L.A. producer and songwriter Toby Gad (Beyonce, Alicia Keys) and Brit songwriter Cathy Dennis (who co-wrote Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’) as well as club-king beat-makers like The Presets’ Julian Hamilton and up-and-coming London-based producer Jaz Rogers (Daniel Merriweather, Lauryn Hill).
The writing sessions resulted in a huge catalogue of songs, which has already been drawn from by – not surprisingly, given Torres’ punchy leftfield bent – pop singers in Japan, including J-pop sensation Kumi Koda.
It was Jaz Rogers who Torres worked with on her debut single, ‘Kitchen On Fire,’ which is out now through burgeoning label Wunderkind Records (Stonefield, Owl Eyes). The song takes the grime and dub sounds of London’s backstreets and gives them a kick of irreverent lyrics and a last-train-home Spanish guitar interlude.
“It’s like a melting pot, that song,” Cat agrees. “But the day I got the beat, before there was any lyrics or anything, I knew that song was going to be like my flagship or something. Hearing it for the first time I was like, What is this? What is this?”
No doubt many will ask the same question when first hearing Cat Torres. The answer is a bold and soulful new talent; a girl just as likely to be found kicking with her crew as she is twisting her persona into wild club vixen; and an industry game-changer only beginning to push our buttons.
