New Orleans Pussycats

 

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You haven’t seen buskers with personality until you’ve seen The New Orleans Pussycats—a three-piece with an old-school ragtime sound and some pretty mesmerising facial expressions.

We encountered them on Portal de l’Àngel and were drawn to their music, their spirit and, honestly, the way they looked. The three musicians make a pretty extraordinary looking group: catch them setting up or between songs and it’s hard to tell how this eccentric collaboration came together: Miha on piano is unassuming, perhaps a little dazed; Pepe is a shrinking older local whose nap schedule dictates the band’s working hours; and then there’s Miha on banjo and vocals: long hair tied back and always with a fold-up bike in tow, you’re not sure what to expect, and then he starts to sing with a voice that could be streaming straight from a gramophone.

Filming and getting to know the New Orleans Pussycats was full of surprises, not least of all the love/hate relationship they have with their ‘fourth member’. We watched them pushing around this haggard old upright piano with what we thought was affection. Actually, they told us, “it’s a pain in the ass!”
In the crowds that inevitably gather around this mismatched gang, you see Miha’s uninhibited facial contortions reflected—everyone from tiny toddlers to old timers dance freely, and you’re reminded that music creates in you a feeling you can’t describe. As Miha puts it, it’s just “that moment”.

 
Text by INto INdustry Programme Co-director, Leanne Hayman.