Bear Cat may or may not be a “20 piece performance of the movie ‘panda go panda’ via song and with less sexual undertones and more schoolboy spectacular failure crushes” as described by the more-panda part of the duo, Dan Trevarthen. Mammoth chatted with him on teh intanetz before their show on May 2nd at La Commune.

MM: Alright, can you describe Bear Cat to us in haiku form?
DT: Pop music pandas
Transmitting messages to
Chinese boys and girls

Is that the right structure?

Yes I believe so – its ‘5, 7, 5’. That’s quite impressive!
Thanks!

Now how about as a sonnet?
Hahaha…

Have you ever been mistaken for ManBearPig, the threat to humanity that Al Gore is totally serial about?
WTF MANBEARPIG?? That sounds horrifying! I don’t know anything about this thing.

Yeah, I saw it on South Park.
Just wikipedia-ed it. Ha! I actually saw the words around on a friends page but assumed it was some silly in-joke. We’ve never been mistaken for that thing, but one time we got billed as “Bear Cats” and cheeseontoast.co.nz sometimes puts us down as “Beer Cat” but I kinda expected that one and I love it. Oh and sometimes people mistake us for a Ramones covers band, which is correct.

Who is more panda, Jocee or yourself?
I am a panda born in a human body, but Jocee has said to me before that “I just consider myself a human.” But she loves pandas with all her heart and supports their liberation. Plus I have dark circles under my eyes so it’s kinda clear that I am.

I heard that you once moonlighted as a panda in a zoo?
That’s true. I got in there and started a circle pit. It was really brutal, but naturally, onlookers went “Awwww, that’s so cute”. Shmucks.

What’s your take on the ‘Red Panda’? I remember as a kid being disappointed at the zoo, when all it turned out to be was just a slightly-oversized rodent…
Oh ditto! I was so disappointed at the time… parents saying “look at the Red Panda”, but all I heard was “PANDA” so I’m like… “WHERE? WHERE IS IT??!” But it’s not the red panda’s fault. It’s named that because of some similarities between it and the giant panda, such as elongated wrist bones.

And yeah… red pandas look like raccoons. Scientists are continually divided over the panda’s closest relative - the raccoon family or the bear family, or somewhere in-between. It’s quite fascinating.

Yeah, I think there’s a conspiracy that the wildlife tourism industry are some how in cahoots with the Animal Classification community, in naming species more exciting names to elicit more interest in animals that people aren’t familiar with. For example ‘Reddish-looking Rodent’ is far more descriptive, but wouldn’t quite hype it up for me.
Yeah similar things happen in music. I hate it when Bear Cat gets called a folk duo or something. I would much rather hype it up and call ourselves a 20 piece performance of the movie “Panda go panda” via song and with less sexual undertones and more schoolboy spectacular failure crushes.

Do you think there will be a point where you will have written every song about pandas that could possibly be written? When do you think that will happen?
It’ll never happen. Do you think there’ll be a point when every song that could possibly be written about humans is written? On first glance you’d think we’d just sing about bamboo a lot, but over time I’ve realised that there is lots more to life than just bamboo. And if your family gets run over in Red Square by a tank, then that’s something you’re probably going to have to deal with through song, or it might just send you into spiralling depression.

So it’s a deeper well than you’d think. But then, when is songwriting ever that easy? I don’t know why I chose to make it harder for reasons of conceptual purity. But then I think it’s shortcomings and dead ends that can cause you to make something more interesting sometimes. I think with My Eyes On Fire, which is a song about a crush on a movie star called Scarlett (which might partially be a ham-fisted metaphor for some girl in New Zealand) I was trying to write an out and out ‘love songs till midnight’ pop song with an 80’s keyboard sound and nods to George Michael’s “Faith”… but it came out a lot different to that (except for guitar rhythm still totally ripped off Faith.)

I’m kinda obsessed with the idea of shortcomings right now… it might have a big part in the next set of songs. Like I’d love to try and write a rap album but without rapping. But because I’m so musically retarded it wouldn’t be anything close. I don’t know what it’d be.

Well I’m sure the Panda community would be pumped to hear it.
Yeah they could krump/circle pit to it.

Well thanks for your insight into the world of Bears, Beers, Cats and Rodents. We’re all excited you’re coming back so soon!
You are welcome. I love Hamilton and I am excited that Mammoth are doing stuff that will definitely help things down there. Hamilton is a sleeping bear!

myspace.com/bearcatbearcat