https://www.facebook.com/paulzahlandthecat

ALL OF THE SONGS FEATURED HERE ARE OLD MATERIAL AND ARE NOT PART OF THE UPCOMING PROJECT

This Bio was originally written in late2006 for our “My Space Music Page”.I am now amending it for our 2014 “PAUL ZAHLAND THE CAT RETURN TO THE NOW PROJECT”

PartOne: 2006: I was born in San Francisco. When I was 6 years old my Parents tookme to a “Dinner and Dancing” place in Paradise California. There was an oldlady playing a giant Hammond organ and a skinny old man with grey hair playinga Champagne Sparkle Slingerland Drum Kit. I had never seen a drum in real life.I was THUNDERSTRUCK. I mean I could SMELL the drums…. My parents must haveloved it. I was a hyper little tornado of a kid, and for me to stand there infront of the drums like a statue with my mouth hanging open for two and a halfhours must have been a wonderful break for them. I don’t think I touched mycheeseburger… After they finished playing the old drummer guy opened up his“drum throne” (the old kind that matches the drum set and you can keep stuffinside) and he said “HEY KID” and handed me a pair of ancient oak drumsticks(about 5A’s I would guess) and that was IT…I was a GONER…Well, actually I was aDRUMMER <br>

Ispent the next 3 or 4 years pounding along to Dave Clark Five and Stonesrecords on my Mother’s Revere Ware pots & pans (I still have them. Theystill sound great). I didn’t like the Beatles then. They were too clean, anddidn’t POUND enough. Besides, my SISTER liked them…After a while the powersthat be (Dad) decided that if I was gonna do Music I had to do it right, whichmeant doing it in SCHOOL. The first day I was forced to go to “drum class” Iasked where the drum kits were. The bald fifty-something music teacher didn’teven look up over his old fashioned half-lens reading glasses when he said “WeDon’t HAVE THOSE.” It didn’t take me long to figure out that I didn’t want tolearn how to march around at football games with a bass drum strapped to mychest… It also turned out that for some strange reason all those little dotsand squiggles on the page didn’t mean shit to me (it took another 40 years tofinally figure out that I’m dyslexic). So drum school was pretty much a flop.Instead of school I just PLAYED with every great drummer on the planet (viaheadphones) for YEARS…<br>

Iplayed with various bands throughout high school (Notably: Cream Of Chicken. Awild hybrid of Captain Beefheart insanity and Alice Cooper “Love it To Death” periodhard rock had the privilege of playing with the genius(es) Peter Penhallow.& Mik Edelstein. And I played with the ridiculously out there band “Timmy”with John Harrison (inventor of the “Tone Tubby” guitar speaker) and DonnyMcLeod (both are RIP) I “cut my chops” with those bands. We were “garage bands”we never played gigs.But we always got BETTER when our girlfriend came torehearsals….I Turned “PRO” in 1975 .Turning pro meant driving over the GoldenGate Bridge and playing with a band that could get a gig at the Fab Mab for$20, a cheeseburger and a case of Coors beer. (The Fab Mab was the most infamous SF punk dive the Mabuhay Gardens).Suddenly I found myself plunged into the erupting SF Punk/New Wave Scene. Therewere GREAT bands all over the place. Everybody was having a good time and wewere in it together.I remember when I was in Killerwatt, The Avengers had a gigat the Mab and somehow the drummer had “lost his kick drum” So I gave him mineto use. It was just LIKE THAT…. Bands like Crime, The Avengers, The Nuns, theDead Kennedy’s and Madgester Ludi were all over the place and you could go outon a Tuesday night and see a great show Devo, Blondie the Dead Boys or the Ramones.Crime, Death, Vs,The Nubs…HELL… It was apretty hot and juicy time to be in San Francisco. The first real (as in not ina garage) band I played with was <b>KILLERWATT</b>. A sort of hardrock band with a crazy Scottish singer who was sometimes too drunk to sing. We had a fantastic bass player in MrTerry Nails.Killerwatt was KILLER After Killerwatt it didn’t take me long toget involved with some other pretty good bands: <b>THE READYMADES,TUXEDOMOON, SVT, THE YANKS, THE COWBOYS & THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES.Recorded“Don’t Slander Me” with Roky Erik Erickson with Jack Casady (SVT) on bass.</b>.<br>

I moved to Europe in 1986 RE-joinedTuxedomoon for their reunion tour,(the complete absurdity/impossibility of howthis came to be is covered in my Gal Pal Isabelle Corbisier’s fantastic book“Music For Vagabonds: The Tuxedomoon Chronicles (buy it) afterthe rather large & successful Tuxedomoon tour I decided to stay on inEurope.San Francisco was dead as a music mecca.And my rent had increased900%.....I was a stranger in a strange land, without a home in my home town. Iplayed for a while with a group called<b>THE GALLERY</b> before Istarted working with <b>FLESH & FELL</b> whose lead singer,Catherine Vanhoucke I ended up married to after a shockingly short period oftime (I have always been lucky). We are still happily married, have 2 beautifulkids and a recording studio not far from the beach, here in Oostende, Belgium.We play and write music together every day and are <b>always on thelookout for OTHER people to play with…</b>

Part 2: The Studio.” (This is the beginning of the 2014 additions)

I was beginning to tire of being on theroad all the time.I was married. Had 2 beautiful children and driving thousandsof miles to play concerts in Norway was losing it’s attraction. I discussed itwith my Wife/Singer/Advisor and we decided to build a studio in our attic. Nota crappy room with a laptop & some drum machines. A STUDIO,where I couldrecord REAL DRUMS….Like in the olden days.No Pro Tools.Recording people PERFORMING….Itbecame a dream project….We decided to go for it. Cathérine summed it upbeautifully: “We have nothing left to prove.We will OWN the studio.We can goand putter around making our little songs, we can play them for friends.Wedon’t have to try to sell anything. It will be great.We will make our music andplay it for people, if they like great and if they don’t they can go f***themselves”…..So I went about building “Saddle Up Studio” in our former attic.After about 2 years the studio was up & running.Cat & I started withbaby steps recording new song on our own.I fully expected all the othermusicians in Ostend to flock here (If You Build It,They Will Come) They didn’t.Nobody came. I was left to my own devises. So I started buying guitars andmicrophones & learning how to be a “one man band” with a singer.

Part 3: Disaster Strikes Big Time.

Saddle Up was up & running. I hadrecorded a couple of teenage Metal Band’s demos for fun (remember we are not inthis for profit.) And I was changing everything around to start a “differentapproach” to PZ&C music. I was changing my drums down to a “Ringo Set”Changing amps…Mics Ect….I decided to go out for some Milk because my son wasasking for cereal. Robin Rose was in the Bath. I jumped onto my bike & rodeto the store 100 meters from our house. I was planning on being out for 10minutes. I was gone for 4 WEEKS.

On my way home from the store I was hitfrom the side(“T-BONED) in a crosswalk by an 85 year old man in a Mercedes SLK.He was looking for Ostend. He was going the wrong way. I woke up in the ICU. Ihad been “dead” for 28 to 36 seconds, depending on who you listen to. In theICU I was in massive pain because there was a THING compressing my skulltogether. They told me “You’ve been in an accident” and I had a Fractured Skull, Aconcussion, a collapsed lung,12 broken ribs, a crushed shoulder , a brokenclavicle, a crushed knee. A dislocated hip. A few crushed vertebrae in my neck.Gravel and asphalt ground into my face. Oh. And my nose was broken for thethird time…. The Emergency services had revived me and I was lucky to be alive.All I could think was “I’ve never IMAGINED this much pain. And I’m aDRUMMER….Will I ever play again??? Shit. Will I ever WALK again….

The Cops showed me the photos of the carthat hit me. It looked like a Road Runner cartoon. Only it was the littledrummer boy smashed into the grill, hood & windshield of the car. My arms& profile were perfectly imprinted in the windshield. <<<<<<<<<<<<

Three operations and several years oftherapy passed and I am now fit to start recording again….Time flies when youare having fun.

CATHERINE BIO

Cathérine Vanhoucke’s musical career beganat the age of seven when she started going to music school and learned how toplay violin and saxophone, but what she loved most about it was of coursesinging. That love of singing and music in general led to her starting a bandwith at the time boyfriend/baseplayer JP. This is how, in the late seventies, aband was born and at the head was a naïve 15 year old girl as lead vocalist.Later that band would be dubbed Flesh & Fell.

Itdidn’t last very long though, at the end of the next decade the band broke upbecause of… let’s call it creative differences.

Asis the case with many band breakups, it wasn’t exactly peaceful. JP turned outto be a slug and left with all the band equipment, pictures and every tape ofrecorded music in tow. But before you think he left Cathérine empty-handed,think again because he left her with all of Flesh & Fell’s acquired debt.Now, a singer without a band doesn’t exactly rake in the cash so it tookCathérine years to solely repay all that debt, she even had to sell her violinand saxophone. But not everything was all doom and gloom, Flesh & Fell didlead to good. Good in the form of an American drummer named Paul Zahl, Who JPhired for the final Flesh & Fell Recording sessions.. whom Cathérine tookand married and had gorgeous kids with.Even though Cathérine’s first encounter with the music business was horrifying, It didn’t stop her from wanting to make music, which is why when Paul and Cathérinebought a house eighteen years ago, they built a music studio in it. They becamePaul Zahl & the Cat.

Thejoy of having your own studio is complete control of the music you create. Thatenabled them to live according to their own philosophy.

“We are going to go on writing our littlesongs and if you like them, great, listen all you want. If you don’t then gof*** y*******”

Part 2: Cancer.

Cathérine was shockingly diagnosed withBreast Cancer at a routine check-up in April 2008. This horrified her entire family.How could this happen to such a talented, energetic young women?

She had emergency surgery. Chemo Therapy.Radiation…The WORKS… ….

Amirror house of horrors.

Recovery was long and arduous .But shesurvived. She IS a FIGHTER. She has had several major operations and survived them all. Shesurvived her husband’s near death. She survived EVERTTHING

And NOW in 2014 is ready to SING again.

Onthe “Paul Zahl And The Cat Return To the NOW Project” Which will be recorded atSaddle Up ,Ostend and for the first time ever (maybe) Will ask forcontributions (via file sharing) from EVERY musician PZ&C have worked within the past….and hopefully many from the FUTURE….

More to come as it COMES..

xoxoxPaul Zahl and The Cat.