When Luvcat's fans first heard snippets of 'He's My Man', they seized on its deeply romantic overtures and edited videos of their partners with the waltzy track ringing out over moon-eyed montages. It was only when the song was released in full that fans realized it was a murder ballad, complete with a poisoning: “He wakes, head aches, funny taste to his tea / I want him to stay here forever / He's happiest with me.”
It's the kind of sleight of hand at the heart of Luvcat's music: deeply yearning and equally twisted. With just three songs out, her sound has resonated with a fanatic audience on TikTok raised on My Chemical Romance videos and Tim Burton films, much like the musician herself. Today she's sat with NME in Camden's Hawley Arms, looking like Alice in Wonderland by way of Bridgette Bardot: “I've always been obsessed with gothic, whimsical imagery and the slightly strange and surreal.”
That dreamlike element is married with just enough confessional writing that people routinely ask after shows whether her stories are real. “I just want to invite people into the experience,” she explains. “I could tell you very literally what each line is about. But maybe that would spoil the fun a little bit…”
So far, the songs have been littered with references to the same mythic man, lamenting his cruelty on 'Matador' and proclaiming Luvcat belongs in his arms on the recently released 'Dinner at Brasserie Zedel'. “I'm just drawn to hellraisers, so that's why it comes out in the songs,” she grins. “The first time I ever came here, I walked in and there was a lad swinging from the chandelier, on the top of the bar, screaming his head off to 'Fairytale of New York'. All my friends were terrified, and I was like, 'I'm gonna marry that man'.”
Although it feels like Luvcat and her romantic ideals (“tall, dark and loathsome”) have arrived suspiciously fully formed, she's quick to credit the years she and her band have spent “slogging our guts out on various scenes”. “None of this would have happened without that, because the thing that's helped us along the way is videos of us playing live,” she explains. “It was never premeditated content, it was genuine videos of us going out and having fun and causing trouble. I'm really thankful that we got put on the bill on some of these shows – people just took a risk.”
It's been a big year for you. Have there been any smaller, more inconsequential moments that felt significant to you?
“Something funny happened a couple of days ago, which might seem silly to some people, but we were rehearsing for this tour coming up, and I've only ever been able to afford a two hour rehearsal with the boys. And it was the first time we've had six hours in a rehearsal room, and I didn't have to settle at the door, because obviously they've got people looking after that now.
“We used to rehearse in – it's actually brilliant – but it was an ex-public toilet in Kentish town. I'm not dissing it, but it suddenly felt like, 'Oh my god, we're actually progressing, because now we get to rehearse.' I get the privilege of playing with the boys for longer, which is all I really want to do.”
“There's a lot of heartache and a lot of grit in what I'm writing about, but it comes hand in hand with mischief”
There's a certain level of affluence and glamor at Luvcat's core, where does that stem from?
“Maybe coming from Liverpool. It's a very glam central city, which I love. My mum had a hair and beauty salon, so I guess it was always in the family, putting our lippy on and doing our hair big. And a lot of time spent in Paris as a young adult has seen into the music. I love French culture. I'm just obsessed. It's definitely right up my street.
“I love getting dolled up for a show. And playing in the pubs, I would do it a bit, but it's hard to do in the toilets. But now we're playing in nicer venues, so I can really dress up for those, and it's so fun. And the boys are in suits. They've got these cool velvet suits with a dark red trim, but they hate them because they're so hot on stage. But I'm like, 'But you all look so handsome, you have to do it.'”
As all of this is happening so quickly, what's one thing you want to keep hold of?
“The playfulness of it all, because I don't want to take this too seriously. Yeah, there's a lot of heartache and a lot of grit in what I'm writing about, but it comes hand in hand with mischief and fun and it not being too heavy. My lyrics are about real things that have happened, but then sometimes I'll dress it up in a metaphor, or paint a strange picture with it. But they are pretty much all very real, true stories.”
Do you think walking that line and maintaining some level of mystery is the reason fans are so desperate for a full album?
“There's always space to uncover more things. I think it's all in me, I'm just slowly uncovering and bringing out certain things and when the time is right. I get a lot of questions about 'when are you putting an album out?', and that obviously is something that I'm dying to do. It's lovely that people are hungry for it, just got to make sure the art is right, and then we're working as fast as we can to get it all out and keep feeding it.
“Hopefully by next year, there'll be a bigger body of work. I'm not in it for anything other than to be able to get on the road and make an album. I want to do something outrageous for the cover – I can't tell it here, because I've not fully decided it in my head, but I want to do something naughty.”
Outside of an album, is there anything else in the distance?
“We're going to Tokyo in January for a show, and I think we should film while we're there. We've got my best mate, Barnaby, who's an amazing photographer and videographer with us, and I just want him to film everything. All the fights, all of the highs, lows. Because I think this year, it's never going to happen again and everything's new.
“I'd love to be able to look back and have it documented and how it all feels. Even the past month, that much has happened, I can't remember half of it, there's been so many cool things. I love those docs about life on the road – Dig! is one of my favourites, so we'll see what we get.”
TikTok has obviously been very kind to you, would you put it out there or on something else?
“I want to do a long thing to maybe come out with the album, just so people can see the year that we've had. The other day, we all went to see a billboard in Leicester Square that I got on, which was mental. So we played a show in Soho, and then went over to see it. And that was a really beautiful moment that we could capture. Because I'm just dead grateful – I'm not taking any of this for granted at all.”
Luvcat's 'Dinner @ Brasserie Zédel' is out now; she will play Moth Club on November 13
