About Cate
tongues are deeply saddened to announce the loss of our dear friend and musical partner Cate Dahl who tragically took her own life on Friday, July 16th. She was our little fruity one who we affectionately also called "Dolly" and, most recently, "Twiggy Pop" (after Iggy), given her slight frame and the amount of radical energy Cate would dispel on stage (and in life in general). Cate would hate the tag of tortured artist but she really did have a hard time with the day to day world, to which she never truly felt connected. It was only on stage, in the studio or in song writing that she ever felt at peace, that moment where you are lost to the outside world and nothing else exists.
Cate was always real in her performance whether live or in recorded form, she never ever made music for the sake of fame or fortune, truly only for art’s sake. Cate loved the fact that tongues looked like five different bands rolled into one, she said to me “Dave you know what?, in a time when it’s all about style, most bands comprise of people who have a similar look, haircut, wear similar clothes. I love our band because we’re all different, we all look like we should be in different bands, we’re freaks in a beauty magazine, I love that”.
Cate saw beauty in imperfection and always pushed us to be on the edge & to make mistakes. If it meant that the music would be imbued with energy and vibe above note perfect performance, then so be it. One of her favourite sayings was "I love the wrong and discordant notes because without them the right notes don't sound as good". In her songwriting she always pushed herself to find new ways to get her message across, never satisfied with self repetition, having said that she always seemed capable of just letting the music flow out of her and it was always different, never forced or maths like, it had to come from emotion.
Her main influences in songwriting were the Lou Reeds, the John Lennons & Beatles, the David Bowies and the Kurt Cobains of this world, all of them true artists in Cate's eye’s. Live she loved the vibe of the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, Peaches, Chrissy Amphlett of The Divinyls, Patti Smith and Nirvana.
Cate played or sang every note as if it was her last,
anything else to her was just false or cheating.
(Dave Reynolds, tongues)
Songwriter…..drummer……performer……..precious person extraordinaire. That was Cate Dahl. A soul so pure, true, and individual, she had a tremendous gift of music. Her songs resonate a sound all their own, unique rock sensibility in a trash pop sort of way, driving guitars and drums, her lyrics were always a clever play on words, sexy rhythms that make you want to dance, she always left me hungry for more….and as if that wasn’t enough, Dave Reynolds took the songs to an even higher level as producer. Their combined creative chemistry was undeniable.
Cath was never confined to rules and expectations, which immediately brings a story to mind. When Cath and Dave got a showcase slot at AMW they didn’t even have a band together. The next four weeks saw a band in place, a handful of rehearsals, a debut gig - they headlined, a changed name, and a perfected showcase performance where the guitar levels nearly took the venue’s roof off. At the time of the showcase Cath had a new song ‘go your way’, and she wanted it in the set. The fact that it had only been rehearsed once and she didn’t have all the lyrics written….well that didn’t matter, she was compelled to play it and they did. They pulled it off without a hitch, only tongues could do that.
Cath will always be special to me; I am going to miss her so much. My collection of Lime, Velveteen, & tongues CD’s and demos are worth more to me than gold, I will treasure these for the rest of my life. Cath Synnerdahl was a beautiful person, my favourite songwriter, she will live forever through her music.
(Marcella Roybal – Pussycat Music Management)
The last time I saw Cath before she died – and it so shits me to write those last three words – was at the upstairs bar of The Townie Hotel (a natural habitat for many of us…). She was catching up with a friend she hadn’t seen for a couple of years. Friend got full attention, most of the time. You could almost see the thoughts going through her head when she spotted me – and pinballed over to where I was sitting, typically fizzing like a can of lemonade that had been shaken that bit too much. “You’ll love this – the band have started calling me Twiggy Pop!” was the opening salvo. She seemed gleeful. My only surprise is that no-one had thought of it before. “And the record’s done!” That was more relief. “And we’ve got a rhythm section that can keep up!”, tongues having unsurprisingly gone through about three drum and bass combinations already. More news kept bubbling out: gigs, why she’d lasted one day at a job in a café, how she’d now decided her name was to be Cate Dahl: “I’ve been through three lives, this is the name for a new start.” I’m just pissed off she couldn’t use it for quite some time longer than she chose to.
(Ross Clelland – Journalist)
First contact. I called up Cath on the phone. I thought I'd give her a ring and feel her out a bit. I can't remember what she said (and though I'd really like to make up something sooo cool) I do remember the way she said it. Her enthusiasm was contagious. The call lasted a matter of minutes but I was sold on her in the first few seconds. She gave good phone. I rang Ian right after and told him that she was going to be our new drummer though we should still go through the formality of actually meeting her. Meeting Cath, she was not what I expected... a bit on the wiry side and kind of unco-ordinated with the most basic things, like walking and talking at the same time. Still she looked very confident and kinda tough, in the sweetest way.
There was the usual blah blah blah then time to get down to business. What song - I don't know - just do something - arrgh - 1, 2, 3, 4. Blam!! The hardest hitting bombastic rock drummer that ever sat in on an X session proceeded to eat up and spit out anything that Ian could throw at her. That was that. No need to rehearse: Cath taught me how to let go of musical presumptions. She broke down all my preconceptions and showed me how to be in the moment. I learnt trust from Cath. She would look at me and smile, just before we'd start "I'll just watch your right hand, it will be alright." And it was.
(Steve Lucas – X)
We here at Laughing Outlaw discovered Cate/Cath as the drummer for X at the December 2002 Basement gig that was recorded for posterity and released by Laughing Outlaw as ‘Evil Rumours’. Paul recalls seeing Cate walk into the Basement, thin as a reed and dressed as a twenties gangsters moll and wondering how she was going to possibly manage to keep the rhythm section together for X of all bands. Cate sat behind the drums and proceeded to pound them with such power and skill that Paul was mesmerised for the whole performance. She grinned from ear to ear the whole time, clearly relishing being onstage with rock’n’roll reprobates like Rilen and Lucas. We soon got a hold of the tongues demos and met Cate properly, along with Dave, Kinnon and the band. Band and label gelled almost instantly and so began the adventure/journey that led to the tongues’ ‘Ugly’ album. Cate’s presence is all over the record, from writing the songs with her unique sense of melody, rhythm and lyric to her pounding drums and incredible vocals. This is her masterwork and ultimate legacy for the world. Oh and she was sexy and sweet and a firecracker. She loved Kiss, the Beatles, Spinal Tap and everything bombastic and beautiful about rock‘n’roll. On stage, she was unpredictable and impossible to ignore. She was spellbinding. We will miss her.
(Paul Glover/Stuart Coupe – Laughing Outlaw Records)
* This wonderful person answered to both Cate Dahl and Cath Synnerdahl.
She preferred Cate.
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