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Album artwork for Consumption
Consumption album artwork by Ilya Popenko

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Short Bio

 

Comfort Cat is an NYC-based singer songwriter, backed by Jason Laney on Keys and Dan Veksler on bass/guitar. She has received two grants from Staten Island Arts for recorded music, and is supported by a Patreon community. She is also a teaching artist and violin instructor in multiple boroughs of the Greater NYC area.

Band Members

  • Comfort Cat – Lead Vocals, Ukulele, Violin
  • Jason Laney – Keys, Backing Vocals, Percussion
  • Dan Veksler – Bass, Guitar

 

Popular Releases

  • Consumption (2021)
  • spit (2019)
  • sniff (2014)
Logo designed by Renaps Parisi

Medium Bio

Staten Island-based singer-songwriter Comfort Cat writes music to comfort toxic people. Whereas other songwriters sing about purging those that hold you back, Comfort Cat sides with the people that get left behind. If you have ever been “the problem,” you might relate to her songs.

Comfort Cat created her name around 2014, when she decided she was tired of being introduced on stage with her legal name, which frequently gets butchered. As a songwriter, Comfort Cat primarily performs with a guitarlele, a six-stringed instrument with the same intervals as a guitar but tuned up by a perfect fourth. 

Comfort Cat has a unique voice, which frequently switches from gritty to clear within the same song. Her voice has been compared to Karen O, PJ Harvey, Björk, Kate Bush, Janis Joplin, Tiny Tim, and others. Her genre occasionally resembles folk, loosely bordering on musical theater. She has been also been described as anti-folk.

Prior to their current lineup, Comfort Cat has had prior members, who continue to be friends with the band, including jenno snyder and Thomas Bones. Comfort Cat has also collaborated with electronic musician Caleb Lowrey on the track, The N.P.C.

Comfort Cat works in the Greater NYC area as a teaching artist and violin instructor.

Photo by Kris Johnson
Photo by Kris Johnson
Photo by Ilya Popenko
Photo by Ilya Popenko
Photo by Frank Fontana
Photo by Frank Fontana
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Shows & Accomplishments

In 2020, Comfort Cat was awarded a $3,000 DCA Premier Grant from Staten Island Arts, with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, to fund their album, Consumption. They have also been awarded a 2021 $5,000 Arts Fund Grant from SI Arts for their upcoming album, meow, to be released in summer of 2022.

NYC venues: The Bitter End (2019), Connolly’s (July 2019), The Well (April 2019), Legion Bar (March 2018), The Tiny Cupboard (October 2019) Otto’s Shrunken Head (December 2018), Little Skips (May 2019), Niagara (August 2018)

Staten Island venues: The CANVAS Institute (February 2020), Every Thing Goes Book Cafe (January 2020), Mother Pug’s Saloon (July 2019), Amendment 18 (May 2019), Art on the Terrace (May 2018), Hub 17 (July 2018), Craft House (June 2018).

Comfort Cat & Friends has also featured at the 2019 Kingston Antifolk Festival on 9/21/19. 

Press Quotes

The Staten Island-based experimental catcore catpop artist Comfort Cat has been writing music, playing strings, and belting out tunes in bars for over seven years... . Comfort Cat’s sumptuous but demon-soaked harmonies are often punctuated by wild shrieks of feral discontent: music that simultaneously abrades and soothes the soul, like the territorial roar of any domesticated predator establishing space.
Miracle Jones Contributing Editor at Evergreen Review
“She accompanies herself with what she calls a guitarlele (or a six-string tenor ukulele), and a small string ensemble. But even with this small ensemble, she really plays with the volume. She goes between almost whispering to belting out in frustration with her magnificent voice. She sings with such flexibility and heartfeltness, it seems as if her voice rises from endless depths to land like a dust particle in our eye that we wipe away (i.e it’s molto MOLTO espressivo).”
Tonemill Blog