Biography

Luca Gatti (aka Dr Cat) is a keyboard player, composer and producer; He is the co-founder of Green Queen Music and a long-standing and respected figure in London’s underground electronic music scene…

An auditory traveller, Luca has journeyed the musical world both as a touring musician and a studio producer,  lent his services to movie soundtracks, collaborated with international artists such as Gaudi, General Levy,

JStar, 99 Posse, Spacepolice,  worked alongside Asian Dub Foundation and English National Opera in the making of a West-End show on the life of colonel Gaddafi.

Dr Cat left his native Italy in 1996 to make London his home and continue his musical exploration. Over the next few years he set up his musical HQ – Cat Studio – and began working on a number of new projects. In 1997  he was signed to Volume Records with a band called “Rey”; they were particularly successful with the track “Over my shoulder” , which made it in to several compilations including “Boy George’s “Trust the DJ”. He stayed in touch with his roots however and 1999 saw him remixing a track for Italian cult band ’99 Posse’. In the same year he also began a new live project ‘Spacepolice’ with Ragga vocalist General Levy and Rocco Barker (from Flesh for Lulu) There sound was a fresh mix of Rock, Dub and Electronica and they toured their live show extensively throughout the UK and Europe.

In 2000 he teamed up with highly respected Italian producer Roberto Vernetti to add his keyboard skills to a number of album recordings for big Italian artists such as Irene Grandi, Ornella Vanoni, Angela Baraldi, Delta V and 70’s Italian icon Patty Pravo. The studio work continued the following year as he joined forces with Paolo Polcari and  Raiz (from Italian cult band Almamegretta) to write the soundtrack for the film ‘Lunarossa’ which was presented at The Venice Film Festival.

2002 was an extremely busy year of touring interspersed with writing and production working on both his own projects and with other artists. He toured Europe and the USA with ‘Spacepolice’ as well as playing keyboards for soul jazz diva ‘Z-Star’; this year also saw the formation of ‘The Dr Cat Experience’  – a live world reggae and dub act which came about following some earlier remix work - and consisted of Luca and the rhythm section of ‘99 Posse’ (Max Iovine and Claudio Marino). Success from an unusual quarter also came his way that year when a track he had written, originally for production music house Extreme Music, was picked out, dubbed and ended up becoming an anthem on the hit TV series ‘The Osbournes’!

The touring continued in 2003-2004 as the keyboard player for Raiz (Almamegretta’s front man) on his solo Italian WOP TOUR.

Luca’s connection with the world of film continued but this time as a solo artist when 3 of his tracks were included in the ‘Original Soundtrack’ to the 2005 movie ‘Passo a Due’. 2005 also saw him reconnect with Paolo Polcari and long term friend and top producer Gaudi, the three came together to become ‘Weirdub’. The result of their collaboration was the album ‘Recreational’: an essentially live studio album of old school dub meets contemporary flavours.

In 2006 Luca’s long term project “Diaspora” (a collaboration with violin player Baeegh Ramsy and Oud player Stephane Rene) got a major break when they became involved with the arrangement of a west-end show on the life of Colonel Gaddafi. The show “Gaddafi A Living Myth” was produced by English National Opera with Music by Asian Dub Foundation and was staged at the London Coliseum in September 2006. Spurred on and inspired by this collaborative  production of what was to become Diaspora’s first full length album ‘A Jamaican in Cairo’ – an elegant work where middle east meets west Jamaica in a very fresh take on the world reggae genre. The album has an authenticity that shows both respect for tradition and for innovation and features the great vocal talents of Bob Andy, Amina Annabi and Raiz amongst its quality musicians.

In 2009 Luca got together with Fabrizio Cavalli (aka DJ Pony) to set up Green Queen Music – a record label which focuses primarily on the genres of Electronic, Dub, Nu World, Balkan Beats and Broken Beats.

With Green Queen Music hitting it’s stride, this year has seen Dr Cat busy in the studio working on a number of different projects, producing and remixing work by various artists. In parallel and supported by these collaborations Dr Cat is present in a number of high profile compilations such as Claude Challe’s “Music for our friends”, Beginners guide to Buddha, Burlesque.

Dr Cat recent collaboration with the King of mush-ups JStar have given light to “Dub Zealand” a “Beatport” chart storming selection of rare cuts from down-under.

His album “A Jamaican in Cairo” has entered the track list and gig bags of Djs the likes of: David Rodigan and DJ ritu as well as receiving outstanding reviews and been nominated one of the most original World/Reggae albums of 2010 on BBC Radio.

His Balkan Club remixes have been picked for various compilations and featured along side the likes of: Balkan Beat Box, Shantel, Riva Starr, Dunkelbunt, Boban & Marko Orkestar.

As a DJ his performances fuse organic and electronic sounds into a sonic banquet, taking listeners on to journeys transcending time and styles…his shows and his extensive discography are a testament to his eclecticisms and versatility.

DISCOGRAPHY