Cat's Eyes are an alternative pop duo formed in early 2011, by the vocalist Faris Badwan

Faris Badwan

Faris Badwan is a British musician, best known for being the lead vocalist for the English Alternative Rock band The Horrors, and more recently one half of his side project Cat's Eyes with Rachel Zeffira.-Early life:...

 (known for his work with English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band The Horrors

The Horrors

The Horrors are an English band from Southend on Sea, formed in 2005. Their debut Strange House, was released in 2007 and reached number thirty-seven on the UK Albums Chart, their second album Primary Colours was released in 2009 and peaked at number 25 in the UK...

), and the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

-Canadian soprano, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Zeffira

Rachel Zeffira

Rachel Zeffira is an Italian-Canadian soprano, composer, and multi-instrumentalist currently based in London, England. She is also one half of the duo Cat's Eyes, the other being Faris Badwan of the noise rock band, The Horrors.- References :...

.

The band were formed after Badwan introduced Zeffira to the 1960s girl group

Girl group

A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...

 music. Zeffira became intrigued by the likes of The Ronettes

The Ronettes

The Ronettes were a 1960s girl group from New York City, best known for their work with producer Phil Spector. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett ; her older sister, Estelle Bennett; and their cousin Nedra Talley...

 and acts produced by Joe Meek

Joe Meek

Robert George "Joe" Meek was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter....

 and Phil Spector

Phil Spector

Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....

, and soon began work on a demo

Demo (music)

A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...

 version of a track (which eventually became "The Lull") in a similar style, which on completion she sent to Badwan.

Using Zeffira's classical music contacts the band were able to perform a short performance using a church organ and choir at the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

, in front of several important cardinals

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

. Following much positive press on the performance they offered free downloads of two songs via their website. One a cover/remix of Grinderman

Grinderman

Grinderman is an alternative rock band formed by Nick Cave , Warren Ellis , Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos in London, United Kingdom in 2006...

's "When My Baby Comes" and the other an original composition - "Not a Friend".

On 28 February 2011, the duo released an EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 entitled Broken Glass on the Polydor

Polydor Records

Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

 label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 it was recorded at Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

's RealWorld Studios with record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 Steve Osborne

Steve Osborne

Steve Osborne is a multi-platinum selling British record producer. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians, such as New Order, Doves, U2 and KT Tunstall. During the 1990s, Osborne was half of the Perfecto Records team, a production and remix collaboration with Paul Oakenfold; the artists...

. The Broken Glass EP featured three original compositions, and a cover

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of a previously unreleased demo song by The Horrors - "Sunshine Girls". It met with positive press and was followed by a the release of Cat's Eyes

Cat's Eyes (album)

Cat's Eyes is the self-titled debut album by London-based alternative pop duo Cat's Eyes, released on April 11, 2011 on the Polydor record label....

, a full length album, in April 2011.

Also recorded at RealWorld Studios, Cat's Eyes received much positive press. Badwan has dismissed rumours that the success of Cat's Eyes signals he will depart with The Horrors.

Singles and EPs

• Broken Glass - EP (Polydor, 28 February 2011)
• "Face in the Crowd" / "Bandit" - single (Polydor, 2 May 2011)
• "Over You" / "The Crying Game" - single (Polydor, 25 July 2011)