David Teie is a musician from Maryland who creates music for an entirely untapped audience: cats. And he hopes that in 100 years, when people talk about the history of music, they’ll say “there was a time when people only made music for people.”
When you think about it, fair enough: maybe your cat isn’t into the Bob Dylan or death metal you subject it to. Cat ears are different than ours, so one of the world’s biggest record labels — Universal — is legitimately releasing an album of Teie’s meant strictly for feline music aficionados.
Teie is a cellist, in case you’re wondering. But the music will be a mash up of purring and suckling noises, paired to Teie tearing it up his cello, accompanied by players from the US National Symphony Orchestra.
He says his biggest barrier as a musician is that no one takes his task seriously. To quote him, “If you really look into it, what’s silly is the idea that only one species could have music available for it.” Others must agree, his immensely successful kickstarter campaign yielded $250,000, which is likely what caught Universal’s attention.
Teie’s album for cats will be released on October 29th.