What Is Hip?













                                   The VOICE  & The RHYTHM
                The Super Lucky Catz - - Robert  & Brandon!

Fresno acoustic-soul duo, The Super Lucky Catz, are ready to take the world by storm!

With a voice reminiscent of classic soul-stirrers Stevie Wonder and Sam Cooke mixed in with a Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz type vibe, lead vocalist/songwriter--Robert Barron-Gushel has a voice that will touch your soul and give you goosebumps!

The voice, coupled with Brandon Yoshida's jazzy rhythmic guitar style, make The Super Lucky Catz one of the best new original duo's to come out of Fresno, California.

Robert and Brandon sat down with us to talk about music, getting "there" in the music business, and more....PLUS, they were gracious enough to give us a special acoustic LIVE performance of their newest material!


Raina: Tell me us how this all started?
Robert: We started about 5 years ago. Brandon's dad plays bass and his uncle plays drums and they had a band with another guy who played keys. Brandon was working with them and I was doing alot of gospel singing. I started breaking away from that and began working with the keyboard player. At about 15 or 16 I started playing with that band here and there when they would play live gigs at the Starline and other places. Brandon would get up on the drum kit and play a couple songs.

Pretty soon we became fully involved in that act but after a while we decided it wasn't really where we wanted to go or where we wanted to take our music.

Brandon: At that time we were just doing cover songs, top 40. Stuff like Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra.....we did Sade, Stevie Ray Vaughn, really all over the board.

Robert: But it's just like I heard someone say the other day...you can be an artist and play original stuff and the gigs will come, it'll be slow, but you can watch your career take off. OR you can just be a cover tune musician and the gigs and popularity will come fast...but then you can watch your career quickly go down the drain.

Raina: After you guys broke away from the cover band, what next?
Robert: Brandon picked up guitar right away and I was playing keyboards. I've been playing keys on and off for about 4 years. I started writing and throwing ideas around and we had like 30 songs in a month--staying up all day and night working on songs.

People would hear it and we knew it was just the beginning stages, but they already started asking us to play here and there. My gospel stuff started taking off and churches in Oregon and  Arizona started inviting us to perform...we began to build a fan base in those places.

Raina: What subjects do you write about?
Robert: Life. The struggles and joys of life, love, peace and hate.  

Raina: Do you both write the lyrics for your songs?
Brandon: I shape the ideas Robert has. It's collective as far as the writing goes.
Robert: ...like he'd say "I don't like the way you said this, you should try it this way..", etc.

Raina: When I listen to The Super Lucky Catz, I hear alot of classic soul mixed in with a Jason Mraz-type vibe. Who are your influences?
Brandon: We listen to alot of Sting & The Police, Steely Dan, Yellowjackets, James Taylor, Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder....lots of different types of music.

Raina: Do you guys have a CD out yet?
Robert: Yes. We have an EP demo out. Sort of like a notepad of our ideas from the last two years. We wanted to put the best 10 out of the 30 from when we first started writing.  I think the next one will be live material because I think we come across alot better live.

Raina: You mentioned doing gigs outside of Fresno. Have you found it hard to get shows in Fresno?
Robert: Well its the vibe. Fresno doesn't have that vibe. It has the top 40 and the hard rock vibe...which is cool, 'cause I appreciate all kinds of music, but you know...
Brandon:...for example, I went to the Seal concert the other day and it was just dead! I mean, people just sitting there. I felt bad for him. He's such a good performer and he just kept going through it. Only at the end did people stand up and really listen. 
Robert: They couldn't even get up or give him a hand-clap or a "whooo" or whatever it is you'd do to show support for an artist. He's a word class performer and we're nobody's, so we don't expect these people to show us anything. We're here to gain respect and keep pursuing our goal.

"WHAT IS HIP. They want to know what is hip and they're afraid to step up and say 'this is hip' . They want someone to tell them like MTV or VH-1 or whoever comes down here from the bay.  It's sad, because more people will come out to see an out-of-town band that they've never heard of quicker than they would to see a band from their own home town.....what we call great here sometimes isn't so great--just acceptable." - Robert


**After our chat, Robert and Brandon gave us a live acoustic performance of  3 spankin' new, yet to be released tracks! You can check them out
Friday morning, December 30th performing LIVE on
The Great Day Morning Show (KMPH Channel 26) from 6:30am-9am.
PLUS, The SLC will be playing at Fagan's Irish Pub that same night from
7pm-10pm!
Don't miss these truly soulful and original performances from two of
Fresno, California's most talented artists!**

For The Super Lucky Catz AUDIO, befriend them at: www.myspace.com/superluckycatzslc