Cat Shell comes from a musical family.  Her parents met in a play and  both sing as well as her having a brother that plays guitar and sings too. Growing up her Dad used to play records all the time, listening to the classics like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat Cole, and lots of musicals. She grew up writing poetry and drawing but never did much with music. As she got older she found herself drawn to it but  was still pretty shy as a kid. As she got older, she began to do some theater work but ended up finishing college with a degree from University of Florida in Exercise Science. It wasn't until she moved out on her own and attempted the 9 to 5 thing, and met an ex-boyfriend that inspired Cat to do whatever she wanted in life. Cat really knew that first and foremost she was a writer.  She also knew something that many around her also knew; that she could sing. She started attending open mics and reciting spoken word poetry. Cat slowly taught herself basic guitar and started putting her words to music.

Pretty soon she was performing original songs at open mics and was surprised to see how positively people reacted to her work. Not long after, Cat felt she had created enough material to make her first acoustic album. She formed a band and started performing at local bars & restaurants. Over time, her sound has progressed from Folk/Jazz to a soulful R&B/Pop vibe that incorporates elements of Jazz & Neo-Soul.  Her life has really transformed over the past 5 years and she has worked really hard to promote herself and make a career out of her talent. Today, she can be found performing all over South Florida at top venues, lounges, hotels, & private events. She is also also in the process of finishing up her first fully produced album entitled "Illusion" which is due out in late January 2012. Cat has just launched her album sponsorship campaign on Kickstarter. You can pre-purchase the album and be a part of it's completion at this site: Kickstarter.com. 

The songs on Cat's upcoming album are a reflection of the last 3 years of her life - a collection of lessons learned, love gone wrong and growing up. Cat goes on to say, she has an entire album's worth of new material to work on producing after the completion of "Illusion". But first, she will be doing extensive promoting for her new album throughout 2012, including small tours throughout the U.S. in select major cities. New York, New Orleans and Las Vegas are currently in the works. 

Cat says, "I like being at home. I go out for a living. I work tremendously hard at what I do to support myself and none of this just landed in my lap. I have no formal musical training and  I am listening to a lot of great female jazz singers, like Etta James, Billie Holiday, Julie London and Lena Horne. You can never learn enough from the classics. I was a huge fan before the tragedy, but I've also been listening to every possible song that Amy Winehouse ever sang. Her soul seems to resonate with me and I get emotional every time I hear her music. I'm also an avid neo-soul junkie. My Pandora is almost always tuned into Jill Scott and Erykah Badu. Their raw lyrics and expressive vocals make their simple two chord songs seem like a brilliant painting on a blank canvas that changes every time you look at it."

Cat admits "I would love to have sang a duet with Ray Charles who is a pure soul genius." If Cat could go back and do one thing differant, she would like to go to school and study Jazz but has yet to figure out how to add that into her schedule! This busy artist sees another album in the works plus lots of work on the licensing side of things, like working on producing music and collaboration on tracks for TV, film and commercial work. She would also be interested in songwriting for artists in other genres as well.