Brothers, Manx, the fathers of Catwave. A posthumous album by a synth-playing cat — released on his birthday.
Frankie was a tuxedo cat who played synthesizers. In the year leading up to his death in December 2025, he recorded an album — composing and playing every track himself on an Arturia MiniLab MIDI keyboard into GarageBand, layering new takes over earlier ones. 🖤, his 13-track darkwave/experimental album, was released on Bandcamp on his birthday, August 15, 2026. His brother Tony — always by his side — carries the music on. Together they are the fathers of catwave.
This is not a novelty record. Frankie's work is genuine darkwave — gothic, melodic, experimental, noisy, tender — with a real emotional arc across the year of recordings. The track titles are the artifacts: his paw-on-keyboard filenames with recording dates appended (fsdv (melodic) mar 31 → re nov 11), reading like a diary of a cat making music until he couldn't.
And it arrives in a music industry where AI is now in roughly 40% of new releases: this is one of the few records that was provably played by paws. No AI. No sessions erased. Just Frankie.
Featured by creators and compilations around the internet:
Contact: press@tonyandfrankie.com · Inanna, assistant to Tony & Frankie · Photos, album art, and hi-res assets available on request.
May Bastet grant life, prosperity, health. 🖤