'It Protects The Venue Long Into The Future': Go Behind The Scenes Of Efforts To Soundproof Melbourne's Night Cat

Just months after a campaign was launched to help save beloved Naarm/Melbourne venue The Night Cat, a behind-the-scenes clip highlighting the extensive efforts to soundproof the venue has been shared.

News of The Night Cat’s uncertain future was first shared back in April, with owner Justin Stanford launching a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the venue – which has been operating since 1994 – to continue in light of increasing compliance demands from the City Of Yarra in relation to developments in the area

“The venue is now under immediate threat of closure unless costly soundproofing upgrades are implemented,” Stanford wrote. “As an independently owned venue, we simply can’t shoulder these costs alone and continue to operate.

The campaign exceeded it’s $70,000 goal, and efforts to soundproof the venue have been underway since, with Stanford engaging the services of Melbourne’s Sound Capture to do so.

“25 years now since I've been coming here,” explained Sound Capture co-founder Andy Padula in a video shared to social media. “The depth of music, of art, of creativity in this place compared to everything else really had a huge impact on me as an artist, as a DJ, as a producer, and as a musician.”

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“The venue has had some recent troubles with soundproofing and we've had developers taking us to court,” Stanford further explained. “We have Agent Of Change legislation in Melbourne, which is supposed to protect us from developers like that.

“The people that forced us to make this compliance and all these changes, they found the loopholes in the law.”

“That really got me a little bit emotional,” continued Padula. “That same emotion kind of resonated across the community.

“When nightclubs are faced with these obstacles, these problems, these issues, a lot of the time the nightclub has to face or find the solution by themselves. But it just shows how important this club is to the community where they were able to raise over $70,000 on a GoFundMe to help them find solutions to the problems.”

As Stanford explained, the money raised by the campaign has been used on myriad aspects of the required processes, ranging from soundproofing, acoustic monitoring, limiting equipment, and even legal feels. "The great thing about all of these works is that it protects the venue long into the future," he says.

Fellow Sound Capture Joey Pringipas also joined in the video, walking viewers through the soundproofing process from the angles of carpentry, design, and manufacturing. Pringipas explains how much of what was needed for The Night Cat's soundproofing requirements related to removing air gaps between walls, adding in insulation to dampen the sound and frequencies, and sealing layers between the original tin roof of the venue.

“What we're doing is, we are building this box – kind of like a bulkhead – around the perimeter of the building, which then seals up all those, spaces and cavities and holes where sound is able to escape the building,” Padula added. “That seals all those holes, eliminates the problem.

“A lot of work, but really effective work.”

The Night Cat has remained open and operational since the launch of its soundproofing campaign, with gigs regularly taking place as the venue continues offering “cheap pints and late nights” as it always has.

“It feels really awesome to be able to contribute to keeping this place open and especially doing it with all my mates,” Padula concluded. “I think we're really looking forward to enjoy The Night Cat like we have for the last three decades, and hopefully that continues for another three decades – and that's fucking cool.”

The Night Cat will also be sharing an additional update video in the coming weeks which will show the results of their efforts.