Gatti Mézzi were born in Pisa in 2005 from an idea by Tommaso Novi and Francesco Bottai. Their type of music is a mix of jazz, swing and folk music and draws inspiration from the styles of Giorgio Gaber, Paolo Conte and Fred Buscaglione. Their songs talk about Pisa, its history and its inhabitants with tones that range from irreverent to nostalgic. Their name means “wet cats” and comes from the Pisan saying “roba da gatti mézzi” (“closed e and deaf z, as in “tazza”) which indicates a rough and horrifying situation. But what it wants to symbolize is the image of two wet cats in a dark and dirty alley of Pisa, recalling the humble city of a time that is getting lost in modernity. Their songs are written in the Pisan vernacular, increasingly influenced by the proximity to other linguistic cultures: typical features of Livorno, Florence, but also Lucca. In 2006, the group released their first self-produced album, Anco alle puce ni viene la tosse. Between 2006 and 2007, they performed mainly in Tuscany. During this period, they met Matteo Consani and Matteo Anelli, who joined the group. From this new line-up, the group’s second album, Amori e fortori, was born, also self-produced. They began a collaboration with the singer-songwriter from Livorno, Bobo Rondelli. In 2007, they won the Omaggio a Stefano Ronzani award (in the Ciampi Award) for the songs Tragedia dell’estate and La zuppa e ‘r cacciucco. In 2008, they participated in the MArteLive competition in Rome, finishing in third place.