Forked Tongues: Catalysis – Innova EP launch (interview)
The new EP, Innova, from rising Dundee metallers, Catalysis, is almost upon us!
This is the first new music from the Tayside troops since before “you know what” brought everything to a grinding halt. Catalysis, however, did play the first metal show in Scotland after lockdown was eased. (Note: not ended. This was still a seated, distanced event). With that drive in mind, it’s no surprise that they have set about a recorded release as soon as they reasonably could. We caught up with guitarist and founding member, Drew Cochrane, to find out all about Innova and more.
Drew Cochrane: “On Connection Lost, because of the fact it was a full length, we had a lot more room to experiment with different styles. That experimentation really helped us find what worked and what didn’t. We then used that information to write Relicta, which was, by and large a product of lockdown, since we weren’t able to gig and promote Connection Lost.
Innova is a bit different because once more, we’ve explored some of our influences a little more – but this time still keeping a more firm focus on that core Catalysis sound. Whilst Connection Lost was really diverse, Relicta was a lot more focussed. Innova is the best of both worlds – it’s focussed without being a straight up re-tread of what we’ve done before. Also, as we’ve continued to write as a 5 piece, Col’s vocals have really been pushed and that’s elevated the sound. He’s gone from strength to strength and it’s really pushing the songs in a really positive direction for us.”
The period between these two releases was, of course, overshadowed by lockdown and covid 19. How did they manage the writing process under such conditions?
DC: “Relicta was written during the first batch of lockdowns, and was written almost entirely online
We’ve always been a band who’ve demoed stuff and brought it into the room as more or less complete songs so it didn’t present that much of a challenge for us. Sean or myself will write the bulk of a song, send it to Calum who’ll have some initial ideas for drums and program those, then we’ll finesse this until we’re at a point where we’re happy, everyone will learn it and we’ll take it into the room.
For Relicta, we basically didn’t have the chance to jam the songs before recording them, as due to various restrictions we couldn’t meet up (though if we’d known it could have just been a work event or a wine and cheese party maybe we’d have done things differently!) The writing process was a bit different for Innova because we were actually able to get in the room together and work on the songs, though we still followed the same basic idea of Sean, Calum and I finessing the material before taking it to the band. I will say that this time around, we were still tweaking things right up until a few days before the final drum recording – the big breakdown at the end of Shadow Parasite was only written a few days before, as were a few other parts.
Catalysis – Innova (EP)
It’s almost time for Dundee metallers, Catalysis, to open up their new EP, Innova, to the world. And it’s a bit chunky!
Rolling in at 25 or so minutes in length, I initially thought this was an album. I’m blaming the fact that their (now somewhat trademark) stomp, fills the release out to the edges. Where a few corners may have been slightly clunky before, they are now smoothly polished; The whole feels more, well, “whole”. Having been a follower of this band from day one, I sense every creak in the woodwork when they put out new material. On Innova, it feels like they have stepped over a breach, gaining a noticeable upgrade in songwriting and dynamics.
Existing fans won’t mistake the familiar growl, and Machine Head-esque chug. This is 100% still Catalysis. However, they seem to have come more to grips with their own potential, and I think this EP will turn a few heads, who thought they already knew the band. Heavier, more adventurous, & more fluid than ever before, this is a huge win!
Grade: A
Slow Dragon
It seems like they’ve pulled together a really strong team in the current line-up. But how is that realised. How does each member’s role break down?
DC: “I do the day to day – I book the shows, order the merch, deal with the mixing process, book the video shoots etc. I also contribute a fair amount to the songwriting process.
Sean is probably the main songwriter these days. Early in the band, I wrote a bit more than I do now, but Sean is just so prolific and we’ve got a good flow going these days with him coming up with ideas and us implementing changes together to make something really special. Col does a lot of our graphics stuff – he handles posters, quite a few of our tshirt designs etc, and of course writes all the lyrics and vocal parts. Calum is integral to the songwriting process too – he obviously writes all the drums and is my right hand man in terms of quality checking everything we do etc. Pabs is the new guy, so he’s still very much working out where he fits in – but he’s contributed riffs to Innova, and he’s giving me a hand with booking the shows, doing social media stuff etc.”
Talking of live shows, Catalysis recently took the title of winners at this years Metal 2 The Masses: Scotland. However, it wasn’t even a sure thing that they were going to step into that particular ring.
DC: At first, we were reluctant to enter – we’d entered a few times before and having reached a final in 2019, felt a bit disheartened.
After speaking about it though, we decided it was ultimately an opportunity worth pursuing as, if nothing else, it meant that we’d be guaranteed at least one show from it – and given the hassle of booking in a post covid world where venues are booked up with years of rescheduled shows etc, it seemed like a no brainer, given our blank calendar.
We passed the first round and moved onto the Dundee semi, which we approached like any other show – go and play the best you can, put in 100% on stage and take it for what it is. It was only really when we got through to the final that we started to think more seriously about the potential opportunity at hand.
Due to various members of the band catching COVID in the run up to the final, we probably didn’t rehearse as much as we wanted to.
Going in, we were confident in our abilities but ultimately knew we were up against some great bands – especially Certain Death. We repeatedly joked that if we were going to lose to anyone, we wanted it to be to them, because they’re so damn good, and we’re also friends with those guys, so it’s good to see friends do well.
At the end of the night, when Simon announced the results, and he announced there were 2 bands going through, and that they’d be playing the Jaeger stage, we were over the moon for them, but the 10 seconds before he announced that we were the overall winners, and were playing New Blood, was the longest 10 seconds ever!
We’re obviously over the moon to be playing Bloodstock, and can’t wait to network, and use it to build as much momentum as we possibly can. Now we just need to hope we don’t clash with anybody we really want to see!”
Continuing on the live front, the Innova launch show is fast closing in. Can the audience expect something new/unusual/special? Have they done anything different in preparation?
DC: “So for the launch show, we’ve partnered up with Distorted, which is Dundee’s longest running rock/metal night.
It used to run in the students union, and wasn’t around for a little while, but has now found a new home at Church, which also happens to be Dundee’s premier venue for local bands. Since Distorted is a mixed night of rock, punk and metal, we thought it’d be cool to match the vibe of that with a mixed bill show, too.
So on the bill, we’ve got Truth Ruiner, who’re a proper Hardcore band, A Life Without You, who’re a pop-punk band, Jungle Cats who are a poppy rock band with phenomenal musicianship and Solar Sons, who are Dundee’s answer to Rush meets Iron Maiden – proggy, melodic goodness.
We decided to keep the tickets super reasonable, because obviously times are brutal just now with cost of living, so the full night with 5 bands and a DJ till 2.30 is just £7, or you can pick up a ticket and our new EP for £10! In terms of our actual set, there’s nothing special in that it’ll be a straight up riff fest as always, but we’ll be playing the new EP in full, plus a selection of other songs from our ever growing back catalogue (it’s getting really hard to pick sets these days!).
They do have a lot of work behind them. And it sounds like more doors are starting to open because of that. This could easily go to some people’s heads, but in closing, Drew has simply this to say:
DC: “Just a quick thank you to all of the people who continually support the band – it’s unreal seeing the same names roll in for pre-orders again and again and it’s very much appreciated. The same thing goes to all the promoters we’ve been working with, and the other bands we get to play with. If the last couple of years has taught us anything, as a band and as individuals, it’s to not take things for granted…“
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Forked Tongues: Catalysis – Innova EP launch (interview)
