The Catheters
\ninterview by Thomas Cooper <\/b><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.modernfix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/TheCatheters.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
\nMaybe you haven\u2019t heard any of The Catheters albums but most likely the name has made it\u2019s away across a conversation of yours. That is because The Catheters have toured with a few of modern rocks greats. One of the largest (and possibly most influential on The Catheters) is Mudhoney, not to mention others like Motorhead, and a one-week tour ending tonight with A Division of Laura Lee from Sweden.<\/p>\n
I received a copy of The Catheters new album \u201cHowling\u2026it grows, and grows!\u201d within a week and quickly checked it out. These are not the same Catheters that I heard on their first record. Keep in mind that The Catheters also have another album on Sub Pop, and several other releases on various other labels. The band has learned a lot, changed several members, drank a shit load of whiskey (some with me) and rocked a lot of stages. Their latest release is more diverse than the root albums, it\u2019s easy to tell there\u2019s been some experimentation in the studio. Other instruments have been brought in to the mix as well as various effects and layers. All mixed in with the same burning energy that made the previous releases so successful.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that The Catheters are not the same, but after adding experience after experience, how do you just walk out of it without having a new viewpoint? Bands are like wine, they change with time. Some bottles get exposed to too much air and become very sour while some age perfectly and come out ten times better than when the bottle was filled. I don\u2019t know if the new record is 10 times better than the first but then again the aging process isn\u2019t quite over, they may get there.<\/p>\n
I drove my ass to the Troubadour in LA one sunny, fair-weather Thursday afternoon to talk to The Catheters before their final show of the one-week tour with A Division Of Laura Lee. The album has not yet been released to the public and the band is not quite sure what the public reaction will be. I can tell you what; I heard quite a few of the new songs played live, and they kick ass. As always the music is intense and energetic, but there are new hooks, and different ideas. All members of The Catheters were good peeps. From sharing my whiskey, to taunting girls that walked by the tour van, to helping correct my name that was misspelled on the list preventing me from entering the show. I had a cool time talking to The Catheters, and a blast watching them tear up the stage with rock possessed souls. This is where The Catheters are right now.<\/p>\n
So where do The Catheters call home right now?<\/strong> That\u2019s where it all started? Where everyone is from and what not?<\/strong> How are you guys feeling right now? Pumped?<\/strong> Where did The Catheters play last night?<\/strong> Was there a good crowd?<\/strong> The new album is a lot different than say the first album, what\u2019s taken the music to where it is now?<\/strong> I know you guys went on tour with Mudhoney, did that influence you guys at all?<\/strong> I have a multiple-choice question. Does being on Sub Pop: <\/strong> Davey: (Sarcastically) It makes me feel grungy, like I want to sing \u201cEven Flow\u201d It seems like Sub Pop has opened their doors to a wider range of music lately.<\/strong> How has the tour been so far? Anything cool happen yet?<\/strong> I noticed that you guys have been touring pretty sporadically.<\/strong> The album hasn\u2019t come yet?<\/strong> So you haven\u2019t had much feedback from the new album yet. How do you guys feel about everything now that the album is about to be released?<\/strong> How long were you in the studio working on \u201cHowling\u2026It grows, and grows!\u201d<\/strong> How was it taking more time in the studio? Was it something that you asked for?<\/strong> It seems like you brought in more to this recording, more layers, different style instrument tracks, there\u2019s more depth.<\/strong> What do you think of modern day pop music, and culture? When you see MTV what do you think?<\/strong> Where is the best place to find new music?<\/strong> Who are you guys feeling musically right now?<\/strong> On a political note there are some major issues going on in the world today, what do you guys think of what\u2019s happening?<\/strong> So you guys are going to vote?<\/strong> What\u2019s your guy\u2019s opinion on George W?<\/strong> So it\u2019s either Bush or Kerry, what do you think of Kerry?<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Catheters interview by Thomas Cooper Maybe you haven\u2019t heard any of The Catheters albums but most likely the name has made it\u2019s away across a conversation of yours. That is because The Catheters have toured with a few of modern rocks greats. One of the largest (and possibly most influential on The Catheters) is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[7255],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernfix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBrian: Seattle.<\/p>\n
\nEveryone: Yup.<\/p>\n
\nLeo: Tired, I need some coffee.<\/p>\n
\nDerek: In Anaheim, um, Chain Reaction.<\/p>\n
\nBrian: Not really.<\/p>\n
\nBrian: We take it a lot more seriously than we did when we first started out. A couple people quit after the first one, and as we\u2019ve been working on stuff, people\u2019s differences and tastes came to a head. When Leo came aboard, we had similar goals in mind. Besides, after the first album we hadn\u2019t been touring before. When the first album came out we were just finishing high school. Once we started to tour it made us better players and we started taking it more seriously.<\/p>\n
\nDerek: That was really cool because we had gone to see them when we were in middle school. It\u2019s always really cool to play with bands that you look up to.
\nLeo: One time I called Steve Turner and left a message for him to call me back. Anyways, two days later I was walking around this street fair in Seattle with some friends of mine. The phone rang and it was Steve Turner we talked for 10 minutes, and then my friends asked who it was. When I said it was Steve Turner they were like \u201cHoly Shit!\u201d
\n(Everyone gets a good laugh)<\/p>\n
\nA. Help with the Ladies?
\nB. Help with the cover art?
\nC. Make you feel grungy?
\nD. All the above.
\n(Almost instantly everyone says \u201cnone!\u201d I insist that they have to answer with one of them.)<\/p>\n
\nBrian: It does suck to get token comparisons to all the grunge bands because were from Seattle and we\u2019re on Sub Pop. It really doesn\u2019t mean anything.<\/p>\n
\nDerek: Yeah, they\u2019ve got Beachwood Sparks, The Shins, The Postal Service, and stuff that\u2019s nowhere near grunge.<\/p>\n
\n(Everyone looks around and starts to laugh)
\nBrian: Did the \u201cgive us your tits\u201d sign work?
\nDavey: No! It might as well say \u201cGive us a stern look\u201d That worked for me once in Utah. All the hard up Mormon girls, they\u2019re like \u201cJust give us coffee and we\u2019ll trade.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nLeo: We\u2019ve done like three West Coasts since we finished up the album, and that\u2019s like our warm up. We are trying to get our live show together for when the record comes out, then I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll do at least a couple US tours and then we\u2019ll get over to Europe.<\/p>\n
\nBrian: No, in a week. We\u2019ll be doing the bulk of the touring then. We\u2019ve just been getting ready for it.<\/p>\n
\nBrian: It\u2019s pretty exciting. It\u2019s been a long time in the making, it\u2019ll be nice to have it out and see what people think of it.<\/p>\n
\nLeo: This album took about a week and a half.<\/p>\n
\nBrian: We had a bigger budget, so we wanted to take our time. It would have been nice to have even more time. We could use as much time as money allows.<\/p>\n
\nBrian: We tried to put more thought into this record that older ones.
\nLeo: Like Brian said, when we started the album it was all pretty rough. We had just finished a lot of the songs and we didn\u2019t really have a feel for
\nthem, we needed to record them because otherwise we wouldn\u2019t be able to. And it had been two years since we recorded. We recorded in December and it took three months of straight practicing just to get everything tight. When we released the other albums, I had only been in the band for 8 months, maybe a little longer. I\u2019ve been in the band for a long time now so I know everyone a lot better. I know how they play. I think that having that time to bond as friends and as musicians gave us a better feel for everyone\u2019s taste in music and motivation.<\/p>\n
\nDavey: I think, \u201cIsn\u2019t this supposed to be a music channel?\u201d There\u2019s a bunch of shitty shows, but it would be cool to get the van on \u201cPimp My Ride\u201d but all the music stations are boring. Like MTV2 isn\u2019t quite what it was intended to be. Now it\u2019s just for MTV reruns. If people want to find new music, I just don\u2019t think that MTV is the place to find it.<\/p>\n
\nDerek: Just going to record stores, talking to people, reading zines. The bands that I usually hear about are from friends. Go to the record store
\nand take a chance on something.
\nDavey: Find out what bands influenced the bands that you like. Do your research. Who influenced who.<\/p>\n
\nDerek: I like Comets On Fire. They\u2019re really cool. The play fucked up rock music and use an Echoplex to make crazy sound effects. Their album will be coming out on SubPop.
\nDavey: (Laughing) There\u2019s someone I just can\u2019t think of who it is! We listen to a lot of old punk, 60\u2019s psychedelic stuff and anything with a beat.<\/p>\n
\nDavey: Were not active in everything, but even though we\u2019re a small band, it would be good if we started. We shouldn\u2019t be ignorant. We should pay attention to what\u2019s going on because it\u2019s some fucked up shit. At least everyone should get registered to vote, for the right person.<\/p>\n
\nDavey: Yeah, I\u2019m already registered.<\/p>\n
\nDavey: Same as everyone.
\nDerek: I think he may go down in history as one of the US\u2019s worst presidents.
\nDavey: He\u2019s a chode ass douche bag.
\nDerek: He got us involved in a war we didn\u2019t need to be a part of that has been taking more and more casualties,and really hasn\u2019t made a difference in the scheme of things.<\/p>\n
\nDerek: There\u2019s going to be a lot of platforms. The parties aren\u2019t going to be that different between the two. But what Bush has done in the last four
\nyears is completely unacceptable. Debt has gone through the roof, and the whole war on terror seems to have everyone on edge.
\nDavey: He puts sanctions on countries, and had all his shwag; you know t-shirts, and stickers, made by the countries that he put sanctions on.
\nDerek: I\u2019d rather see our presidents getting blowjobs by interns than starting fights across the country. That doesn\u2019t need to happen.<\/p>\n