Toronto’s catl. have been bashing out Mississippi blues-inspired rock ‘n’ roll for the better part of the last decade. The band’s line-up is Jamie on the Gretsch guitar and Sarah on the 2-piece drum kit. It’s the primitive groove that makes the audience folks dance and lose their collective Saturday-night minds. Many interstate trips down to America’s Deep South, and recording sessions in the haunted halls of Memphis and Detroit recording studios (Ardent/Ghetto Recorders) have provided the backdrop for their dual vocal harmonies, and pulsating rhythms that have filled dancefloors near and far. Get at it, girls, boys, and all you hepcats – this is Rock and Roll!
In this interview spotlight, I chat with members of catl. about their latest project, challenges, motivations and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are a 2-piece rock ‘n’ roll band from Toronto.We’re heavily influenced by Mississippi hill country blues and early rock and roll. We often get grouped in with other ‘Deep Blues’ bands such as Left Lane Cruiser, Daddy Long Legs and The Black Diamond Heavies.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I (Jamie – guitar, vocals) heard a Mississippi Fred McDowell record when I was younger and wanted to learn how to play a guitar like he did, so that it sounded like 2 or 3 guitars playing at once. No one can play like Fred McDowell, so it slowly morphed into its own thing and gradually turned into more of a rock and roll project with Sarah on the the 2-piece drum kit. We’re both really physical on stage and enjoy getting audiences up off their asses to shake around with us. Traveling around and bringing the party to North America and Europe has been a real source of inspiration for us. We have always admired acts that bring a lot of energy to their live shows like Ike and Tina Turner, The Cramps, and MC5. Our live show is important to us. At the end of the day, we’re entertainers and we want our audience to be a part of the experience.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
‘Bide my time until I die’ is our 5th record. It’s a continuation of our story as a band, but it’s really only the 2nd record where Sarah plays drums on the whole album, and sings more songs than she has on previous records. Sarah used to play the organ/keys/accordion – this marks the first time she only plays drums/percussion. We set out to record the songs with 3 different engineers and let them produce the sound that they wanted. Each engineer/producer never heard the other engineer’s mixes. We wanted to get a varied sound from studio to studio. We worked in Memphis at Sam Phillips with Adam Hill and then here in Toronto at Sonology with Jeff McMurrich and Revolution with Walter Sobczak. It was great to concentrate only on a few songs at a time rather than a whole albums worth of material. It focused us so we didn’t bogged down with completing an entire record in one go. It turned out to be a pretty slammin’ party record with a lot of rockers, which was probably a result of a lot of touring over the last few years.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Lots of challenges in the digital age, especially for a band that leans so heavily on the past and how things were originally recorded. There is a lot of noise out there in terms of bands competing for attention and space. Some bad, some good. Emails are quickly forgotten and people will often not go out and take a chance on a live act when they can (sort of) experience it in the comfort of their home. Live performance is the best way to survive these days which makes club space more scarce and less people willing to take a chance on you. We put a lot of effort into making our records by traveling to different cities to record and work within an analog studio and try and get the sound we want. With digital technology people can record on their laptops. Not saying this is better or worse it’s just not our thing and maybe we don’t get to record as freely or as timely as we would want.
What was the last song you listened to?
Jamie: the last song I listened to was Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, ‘Over You’. Sarah: astral plane by modern lovers
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
We put all our records out on vinyl and our U.S. label Romanus Records puts out flashy custom vinyl, so I gotta go with real deal records.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
We don’t really care about any of these formats, to be honest. obviously, the internet allows for our music to reach a larger audience, and Sarah uses links to our music when booking shows…. bandcamp is an easy enough format to use for mailouts… but other than that, we don’t really have an opinion. digital music sounds terrible. long live vinyl!
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
- Website: www.catltheband.com
- IG: www.instagram.com/catltheband
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/catltheband
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/catltheband
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/c_a_t_l
- SoundCloud: www.SoundCloud.com/catltheband
Anything else before we sign off?
Music will never die, musical performance will never go away. The industry doesn’t dictate how independent people should create, all it gives us is a playing field. Right now that playing field is a muddy and difficult mistress! Keep making music!
