written by Marko Jakob | 12.11.2021
Pix666: Hello Cat. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well? How are the other guys of We Are The Catalyst?
Cat: Hey! 🙂 I’m good, me and Kenny are busy managing familylife with three kids (and even some chickens and a cat) and at the same time planning for the release of our new album in November! 🙂 And regarding Covid, things a pretty good in Sweden I would say, on the 29th of September most of the Covid restrictions were lifted, which means we can go to concerts and restaurants the way we did before! So that is nice!
Pix666: Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences. How did you meet and what was your inspiration to become a musician? What kind of music does We Are The Catalyst make?
Cat: Well me and Kenny (guitarist/growler) met in 2007, as I joined a band he was part of back then! A few years later we met Håkan (drums) as we were looking for a drummer for another band we were in at that time (called One Without). And in 2012 when we decided to call it quits with One Without, We Are The Catalyst was born! 🙂 We Are The Catalyst was started by me and Kenny as a free zone where the base was rock/metal, but where we would not reduce ourselves to that, but let other genres be part of the music too! And I think that when you have that kind of approach you can really let your music be filled with emotions! And I would say that is what characterizes our music! It is full of darkness, but at the same time there is always light and hopefullness in both the lyrics and the music as a whole!
Regarding my personal way to becoming a musician, I have always been singing, for as long as I remember. So it was natural for me to long for the stage. At some point I felt like it wasn’t enough to just sing for myself. I wanted to “touch” the audience in the same way as I felt touchted by the great singers I looked up to!
Pix666: You’ve been on the road with We Are The Catalyst for about nine years now. What have been the best experiences and milestones so far?
Cat: In my opinion the best feeling is to come back to a stage/town for the second time and recognise the beautiful faces of the fans you met there the first time! It almost makes it feel like you are home! 🙂 But if I have to choose the most spectacular tour, I have to say touring China! Such a cultural experience! I don’t have time to write all about it now, but I have to say that for someone from Sweden it felt like coming to another world! 😉 The memories from China will always be with me! And also a funny thing was that we actually met some of the fans who saw us in China on our UK-tour that same year! Small world! 😉
Pix666: In November your new album ‘Perseverance’ will be released. What can fans expect and can the album already be pre-ordered, and if so, where? Are there any special versions of the album available, bundles or something like that?
Cat: Thats right! 🙂 Well I would say that ’Perserverance’ contains twelve pretty diverse songs that explore the darkness within us, personal development and change, and the feeling of coming out stronger on the other side. The title refers to that struggle, of never giving up even though life puts you in tough spots!
And yes, you can pre order the album! 🙂 We have some great deals with the “Perseverance” cd + t-shirt, and an ULTIMATE super-fan deal where you can buy a shirt, cd, beanie, patch and a badge pack for 62$ with free shipping world-wide!
People can check out all our merch at https://watcofficial.bandcamp.com
Pix666: You have released the new video clip ‘Drowning’ in September. In ‘Drowing’ a lot happens in and under water. Where did you shoot the clip and was it more exhausting or more fun for you to shoot the clip?
Cat: Haha, funny question! 😉 The thing is that I find video shooting to always be equal parts of fun and exhausting! 🙂 For “Drowning” we shot the water scenes in a lake near by mine and Kennys house. And the indoor scenes, where we are constantly sprayed with water, we shot in our barn. It was a really wet day, but we had fun! And are really happy with how the video looks! 🙂
Pix666: Your video clips and songs have quite a lot of views. Do you look at the numbers of streams, or the views on YouTube, or do you know, for example, in which countries the people who listen to your music live?
Cat: Well it’s hard to not look at the number of views/streams, but I try to not let the numbers colour my own opinion on our music and songs/videos. Sometimes the song that I like the most is not the one our listeners like the most, and sometimes you get surprised by how many streams a particular song has! You never know which one of your song that is gonna be the hit! 🙂
And to the question of where our listeners live, we really have listeners from all over the world, which is really cool!
Pix666: Where do you get the ideas for your songs, which topics do you mainly deal with?
Cat: We get the ideas for the lyrics from the things that are tough in life, the hard parts of being a human. We often write about the struggle of leaving bad habits and dark thoughts behind and instead try to put your focus on a brighter future and a better you. This particular focus on personal development seemes to be something that our listeners appriceate a lot, so that feels great for us as songwriters!
Pix666: How do you generally create your songs? Is there a certain plan? Who in the band is responsible for what?
Cat: Writing a WATC-song mostly goes like this! 😉 First Kenny does a song idea where he adds guitar, drums, bass, effects etc. Then I try some song melodies, and we work on the song from that . Some songs are done in like a day, while others are worked on for months! 🙂
Pix666: There is also a song with Swedish lyrics on the new album. Does that have a special background that is worth saying a few words about?
Cat: There are actually two songs with swedish lyrics on the album, Järtecken and Noll! 😉 Järtecken is a dark metal song with a folk/viking feeling! I really like that vibe! And the other song, Noll, is a rock/pop ballad, and is practically a break up song. Or a song about a couple that are in the state of “should we start over or should we just go separate ways?”. I like both songs a lot, and I really enjoy singing in my native language!
Pix666: Were you allowed to play concerts during the pandemic, or did everything have to be postponed? Do you already have plans for concerts in 2021, maybe around the time of the album release?
Cat: The shows we had planned in 2020 were postponed at first and then we just decided to cancel them. In 2021 we decided to play live online, due to the pandemic and not being able to tour, and that was an absolute hit! So glad we did that, our fans really enjoyed it! And right now it seems like many countries are going back to covid restictions, so we are thinking about doing online shows again instead of touring!
Pix666: Social media and music streaming are both a blessing and a curse for bands. From your point of view, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this development for your band. How much do We Are The Catalyst use social media and where are you represented?
Cat: We use most of the biggest social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Spotify etc. The big plus is that you can reach new fans from all over the world! The worst part is that there are soooo many other bands and people trying to reach out to the world with their thing! Makes it really “crowded”, and nowadays it is actually really hard to reach out to those that already are your fans, because of the algorithms. You really have to make your fans engage to the maximum for them to be able to still see your content. Sometimes that is very tiring, so we really appreciate when people comment, like, and share our content, as that makes it easier for us to reach out through all the buzz! 😉
Pix666: Do you have any other news about the band or some interesting personal things about you that you would like to share with the fans?
Cat: The next big thing for us is that we are releasing our new single “More” tomorrow (Fri 12th), from our upcoming album! We also release a music video with it! 🙂 So we really hope you will enjoy the single and then the new album “Perseverance” that will be released on November 26th!!
Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck with the new album and stay healthy!!!
Cat: Thank you so much! Take care!
https://www.wearethecatalystofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WATCofficial
photos © by Kenny Boufadene
