EMQ’s With CATHARIA
EMQ’s With CATHARIA
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with USA Melodic Black Metal band, Catharia. Huge thanks to them for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Matt: We are Catharia. Catharia was formed in 2018. Over the next four years we went through a number of lineup changes and focused on developing and crafting our sound. It wasn’t until 2022 that we released Midnight Sun. With myself on guitar and bass duties and Nick Kiefer on vocals. We recorded it at Jackson Ward’s home studio and released it in September of that year. Midnight Sun’s release attracted new member Dylan Thompson who plays bass and guitar. We also have Michael Edrington in the fold now on drums.
How did you come up with your band name?
Dylan: These days we say it’s from the Catharia genus of moth. It’s a very “metal” looking creature spelled the same way as our name. We recently commissioned an artist to come up with a moth graphic to use going forward. You can see its debut on the back of the CD for Unimaginable Dreams of Fate.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
Matt: We’re from Indiana USA. There’s always been a pretty strong metal and punk scene here. Bands like Demiricous and Gates of Slumber are both from Indianapolis.
Dylan: Indiana, USA. The scene is good in certain aspects but not in others. There’s a ton of great original bands here, even in our genre. Shoutout to Vile Iniquity who are from the same town as me.
From an opportunity standpoint however it’s not so great. There are sparse resources available such as studios, labels, or venues that actually specialize in Metal. Only a handful of venues will allow showcasing original Metal from smaller bands. Even on a Friday or Saturday night with a touring or known headliner and a good promoter it can be tough to get a good sized crowd sometimes. I once saw Saxon/UFO and they actually had to move the show to a drastically smaller venue due to sales. On a Saturday night. Maybe I’m romanticizing things, but I feel like that wouldn’t typically happen in Europe.
We do have a small but passionate community of metal listeners and creators though. Wouldn’t trade the people I’ve met and the connections made through metal here for anywhere else.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our new album, “Unimaginable Dreams of Fate”. The two singles are ‘Solemnly’ and ‘Devouring Firmament’. The latter has a lyric video that you can catch on our YouTube channel, 666mrdoom’s YouTube channel, and Spotify videos. The CD can be found on our label’s website or streamed/purchased for download on all major platforms.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Matt: Bathory, Slayer, Immortal, Falkenbach, Batushka, Depressive Silence, Asagraum, Randy Rhodes when he was with Ozzy. Just to name a few.
Dylan: It depends on where you draw the line between influence and inspiration, but also for which aspect.
Some groups inspire or influence me in a songwriting way, and others inspire me for a specific instrument. For example, I am a huge fan of Randy Meisner’s bass playing in the Eagles. I love Jeff Waters of Annihilator and Page Hamilton of Helmet for their approaches to guitar.
Nick: Vocally Dani Filth, I am constantly trying to hit his high pitched shrieks. Probably never will but it’s a fun challenge. I listen to a lot of Cattle Decapitation, AKHLYS, Summoning The Lich, and UADA, but I really try to do my own thing and make the best music I’m capable of.
Michael: John Bonham from Led Zeppelin, listening and watching him play mesmerized me. I wanted to do what he did. For Death Metal though gotta be Shannon Lucas from the Ritual album by The Black Dahlia Murder.
What first got you into music?
Dylan: For music in general, I first got into it very young, like 4 or 5 years old. I loved listening to my parents’ music like Aerosmith, the Eagles, Whitesnake, Jimmy Buffett, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, etc.
As for what got me into Metal specifically and also made me pick up an instrument for the first time, that was Iron Maiden. I got my first guitar shortly after really getting into them. Made sure it was a Strat after seeing them favor it.
I would also credit my grandfather Keith Thompson. His story with music is inspiring but I will keep it brief. He was in a life changing accident as a teenager. While in the hospital recovering, a friend gifted him a guitar. He went on to play (country) music for the rest of his life, over 70 more years. Notably he played on television regularly and had some Nashville connections. His love and dedication to the instrument was stronger than most ever will be. He played just to play, and gigged into his 80s.
Matt: Growing up my parents got me into classical music. I listened to a lot of Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. I still enjoy classical music to this day. Violin was my first instrument I played as a teenager. My brother listened to a lot of Classic and Alternative Rock and introduced me to it in the 90s. When I was 18 or 19 I bought my first guitar. A Carlo Robelli and wanted to learn how to play Nirvana songs. That eventually changed to wanting to learn Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer riffs by the time I was 21.
Nick: I grew up in a very supportive household, dad is a musician, I was in concert, jazz, show choir, and marching bands all through middle school and high school. So really it’s just always been something I’ve been interested in.
Michael: My dad tried to teach me guitar when I was 4 years old. Hated it! I thought it was boring and frustrating and couldn’t hold my attention. Then my dad found an old snare drum at a yard sale for 3 dollars. He had a copy of The Song Remains The Same concert on VHS. I played to it religiously with that old snare. I wore it out and my parents bought a CB brand drum set.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Dylan: Someone fairly in league with our style of Metal that could help us to reach more listeners.
Matt: Satyricon.
Nick: A shot in the dark, but I’d love to hear Travis Ryan on a BM track.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Dylan: I’m not too picky on this one. Really any European or European-style open air festival with camping, activities, contests, etc. would be phenomenal. The ones that feel like adult summer camp. Here in the USA we just lost Full Terror Assault Open Air. It went through its 9th and final year back in September. Sad to see it go, I always wanted to play a set there. I went there as a fan for five years. Shoutout to Shane Bottens of Waco Jesus and team for the great years.
Matt: Wacken open air festival in Germany. Or Tuska open air in Finland.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
That we appreciate the support we receive. It means the world to us and drives us to continue to create music.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Dylan: Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy fame. Great vocalist and bassist with interesting phrasing on both. Lyrically he was a poet. Musically Thin Lizzy’s sound changed and evolved so much over the years but always excelled at what they tried. At the end of Phil’s life Thin Lizzy had basically become a metal band. It would have been interesting to see where they went with another album.
Matt: Randy Rhoads. Dude was a genius and died far too young.
Michael: Trevor Strnad!! Rest in peace brother man!!
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Dylan: Presently I am a huge fan of songwriting itself. Typically I either finish the whole song in one day, or I make one good riff and come back to it weeks or months later with a new perspective to finish it. Always a great feeling seeing the songs come to life following their humble beginnings as typically just a few guitar riffs and a programmed drum session. I also love writing one on one with someone else. Nick and I wrote Devouring Firmament completely unplanned in the studio and that turned out great.
What do I hate? It’s tough to say exactly, but I wouldn’t use the word ‘hate’. I am always thankful for all elements of this experience.
However, I will say that trying to be in a serious original band with constant forward progress in mind comes with a plethora of tasks that resemble an office job more than being a musician. It’s not all writing songs and rocking out. There’s constant communication tasks with various entities, graphic design stuff to do, managing your online presence / website, budgeting, scheduling studio time with each person in the band (rarely are all present at once in our case), and so on. These examples barely scratch the surface of what you can expect to be doing besides playing music if you’re truly serious. .
Matt: I personally enjoy the songwriting process. Watching riffs develop into something complete. I’m not a huge fan of recording. Unimaginable dreams of fate was a lot of work in the studio well worth it in the end though. It’s very rewarding to finally hear the finished product.
Nick: The writing process and building songs is great. I wouldn’t say I hate anything about being a musician. The balance of work, band, and personal life is difficult to coordinate at times.
Michael: I enjoy everything about being a musician. It’s in my soul. I absolutely have to be a drummer. I don’t hate anything about it.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Dylan: Streaming services. They’re great for exposing your music to the widest audience possible, particularly if you’re on a curated playlist. It’s also very easy to have someone instantly look up your music when you want to introduce them to your sound. However, neither you or your record label really gets much from them monetarily.
Streaming services are reporting record profits at the moment, totaling billions. Their model basically survives on “exposure” as the value. Buy straight from labels and bands if you really want to support them. I wish somebody would make a close-to not-for-profit version of streaming services. Only take what is needed to pay the staff and keep the servers and such afloat. I guess Bandcamp is pretty close in that regard.
Matt: I definitely agree with Dylan on this one. Streaming services pay next to nothing to artists. I support bands I like by purchasing merch. Particularly Vinyl. I’m hoping in the future something will change so that bands can actually make a decent amount off of streaming their music. Much like what bandcamp is doing now, I’d love to see more streaming services take the same route by giving more to the artists.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Dylan: Even if I narrowed it by genre or even just by Metal, this is a very tough question. How about “Metal On Metal” by Anvil? Original Anvil guitarist Dave Allison passed away earlier this year and it sent me down a path of revisiting Anvil’s catalog and rewatching the new version of their acclaimed documentary.
That particular band has always been near to me. I met them back when I was 18 years old. It truly changed me. They were the first famous band I’d really met. Despite meeting dozens of bands since, they still hold a completely different energy around them in my mind. They truly inspired me with their words and it still gives me some fuel to continue now.
The title track, ‘Metal On Metal’, is the national anthem of Heavy Metal. Their album of the same name is, in my opinion, essential listening for anyone just starting out in Metal. I first heard this album within only a few years of discovering Metal at all, and that was a perfect time for it. It’s energetic and heavy but still accessible if you’re just coming from a rock background.
Matt: Although it’s quite different from Black Metal. Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” may very well be my favorite album ever made. All eight tracks are masterpieces. It was also the last album Cliff made with Metallica. Another legend gone way too soon.
Nick: Bell Witch’s “Mirror Reaper”, such a fantastic album to listen to.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Dylan: To me, the CD still has not been beaten. It almost always has higher sound quality/bit rate than mp3s and some streaming. For example, I listened to Spotify for the first time in my life within the past year or so. It was shocking how much lower the sound quality was compared to what I’m used to, if I’m being completely honest.
With these physical formats, you own your copy. No lost media in the future for you. I own a handful of great albums that have been digitally lost due to content ownership issues or censorship. A one-time physical album purchase gives more monetary support to the band than a lifetime of streaming that album would have.
Vinyl and Cassettes are neat. I collect them as well but they’re more of just that, collecting. They are consumable formats that wear out and need to be moderately temperature controlled. That said, I love seeing vinyl for sale in big chain stores and there are even some standalone music stores that only sell vinyl, no other formats. It’s a cool metamorphosis to be witnessing. I don’t think these older formats will truly die, they’ll just come back in waves and fade away in waves, then repeat. The new Alien movie is coming out on VHS as we speak.
Matt: It kinda depends on what you’re listening to. CD is the best format for a lot of modern bands with good production. As well as the convenience of being able to skip tracks. The sound quality is best on CD. I listen to a lot of obscure Black Metal and Dungeon Synth artists and vinyl or cassette is the only way to listen to stuff like that in my opinion. It’s gotta have a more lo-fi sound to it and not sound so polished. The artists that composed it wanted it to sound that way anyways most likely.
Nick: I really prefer vinyl, the entire process of listening to it in that setting is enjoyable, you open it up, get it on the table, sit down and read the lyrics or pamphlet as you listen to the album.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Dylan: In Catharia or in general? Catharia has only played a few shows but there have been some interesting/amusing memories and stories generated already. I’ve been writing them down in a log for later.
Personally my favorite gig was around New Years 2015. The band I was in at the time played our whole album plus some extras. You physically could not have fit more people in the place. It was like sardines in there. Any time you looked up from your instrument, their faces were right there. There were Christmas lights overhead and I had recently purchased my dream guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Studio in cherry satin that I still have. Huge upgrade over the copy I was playing before that. My friend Jon, who may have been the first person to ever show me Black Metal, was on drums. It is a fond memory of a perfect snapshot in time.
Matt: I played a ton of shows in past bands namely ASD which stands for AS SEASONS DIE which I was active in until 2015. One particular gig I remember in Cincinnati was off the hook. Crowd really got into the bands playing. The place reeked of spilled beer and pot lol. Once we started playing it seemed the whole venue just started moving. Massive mosh pit, it was wild! A number of shows at the Emerson as well here in Indy. My very first band played a Halloween show there and I bumped heads literally with my band’s other guitarist in the pit. Had a very nasty gash above my left eye and had still had to play the show. It later took 9 stitches at the hospital afterwards to get it sewn shut. That was a wild night. I think most of the people in attendance thought it was fake blood because it was a Halloween show. Major shoutout to Michael Hinojosa, my friend and bassist for going with me to the hospital afterwards.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Dylan: I would imagine one of my other hobbies would have expanded into the place of music. Maybe some things I’ve mostly given up on would still be present. I used to be a skateboarder but gave it up for playing music eventually. Still love watching skate videos.
Matt: Possibly something to do with gaming. I still love video games so maybe reviews on games I enjoy on YouTube. Or possibly a writer. Writing horror novels or short stories.
Nick: What I do currently, I work in Industrial Maintenance as a Millwright. Basically go all across the country installing and removing heavy machinery.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Dylan: This is a question I’ve had to think about longer than any others we’ve been asked during this album cycle haha. There’s a lot you couldn’t go wrong with. I’d want an interesting mixture. Let’s say Abbath, Jeff Waters, Steve Wozniak, Jim Varney, and Dr. Travis Taylor. That sounds like an interesting dinner party. We’ll talk about UFOs, Metal, comedy, and computers.
What’s next for the band?
Dylan: Writing songs for the third album and welcoming our drummer Michael into the process. Going to keep advancing in our sound. More technicality, bigger/darker, more auxiliary instrumentation on some tracks. Continuing to learn more about music and becoming better at our respective instruments of course.
Personally I’ve been focused on purchasing outboard rack gear + software for my home studio and doing some mixing lessons. Just trying to make the base recordings better and better going forward even if the final mix and master is done by an external engineer.
Matt: Songwriting has begun for album 3. Hoping to play more shows this year.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://Youtube.com/@cathariametal
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
Dylan: Hmm. I feel like this could be a trick question and the answer is none of the above. Is it a roll or a biscuit? I’m not going to look it up right now. I want to find out after this has been published.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
We really appreciate Ever Metal for this interview, our listeners, and anyone who has read this far into the interview. If you liked the music, please consider giving us a follow on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or visit our website / the label’s website. Thank you
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