A few questions - interview with death metal band from France - CATALYST.
Recenze/review - CATALYST - The Great Purpose of the Lords (2019):
Ave, can you introduce your band to our readers? – When was it founded and what style of music do you play, etc.?
Hello! We are Catalyst, a French technical death metal band that was born about 2 years ago, at the beginning of 2017. It was founded by me (Jules Kicka) because it’s a project that I wanted to create for a long time. It is now made of 4 musicians: Jefferson Brand (bass), Florian Iochem (guitar), Paul Loup (drums) and me (vocals/guitar).
We make technical death metal, with multiple influences, from Heavy to Black Metal, with a lot of Prog riffs and structures.
Where and under what conditions were you recording the new album? Who was in charge of sound, production and mastering?
All guitars, bass and orchestrations were recorded at my home studio, and the vocals, mix and master were made at the Vamacara Studio from Clisson. It was HK Krauss that was in charge of the sound! Everything was recorded between February and June 2018.
How many copies were released, and which medium was used for this new edition (CD, digital, vinyl, cassette)?
For the moment we have made a first production of 500 copies for our CD. This album is also available for free on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer... But you can buy it by sending us a private message or on our Bandcamp account. You can also get it on our label Website, or on Season of Mist.
We would love to make vinyl in the future, perhaps by the end of this year. However, we are not interested in making cassette, since our album won’t match with this format.
Who is the author of the lyrics and how were they created and about what do the lyrics deal with?
I wrote all the lyrics and all the fictional story of this album. The band itself is a concept that I’ve created, telling the journey of a character named the Catalyst, who was meant to become the new ruler of our universe.
To explain the story of this first album, it’s the story of a universe which has been created by 9 All-Seeing Entities, protecting this world from everything. But, among them, the Creator of the universe lost control upon its own creation. The equality between each guardian has been destroyed, breeding chaos and disorder in this once-peaceful core, spawning the darkest behavior among humans, whom scoured to reign upon every other creature. Powerless, the Guardians endlessly sought someone who would be able to help them recover their former might, and to restore the balance they conceived since the creation of time. That living soul shall be the Catalyst, who will bring the Guardians’ powers together and gift wisdom and knowledge to the universe.
Who created the logo of the band, and who took care of the graphics and the website?
The logo was initially created by Bael from Ars Goetia Design, and was modified by Vincent Fouquet from Above Chaos. Vincent was also in charge of every graphics of this first album (artwork, stage decoration, T-shirt design...). We are so proud of his work, he perfectly understood the whole concept behind catalyst, and knew what we needed for this record. We don’t have a proper website for the moment, but we will have our own website soon.
What about you and social networks? Do you consider these things important?
Regarding the social media, we think that they are really important, we try to be as much active on them as we can, however I must admit that I’m not comfortable with Twitter for example, I rarely use it and it’s not my favorite media. But we try to post on Facebook twice a week or even more, and to constantly give new things to our audience. Instagram is also important but it’s pretty new for us since we are on Instagram since February of this year, so we don’t completely master this social network for the moment.
We consider that these media are really important today because it can help a band to develop and spread its work. The more we use them, the better it will be for our future. A lot of fans discover our band through these media, if you want to build an audience, it’s necessary to use these media.
Which label did you choose for releasing your album and why this label? Are you satisfied by how your label represents you and takes care about you?
Catalyst has signed with Great Dane Records for this first album, which is a french label from France. We are perfectly satisfied of their work for the moment, it’s really cool to have the support and the help of people like them, it helps us to grow and to move forward. It really helps us to create a worldwide broadcast of this album.
Which bands do you idolize and where do you get your inspiration?
We can say that we idolize bands like Opeth, Dying Fetus, Nile, or Death, we think that our music can sometimes be pretty close to these bands, even though we don’t want to make the same things. Regarding my inspiration, I am mainly inspired by two bands when it comes to writing new songs: Machine Head and Iced Earth, which influenced me a lot during the writing of this album, from the riffing to the structures of the songs.
How many gigs have you played? Which type of gigs do you prefer, whether it's (clubs or festivals) and which of your performances would you consider as the best?
We have played around 15 shows for the moment, since we didn’t have much time for it last year. But we are about to play way more gigs in the future! We love to play in both clubs and festival, I don’t know which one is better.
I think that our best performance was on June 14th during the release party of our first album. It was the first time that we played this album entirely, and it was such a special moment for us to share the full album with the crowd that was here this night. It was really unique.
What about your plans for the future? What do you want to achieve with the band?
For the moment we will be promoting this album everywhere and every day, making a lot of gigs to spread this new CD, and we are already writing the new album, that shall be the second chapter of the story of the Catalyst.
We want to achieve a lot of things, to prove that our music is more than just classic death metal, but a whole story and unique universe that we try to develop.
How and where can your fans contact you? Can you provide some contact information?
Our fans can contact us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or on this mail address: catalystbandfr@gmail.com. We answer to every type of question, so if you want to tell us something, don’t be shy and send us a message!
Thanx for the interview.
Thanks a lot my friend!
Recenze/review - CATALYST - The Great Purpose of the Lords (2019):
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