We Are The Catalyst have been going for a while and created an impressive array of music videos to go with their nicely heavy, female fronted brand of music. You can check out the latest one, released last week, after the interview. Kenny Boufadene (guitar and co-vocals) provided us with some more information about the band…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Varberg and Gothenburg in Sweden.
How did you meet?
All of us used to play together in a band called One Without that we had some success with, and after we disbanded that band we decided to start up We Are The Catalyst to try something different and fresh.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Since November 2012.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Catalyst: a person or thing that precipitates an event or change.
The name “We Are The Catalyst” is meant as encouragement to overcome and challenge the darker parts of ourselves and others, to invite the listeners to keep fighting in a rough and dark world, and try to encourage them to be their best self, even when it might seem hopeless.
What are your influences?
A wide range of artists and bands in different genres I’d say, but the most obvious ones I believe are Bring Me The Horizon, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Linkin Park, Paramore and Evanescence.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
The way we combine all the different styles we play seamlessly, not making it sound like several different genres clashing together as so many bands do these days, where at one moment in – say the verse – it’s metal, and then it’s pop or rock in the chorus.
We actually very recently asked our fans how they would describe our music, and a lot of the answers we got was that we were “totally unique” or that we did pop, metal, rock and electro in an atmospheric blend.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Often we sing about personal growth, failures, the darkness that hides in most of us, depression and at times we bring up a social issue or two. But we tend to try and write our lyrics so that the listener can interpret it themselves, as we think it’s more interesting that way.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We’ve done around 20 shows to date with We Are The Catalyst, playing in China, Sweden and The UK so far. We try to keep our shows energetic as that is how our music feels, as well as using musical intermissions to build tension. We try to be inviting to the audience as no one is interested in seeing a band that just stands around playing with no contact.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Not so much wild really, but at several shows we’ve had to fight off drunk guys, while playing, from getting on stage as they want to grab Cat.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
I myself am an Ibanez guy, right now playing the 8 string tuned in EAEADGHE, and can’t see myself ever going down to 7 or 6 string again as it’s just so versatile, but I’m not one of those guys who just plays on the 8th string, instead I use it mostly as flavouring. Most of our songs could easily be played on a 6 string if you’d tune it to A.
What are your plans for the rest of 2017?
We are looking at touring as support in EU for a bigger band at the moment, and are also looking at doing our own shows later on. Other than that, me and Cat are constantly working on new songs in our studio, and are aiming to have an album ready to record in the beginning of 2018.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
I’d say Evanescence would be a pretty damn good fit for us, and maybe have Forever Still open.
Courtesy of previous Band of the Day artist Hey Charlie: What is your dream venue to play?
Being realistic I’d say Wembley. But the real dream would be the first band playing on Mars. And hopefully for an audience too!
We Are The Catalyst: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
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