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GET TO KNOW: CATALYSTS

Writer's picture: The Real DingThe Real Ding


After cranking out a bold and tantalising pair of anthems over the last year, Newport-based outfit CATALYSTS are back once again with their latest belter 'SYLVIA'.


Channelling a raw and passionate alt-rock direction from start to finish, 'SYLVIA' makes for a wonderfully vivid return from the group. Jam-packed with blistering pace, killer riffs, and truly euphoric atmosphere throughout, we can't wait to hear what these guys come out with next.


So with the new single available now, we sat down with the band's guitarist Elliot Blake to find out more about his background and what has inspired him most over the years.


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What was the first instrument you learned to play?


I started on guitar at around 13/14 years of age. It wasn’t something that came naturally to me, I remember endlessly trying to perfect the opening of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. I skived school a lot back then and spent most of my days trying to grasp chord changes to rhythm, it clicked eventually. Later in my college years I moved to bass as there was a severe lack of bass players. I enjoyed it more and was better at it. After playing bass in The Kennedy Soundtrack for a number of years I found I had improved on guitar and wanted to write and play from that perspective. I tend to both these days in different bands.


What was the first album you remember owning?


Appetite For Destruction! It was so bad ass, it’s what got me into loud rock guitar music. I must have been 9/10 when I was hanging at my mates (he was a few years older) whilst his mum was out drinking. We raided the booze cupboard and her record collection. I remember there being T-Rex, Queen, Extreme (porno graffitti)... Then there was G n’ R Lies and Appetite. The moment Welcome to the Jungle started was so intense then It’s So Easy basically told me to “Fuck Off’ in the middle section… I was hooked, mainly because it offended my parents. I remember my Dad counting all the “fucks” Axel spewed as I exposed them to it on our car journeys. Suffice to say I received a walkman that year.


Did you ever form a band when you were younger and if so, what did they sound like?


I did and it resembled the sound of a dog ….. shitting. I had a few mates that played all different stuff, the drummers parents used to own a shop and we would rehearse in the cellar and steal Mad Dog 20/20 and Thunderbirds… I remember us stumbling through Green Day, Offspring, Metallica and Nirvana covers off our box.


What is a song you wish you had written yourself?


What an impossible question!!!! I mean do you go War Pigs by Black Sabbath, Immigrant Song by Zep… Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles.... Who knows man… Let’s just say all of them… All the songs.


What has been the most thrilling moment about creating your own music?


I love to write with others and experiment with sound. So working with other enthusiastic musicians to bounce off is great, to play our music live and head into the studio to capture the magic.


And what about the most frustrating part?


Working 9 til 5.


Which artist would you most love to share a stage with?


We all love Bring Me The Horizon, but we would settle for Foo Fighters.


Where do you see yourself in five years time?


I don’t give a fuck where we are as long as we are still creating great music together!


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CATALYSTS' new single 'SYLVIA' is available to stream now. Check out the new video for it below.



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