Party: Catfish & The Bottlemen

Party: Catfish & The Bottlemen

Catfish And The Bottlemen are the hotly-tipped English kids hailing from Wales, who signed to Communion Records (Deap Valley, Michael Kiwanuka) in Spring of last year.

Their deal followed a (characteristically) frenetic period which saw them play in excess of 150 gigs during 18 months to hone their live set, which invariably sees frontman Van McCann climbing the walls and playing guitar as though his life depended on it, whilst fans crowd surf and sing every word.

An enviably super-charged start out of the blocks saw their debut single release for Communion, ‘Homesick’ emerge as Zane Lowe’s Next Hype pick on Radio 1, with Lowe’s support then developing to a Hottest Record in The World for summer’s follow up single ‘Rango’ (plus the #36 spot in Lowe’s Hottest Records of The Year), and an In New Music We Trust Playlist for their third release ‘Pacifier’ by the end of the year.
2013’s burgeoning sense of witnessing a new band fast on the rise resonated across Press, gathering pace in tandem with Catfish’s compulsive touring schedule and reputation for thrilling live performances. A sold out London headline show prompted the NME to cite Catfish as “like The Walkmen’s The Rat realised as a full band”, whilst a slot this year at the top of Club NME’s bill moved The Independent to note their ability to “look back to early 2000’s indie and embrace it- jolting it into a tight, passionate sound which is fast winning them fans”. Q Magazine assured readers that “anything but anonymity beckons” for Catfish, and elsewhere Press praise soon extended far beyond music titles, with Style tips for Catfish filtering in from the likes of Esquire and IDOL Magazine, with The Sun, Sunday Times Culture & Evening Standard laterally spearheading the support from national daily titles.
Highly-contested slots on this January’s Radio 1 Future Festival bill (alongside the likes of Sampha, Royal Blood and Sam Smith) and the Reading/Leeds Festival BBC Introducing Stage (with Thumpers and JAWS) last summer have taken Catfish far from their unremarkable beginnings, though frontman Van McCann’s own story begins far removed from the small-town ennui which originally drove Catfish to leave their hometown of Llandudo, North Wales. As the only child of free-minded Liverpudlian parents, Van spent most of his early years travelling around Australia by car, in between fleeting visits back to the UK; “My parents are the people who would just pack up their things at the drop of a hat, plonk me in the back of the car and take me with them.” A test tube baby (his mother having been injured in a car crash when she was young) who struggles to easily recall his birthplace - “Where was I born? Cheshire? Cheshire.”- McCann’s itinerant background is aptly reflected in the widespread and fiercely loyal UK fanbase that Catfish and The Bottlemen have acquired through tireless touring.
Once back at school in the less expansive environs of Llandudno, McCann came into the orbit of future bandmates Billy Bibby (guitar), Benji Blakeway (bass) and Bob Hall (drums). Billy proved an unlikely catalyst for the band’s formation, when, having previously taunted McCann- who he knew only as the best friend of his younger brother- he taught both Van and his close friend Benji how to play guitar. The rhythm section was later completed with the addition of Bob on drums, via a mutual producer acquaintance, despite Van having lived opposite Bob- blissfully oblivious- for many years.
McCann soon found himself expelled from school due to prolonged absences whilst writing, recording and touring with his older bandmates. Frequent journeys to play gigs round the greater Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield area soon garnered a firm following in the North West, and an overdue sense of belonging for the 4 English kids ‘from’ Wales. Although still based in Llandudno these days, the band’s ad hoc domestic arrangements reflect the sporadic nature of time spent there between constant touring- the 4 piece have a rehearsal space in a B&B run by a couple who became fans of the band, and invited them to live there rent-free as long as they continued to make music. The band now drift nomadically in and out of vacant rooms when back in town.
The inherent heaviness of the debut Catfish and The Bottlemen material marks them as something of an anomaly amongst the contemporaries they frequently share live bills with. Says McCann; “Someone told me ‘you need to have a wall of sound behind you’, and that really resonated with me. We used to be all about the hooks, but now it’s about crafting choruses that can pin you to a wall. I feel like everyone else is making daytime music, and we’re making night-time music”. That’s not to say it’s all muscle and no nuance, however- Catfish’s wall of sound is tempered with the emotional connection of McCann’s lyricism, informed as much by the latter day poetry of Arctic Monkeys and The Streets, as the albums by Elvis and namesake Van Morrison which he found in his father’s record collection. “I love the olds like that” says Van, “I want our sound to be cinematic, and their music just crushes your heart”.
Catfish And The Bottlemen are Van McCann (vocals & guitar), Billy Bibby (lead guitar), Benji Blakeway (bass) and Bob Hall (drums).
www.catfishandandthebottlemen.com //@thebottlemen // facebook.com/catfishandthebottlemen
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