Feature Artist - January '98

Feature Artist - January '98 - CATHERINE WHEEL

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Feature Artist
CATHERINE WHEEL

David Merrill

Rob Dickinson

"Catherine Wheel" are Rob Dickinson on vocals and guitar, Brian Futter on guitars, Neil Sims on drums and Dave Hawes on bass. Dickinson and Futter played in small pub bands together long before “Catherine Wheel” formed. At the time, Dickinson was a drummer. Though their earlier bands met with little success, they felt they had some kinship musically so they began writing songs together.

Sometime before this, the two met Neil Sims while playing in a band called “Ten Angry Men.” When it came time to record their solo album, they invited Sims to take Dickinson’s place on drums, as he’d started playing the guitar. They decided to advertise for a bass player, Dave Hawes answered their ad, and “Catherine Wheel” was born.

They played their first gig in September of 1990. The venue’s promoter also owned the independent label, Wilde Club Records, and he asked them to cut a record for him. They produced two EP’s for Wilde Club before they were signed to Mercury Records in 1991. To date, they’ve recorded five albums for Mercury: “Ferment” (1991), “Chrome” (1993), “Happy Days” (1995), “Like Cats and Dogs” (1996), and “Adam and Eve” (1997).

The band takes their name from a torture device inspired by St. Catherine of Alexandria’s death in 307 A.D., and from a Fourth of July firework by the same name.

Interview with Catherine Wheel
December 9, 1997
By
David Merrill

I arrived at "Toad’s Place" in New Haven, CT at 7:30 - about three hours after my interview with "Catherine Wheel" was supposed to begin. It only took me a few minutes to find "Catherine Wheel’s" Tour Manager, Steve Bootland, because he’s right by the door. We go through the usual introductions quickly, and I explain why I’m late; a mix-up in phone numbers resulted in my hearing about the interview an hour after it would have ended. Steve tells me to wait at the door while he sees if we can still manage an interview. He’s back about five minutes later, saying that they’re still in the bus and willing to do the interview, which was great news. I was looking forward to this interview and didn't think it was going to happen!

I followed him to the tour bus parked just outside the front door of "Toad’s," and heard a radio station playing loudly on the stereo as I entered. Bootland introduced me to frontman, Rob Dickinson, and guitarist, Brian Futter, then quickly left the bus. Futter got up to turn the stereo off, but Dickinson says to leave it for a moment. They’re talking about instruments and he wants to hear it.

At least that gave me a chance to get my equipment together. I pulled out my tape recorder and a new tape, but the tape case doesn't open the way the last ones I bought did, and I can't get the tape out. The evening is becoming an exercise in "everything that can go wrong, will." Finally, I read the packaging and get the tape in the recorder as Futter shuts off the stereo and retakes his seat to my left.

The two seem like polar opposites. Dickinson is intense. He slouches back in his seat at an angle, yet still gives me the impression of being a bit on edge. Futter sits back, seemingly laid back and relaxed. Dickinson wears his dark hair close- cropped, while Futter’s hair is a mane of curly dark blonde. Futter seems open, but Dickinson appears a bit guarded, difficult to reach. I decided I better jump right in and start asking my questions.

AMZ: Is there a single planned from “Adam and Eve” to follow up “Delicious?”

Dickinson: Yes. It will probably be “Phantom of the American Mother.”

AMZ: What was the idea behind starting and ending the album with short, untitled songs?

Dickinson: They were used as containment, to emphasize the idea that the record was, in our eyes, a complete piece of work. Something which you would be encouraged to listen to from beginning to end. So that if you thought that the front was a beginning you would investigate what the end was like. They didn’t really follow any necessary narrative thread; you know, here’s the start of the story and here’s the end of the story, but they summed up the sense of beginning and finishing quite well, I think.

AMZ: I agree with you. I read somewhere that you didn’t think of "Happy Days" as a careerist album. Do you think of "Adam and Eve" as one?

Dickinson: A careerist one. What do you mean by that?

AMZ: I was going to ask you that. I pulled it from another interview with you. What do you think of as a careerist record?

Dickinson: My idea of a career record is something which is what the band will be known for in historical terms. If "Dark Side of the Moon" is a career record for "Pink Floyd," that’s the essence in which I’d describe that. I don’t think we thought that we’d come across that yet. I think "Adam and Eve" is the closest we’ve come to thinking that we’ve hit the nail on the head, come the closest to getting on tape what the bands potential is.

AMZ: Do you see it as kind of a turning point for you with the quieter pieces. . .?

Dickinson: We’ve done those since the word go, but I think we certainly reappraised our ability to play like that on this record. We had a compilation album out last year called “Like Cats and Dogs,” which forced us to re-evaluate the ability we have to play quietly, and the power that the band has when it isn’t necessarily playing at full volume on the guitar. I think that had a big influence on this record. We wanted to nail the bands colors to the wall, so the band would be. . . I think people have a confused idea of what our band is. There’s lots of tags attached to our band since we started, and we wanted to make it very obvious as to where our ambitions lay. We wanted to make a record that wasn’t ambiguous in any way, one which was very obvious as to the bands ability to set itself apart from other groups, which, after five albums, had to be paramount in our minds.

AMZ: It seems like that was successful to me.

Dickinson: Yeah, it’s an ambitious record. It took us a year to make. We had a lot of goals, of which I think we met most of them.

AMZ: How do you feel about the album now that you’ve been performing songs from it?

Dickinson: It lives up to our expectations of it. We don’t find it lacking, and this is where you would. You know, when you start road testing records, that’s when you start to see the emptiness, potentially, in what you’ve created. This is a very natural record to play live. We can play any song off it, which says volumes about how much in sympathy we are with it. This is the first time we could actually do that, after five albums.

AMZ: The two albums “Happy Days” and “Adam and Eve” both had some female vocals on them. Do you plan on doing that more in the future?

Dickinson: No, we don’t, and we didn’t really plan to use them on those records. The ideas pop into our heads as to what can make a song better when we’re recording. There’s no rules. We don’t have any rules as to what we can or can’t use. If an idea pops up we investigate it. With Tanya (Donelly on “Happy Days”) and Cecilia (on “Adam and Eve”), they were just things we thought would work very well.

Futter: I don’t think we’ll ever have yodeling on our records. (laughing)

AMZ: You express a lot of deep feelings in your songs. I’m thinking of songs like “Heal” and “Phantom of the American Mother.” Are any of these autobiographical?

Dickinson: Yeah. Most of them are. When I write the lyrics, they rarely tend to be fictional. Sometimes they’re enhanced factual songs, lets say. The facts of my life can’t be that interesting, so I do have to enhance them a little bit. They’re basically built on a foundation of personal . . .

Futter: Experience.

Dickinson: . . . Yes, experience.

AMZ: On “Happy Days” there’s a song called “God Inside My Head.” This album title, “Adam and Eve,” brings up some Biblical messages. Do you have a faith?

Dickinson: No, I don’t have a faith. But I’m open minded about things. It’s purely coincidental if there's any religious connections. There’s nothing thought out about that.

AMZ: So it’s used more like a metaphor than anything else. . .

Dickinson: Yes. “Adam and Eve” was used purely because it’s a fable, if that’s what it is, which people know very well. They know something about it. They know that it deals with temptation and what have you. We saw the record as a very human kind of personable record, which dealt with the gamut that you go through when you have a relationship with somebody of either sex. “Adam and Eve” seemed a very useful term to sum up some of those issues.

Futter: We could have a brand new market - Christian Rock. We could be like the new "Stryper." (laughing)

Dickinson: Yeah, the new "Stryper." (laughing)

AMZ: I don’t know how you feel about being compared to other bands, but one of the things I mentioned in my review of “Adam and Eve” was that “Broken Nose” reminded me a little bit of "U-2." I was wondering if you were playing with that a little bit with some of the guitar work.

Dickinson: Nope, certainly not.

Futter: I think if the guitar playing strays into the terms of "U-2" you’re not trying very hard. It’s a terrible cliche unless it’s the original himself - and so many people have tried that. It’s an easy way out to try to do that. I think you’re mistaken. (laughing)

AMZ: What I saw in it. . . there was one spot in the song where you’re saying, “You’ve been around too long.” There was a "U-2-esque" guitar in the background. I almost felt like you were saying. . .

Dickinson: Doing it very subtly. We viewed the guitar sound like a surf guitar sound, rather than anything that "U-2" had done. There’s a bit of echo on it probably, which may make people think it has some connection with "U-2," but it’s certainly totally unintended.

AMZ: So, I was totally off the mark. (laughing)

Dickinson: A little bit yeah, but the feel of the lyric you probably got. That’s heartening.

AMZ: Do you have anything that you’d like to add?

Dickinson: What we dislike the most about interviews is when people run out of questions and they ask us, “is there anything else you’d like to say?” Because it’s the biggest cop out there can be. Bands hate that.

AMZ: Because it kind of puts you on the spot?

Dickinson: Well, no, it doesn’t put you on the spot at all, because it implies that you view this as some kind of promotional opportunity, which, I guess, it obviously is. But the idea is that you’re being probed with intelligent questions about something creative that you’ve just done, and then are expected to go off on some free form kind of soliloquy that you don’t think you’ve covered in your answers to the questions is utterly unreasonable and unfair, I think.

AMZ: Yeah. . .

Dickinson: Well, anyway, that’s for the record. You can put that in there.

AMZ: Actually, that was good. I like that answer. I’ll keep it in mind on my next interview. (laughing)

Dickinson: Cool. Right on. I guarantee every fuckin’ band is going to hate it.

AMZ: Well, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. (the interview)

Dickinson began to prepare for the show at this point, and Futter offered me a beer, which sounded good, so I took him up on the offer. He reached into the cooler below the stereo and handed me a Heineken. I asked them how long they’ve been on tour, as I reached for an opener on the table, and Dickinson turned and said, “Now, that’s a good question!” He tells me they’ve been on tour about a week, about half way through a short two week tour, then makes his way to the front of the bus, leaving me with Futter. We talk a little while, then I realize I should probably go back into "Toad’s" to prepare for the opening act. He notices me eyeing my watch, and offers me a plastic cup if I need to leave. I pour the contents of my bottle into the plastic cup, pack up the rest of my gear, thank him again for the interview and the beer, and make my way out of the tour bus.

Live In Concert!
CATHERINE WHEEL
With Special Guest
Gandharvas
Toad's Place
New Haven, CT
12/19/97

Back inside "Toad’s Place" after my interview with “Catherine Wheel,” I’m waiting for their warm up band to begin playing. It’s about 8:30, and the place is dead. Typical for "Toad’s" this early on a week night. I expect it will be less crowded than usual, because Yale is in the middle of final exams this week. Probably only “Catherine Wheel’s” die hard fans will be here tonight. There’s a net that runs from floor to ceiling, separating the under-age crowd from the over 21's, and Christmas lights blink around the bar.

Finally, around 9:30, "Gandharvas," the warm up band comes on stage. Gandharvas is touring with "Catherine Wheel," so I'm expecting that they must be good.

Gandharvas

The band consists of vocalist, Paul Jayo; guitarists, Jud Ruhl and Brian Ward; bass player, Beau Cook; and drummer, Tim McDonald. They’re from Toronto and Southern Ontario. Jayo walks up to his mike and says they’ll be playing for about forty- five minutes. Their first song is “Gonna Be So Loose.” The song is pretty good, but they’ll need to do more to impress me.

“Only Love” is the next song. Jayo dances with the mike a lot, so he’s interesting to watch on stage. It’s obvious he’s enjoying himself up there.

He introduces their next song, “Here in a Shell,” saying it’s about a girl who likes to dance. There are maybe fifty people here now; no one is standing near the stage.

“Down Time” is a good song. There is some reverb on the guitar, and Cook supplies backing vocals, making it more interesting than the earlier songs. Most of the crowd so far looks like students, with the exception of an old man walking around with a flashlight. He’s wearing a red blazer with a crest emblazoned on the front and white pants. There’s a red knit cap puffed up on his head and an overcoat draped across his arm. As he walks around, he sometimes shuffles a bit to the music. He shines the flashlight on a couple ten feet from me and starts shuffling his feet. Then he shines the light on me and smiles as I rock out to the music. I feel as though I’ve walked into someone’s idea of a surrealist film.

As the band starts playing a new song, the old man walks up to the stage. He shines the flashlight on Jayo and the rest of the band. The song begins to change as Cook begins playing a bass solo. I watch as Jayo leaves the mike, walking back toward some amps. He comes back carrying a wooden chair with three large tin cans and a couple of mixing bowls duct taped together on the seat. Pulling out drum sticks he begins to play the makeshift instrument. The other band members join him, playing over the bass. There’s a lot of distortion on the guitar now, and the sound is incredible - very surreal. I can’t believe Jayo is creating what I’m hearing using the chair, pots, cans and a mike.

The guitar begins to sound more like a synthesizer; there’s echo on it. Jayo puts his instrument away and begins to sing again, but he’s not singing words; he’s just making noises. There is a real spacey quality to the song because there’s echo on his voice too. He moans into the microphone, as sometimes his voice rises above the music and leads, and other times drops down, meshing with the music and following the bass line.

The next song has more complex guitar lines. Cook, the bass player sings backing vocals. Then, they break into their last song, “Waiting for Something to Happen.” The song devolves into Jayo’s vocal noises, with a lot of distortion and echo on the guitar, and Mcdonald plays a drum solo. “Gandharvas” ends the show with a lot of distortion and feedback, which reverberates long after they’ve stopped playing. The combination of the last three songs is a great finale, more than making up for their less than stellar opening couple of songs.

At this point, there still aren’t very many people here, but I notice the crowd is just starting to grow. Ten people move toward the stage, to stake their claim to a position close to “Catherine Wheel” while they play. I can see there are more people behind the net keeping them from the stage. The "CW" logo hangs across the middle of the stage wall, flanked by two murals of nude bodies contorted into blocks, from the cover of the new album “Adam and Eve.” I watch roadies tape two oriental rugs, one oval, the other rectangular, to the stage with duct tape. They’re both primarily red, complementing the two murals.

The lights finally begin to dim, while the video screen rises to the ceiling as the videos are shut off. Smoke pours out of a smoke machine somewhere near the back of the stage. Feedback rises from the amplifiers, slowly getting louder.

Rob Dickinson walks up to his two microphones, one normal, the other for distortion. Brian Futter, Dave Hawes, Neil Sims and a keyboard player take their places on stage around him. With a jolt they begin playing "Broken Nose" from the new album. It's one of the louder, grittier songs from the album and sounds great live. It's also an intense song to open the show.

“Heal” is one of my favorite “Catherine Wheel” songs. It’s obviously a fan favorite too, as the crowd cheers louder over the opening guitar lines. I’m noticing again the contrast between Dickinson and Futter.

Futter moves around on stage quite a bit, accenting the music by throwing his head forward, his hair flying across his face. Sometimes he turns around, facing the amps. Dickinson mostly stands at the mike and plays. He’s just as into it as Futter, but in a different way. His facial expressions change liquidly over his face as he plays and sings. Sometimes he’ll look at his guitar as he plays if he isn’t singing. They move into a song called “Texture” that I’m not as familiar with.

Dickinson speaks into the mike, explaining that the next song is about stress in the Midwest. They slip into “Phantom of the American Mother” an eerie song. Dickinson’s voice is on target throughout all of the songs. His dedication to his music is obvious. I even see him wince when an accidental piece of feedback screams from one of the amps.

As the song ends, Dickinson walks away from his microphones, returning a moment later with a harmonica. “Future Boy” begins with a single guitar twang followed by a soft intro. It builds slowly and climaxes back into softness and voice. Dickinson plays the harmonica into the distortion mike. It sounds almost like screeching words played live. It’s an incredible effect that leaves me breathless. The intensity level builds incredibly through this passage. The song ends softly, Dickinson singing, “It feels good to me.” He lets his lips touch the mike gently in a kiss, allowing the mood of the piece to fade slowly.

Their next song is the single, “Delicious.” There’s a lot of cheering as they start the song; everyone knows this one. Dickinson is just as intense on stage as he is in person. He’s focused as he belts out the words to the song. I’m thinking back to when this was my favorite song on “Adam and Eve,” when I first got the album. My favorite song has changed frequently since then. It seems as though each time I listen to the album, I hear something new that attracts me to a different song. They’re all good.

“Here Comes the Fat Controller” rolls out slowly, just as it does on the album. The intro to the song builds, instruments coming in one by one. This song has particularly awesome guitar work! I can understand all the words, but prominent words ring out, “The cynicism’s boring. . ./ How do ya feel/ How do ya feel . . .” as though speaking to the closing lines of “Future Boy.” The song artfully melts into the next one, “Black Metallic,” one of their older songs.

Their next song starts out softly, then builds into a musical assault. At the end of the song, Dickinson looks into the crowd and says, “That’s it.” He and his bandmates leave the stage. A roadie comes from off stage and begins disassembling a mike from it’s stand. The crowd, though small, is very loud; they really want an encore. The stamping feet and synchronous clapping are joined by repeated yells, “Wheel! Wheel! Wheel!” It seems as though they're not coming back, but we all just keep on cheering. They’re really making us work for this. Finally, Dickinson comes back on stage, followed by Futter and the rest of "Catherine Wheel."

The first encore song opens with drum, some guitar and Dickinson’s voice, “There’s far too many ghosts/ Makes us rely on/ Three notes/ It could make you weep/ Sad notes. . .” It’s “Thunderbird” from “Adam and Eve.” Soon the softness is overtaken by screaming guitar work which melts into the softness of the chorus, “Thunderbird. . .,” Dickinson spreads his arms out, like some great wingspan, as he sings the word. He walks across the stage in the middle of the song, and a roadie hands him an acoustic guitar. This song sounds incredible live; he couldn’t have picked a better song to begin the encore.

An older song, “Half Life,” is next; followed immediately by “Way Down,” a single from “Happy Days.” It’s a loud and intense song, perfect to end the concert. Dickinson howls into the mike, “I’m on my way down/ I’m on my way down. . .,” as the guitars scream around him. The song ends, and the show ends with it. As the sound dissolves, and “Catherine Wheel” leaves the stage, I watch as the crowd disperses, satisfied.

Back to Contents