Catfish and the Bottlemen to headline Webster Hall in support of “The Balcony”

by | Jun 13, 2015 | Coming Up, Culture, Music

Photo: Courtesy of Tom Oxley

Photo: Courtesy of Tom Oxley

Hardly an overnight success, Catfish and the Bottlemen formed in North Wales almost 10 years ago. After years of struggle – and playing covers – a record deal with Communion Records followed in 2013, followed by a larger deal with Island Records last year. After this, came acclaim and promotion from internationally-respected DJ Zane Lowe of Radio 1 and the BBC Introducing Award at the BBC Music Awards last December.

Here in the States, we are still catching up as Catfish and the Bottlemen’s June 2014 album “The Balcony” was only released here in January. In support of the album – which has yielded singles in “Cocoon,” “Hourglass” (which features Sir Ewan McGregor in its music video) and “Kathleen” – the band is currently in the midst of their first headlining U.S. tour.

The quartet will be appearing at Webster Hall on Tuesday, June 16th, and to help promote that, lead guitarist Johnny “Bondy” Bond answered some Q&A – not only a great guitar player but also a witty fellow.

What do you wish more people knew about Catfish and the Bottlemen?

Johnny “Bondy” Bond: The full band name.

For someone who has not seen you live before, what should they be expecting to experience at your Webster Hall show?

J: A difficult evening, light refreshments, a meat raffle and explosive drums from Bob “Big Rig” Hall.

Being your first U.S. headline tour, do you have any goals?  Is there anything you’re expecting to accomplish by the end of this run of dates?

J: Just to have a lot of fun doing what we love, the venues out here are starting to gradually get bigger and we are getting closer to putting on the show we are able to in the U.K. and that’s exciting in itself.

Generally speaking, are there any major differences between playing to a U.K. crowd and playing to a U.S. crowd?

J: Not as such, the U.K. is further ahead in terms of the size of the venues, but the crowds both lose it in their own certain ways. We are truly overwhelmed by people’s passion and support for the band in both the U.K. & the U.S. There’s a certain positivity about people here in America, though, and it’s one that makes you feel like people really want you to succeed and see you do well. We’ve felt very welcomed over here. Our U.K. crowds are overwhelmingly brilliant also, whether it’s purely the noise of the crowd or people risking being arrested just to set a flare off in the middle of the crowd, it’s all really exciting for us. The band is so orientated around the live show and it’s what we really enjoy doing.

What is the best part about being a musician for a living?

J: We’ve all done our upmost our entire lives to ensure that music is all we do for a living and that has meant making some drastic sacrifices along the way. So the best part about it is having succeeded in simply making music for a living. It’s a truly great feeling and we would probably all be horrific at doing anything else.

What do you think you would be doing with your life if you weren’t a musician?

J: I would be syphoning celebrities bath water in Beverly Hills and bottling it. I highly recommend the ’98 Gwyneth Paltrow.

Rumor is that you guys have another albums already written. What are your upcoming plans for recording?

J: We are squeezing in recording time in Los Angeles amid flying to and from the U.K. for festivals this summer. The album has been written for some time now and we couldn’t be more excited about it. We’ve really taken to being out in the U.S., so it’s going to be nice spending a decent length of time out here in one place during the recording process.

Finally, any last words for the kids?

Eat your teeth, sleep your milk, brush your school, get 8 hours of vegetables.

-by Darren Paltrowitz

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