Published: July 6, 2010 12:13 PM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight July 2010 Edition
DB and the Catastrophe
Music Now Artist/Band Spotlight Weekly Series Version II
DB and the Catastrophe Photo by Darren Mahuron
Version 1.0
We are loving this next band, DB and the Catastrophe, so much that we have two---count them---two versions for our readers to read spotlights that easily showcase the love, passion, and heart that each member puts into their music. In each of the spotlights, we asked several questions so that we could get to know more about this terrific band and what makes them tick. Here is what developed from our online conversation.
Isaac: Let’s get started with this interview. When and how did you first become interested in music? How long have you been playing music?
DB and the C: Well, we all liked music growing up when we were real young. We all started playing at different ages, as far back as 12 yrs ago, but all before high school.
Isaac: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences and why?
DB and the C: We always get this question and it's really a diverse answer cause of all of our personal influences. Our influences are: A.F.I., Against Me, Anti Flag, Alkaline Trio, Bad Religion, Bayside, Blink-182, A Day to Remember, Green Day, Less Than Jake, Lucky Boys Confusion, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, My Chemical Romance, NOFX, The Offspring, Operation Ivy, Pennywise, Reel Big Fish, Silverstein, Single File, Social Distortion, Sublime, and Sum 41.
Isaac: What has been the greatest highpoint in your career so far?
DB and the C: I would say we are in the mist of our greatest high point. We made the Top12 of 93.3 KTCL’s Hometown for the Holidays and the momentum from that has pushed us into a new level. We are releasing our new EP to the world tomorrow. Our fan base is growing so much and our websites activity is out of this world compared to that one or two hit a day when you start out as a musician.
Isaac: What has been the greatest disappointment in your career so far? What did you learn from that experience?
DB and the C: Pay to Plays… We were involved in those just for a short bit. The disappoint of it is not the money and energy lost put into those that you never see come back; it’s the fact that small promoters who put them for the “love” of music would screw that many artists. That would also be our shout out to the music industry, DON’T DO PAY TO PLAYS!!
Isaac: What draws you to want to play the type of music that you do?
DB and the C: The fast driving energetic feel of it. It has angst, yet it can be romantic. It’s not slow, whiny, or wrist slitting like some stuff out in the industry now. It is fun and gets any one to move.
Isaac: What do you feel it takes to play this type of music that you play?
DB and the C: A lot of energy! I guess not to write it, but definitely to perform it and the ability to reach mass people and not just reach a handful. You have to keep the drive of this genre though otherwise you’ll be washed away.
Isaac: What do you think you will create that will make your performances and who you are stand out in the music industry?
DB and the C: Well, right now we created our “Don’t Look Back” EP at the Blasting Room Studios with Jason Livermore and we feel this product alone puts above tons of bands. It’s a great EP its spans across sub-genres of Punk. Plus it sounds epic; when you listen to it you can close your eyes and see the live performance of it with tons of people dancing, slam dancing, and singing along. The other thing that stands us out is our live show. We bring incredible amounts of energy and try to connect to our audience. We pride ourselves on our musicianship live and with that the fact that we don’t just stand and play our instruments, we put on a show.
DB and the Catastrophe
Photo by Darren Mahuron
Isaac: If you had the opportunity to do one cover, what cover would you do and why? How would you put your own spin on this cover?
DB and the C: We have done a lot of covers for our live show. Right now one of our favorites is actually Don’t Stop Believing by: Journey. We put a almost Social Distortion/Rock-a-Billy feel to it.
Isaac: What does it take to be a good songwriter?
DB and the C: For our band, we think it s the chemistry. Everyone just enjoys playing together, whether it be blues riff over and over again, covering a song in the middle of band practice, or actually writing or playing one of our own songs. There is a connection that when someone plays a little lick or drum fill you just look up and smile. You don’t know why you are smiling, but you are. Also, our diverse influences lets us bring things that other members haven’t heard to the table and create a new twist on our genre that has been around for longer than any of our lives.
Isaac: How difficult is it to juggle music, family and work obligation, and life in general? Explain.
DB and the C: It can be such a pain. We are all college students which most also have a job. For us, it’s about setting up a schedule for practice. One day a week we get together and get to focus on nothing else but music. It’s almost like our mini vacation from real life; unfortunately it’s just for a couple hours, than back to reality. The real hard part is trying to find time for the business side. A: because no one wants to do that part and B: because it actually feels like work. In the end it’s worth it though cause the weekend comes and you set foot on that stage and there ‘s no feeling like looking out and seeing people enjoy and connect with your music that came out of your basement.
Isaac: What is your definition of being an Indie artist/band?
DB and the C: It is not a genre!! Haha… it’s a term for those band, like us that, do everything ourselves. Booking, Street Team stuff, graphic designs, funding our band, all of the work is own your own shoulders and it’s up to you to do something with your music or not. The bands that get pretty big in the industry that are and have been independent artist we have mad respect for because we are starting to get a lot of business work to do so we know what they have to do.
