INTERVIEW: Catfish & The Bottlemen

UK BAND FINDS GROOVE IN U.S.

Bathed in the sweat and energy that is inherent in their live show, Catfish & The Bottlemen has risen as the cream of the crop of a live touring act. Catfish & The Bottlemen stop at the Ogden Theater on Monday December 5th towards the beginning of a string of shows that marks the beginning of a headlining U.S. tour to support the release of their sophomore effort, The Ride.

The rise of Catfish & The Bottlemen has been potent and earned. How can a

CATFISH + THE BOTTLEMEN by Jill Furmanovsky April 2016

british band’s journey go from playing packed clubs to conquering the stage before 10,000 screaming fans? The Sentry caught up with Van (singer) and Bondy (guitarist) briefly after soundcheck to chat about 2016, the gigging lifestyle and what favorite americanized food fuels this band’s conquest to bring their authentic live music experience to life.

Sentry: With releasing an album and massives shows, you’ve had a huge year! What’s been the best part of 2016?

Catfish & The Bottlemen: It’s kind of a dream. We knew that we could tour in the UK. But the feeling of being able to come to the states and build up a fanbase in a place that we’re not even from–that’s incredible. The second album for us was huge. We also got to play Governors Ball again, and that has turned into one of our favorite festivals. The festival is a combination of trendsetters and headliners, and The Killers killed it this last year. We’re standing by and the place was nuts! We also recently played Wembly stadium which was our largest shows to date and a little while later, we played a small 400 capacity club because we wanted to. Being able to do both of those things is very important to us.

S: With live music, large-scale production with lights, confetti cannons is becoming a huge part of the scene. How do you feel fitting into that?

C&B: Well to be honest, we kind of feel that we’re on the opposite side of the spectrum. It’s the passion. You don’t need big things like lights or cannons. The best kinds of shows are ones where the band is playing music that they wrote live. You can catch and feel an atmosphere like that. Just like Bruce Springsteen. Our philosophy is that we want fans to tell that we love to play live. Fans can pay for anything — and they decide to pay for our ticket! We want to put on a great night for everyone, and produce albums that make people leave their house to see the show live. We try to still play small shows. Just on this tour we played one of New York’s smaller venues. It was crazy – you can hang from the rafters, and kick and swing! Fans will follow you to those shows. They like knowing that they saw this band in a intimate setting.

S: As kind of a fun last question, you’ve toured the US a couple times, what is your favorite food that you can get in US that you can’t get back home?

C&B: Special K! For some reason, I think that your Special K is better than ours. The same with you banana yogurt! It has got to be like bananas on steroids in that cup. We also think it’s safe to say that your general sandwiches are good. For some reason, the US does really well with them. I know we have them back home, but I love to coming to Cheesecake Factory in the US! And another thing we have at home, but was super good while we’re here on tour was lamb chops. We got it and it was just unreal.

Whether Van and Bondy will be able to find another lamb chop as good as their last one is yet to be determined, but what is evidently clear is that this band lives for the road. They are a stylized group of british rockers who have been hitting the road for years, and still get the same authentic buzz from each and every live show.

Check them out at the Ogden Theater on Monday December 5th. Tickets are available here

Fans can connect with the band on FB @catfishandthebottlemen and @thebottlemen on Twitter