Cyclic Defrost

It seems as if there are two schools of thought about pop music. One says that what pop musicians do is complex: they make highly systematic music in favour of absolute creativity that goes beyond the ability to market their product. The other school of thought protests that they are not at all complex, and instead should be considered as distorters of a lavish and vastly broad musical culture that, in effect, feeds upon the common sensibilities of their intended audience.

The former emphasises that the primary means of making pop music is placed upon an open relationship and response to genre, arrangement and habits, whereas the latter says that it is really about the ability to sell and achieve long term profitability. There is validity in both views, but overall, neither can be considered the whole story.

“It takes a lot of work to make good pop music and I feel like people are often quick to assume that it’s an easy task,” says Catherine Kelleher, also known as Sydney’s Catcall. “I get very curious about mainstream pop music because I only give my attention to a couple of those artists and I’d love to be able to appeal to a variety of music listeners on both sides of the spectrum.”

An artist who has strived to avoid contrivances whilst simultaneously being influenced by a variety of styles that is evident throughout her work, Catherine’s currently as yet unreleased album The Warmest Place touches on subject matters concerning loss, love and hope in clearly personal tones, carrying the melodic open vigour of her whimsical dreamy pop. Almost two years in quiet preparation and the result of “a lot of trial and error”, by her own admission Catherine’s biggest hurdle was trying to define herself as a musician whilst letting things evolve naturally.

“I feel like as I get older I’ve grown and keep getting better and better and better,” she says. “I’m really proud of The Warmest Place because for me that’s the most exciting thing. Growth. You’ve got to go through the ugly ducking stage before you can blossom because that’s the way that good art matures.”

Recognising that the past twelve months have been some of her most productive, Catherine’s sense of achievement is palpable in the work she authors. Her track ‘Swimming Pool’ was featured on numerous Best Of 2010 lists across Australia and internationally before she had even announced the release of her debut album, and now with the album on its way to completion she has cemented herself as a champion of the Australian independent pop scene. She has previously toured alongside the likes of Phoenix and Sleater Brockman, also performing at this year’s Big Day Out and Hot Barbeque festival, but despite her climb to widespread success and the accompanying pressures, Catherine’s focus still remains on the ways she writes and records.

“I didn’t start working with a new producer till 2010 and that’s what the game changed for me in terms of the songs really starting to go to that next level where I began to realise what this actually had the capability of being. I’m trying to finish off the last couple of tracks and every song for me has to be the highest quality that it can be as well as being very strong and soulful,” she explains. “That’s why it feels like such a long outcome since I’ve started working on this project. Sometimes I get wigged out because I haven’t got the album out yet and everyone seems to be so much younger than I am and I often wonder how the hell I’m going to do it. The closer and closer I get, the more I realise that’s it’s a pleasantly painful experience. You only ever get one shot at a first album.

“Once I started writing for the album it took me a really long time to establish what I was doing and I’m still trying to find that little pocket where I sit,” continues Catherine. “Now I feel like I’m almost there. Once I got set up with the label and there was a team of people concentrating on individual aspects it began to build and build and build till eventually we brought all the demos together and transitioned from demos to songs. The whole process has taken a while but it’s nice to finally have released ‘Swimming Pool’.”

Ever the perfectionist, Catherine chose to record and release Julian Mendelsohn’s extended remix single of ‘Swimming Pool’ for free online late last year as a preview to her work on The Warmest Place. The original, named track of the year on Mess + Noise as well as reaching #1 on Hype Machine after featuring prominently online unravels with washes of sound like a motion picture soundtrack – which seems apt as the original production is a collaboration with GLOVES aka Yama Indra, who has begun working on writing and producing film scores. Although ‘Swimming Pool’ emerged as one of the most celebrated and dynamic pop songs of 2010, Catherine is still somewhat uncertain to which direction that she’s headed, but is sure that “the essential ingredient is confidence.

“Everyone makes an emotional and financial investment in you but no matter what I’ll always be putting songs and albums out so long as I’m personally happy with it. I know I’m lucky because if it weren’t for my label Ivy League I have no idea who else I would have signed with. They’re one of the few labels that haven’t sunk, and at times it can be a hard industry. Big labels often like to support artists where they can predict the success of something, which often results in something quite generic and middle of the road. No one can predict in pop music what’s going to take off. Sometimes you can have a good feeling but you never know what the general public is going to latch on to. I’m confident within myself about The Warmest Place. It has been a long process and I feel like I’m learning something new each and every day.”

That change and growth seems to be a recurring motif throughout the course of her musical career. I put this to Catherine, who at only twenty three has resided within a wide scope of genres, including her initial emergence into the public eye with DIY punk outfit Kiosk alongside Circle Pit’s Jack Mannix and Angela Bermuda, a duo whose place in music is indelibly inked more by design than by luck.

“I wish I could say I envisioned any of it, but the most important thing for Catcall was to let it develop organically and to let myself learn to write better whilst being honest about it. Not really knowing how to play anything or have any musical training means I’m much more influenced by ear. When I first started playing with Jack and Angie in Kiosk I had no idea what I was doing or how to play, and it feels that the more that I work on the record, the more I write and sing the vocals and piece the parts together until it reaches the point where I can go to my producer and he’ll smooth out the creases in a much more technically aware manner. If I knew what was ‘right’ and what was ‘wrong’ then I wouldn’t stumble upon the things I stumble upon when writing.

“How I learnt to write music contributes to the end result and how it all falls into place,” she continues. “Even when playing in the live show with musicians that have a good musicality, so long as everyone has the same vibe and so long as everyone understands where we’re all coming from and isn’t trying to steer it into a direction that doesn’t work, then that’s all that really matters and that’s how we try to make interesting pop music.”

Despite the overtones of wellness and positivity present not only throughout her songs but also in her current and impending live performances, there is an unshakable sense of sadness as one listens to Catherine’s thoughts on the themes presented throughout her debut. Having focused almost exclusively for the past two years on writing, different relationships and aspects of her life have subtly infiltrated her own art.

“It’s important that the album title and every track has meaning and as a music listener I want to be able to really feel what the person is singing. The Warmest Place is a lyric from ‘August’ and the album opens with an a capella song by the same name that I wrote about my late father. All in all the title represents a lot of different things across a lot of the tracks. When you think of something that’s warm, you usually think of a happy place and that can mean almost anything,” suggests Catherine before pausing and adding a humble conclusion. “It’s a positive album and even though I may be grieving on some of the tracks and lamenting loss, there’s always going to be a lot of positivism. Pop music is comfort food, pop music is company, it’s an indulgence and for me it’s a safety that I associate with warmth.”

With so much thought and spirit injected into all these things, unarguably, for once it’s okay to sit back and indulge.

The Warmest Place will be available through Ivy League Records in 2011.

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