Montclair, New Jersey-based four-piece, Catch Wild, certainly knows how to catch an audience’s attention. Lady-led rock group, fronted by Jessica Rose (vocals/guitar), are proudly rocking songs from their current release Waking Up with Fire. Rocker Stalker caught up with the quartet on their experiences as a band and their future plans.
How did you guys come to be Catch Wild?
Jessica Rose was writing music on her own since she was 14. After college she was pursuing music as a career, and during that time she was looking for a guitarist / writing partner to add a fresh spin to her music, and also add hip lead guitar parts for her singer / songwriter project. When Doug Atkins (lead guitar) and Jessica met 3 years ago, their musical chemistry was like magic. They instantly began writing together and as each of their styles blended more and more, they realized they had the beginnings of a rock band. After bringing in Eric “Swinny” Swiontkowski on Bass, and first drummer, Shawn Fichtner on Drums, they played as the Jessica Rose band for about 6 months and then changed the name to Catch Wild. The sound that was pumping out of these four musicians was so charged, energetic, and rock, that re-modeling the project to follow its natural rock n’ roll path seemed like the obvious move. Catch Wild’s music is born from Jessica, Doug and Swinny’s 90s teenage years, blended with their all growing up on the masters of Blues and Rock, like The Beatles, Clapton, Jeff Beck, and more currently Dave Grohl to name a few. Jessica’s pop /rock vocal timbre and melody choices create a current and catchy dynamic. Her vocal influences are naturally the women she grew up listening to, which include Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders, Alannis Morissette, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, and more recently, Alicia Keys, Fionna Apple and Sheryl Crow.
You have a new EP out, “Waking Up with Fire” (Congrats!). What is your favorite track, and what’s the story behind it?
Thanks! As a band, we can all agree that SUPERSONIC FLIGHT is probably our favorite tune. It is definitely one of our favorite songs to play live because it just rips. We are trying more and more to write music that makes us lose our minds on stage – that’s when we know its a good performance, when we finish playing a sound and it’s like “Whoa where am I? What just happened!!??” When a song is born in this band or any band for that matter, it starts with a little idea. Maybe its a guitar riff, chord progression, or part of a vocal melody. On this one, Doug had the opening chords going, and then Jessica started scatting over the guitar with some vocal melodies. When the lyrics were getting written, Jessica took inspiration from the feeling of being so taken over by a passionate relationship, physically and emotionally. She wanted to write a song about losing yourself in a high, whatever that high might be. We don’t remember how the rest of the song came to be, but here we are with Supersonic Flight and we just dropped a video for it which you can check out at www.catchwild.com
What are your favorites cities to play? Who have you enjoyed playing alongside most?
Of course we love it most in New York, since we are all from NJ and NY (Danny on drums hails from Staten Island). Our PR agency mates, PUSH METHOD are just an awesome band. We love them as people, performers and musicians. Their live show will kick-your-ass.
Who do you hope to collaborate/tour with in the near future?
We wouldn’t mind doing a collabo with Metric, Paramore or the Foo Fighters. We are taking offers though so roll em’ in!!
How do you explain your sound to people who find out you’re in a band?
We say that we are female-fronted rock, or simply rock. We don’t like to corner ourselves into sounding like this band or that band, because truth-be-told, we sound like Catch Wild. If you don’t know what THAT sounds like, then you should hop on your iPhone and check us out. 🙂
Do you have any band traditions that help you get ready for shows?
Well first we all paint our naked bodies in gold paint and then we do yoga poses while singing MMM Bop. Just kidding…the honest truth is that we don’t really have a tradition, but we do like to be together for a few hours before the show. We don’t like to hang out separately and then get on stage. It’s really about getting on the same page and getting our energy joined into one unit for a while. We may have individually had rough days for whatever reasons, but when we step into the venue with our gear, that’s like Spa time. We just chill, laugh with each other, relax, hang out and the best part is we know we have a show to perform in 3 hours so we are all having fun. We always have fun together, that’s the best part.
What are your plans for the rest of 2012?
We are really building our audience both online and on the road. We are doing shows with great bands and we are writing our next album! The tunes that are coming out for the next album…oh maaaaaan. We hope to get invited on a bigger tour at some point in the near future!
Thank you and don’t forget to check out “Waking Up with Fire” on iTunes.
Rocker Stalker 