It's pretty easy kicking up a racket with three overdriven guitars. What's not so easy is separating the parts so that listeners can sufficiently appreciate dexterity (if any is apparent).

"With a three-guitar band, tone is as important as being in tune," says Neil Jendon, lead guitarist and songwriter for Catherine. "When we started, we all had Marshalls and we were basically just stepping all over each other. So we changed our setups and now we each have our space. Everyone has a lot of autonomy, and everyone knows their role in a song."

Amid the Smashing Pumpkinesque din on Catherine's full-length debut Sorry, Jendon, Jerome Brown, and Mark Rew play their chords with hard-driving depth while Jendon manipulates his Epiphone ("the only guitar under $400 that still had colors that occurred in nature") in a more unorthodox fashion. Though Jendon admits his musical affinities lie across the Atlantic with bands like My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins, his current sound owes a great deal to fellow Chicagoan Billy Corgan, the producer of Catherine's first EP. And like Corgan, Jendon's a self-proclaimed "dork who ran home from high school to play along with his Led Zeppelin records." Before he plunged headlong into a serious band, though, a few lessons helped him with the basics. "I did some brutally boring technique drills, but I'm glad I learned them because now I can unlearn them if I want. It's a lot easier to drop that luggage off than to pick it up." -Bob Gulla

Article From - Guitar Magazine

Date - March 1995

Article By - Bob Gulla