Lead singer Neil Jendon searches for the next big thing in rock 'n' roll

It's always sobering talking to a young band when they're still hungry and eager to please the crowd. You don't get any of the cockiness, sarcasm, or fuck-you-I'm-a-jaded-rock-star-who-can't-handle-success bitterness. For the Chicago band Catherine, they have no second guesses about why they're here: for the love of music. Before a recent show at the Metro, halfway in their tour with the London Suede, lead singer and guitarist Neil Jendon sat down with a+p to talk about life as a rock star, the state of Punk and songs about girls.

a+p: Did you anticipate the amount of success you have gotten so far from your EP "Sleepy" and the critical acclaim for your new album?

Neil Jendon: It's not like a sudden thing. It's very gradual so it kind of creeps up on you. It's not an overnight thing so actually I have to stop and think, `wow, I've gotten this far.' Every so often I get up in th morning, I just have to stop and think, `Jesus Christ, I get to play guitar for a living!' Something I dreamed about since grade school. It's just a phenomenal thing.

We all met after college. Actually Jerome and I went to the same high school, we didn't even know it until we met up later on. He said, `Yo, I got this four-track and drum machine - want to mess around with a few ideas?' So, that' s basically how the band started and each person joined the band after that, one by one. Kerry approached us about playing drums. We never actively pursued a drummer. He came to us and said, `I think you guys got good songs, you need a drummer, you want to try it?' With Mark, Jerome and I used to go see Mark when he was in a band called Gold September and we were big fans of that band. And he came to see one of our shows. It just seemed like a natural thing to ask him if he wanted to be a part of it. So that's how we have this behemoth three guitar line up.

a+p: Given the success of several Chicago acts like Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, and Smashing Pumpkins, do you feel any pressure to be the next big thing?

Jendon: Sometimes I do, but I can't speak for everyone in the band. Sometimes I feel that way. The reality of it is that's not the case. I can't really be concerned about that now. All I can really do is just play. All we can do is play these shows as well as we possibly can. The rest is kind of out of our hands and in the hands of the public. I don't really see getting bent out of shape about it.

I think a lot of it is because we made the record we wanted to make. It's not a question of listening to somebody else's ideas on how to make a successful record or nonsense like that. It was like, this is the record we wanted to make and the record we like to hear. This is how we hear ourselves. We produced it ourselves. I have that. I can look at that and say, `Wow, that is cool.'

On the EP, we did a tour here and a tour there. Mostly we went to our day jobs and went on three-day weekends on the road -- just trying to keep it simple and local. We started touring heavily last July. We started out with Dig, then a few dates on our own, then we're with Suede, and then we'll be with Hole by next month. Eight dates with Hole. That should be interesting; should be a lot of fun.

a+p: What tracks on the album do you think are the best?

Jendon: It's really funny because it's two of the tracks we don't really play live. "Flawless" and "2 AM" I really like because they're, I really hate this phrase, out of character for us. I hate the notion of a band character. We wrote all these songs but we have to throw them away because they don't sound like Catherine songs. That's bullshit. You wrote it, it's your song. It's a good song then you should play it. Kiss played a country song. Listen to "Hardluck Woman" and tell me that's not country.

Those two songs aren't "rock" songs, they're really different and I like that. If nothing else they feed my own insecurities about being too good at one thing or too much or too monolithic, and actually being able to do other things than normal fuzz "rock."

a+p: I'm really impressed with your songs like "2AM" having a lot of emotion. Are there any experiences that you draw upon when you write songs?

Jendon: The words are pretty much whoever writes them. Very rarely do I write a direct narrative: this happened, this happened and this happened. A lot of the time the lyrics start off from one of these jams and one of the guys will come up with a phrase. The way the syllables and words will line up with something that sounds really neat. And all of a sudden you realize that little phrase becomes an inkblot test where it bumps back into your head and you go `yeah, it's about this!' Then it spirals outward from there. It's a neat organic way to go about those things. Nothing I hate more than the forced, contrived lyrics, like songs from Gordon Lightfoot, `I've got a story to tell and it's gonna take me sixteen verses.'

a+p: What music groups do you guys listen to and look up to?

Jendon: During high school we generally were into the punk or the Anglo-post punk stuff like Joy Division. Kerry and Keith grew up in Orange County so they were into the punk scene there like Circle Jerks and Black Flag.

As a band we've heard such and such record and we were like `wow, what a great way to do things as a band.' Like My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, and Monster Magnet records. Everybody in the band has a soft spot for the Velvet Underground in some ways, not necessarily that sound. I think too many people imitate that sound but they don't get the spirit of it, which is just not necessarily being excellent musicians but just being a good band. Just playing and saying, `Well, you can't play super, groovy chops so let's experiment with other things, let's change the rules.' That's what they were great at.

a+p: How about MTV?

Jendon: MTV has been in this weird spot where they're are more and more videos being submitted but they're playing fewer and fewer of them. Before there was any "alternative movement", a couple of years ago it seemed the world was wide open and any band, like three scraggly punks from Seattle, could do something. Now it's rotated back around to being computer-generated play list, the demographics , the aura of control-- regulating what people listen to. I think there's been a lost in adventurism, musical adventurism.

My favorite example is everybody rediscovering punk. I think the only reason that's happening is because punk has reached that 10- to 15- year-old mark. It's been around for a long time. It's something we've all heard before, it's something we're terribly comfortable with. Punk is no longer really punk, it no longer pisses people off or scares parents. It's become another fashion statement, another mask a band can put on.

a+p: Where do you think the future of music is going?

Jendon: The bands I really like are Guided By Voices, Flaming Lips, Thinking Fellers Union-- I think these are really neat bands. There's a very homespun, DIY approach to their music. Once again that expression is so happy and so associated with punk, but the punk scene isn't even that anymore. Punk has become a formula just like heavy metal, no difference. Punk is no longer a way bands come together, which is basically out of boredom. It's become a haircut and a sound. Guided By Voices and the Flaming Lips are more punk than any of those bands by virtue of just doing it, just hearing it and being true to something inside themselves that no one else can touch. I think that's the stuff that's going to have longevity. The stuff that over time will matter.

a+p: How do you think Catherine fits into all of this?

Jendon: I don't know if we do or don't. I'm too close to judge, it's too personal. I'd like to think that `yeah, I'm doing this true.' But on the other hand, when somebody sets out to make the "timeless rock record," it ends up sounding like pretentious horse shit. The title of our song "Songs About Girls" came from listening to groups, like the Beatles, who used to write all these songs about girls. Those are the ones that have lasted forever. Songs about protest and songs about things they saw when they were on acid just don't hold up. They're so steeped in their era and time. Anything by Jefferson Airplane maybe so political, so shocking and so meaningful at the time but you listen to it now and you're like, "God! What is this?" When you listen to songs like "Yesterday" and even "Eight Days a Week" or quirky stuff like that, and it's like, `Wow, I can still see that meeting somebody and feeling this way about them hasn't changed.' Like in the last U2 record when they stopped being political and evangelical and started playing the shallowest rock songs you could possibly play. And guess what, it's really good stuff that's going to keep for a long time. Trivial things tend to last really long. Things of great urgency tend to fade quickly or explode.

Catherine's latest release, Sorry!, is available on TVT Records. They are currently on tour with Hole.

Written by John Lu

Article From - Centerstage

Date - April 7, 1995

Article By - John Lu

Originally Found At - Centerstage back issues