Catcher Is Playing The Monster Children SXSW Showcase
portrait courtesy of Catcher.
live photography by Chloe Flaherty.
I met Austin Eichler and Wilson Chestney at a bar in Ridgewood, Queens in 2021.
They said that they were in a band called Catcher and I told them I had seen them play the month prior and that it was good. Wilson told me about the body lotion that he was manufacturing in his bathtub and I asked if I could try some. Austin and I thought we hated each other for the better part of a year before realizing that we are both just dickishly shy after which we became fast friends. Catcher is a band from New York City, one of the first bands I saw post-pandemic, and informed my understanding of the style and substance of the New York guitar-music scene, which was very fortunate for me considering all of the garbage spewing around the stages and clubs of this city by dispassionate ‘musicians’ who only do it to get attention, drunk, and laid, who could have been the band that informed me. They are a good and valid and authentic group, and we are proud to put them on our stage at Mohawk in Austin, TX next Wednesday, March 12th, for the Monster Children SXSW Showcase, presented by Fat Tire. And happier still, to have been the one to interview them as they taunt me by proposing that they become a jam band at our show, which is where we begin.
WC: Yeah, we were thinking about doing a jam thing on stage. ‘You guys wanna see how the magic’s made? We’re going to try to write a song in the next hour!’
AE: Yeah, we’re actually not playing any of our songs, we’re trying to work some new stuff out right now.
WC: We’ve got some more shows coming up this week so we thought we’d try to write some new stuff.
This is great, this is how this interview is going to start.
AE: Is this written?
Yeah, so what you say is on the record.
AE: I know, that’s why I hate the written ones. Alright so we are on the record.
When’s the last time you played SXSW?
WC: Three years ago.
How’d that go?
WC: It was great.
Actually?
WC: Yeah! We maybe did too much, we got pretty sick by the end, on the drive back to New York after. There’s a lot of free drinks.
Yeah it’s a very enthralling thing. There will be free drinks at this as well, as much Fat Tire as you like.
WC: I’ve probably had a couple of Fat Tire’s in my life, and I liked it.
You’re about to have a lot.
AE: It’s my favorite beer.
WC: Sponsor our band.
So you’re from Texas, right?
WC: Yeah, Austin and I are from Texas.
What part of Texas are you from?
AE: I’m from San Antonio, Wilson is from Austin. We met in college.
SXSW is in Austin! How bout that!
WC: I know, growing up in high school me and my friends used to busk on the street during SXSW. I used to play the accordion.
Were you like a Flogging Molly kind of vibe?
AE: More of a Tom Waits thing.
Have you guys heard of Shane McGowan?
[This portion of response was retroactively off the record but ended with Wilson saying, ‘he’s not a jerk’]
What’s on your rider?
AE: We don’t usually have one. It’s usually just like a case of beer.
WC: A bottle of rum.
AE: Some snacks.
WC: A bottle of Goslings.
AE: We should actually put that on there.
You’re not going to get it.
AE: Why not?
Because I’m the guy who is going to shop for the rider shit and I’ll know it’s a joke.
AE: But it’s not.
WC: It’s not a joke, I want it, I love it. I love Goslings.
I’m not going to be left with a full bottle of Goslings at the end of this?
WC: No way!
AE: You can have as much as you want though.
WC: Been Catcher got a bottle of rum for our rider and it was gone quickly.
What can we expect from your sets at SXSW?
AE: New music. We have three that we’ve been playing at other shows, and three that we’ve never played before.
Without spoiling anything, how can you contrast it to what people hear online?
AE: Very different.
WC: I was listening to the original LP on the way here, and this new stuff sounds a lot more… thoughtful and chill compared to the old stuff. It’s not nearly as urgent as the old music. It’s not nearly as angry.
AE: It’s not catering to the live show as much as the last two [recordings] were. I don’t know how conscious it was in the moment, but when I think back to that time now, every time we were writing something, we’d think, ‘oh this would work well live.’ These songs are more rhythmically driven, too, than melodic.
WC: I would say the opposite.
AE: Alright, well, clearly we talk about this a lot.
WC: I would say that describing the old stuff as being catered toward the live show is accurate, this is more thoughtful. I don’t think that the old music was very thoughtful. Not necessarily in a bad way, just not as thoughtful in the sense that we wrote it very fast and the songs are all very fast, and it was very forward facing.
AE: Kind of one feeling across ten tracks.
WC: It was outward facing music, this is more inward facing.
You’re playing our showcase which is part of a larger tour, and everything we just discussed in mind, how would you like an audience to take you in live?
AE: I think that if they’ve seen us before, it’s going to be very different. It’s been two years of writing and rewriting, so the songs will be very different from what they’ve been hearing.
WC: I would like them to be the ideal audience member and listen to every note, word, and drum hit. I would like them to specifically mostly watch me play the drums and notice every little thing that I do.
So you’re thinking like ten really big dudes with arms crossed right at the front barrier?
AE: There are definitely more arms crossed these days.
WC: Yeah, more arms crossed and less moshing than before.
AE: I could do with some applause and a couple of woo’s in the back. No encore.
WC: No, I would love for them to ask for an encore. I won’t do it, though.
You’re playing in the middle of the showcase so it’d be crazy if you played an encore.
WC: Well, it’d be great if they asked for an encore after the first song, that’d be cool. It’d be nice if someone was like ‘play that song again! It was so good that I want to hear it immediately again.’
Austin and Wilson will also be DJing our free party at The Flower Shop Austin on Tuesday, March 11th, 6PM till late. Come drink.
