Depending on which day of the week you call on Chris Catalyst you may encounter a silver-painted cyberman (aka one-man sampled 'band' Robochrist), a sharp-suited purveyor of prime power-pop (that'll be a day he's fronting Eureka Machines) or - on the lazy day SinZine speaks to him - a second generation Sister of Mercy sat at the PC in his pants. Yep, Catalyst wears a range of hats and other comedic costumery, but there's no mistaking the street smarts and gritted determination to get by of born 'n' bred Yorkshire lad, when he imparts to our Andy James a stark music industry survival guide, amid discussing Eldritch, bingo, the best places to play and boxer shorts to suit the dark soul.
The Sisters of Mercy are a band who I suspect need no introduction to Sinzine readers. Put it this way, if you consider yourself a goth and genuinely have no idea about this lot then you're probably not trying very hard at this whole doom merchant lark...
Anyway...the idea of putting a Sisters piece together was first mooted back in the summer here at Sinzine. The trouble is, as any journalist will tell you, Sisters mainman Andrew Eldritch is a notoriously press-shy person. However, luckily for me, I happen to be on speaking terms with one of the modern day Sisterhood, bassist Chris Catalyst. Chris has been with the Sisters since 2004 but has involved in a number of bands over the years including Hull-based Britrockers Catylyst, one-man techno-metal wrecking crew Robochrist and most recently, the sublime power-pop of the Eureka Machines. Along the way he's also had stints with everyone from Leeds northern soul punk 'n' rollers the Dead Pets to face-painted psycho-rockers AntiProduct. However, it's the Sisters we decided to ask him about for this interview, most specifically what life in the 21st century incarnation of this band is like. And luckily, he was more than happy to oblige us...
How did you first come to meet Andrew Eldritch and be involved with the Sisters?
I did some session singing in 2004 for a project led by former Sister Adam Pearson. I met Andrew briefly then, but he doesn't remember. A year later, he was looking for a new guitarist and our mutual friend Danny Mass (formerly of Salvation) recommended he came to see my old Robochrist thing. He came to see me play, and offered me the gig in the bingo room at the Woodhouse Liberal Club in leafy LS6. We accidentally got kicked out of the bingo for being too rowdy. The rest, as they say, is history.
Were you a Sisters fan growing up?
Nope. Being a music obsessive, I was aware of the hits, and had always enjoyed them when I heard them in clubs like Spiders in my home town of Hull, but didn't really know any more than three songs. I told Andrew this the first time I met him, and he seemed quite keen on having someone in the Sisters who didn't have preconceived ideas for what the band (or, for that matter, he) should or shouldn't be like.
Are there any plans to record new Sisters material in the near future? You've played a few new songs live in recent years but generally in interviews Andrew seems dismissive of the whole idea.
I've had around 0.1% of the experience of record labels that Andrew has had, and from that tiny aspect I can completely see why he doesn't want to sign another record deal. (See also: why Andrew isn't massively keen on the press.) I would love to make a Sisters album, but Andrew has been burned one too many times by useless labels making promises that they never keep. I get a lot of the e-mails that labels send to us when they are either wanting to release new stuff or licence old stuff, and the last one (from the former label, as it happens) was entitled: 'FAO: SISTERS OF MERCEY'. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence about their ability to market and release your future babies, does it? I could tell you several billion stories of record label incompetence (from Sistersworld and otherwise) which would make you weep real tears. The music industry is a breeding ground for the mentally incapable and socially inept, unfortunately. I have lost count of the broken promises and let downs from promoters, labels, managers, agents, other bands... I occasionally wish I'd got into something less corrupt, like gun-running. Or cricket.
We also exist in a world where the power has been given BACK to the bands. It's really not difficult to make an album in a home studio - we did both Eureka Machines albums on a skeleton set up and scraped together the cash ourselves - or to market the album by yourselves and be your own label - again, with Eureka Machines we post out every album we sell, and the shirts and so on. However, I don't think Andrew wants to sell The Sisters short by doing this. That's his choice, and I absolutely respect it.
Eureka Machines
It's easy for me and our little Leedsy band to do this, because in the grand scale of things (despite having an always ardent, usually attentive and occasionally beautiful fanbase) Eureka Machines don't sell enough copies and generally aren't marketable enough to justify giving a percentage to some besuited shysters who will inevitably do nothing. (IMPORTANT TIP TO EVERY LITTLE BAND IN THE WORLD THAT'S READING THIS: NOBODY WILL EVER CARE ABOUT YOUR BAND MORE THAN YOU DO.) A well-oiled rock machine like the Sisters needs a well-oiled rock machine of a label to look after it all. Should that label come along, and offer enough time, money and help (and the right sort of help), then yes, I can see it happening. Unfortunately, the chances of such a label existing are roughly as remote as finding Shergar nuts deep in Lord Lucan on Atlantis.
We are always writing new songs. We are always playing new songs. Occasionally, we record bits. The fans get to hear it at the gigs; they get to trade the bootlegs on the 'net; we don't have to spend months in a studio (on a daily rate of whatever) for the album to then be torrented to death and for us to see nothing from it. We do alright out of just doing gigs, and there's no sign of that ending any time soon. The recent Glasgow date sold more tickets than the 2006 date at the same venue. As Andrew would probably say... 'Go figure'.
(I lost my point)
Which is your favourite Sisters album and why?
Personally I like Floodland the most, as I think it's got the best songs on it, and I like the production. I've said it before, but I think the Sisters are a very under-rated pop band, and I think Floodland is the best example of this. 'This Corrosion' goes on a bit though, eh?
The Sisters are a band who tour extensively but you hardly seem to play the UK much nowadays - why is this? What are the best places you've been to with the band?
We play the UK more than we play Canada, for instance. If you were in a band that was lucky enough to be able to tour (most of) the world, where would you rather go? New York? Rio de Janiero? Moscow? Or Mansfield? Don't get me wrong, I've had some excellent nights in Mansfield (that's not strictly true), but if we decide we're going to do, say, four weeks on the road, we're going to do our darndest to play the places that we WANT to play. Particularly with the XXX 30th Anniversary Tour, where Andrew and I decided that we would only go to places we thought were good venues with great sound (for the band and the punters). I think as a rule we're going to keep that up, as there are a lot of venues where the sound simply doesn't work for the Sisters (either by virtue of the shape of the room, or by reticence of the promoters to provide adequate PA). Just because you saw Motorhead there the other week and it blew your mind, doesn't mean that the same system and room will work for a band with drum machines and a self-admittedly very quiet singer.
The best places I've been with the Sisters are Sao Paulo (for sheer mentalness and devotion), Japan (for the amazing culture shock) and Brussels (for the cheese board).
What's Andrew Eldritch like to work with as a musician and as a person? Is he really as difficult as some of the stories make him out to be or is that all just a myth?
Andrew is very sure of what he wants, and generally even more sure of what he doesn't want. If what YOU want doesn't fit into that remit, then you might have a bit of a fight on your hands. It's up to you which road you choose. Ultimately it's his band and his vision (and of course he's holding the purse strings) but it's definitely a democracy and we choose setlists and what to play together. I think Andrew, Ben and I get on very well for two people who've basically lived together for three of the past seven years. There's people on the crew who've worked for the Sisters for twenty-odd years (emphasis on the 'odd' there). They all work for other bands, in some cases a lot bigger (Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Linkin Park, to name but three), but they always come back to the Sisters. It's a family. It's a beautiful dysmorphia of utopian family. Or something.
Andrew Eldritch
Does the size and loyalty of the Sisters following in 2011 (especially given how long it's been since the band last released an album) surprise you at all?
The Sisters are a legendary band, and legends are needed more than ever in such miserable, vacuous times. It's an honour to be part of something so big and part of so many people's lives, and it's a constant surprise that people in their droves turn up to see chubby little me, especially as I sit here right now in my pants with my computer in my lap. (Obviously those pants are leather, reflecting flickering candlelight, a couple of joss sticks and some red wine on the go, Ministry pumping through my subwoofers and a Siamese cat purring - just out of reach) I'm obviously under no illusions whatsoever that it's me personally they're coming to see - it's just nice to be able to help a top band along where I can.
Finally, what are your future plans with the Sisters at the moment?
We just got back from headlining the second stage at Fuji Rock in Japan, which was suitably fantastic, totally bonkers and a utter honour. It was the first time the band have ever been there, so it was doubly exciting for us. We hope to get back there sooner rather than later. We're off to Australia and New Zealand in September and October, again, virgin territory for the Sisters. Australia is a place I've wanted to go to since I was seven years old and thralled by the brilliance of rugby league, and, a couple of years later, the brilliance of Annalise off 'Neighbours'. In November and December we're going around a few choice spots in Europe that we missed earlier in the year, and next year we have a couple of things lined up which you'll get to hear about sooner or later. We've always got plans; sometimes they're a surprise even to us.
