KALEIDOSCOPES
1
WELCOME TO KALEIDOSCOPES
CHRIS CATALYST
KALEIDOSCOPES
2
Hey everyone - as ever THANK YOU FOR YOUR
SUPPORT with my new thing KALEIDOSCOPES!
It's been a long and arduous year and a bit since I
started writing and recording this album. I recall
sitting down at my computer with the looming
spectre of C*r*n*v*r*s hanging over our heads,
certainly not anticipating that we would be here
over a year later without any gigs.
So I had to ll the year with my online gigs
(again, thank you for the support on that)
but also by making THIS ALBUM, to give
me a creative outlet and, frankly,
something to do, during a fallow and
(at times) miserable year.
And here it is! KALEIDOSCOPES
features 12 tracks of audio joy and delight. I
aren't someone who (consistently) funnels misery into music - I'm just not
that kind of person, and I don't nd that kind of music particularly
enjoyable. (For me, music is about fun and enjoyment and that kind of
catharsis, personally. So don't expect morbid, slow-paced gloomy numbers
about death and destruction. I just like major chords too much.)
I really hope you enjoy it. As always, I try to outdo whatever it was I did last - in this case
'Life Is Often Brilliant' - as well as the last Eureka Machines album
'Victories' - and I really feel like i've achieved that. Both on a songwriting
level and on a production level. (And, as always, I'll be trying to outdo this
one again next time, whether that's on my own or with the Machines lads.)
It's a story charting a year or two of very intense ups and frankly insane
downs. Who could have predicted at the start of 2020 that entire industries
(like my own, amongst others) would be utterly decimated? But for this eternal
optimist, there's always a bright side, and the community and the fellowship that
has sprung up in the face of adversity has been an enormous boon during 2020
and beyond. Also, it seems a lot of good music is coming out of this.
So strap in, have a look through the AMAZING artwork (kudos as ever to my long-
term collaborator and realiser of ideas Rich Jones), read the lyrics that I spent a
HUGE amount of time on, and put on your best headphones. I really hope you enjoy
listening to this album as much as I enjoyed making it. Which was a LOT.
Lots of love and respect, and again, thank you as always for your amazing support,
Chris. X
KALEIDOSCOPES
3
MAKING THE ALBUM
This may be boring to a lot of people. But I always like reading about this stuff, and it strikes me
that someone else might do too.
I started demoing the songs in 2018 I think it was, aiming at putting down two songs a week. I
don't write as quickly as some people (did you know Dolly Parton wrote 'I Will Always Love
You' and 'Jolene' start to end in one day? Not shit.), and Life Things have a tendency of
getting in the road, so it didn't always work that way... also I nd it very difcult to write
hungover, which was a situation I found myself in quite a lot at the time. I'd wanted to write
and demo 30 tracks, so I could pick the best 15 or so to record. As ever, the reality of this
was that it ended up being about 17 songs total, but I was pretty pleased with them all
anyway.
When it came to recording, Dave Draper and me had worked on a few things together
and did the well-received 'Happy' EP the year before, so already had a great shorthand
with each other. The drums on that were brilliantly handled by my pal Hayden Scott in
his studio in LA, but for the album I needed to be in a room with someone to work
reexively... enter the ridiculous and amazing Jason Bowld, who I'd met once or
twice and fell in love with his drumming style within around 0.2 seconds of hearing
him play. The man is a machine, and he put down all the drum tracks from
scratch, while only knowing two of the songs, in approximately seven hours. We
started recording at 11am and had packed up the kit and were in the pub by
7pm. Amazing work.
I went home the next morning and tracked all the guitars, bass and keyboards
at home, using my crazy Kemper amp and Peanut out of the Kaiser Chiefs' Nord Stage keyboard
(cheers 'Nut). The Kemper has every amp and effect under the sun in its magical gubbins and
sounds magnicent. It also means that, with a small knowledge of home recording, I can spend
as much time as I want trying out different sounds, ideas, textures etc without breaking the bank
hiring studio time for days on end.
I farmed out some parts to my hugely talented pals James Hamilton (trumpet)
who recorded in his home studio and sent us the parts, and likewise the
wonderful Mad Gallica over in Nashville, who interpreted my rubbish falsetto
warble into a proper layered gospel choir, such is her extreme level of talent.
Then back to the studio with Dave D, who put in a huge shift to record 95% of my
vocals, and have the whole thing mixed and mastered inside ten days. Kudos to him
for knowing all of the millions of things he knows.
The whole process was under a tight schedule, but due to everyone pulling their not-
insignicant weight on it, we got it done in double-quick time. Cheers you lot!!
Why Kaleidoscopes? I have a curious relationship with the idea of ‘psychedelia’, and while
this album is by no means ‘psych’ to anyone who knows much about that style, I enjoy the
kind of music that has a leaning toward a wide-eyed understanding of lysergy. It’s a cross
between allowing oneself to continue to be amazed at the world, and its animals, vegetables
and minerals. Finding joy in mundanity. Picking out the good bits, while remaining aware that
bad bits exist, but with a healthy knowledge that none of it really matters all that much… apart
from the bits that do.
If any of that makes sense. It does to me, anyway.
KALEIDOSCOPES
4
ABOUT THE TUNES
MAKE GOOD ART: I had this idea of doing an almost instrumental opener to
the album with loads of post-apocalyptic samples of war and suffering,
because let’s face it, things are weird. (The working title for the album was
‘Life Is Sometimes Dead Weird’.)
Then Covid struck, and I felt like the last thing the world needed was more misery. What we needed
was a boost, a call-to-arms for a soundtrack to difcult times, and a reminder that the cathartic
experience of both making and consuming art can be a lifesaver in the right circumstances.
So I changed tack and immediately remembered Neil Gaiman's inspirational 2012 speech, cunningly
titled 'Make Good Art'. Gaiman
himself gave me permission to use it via Twitter, and I went about
cutting it up to make it t the tune. Once I had the main bit of it together, the rest honestly wrote itself in
about half an hour. I am so in love with this song and its sentiment, I am really really proud of what it
represents. Neil got in touch to say he thought it was 'terric', and overall has been very supportive of
the whole thing. Which was nice.
It's also a little bit like 'Fuckin' In The Bushes' by Oasis. Sorry, Oasis.
KING OF EVERYTHING: Sometimes I sit down and try to write something really dumb and quick.
Invariably they end up being other people's favourites. I feel like this one might do that. Initially it was
called 'Patron Saint Of Sin' but again it just felt a bit negative and whiny. Not that this isn't, but
somehow it's funnier.
Who's it about? Not telling. (As usual, it's about seven or eight different people... you probably know a
couple of them, though.) And that particular section of the Internetterati who just can’t keep their gob
shut. It’s okay to just walk past something and not have something to say about it. Or just say ‘I don’t
know’.
Also, the divide between people due to their viewpoints being ever-so-slightly different is totally holding
us back (when I say ‘us’, I mean ‘the good side’… you know what I’m talking about).
The little guitar solo is a highlight and makes me laugh every time I hear it. As does the lyric 'the
charisma amputee'. All the best songs are in A, and this is no exception.
DIVIDE AND RULE: I really loved the Beatles-esque verses in this one and found myself toying with
about ve different choruses for it. (Something I've learned about songwriting more and more is that
rewriting bits is really really really good, and if you don't use something, it might end up popping up
again in the future, if it's any cop.)
The chorus is a bit like a Eureka Machines song, but I quite like that. This is dead wanky but I do a lot
of that on purpose, I am always interested in intertextuality, callbacks and post-modernism (GOD I AM
A PRICK) and like chucking in these little Easter eggs for you all, even if nobody usually seems to get
them other than me.
The stupid harmony guitar lines in the middle 8 are supposed to be trumpets. I just wrote the part after
lovely James the trumpet player had done his bits, and I'd already bothered him too much about it all.
I'm a knobhead.
There's also some seriously annoying and smug bass playing in this one. Bass is probably my
favourite instrument, and nding the paths and unlocking the patterns is one of my favourite things to
do in the studio (or in this case, my bedroom).
The sentiment of this tune is pretty straightforward. We’ve been going through some big political and
social shifts and there’s only one way to get through it all - that’s to stick together, rather than divide.
Oh and there's a really smug Beatles/socialism joke in there as well. Just to really hammer home that
I am a total wanker.
ORDINARY: Here's another one that went through about ten different verses and bridges. I was always
really sure that the chorus was a banger, I had it hanging around for years. But the rest of it went
through variants of Teenage Fanclub style harmonised indie-pop; angular, almost industrial
syncopation; quiet-loud quiet-loud; before settling upon a riff that actually I'd written for the Sisters Of
Mercy about 200 years ago, when Andrew the singer had no interest in writing new music. Or singing
it, for that matter.
It is, unsurprisingly, a song about being ordinary. Which I'm not saying that I'm not, but I'm denitely
not saying that I am. Could I be any more pompous? Just you wait.
KALEIDOSCOPES
5
ABOUT THE TUNES
THE RIDE: It turns out that I CAN be more pompous, because here is a song
about, yes, 'The Ride' of creativity. It's a fairly obvious metaphor for the
enjoyment of creating for the sake of creating, which is something that it's
easy to lose sight of when you start doing it for a job.
It's a double-edged sword, you know, because once you have an audience, no matter how small,
large or imperfectly-formed they are, it's hard to stop second-guessing what they might or might not
want to enjoy from you, and it can really blunt your creativity. Something I really tried to do with this
record was just do what I thought was good, and follow the advice from Track One, Side One - and
just Make Good Art. (WHAT A PRICK.)
Anyway. On a musical level I had the idea for that stupid detuned guitar bit in the middle donkeys
ages ago, and was equally pleased and alarmed to nd that Producer Dave absolutely pissed himself
laughing at it - I think in a good way, at least. It's one of my favourite bits of the album, I think we
really nailed this track.
Extra points because I got to use my Yamaha PSR-300 keyboard that I got for Christmas in 1991 for
the spooky synth bits (by distorting it and running it through various effects). Bits of this tune were
written for the Sisters as well. Actually, the Sisters snare drum is in there as well, buried in the intro,
which also makes me laugh for several intertextual reasons.
BOUNCER'S DREAM: In about 1991 (seemingly a halcyon era for me), I (along with half of the rest of
the UK population) was obsessed with Australian soap Neighbours, about a ctional street in a
ctional town in a country which frankly might as well have been ctional to 11-year-old me as well.
And in this soap was a dog called Bouncer, who, one episode, drifted off into a dream about his love
interest, Rosie. It showed them frolicking and gambolling with nary a care in the world, and was truly
a watermark in high culture and art.
I just thought it was a dead funny and original title for a little instrumental song, until a mate of mine
reminded me that about 20 years ago, we used to listen to a (brilliant) Leeds band called Help The
Buffaloes R Crushing Me who had a song called, yes, Bouncer's Dream.
Sorry, Help The Buffaloes R Crushing Me.
(Also, cut forward to 2019 when I managed to blag a walk-on/past role in aforementioned Aussie
soap. Life is indeed sometimes dead weird.)
HAPPY: I had the verses and really loved them. I heard them as a big Travis-y (don't laugh, the rst
album is brilliant, despite some questionable lyrics) strummy thing. And then - this is the God's
honest truth - I woke up in the middle of the night and had the chorus in my head (words and tune)
and immediately sung it into my phone as I knew it dead good, and probably the key to literally tens
of sales.
I'd been reading about Keith Richards a few weeks before, and it turned out that was his line ('It's
good to be anywhere'), and I gured that if I was gonna nick a line off anyone, then I'd nick a line off
Keef. (IS THIS A DRUGS REFERENCE? Possibly a bit on the nose, even for me. ON THE NOSE? EH?
EH?)
My pal Hayden does drums on this one and a real high point for
me is his big 'Don't Look Back In Anger' ll before the last
choruses. It's another simple track with an obvious sentiment
which seems to do the trick.
My nal point about this song is that I was dismayed to read in the
comments section on YouTube (which I always say I don't read,
but I sometimes do) that someone pointed out that it sounds a bit
like the theme tune to 'Poddington Peas', which it denitely does.
Sorry, Poddington Peas.
JASON BOWLD IS AMAZING
ON THE DRUM KIT
KALEIDOSCOPES
6
A MODERN ADVENTURE: I think the original riff was gonna be a Eureka Machines thing. I liked the
idea of having a positive (major key) verse one and then going dark and moody for the second
(minor key) verse, like in Mario World where the music changes when you go underground or you
turn into Wario or something. Is Wario still a thing?
Obviously it's about Brexit and how a bunch of little Englander ag-shaggers have ruined it for the rest
of us by believing the gutter press and a man who looks like a frog and whose brand is 'I drink bitter
and smoke Rothmans'. As if anyone can afford to smoke real tabs anymore. Also Katie Hopkins, who
is so unbearable that I couldn't even bring myself to mention her in the song. She's in one of the ones
that didn't make the album, though. More on that another time.
Big and enjoyable outro riff on this one. Stick that in your Churchillian pipe and smoke it.
NEVER GOING TO CHANGE: This one is about getting yourself into a slough of despond (have you
ever been to Slough?) and trying to drag yourself out of it, until you realise that this is not a mood, it's
a mindset. It doesn't have to be, though, of course, but I guess anyone who is built a certain way
(which I, unfortunately, am) knows that it's always there. I've learned how to handle it a lot better
these past few years, mind, and I would say that accepting it into your life but being mindful of when
it's approaching is the key to keeping it at bay, or at least manageable.
Also don't get pissed all the time and do loads of drugs.
The silver lining to this occasional cloud following you around is that the good bits can get REALLY
good, so it's worth hanging on to those moments as much as possible while you can, and nding joy
in mundanity.
Think I nicked some of this tune off Supergrass.
Sorry, Supergrass.
I'M NOT OKAY: Right, let's get serious now. The sentiment to this one is pretty obvious. It's a serious
message wrapped up in a fun, Weezer-y (sorry, Weezer) song. It's almost a cliche now, but more
than ever, we need to keep talking to keep things owing. Imagine it's like cashow. If you're not
earning anything, it's a one-way ticket to being broke, with no way back. If you can keep it coming in
and out, sometimes it might be a struggle, but you can always get back on your feet. And if the
cashow, or bloodow, or just the ow of anything is interrupted, then it can lead to devastation. So
just keep… owing.
It's a two-way thing, though. I don't think I need to tell the people that listen to my music to look out
for one another, but sometimes it's tough to realise you might be isolating yourself. So never be afraid
of reaching out. I genuinely believe that most people are good people and want to help, so don't ever
be a stranger.
I like this one.
UNTANGLING THE BLUE: Another serious one... again it's not always straightforward but if you don't
allow yourself to heal, then it's incredibly hard to do so. You can't help someone who doesn't want
your help. You just have to be around for when they will accept it... or for the inevitable fallout.
But again, the message here is that there's no shame in needing that help, that leg up, that hand on
the shoulder. And unless you open yourself up to it, it's going to be hard to receive. So again, don't
isolate yourself and let good people do their thing.
I do really enjoy the production of this one, and singing in a different kind of a voice. Again, the verses
were (sort of) originally from a song I had for the Sisters, although I think it was in a minor key then.
(Again, nothing happened with that. Surprise level: 0.)
FALLING DOWN: I guess this is a more personal one about my feelings on religion, which is that hey,
if it gets you though the night, then cool, but it's been responsible for more death and disparity and
misery than most other things on this planet, barring acts of God (see what I did there?).
The more responsibility we can take for our own actions, and the more we can realise we have such a
limited time on this big spinny rock, and that we can't waste a second, the better.
So let's forget about spirits that just serve to separate us, and just get on with the business of pissing
about and having as much fun as is humanly possible. Without falling over.
RIGHT KIDS?
KALEIDOSCOPES
7
A WORD WITH
DAVE DRAPER
Having worked on various
projects with Chris over the past
few years, it was very exciting to
dive into making a full-length album together. Chris asked me to produce, mix
and master the album with him so we got to making plans about how it was
all going to play out.
We used Chris's demos to track the drums to, and we had the pleasure of
having the ace Jason Bowld come in to do that very thing. The drums were
tracked in one day at FFG Studios in Gloucester and then we took the les
away for Chris to record his guitars, bass and keyboards at his home studio.
This process worked really well for this album as there was no rushing or pressure on Chris to
get things done in anything than his own time.
Those les were brought back to my studio, The Old Cider Press in Worcestershire, for us to produce and
then track vocals on top. We then went straight into mixing the album which was great as it was all fresh in
our minds and made the process quick and productive. I think that quick and productive was the overall vibe
of the workow, and I can hear that on the nal mastered version.
It's great when things just work!
What is extra special for me is that I think these are Chris's best collection of songs yet, so being able to help
bring them to life is real added bonus. To be a part of a record that has this much variety of sound and
emotion, with being a joy to make, has to be a highlight of my career.
- Dave Draper, producer
PHOTO OF FRANCIS ROSSI AND RICK PARFITT BY TRUDI KNIGHT
It’s always a bit weird when your
mates are in bands, isn’t it? It takes a
lot of courage for someone to put themselves
out there and if they’re awful it ends up being
really awkward and you have to say things like “it sounded great tonight”
when really what you mean is that the sound guy is good at mixing, even if
the band onstage sounds like an amateur jazz combo falling down 4 ights
of stairs.
Fortunately my friend Chris is brilliant, the bastard. I really can’t think of
many other people who are not only endlessly prolic but they also manage
to maintain a really fucking high standard of quality throughout, time after
time. Like I said, the bastard.
So it’s always really enjoyable (and somewhat attering) when Chris trusts me with
putting together the visual side of his work. Chris is one of those rare musicians who usually has
a pretty clear idea of what he likes and doesn’t like, so I’m not fafng about trying to interpret the meaning of
something like “I want it to look like impressionism on acid” or some other such nonsense.
And so it was with Kaleidoscopes. We got the idea fairly quickly of showing quite literal ‘slices’ of his life
(sorry) arranged like a Kaleidoscope. I quite liked the idea of this really minimal, retro-modern design that
would let the words and pictures really take centre stage. I’d just seen a book of Italian futurist typography
(pretentious prick that I am) and I loved the way the words owed with the images to make images of their
own. So that was the jumping off point for this artwork.
Chris also wanted to do something special with the packaging which is something that I absolutely love
doing. I mean, why conne yourself to a standard CD or LP package when there are so many possibilities
out there to do something more interesting? I think the presentation is a big part of the whole experience of
hearing a new album for the rst time.
Anyways, it turned out that the whole cut-out sleeve thing was a massive ballache to get right. After I
submitted the artwork I spent about 3 weeks sweating that none of the pictures would line-up and the whole
thing would be a colossal disaster. Fortunately that didn’t turn out to be the case, and my weeks of feigning
complete condence about my competence paid off.
I love how this record looks. I love how this record sounds. And I hope you do as well.
love, Rich
A WORD WITH
RICH JONES
KALEIDOSCOPES
8
GRATUITOUS PHOTO
OF ROSE
So there you go, kidz with a z, that's my new album. As ever, it's very layered (WHAT
A PRICK) and there's lots to delve into and discover. It's a good one for a decent
set of headphones. I really hope you like it. I do, anyway.
What's next? Well, I've got my Bowie covers album ready to go,
hopefully before the end of the year. I'm already writing for my third solo
album, and we should get around to doing another Eureka Machines
album before we become 100% hair-free (current score is
50%).
I want to do an acoustic album too… I had
a lot of fun doing the Quaran-Tour
recording and would love to explore
a bit more of that side of things.
Also, look out for something else on the
next Bandcamp Friday (7
th
May 2021) - a
little companion piece to this album.
Really, honestly and truly - thank you ALL from the
bottom of my heart (and the heart of my bottom).
See you next time, and keep in touch, yeah?
CREDITS: Words and stuff by Chris Catalyst. Website wonderment by Damian Tichborne.
Photos by Neil Chapman & Trudi Knight. Thanks to Dave Draper and Rich Jones for their
contributions. Layout and design by Rich Jones for Turning Rebellion.
http://www.chriscatalyst.com | www.chriscatalyst.bandcamp.com
