catcha

Indie / Acoustic / Rock

Geneva, Switzerland

About

After they came back from the USA in 2001, Toby May and Chris Drew spent a couple of years writing songs together until they settled down as a duo and officially branded themselves Catcha in 2004. They had made a demo, which got them a production deal with Lotus Records in London. Their debut album (‘Catcha’), recorded at Konk and Vagabond Studios London with outstanding musicians John McKenzie (bass) and Blair Cunningham (drums), was launched at the Rock Garden in London and released on iTunes at the beginning of 2007. Following the electric experience, Chris and Toby felt the increasing urge to bring their compositions back to their simplest form. They naturally started playing more and more as an acoustic duo… and the more they played, the more they liked it. Until…

About a year ago Chris and Toby went to New York looking for something new. They didn’t know what exactly; just that it was close. They had an improvised acoustic gig booked in an intimate venue called the Rockwood Music Hall with their good friend and awesome percussionist Mathias Künzli. Two Brits and a Swiss in New York… It turned out to be a deadly combination, which was all they needed to spark off the chemical reaction that followed.

Later that year Mathias called them to say he was coming over to Europe for a few days and would they be up for renewing the experience. They replied that they’d do better than that: record a whole acoustic album. No sooner said than done, they called on their friend and artistic-director Raphael Fruttaldo and booked Axis Recording Studios in Geneva, with a warm-up gig on the ski slopes of the Swiss Alps.

Twelve songs in three days. Three visions boiled down to two voices and two guitars, wrapped in rhythm. It was a sail-through. Indeed, thanks also to Raphael’s strong vision, they were able to add further depth to the songs with additional arrangements (strings, horns…) while preserving all the intimacy and refined energy of the original acoustic duo. Their combined efforts resulted in a rich and generous sound, giving the album a homogenous, unique identity.

In contrast to their previous, electric and power driven album, the earthy quality of this second opus, comes from their common desire to strip away the excess and also accommodate all the things a life is made up of: the nostalgia, the simplicity of times past (Chocolate, Summer, My Last Night), the turbulent yet passionate present (You Can’t Touch Me, Sorry, Just for one day) and a new hopeful outlook on a future without compromise or unnecessary complications (Tchai, The Way It Is, No Going Back).

Let your thoughts take you to all the places they usually don’t get to go. This is the sound of torrents raging beneath the surface blended with the quiet hope that all things have their place.

Sit down and listen. Just listen.

Videos(11)

Mailing list

for booking

booking@catchamusic.com

Sonicbids

View catcha's EPK

iTunes

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Members

• Chris Drew - vocals/guitar

• Toby May - vocals/guitar

• Mathias Kunzli - percussion

• Mark Baechle - string arrangements

• Thierry Volet - trombone

• Pascal Gauthey - barytone sax

• Xavier Jacquet - sound engineer

• Lawrence Manchester - mixing

• Fred Kevorkian - mastering

• Raphael Fruttaldo - artistic director

• Ivan P Simeon - photography

• Christophe Stadler - graphic design