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Catweasels

''Sam was in a Horlicks ad. The one with the taxi driver taking the people round Newcastle and charging them loads.''

Hailing from Chester-le-Street, the Northern five piece Catweasels, have a knack for squeezing a kaleidoscope of sound worthy of entire album into just a few songs. Having released their debut single 'This Is Just The Night Time, Andy' at the beginning of this year, DIY figured it was about time we found out a little more a about the quintet. Below, Singer/guitartist Andy Davey enlightens us.

In your music you blend a lot of sounds, what genres do you most identify your music with?
Alt. Pop. Indie. Punk.

A lot of your songs, including your single 'This Is Just the Night Time, Andy', are about the band members. What is the idea behind writing songs about specific band members?
Most songs are about the people songwriters are closest to, and the people we're closest to are the people we are in the band with, so it made sense to write songs about each other. It's nice to have a song about you!

Over half of the band members are frontmen. How did you decide on that untraditional setup?
No they aren't! Two of us could be portrayed as frontmen, but we never use the word 'frontman'. We didn't really decide on it, Sam and Andy just sing the bits they think they sound better singing and the others just join in when we like. It's a pretty natural process, it just happens.

When did Catweasels go from a hobby to something you were really serious about?
We were always serious and it will always be a hobby. We wouldn't do it if it wasn't a hobby that we loved. We decided to get our heads down when we came to Newcastle and played a few shows, and people started being nice to us.

You have recently done a lot of touring around the UK, what did you do to keep from getting bored in between gigs?
Nintendo DSs are good. We didn't really have time to get bored, but when we did, we either tickled Metty, or drew picture's in Metty's little notebook. Pete sometimes likes to pass the time by throwing our tour managers itinerary out the window in the middle of M1, going 70 miles an hour. Other than that we slept!

You must come across a lot of new bands touring, have you seen anyone good you can recommend to our readers?
We played with Make Model in Edinburgh. They were one of those bands that made you really want to step up you game and concentrate on making yourselves better and better.

What does Catweasels have in store for listeners over the next year?
We're releasing our 4 track EP in September on Longest Mile Records. We'll be touring when it's released and gigging here and there through the summer. We just finished a video for one of the songs on the EP five minutes ago in our toilet, called 'Elderly Instruments', and we're off to London next weekend to record another one for another song on the EP called 'Up', so hopefully the songs will get out there on the box before the release. Other than that we're just going to be writing and writing and writing.

Tell us something interesting that most people probably don't know about Catweasels.
Sam was in a Horlicks ad. The one with the taxi driver taking the people round Newcastle and charging them loads.