Name: catch92
Nationality: British
Occupation: Producer
Current Release: catch92's new single "Passing" is out via Folded.

If you enjoyed this catch92 interview and would like to know more about his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Facebook.  
 


What were some of the musical experiences which planted a seed for your interest in hip hop?

Even without knowing it in my childhood I would always move towards hip hop beats and anything with Mcing / rapping in. My Mum is always bumping soul and motown and my dad into rock.

The blend of strong beats and soulful sounds always felt like home.

What does the term hip hop mean and stand for today, would you say?

A lot. It’s a difficult one I think because the sound and attitude of Hip Hop has become influenced by so many things and the amount of subgenres that have appeared is crazy. This is all a positive I guess, and great that Hip Hop is now something in the mainstream.

For me a prime example of what I think Hip Hop stands for is the “WORKINONIT” events in Manchester. It’s people coming together to show their creations, and show love to other people. It doesn’t matter your age, race, religion, salary, where you’re from, it’s all for the music.

Hip hop has always been about a lot more than just music. For you personally, is hip hop a way of life – and if so, in which way?  

I think the term “A way of life” sounds a little cliché. However I do think about music most days and hear music in the strangest of places and think “I should sample that”. Sometimes I will drop cutlery or clang a pan just right and think “damn, that would be sick percussion”.

So in a way yeah, cliché or not I think Hip Hop, Music or generally being creative is a way of life.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to creativity?

I rushed and pushed a lot early on feeling like churning things out was the way to go. I like most of the stuff I produced then but my main thing at the moment is go with the flow and jump on any creative spark when it comes but don’t force it.

An example of this being “Through The Mist” from my album Patchwork.



It fell together from 12-3am on a Tuesday night using my iPhone earphones on my MacBook. I played the cuts using my MacBook keyboard. I added a rough bassline, because I had no idea what was going on there, and built up progressive percussion.

Using the most minimal of things at the strangest of times but I knew I needed to see where it was going.

Hip hop has always had an interesting relationship between honouring its roots and pushing the music forward. What does the balance between these two poles look like in your music?

I’m all for pushing things forward and at the same time have studied a lot of Hip Hop's origins and history.

Currently my style of mixing samples with electronic elements and forward thinking percussion hopefully bridges some gaps between the two.

My New single “Passing” has this feel to it as you get the sampled chops of the chords with off kilter percussion.

What role do electronic tools and instruments, including AI, play for your creative process?

Electronic tools - I use a DAW for pretty much everything. Even any bits I start on my 404 will eventually get into Ableton. I have a MIDI keyboard and a small collection of percussion instruments but that’s it for physical instruments.

I’ve been playing around with AI a lot lately, for sample creation, stem splitting and synth building but everything is still being worked on for now so nothing to show just yet.

How do you see the role of sampling in hip hop today?

Some people want to move away from it and some people are strictly for it. I’m happy either way and find the freedom to move fluidly between them can breed some amazing results. As long as you’re clearing your samples or getting them from a legit source then, why not?

My only caveat with it is to try and bring something new to it and not just loop 2/4 bars of another song.

There has always been a close connection between hip hop and jazz. What role does improvisation play in your current creative process?

I like this question, I’ve never thought about improvisation to be honest.

My first thought is; I will loop a drum beat and just start playing cuts and chords and just improvise and vibe out then go back and hone in on bits that I liked and maybe adjust from there or fill them out with other more thought through ideas.

However a lot of the time I start making a track from hearing a little sound I like and I almost always have no idea in my mind what the final track will sound like until I’m ready to mix and master so potentially my whole workflow and process is somewhat improvised.



“Anor” was a very improvised track.

Coming from handful of samples thrown together to loop live at WORKINONIT and after an improvised performance and a good reaction from the crowd, I worked it into the finished track.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

My track “Drift” was also a bunch of samples for live looping at a WORKINONIT event that eventually got made into a track for an album so there was a definite connection there. Some tracks I’ve fully made specifically for playing an event and have never been released.



Mainly though, I think there is a massive benefit to hearing your music in a new space on a big system and seeing how people respond to things. I’ve had some of my favourite tracks get no reaction and then a throw away project I was using as a transition track captures the ears of the room and turns heads.

Are there approaches, artists, festivals, labels, spaces or anyone/-thing else out there who you feel deserve a shout out for taking hip hop into the future?

As I’ve mentioned “WORKINONIT” is an awesome event for hip hop and is run by great people in Manchester. I can not forget the ever great “Folded Music” who have not only given my music a home but encouraged and nurtured the experimental side of things.

Also my mates “Fthmlss” & “Mick Destitute” who don’t really make Hip Hop that much anymore but they’re both pushing musical boundaries in other genres and we grew up making beats together so I’ll always give them a shout out!



From Star Wars via The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the Fifth Element, there have always been amusing sci fi ideas about how music could look like at some point. For a not too distant future, where do you personally see it going?

I think it will go to an extreme but of which extreme I’m not sure. Either; Heavily electronic, synth based techno-esque sounds that embodies the binary AI. Or a total regression and rebellion to simple drums and vocals, maybe a guitar somewhere too but a fully organic sound.

Either way I don’t think it will stay the same, even looking back over the last 10/20 years and how much things have changed. It will be exciting to see where we end up in the not too distant future.