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Dave Catching

Dave Catching

Musician, Producer, Engineer
Dave Catching

Dave Catching is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer who has played with a host of rock legends including Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of the Death Metal, Earthlings?, Tex and the Horseheads, The Ringling Sisters, Mondo Generator and Masters of Reality. He is co-owner of, and a resident at, Rancho de Luna recording studios in California, whose clients have included QOTSA, Iggy Pop, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys and many more.

QOTSA, Eagles of the Death Metal, Earthlings?, Tex and the Horseheads, The Ringling Sisters, Mondo Generator, Masters of Reality, Yellow#5, Gnarltones.
Getting into weirdness

As a young kid growing up I was lucky to have my family listening to a lot of cool music. I would hear the Beatles and the Stones play on the radio. But mostly the influence came from my brother Jack who had a lot of cool bands, he taught me a lot about music - even after he caught me stealing his green Les Paul from under the bed… I just saw how much fun my brother and his bands would have whilst playing and that’s what really got me into music.

My first guitar was a Madera Les Paul junior copy and it lasted for a little while! It was really cool for a first guitar, cheap and it played good. Then I progressed to nicer guitars once I knew I was going to stick with it.

Dave was soon adding bass and keyboards to his repertoire:

I think a lot of people that play the bass and were growing up around the same time as I was were influenced by the Stranglers. The bass tone was so cool, aggressive and in the forefront that it had people gravitating towards the bass as a kind of a new lead instrument.

And in my eyes Gary Numan definitely influenced everybody with his synth stuff including me - leading to the purchase of a KORG MS10 synth. I am pretty sure Gary Numan - and Devo - got me into weirdness…

Everything up for grabs

I’m a happy accidents kind of guy, I’m not a huge gear head. I do love gear and I have lots of cool gear, but I don’t believe that you must use this with this and this to get the best sound, because everything is up for grabs. For example, some of my favourite albums of all time are albums that my friends did on their four-track cassette decks. They just have the vibes, and the songs are great!

When it comes to gear for me everything kinda comes from the song, I mean, if you have some $20,000 microphone through a $15,000 compressor of course it’s going to sound great, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use whatever you have to convey what you’re trying to do. Sometimes the craziest thing, or the worst piece of gear you have, is the best thing for the song.

One of my favourite records is The Damned’s first album. It sounds like absolute shit but it’s the chaos that makes the sound. I never really put it on and go ‘if only it could be recorded better’. They probably had three hours to create a record because they had no money, and [producer] Nick Lowe grabbed it, heard how they sound at a club, then went and captured that energy and vibe.

That said, Frank Sinatra’s albums are f**king amazing because they do sound incredible. So you get the spectrum. Basically, when he was doing albums they didn’t make any crappy gear.

Drop a brick on it

I love using gear that friends have come up with - I know how great they are, and it translates into the product itself. Aston microphones do sound great, they are tough and industrial. With an Aston you know you can drop a brick on it and just pick it back up knowing it’s gonna be working just fine. But also, I really love the people behind it.

With the Starlights we were laughing when I first opened them and saw the word laser, I’ll be honest I found it pretty funny at the time because I just thought to myself what’s next? But after we started using them, I thought f**k why doesn’t every mic have the laser? It makes it so much easier! After we started mic’ing drums I thought yeaaah this is really cool!

The mics sound great. You know it all gets back to how certain things are better for certain songs and so far I’ve had really great luck with all the mics that I have from Aston. The Starlights have been great for drum overheads and we used them on guitar amps too. Astons have sounded great on everything.

Out-takes

Q: Who are your favourite artists?
A: Early Brian Eno albums, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Masters of reality, Mark Lanegan.

Q. What would your fantacy mic be? 
A. Neon, shaped like a spaceship, lightning bulbs coming out of it, it would rain down beauty and love on everything it touched.

Q. Which four words would you use to describe Aston?
A. Cool, Amazingg, Fantastic, Tough.

Q. What was the first song that made youi cry?
A. The Beatles - Long, long, long.

 

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