“It started with Van [Ryan McCann, vocals] in the back of a bus during our US tour last year, just getting some acoustic demos together,” he says. “We had a day off and we recorded these with literally just acoustic guitar and vocals. And we ended up describing to Dave Sardy – before we even knew that he would be working with us – how we wanted the tracks laid down.”
It was back in the UK some time later, in an old bomb shelter converted into a rehearsal space, that the boys got together with the renowned producer to nut out the album. What was supposed to be a weeklong visit turned into just a two-day affair. Apparently Sardy was so impressed with what the band had already done that he was confident he could take it away and turn it into something phenomenal.
It was an easy exchange for the band members, who were all on the same page as Sardy. Bond says that Sardy produced some of the band’s favourite albums growing up, from The Dandy Warhols to Oasis. They also discovered a lot of the shared interests, which made it easy to articulate the kinds of sounds they wanted on the album.
“We’d say something like, ‘Oh, you know the drum sound in that track?’ and he’d know it straight away, or even have produced it himself” Bond says. For the Welsh foursome, it was an absolute pleasure to work with such an accomplished producer as Sardy. “We learnt that we definitely want to work with him again. We would go in today [to work on album number three] if we could.”
But making records is just one of the raptures of the job for this powerhouse band. Live shows are where they truly thrive, and it’s their mission to play as many as possible.
“We love producing the records, and it’s a joy to work with people like Sardy, but that is just a tool to get people buying a ticket to come and see us live at the end of the day,” says Bond. “You know, we’re just having such a good time doing it, it’s what we live for. And I would think that if fans can see how much we’re enjoying ourselves, then it becomes a cycle of that.”
In recognition of their punchy tracks and commanding live shows, the band were awarded the BRIT Award for Breakthrough Act of 2016. “It’s a total honour,” says Bond. “The category that we won was the category that was voted by the fans as well. We were up against some real pop acts [the likes of James Bay, Years and Years and Wolf Alice] and I can’t say we were holding out too much hope for winning. So it was lovely to get it.”
Gearing up for the new album’s release, Bond says it’ll offer Catfish and the Bottlemen lovers the roaring sound that they know and love, as well as a cinematic listening experience thanks to Sardy’s expert production work. If he had to choose a favourite track, it’d be Postpone.
“It was always the underdog from the initial demo stage,” he says. “There was a sense of, ‘Is it going to make it on the record or is it not?’ and at one point I was actually on my own saying that we should keep it. But it was when it was fully formed then everyone agreed it was a track they wanted to put on. I love it and it’s probably the one I would play to someone initially off the album.”
BY ABBEY LEW-KEE
