Everyone Likes Cathleen – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Everyone Likes Cathleen – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Originally Posted: 04/05/15

Editor’s Note: Everyone Likes Cathleen is a metalcore band from Mexico City who released an EP entitled Trials in 2014.  They continue to release music under the name of Cathleen.  Here is an interview I did with bassist Giovanni Oloarte in 2015.

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Everyone Likes Cathleen, and how long the band has been together.
Hello, I’m Giovanni, bass player for Everyone Likes Cathleen. We’ve been together as a band since 2012, so it’s been about three years now.

Where is the band based out of and what is the local music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are a band from Mexico City, although there’s a music scene in our city and we have the fortune to be in the capital of the country which gives more people and advantage, it’s still Young; there’s still a lot of inexperience amongst the bands and the people who organize shows, the lack of experience-based knowledge is still easy to see in both parties, obviously that affects the people who goes to the shows because they aren’t used to demanding better quality in the shows and so a vicious cycle is created. Fortunately everything is improving, even in the last two years a lot of good bands are coming together, people who worry about the quality of their production, being in a band or putting a show together, as well as the people who go to the shows are taking a different approach to the shows.  Now they begin to see all the effort behind a single show coming together and are more open to buy merch and even expecting the bands to have merch, four years ago it was a surprise watching a band with merch; so even though it’s still Young, I foresee a good future.  There’s a lot of good bands in Mexico City, but right now I highly recommend Joliette, they are awesome people, with awesome music.

Is there any story or concept behind your EP title Trials?
Trials is a very close and emotional production, specially for me, the lyrics of this EP are all real life experiences which have been very important for the those who went trough them and helped us form ourselves. The title “Trials” came as a way of express the importance of said experiences which had an impact so special that they are a big part of who we are, they were things we needed to go through to improve ourselves and become who we are.

What inspired the lyrics to the song Patient Zero?
I’ve always thought that the culture revolving around money is just sick, although material goods are necessary in a material world; I think everyone should have enough for what they need and not worry to death about all the things they want and how they are going to get it.  That’s why Patient Zero speaks of money being the root of a certain kind of plague that we need to survive.

How did the Patient Zero video come about and how long did the video shoot take?
It was a short video shoot; it was recorded between our soundcheck and the actual show in one of the biggest venues in Mexico City when we played with Killswitch Engage, so it was in a couple of hours. The intention for the video was to show everyone how the experience of being in our shows is like so people can see a more real face of the band, without the production behind of a conceptual video.

Select any two other Everyone Likes Cathleen songs and what inspired the lyrics.
I’ll talk about Reckoning and Sempri Fedele.

Reckoning talks about a lack of identity, the idea of the lyric is basically what would happen if someone suddenly woke up without any memories of where he is from or who is he, in the travel to find the answers to those questions, he finds inner voices guiding him to find out; this idea came from the need of identification that we all go through to know ourselves.

Sempri Fedele talks about the loss of my brother long ago which had some serious impact in me, so basically it’s me talking to him and ending our cycle in the most effective way for me.

How close is the band to releasing a new EP or full length album since Trials was released nearly a year ago.
Actually, we are recording our first full length album right now in Houston.  We still don’t have a release date, but we hope we can launch it in summer, either way it’s coming soon enough so keep an eye on us!

What are you looking forward to the most about playing South By So What and will this be your first time playing in the States?
Having people of another country see and hear what we love to do.  This is our life and we love to share our work with you guys, so this is a wonderful opportunity to do so! It’s our first international show so it’s even more special!

What could one expect from a live Everyone Likes Cathleen show?
Lots of energy and a good time.  We love what we do so we always have fun with the people who go to our shows.

If Everyone Likes Cathleen could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
There are too many bands we would love to play with so it’s very difficult to say one without feeling guilt.  Personally I’d love to play with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, definitely a dream come true.

Who is Cathleen and what is about her that everybody likes?
Cathleen is not a real person per se, it’s more of a way to refer to that special someone that everybody has, that’s why everyone likes her, and although we say it’s a her, it could be a he, a she, even a thing or a hobby, that’s why Everyone Likes Cathleen.

What is it you would like a listener to remember the most after hearing your music for the first time?
I would like for people to remember that our music is a part of us and it’s reflected in our work, every time you listen to our music you can hear a part of our personality and experiences.

Any final words of wisdom?
Just keep doing what you love to do, even if at first you fail, be patient and go on, every adversity is a possibility to become a better person.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! Hope to see your band in the Los Angeles area one day soon.
Thank you very much! We hope to be there really soon to share our music with you guys!

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Everyone Likes Cathleen on Facebook