IAN CATT: Kitchen Sink Music

In spite of his success producing Saint Etienne, Ian Catt hasn't left his roots behind. Richard Clewes talks him about his work with the band, his production techniques, and how to place an SM58 in a U‑bend for that ultimate 'Armitage Shanks' sound...

In the upstairs bedroom of a humble Mitcham semi, strange things are afoot. Precious microphones are stuffed down toilets, film soundtracks are played in reverse for hidden messages, and synthesizers impersonate vacuum cleaners...

Orchestrating these surreal proceedings is Ian Catt, owner of the London‑based Cat Music studio and the man responsible for some of the most original production work of the last five years. Known for his partnership with pop trio Saint Etienne, Ian has recently shown his grasp of all things hi‑tech with the ambient album, Katmandu. Most of his time since has been spent recording new band Universal, and singer Katie Marne. I started by asking him how Cat Music came into being.

"I got fed up playing in a band on the London pub circuit, and decided there was more fun to be had in the studio. I'd been into studios to do demos and things, so I'd sort of locked into the idea of just working in a studio."

A Mess Of Electronics

Ian's disappointment with the live scene meant he could return to an earlier interest in electronics, which had so far brought mixed results.

"I'd messed around at school by using two cassette recorders back‑to‑back, overdubbing. I ended up with something that was just hiss and mains hum, with a bit of music in the background, but it was all good practice. I actually built a synth as well — which sounded a bit like a vacuum cleaner when I'd finished it.

"Things got serious when I bought a Portastudio, the original Tascam 144, which was brilliant and opened my eyes to what was possible. The thing I regret is that in order to buy it, I sold a set of Moog Taurus bass pedals which are probably worth a fortune now!"

Ian got to grips with the Tascam in his spare time, because he still had a day job at British Telecom. While the job restricted his studio work, it paid off in another important respect:

"The best thing it did was get me working with computers early on — so when computers started to invade music, I knew a lot of the basics already."

In 1987, Ian left BT and turned Cat Music into a commercial 8‑track facility. Thanks to his understanding parents, he set up shop in an upstairs bedroom at the family home. One of his first clients, Bob Wratten of indie band The Field Mice, still returns to Cat Music (Ian will start work on a solo album with him in the near future). It was through him that Ian met Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs:

"Bob Stanley wrote a piece about The Field Mice for Melody Maker, and when he and Pete wanted to record a demo, they asked Bob Wratten where he had done his stuff. So they came to me one day and did 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart'. They were using a different vocalist at this point. Sarah [Cracknell, now the regular St. Etienne vocalist] didn't come in until around the time of 'Nothing Can Stop Us'."

The songs raised interest in Saint Etienne's debut album, Foxbase Alpha, released in 1991. It went on to earn a nomination for Best Album in the Mercury Music Awards, and established Stanley and Wiggs' reputation as songwriters. Ian was happy with the record, but found it difficult to grasp the band's musical approach at first:

"Initially, the band seemed shambolic in the way they approached things — I'm quite methodical. They just came in with a bunch of records and played me a Neil Young song ('Only Love...') in 3/4 time, which they wanted to use a 4/4 drum beat with. I couldn't see how it was going to work, but they managed to bend the vocal to fit the 4/4 time.

"After a couple of sessions, I began to think, 'Hang on, perhaps they've got the right idea here,' because we were having an awful lot of fun. So they changed my attitude to a lot of things, especially sampling and using loops."

Post‑Modern Post Production

Despite Saint Etienne's use of sampled drum loops and riffs, the first impression people get of their music is often a '60s groove, with lots of weird twists (try listening to 'Wilson' on Foxbase Alpha — it sounds like the tape machine was having a very bad trip). Ian denies the band wanted to create a 'trademark' sound, adding that their fondness for '60s music has possibly been over‑emphasised:

"I don't think it had an enormous bearing on the recording process, apart from the fact that Bob would come in and say, 'Here's a sound on a record — how did they do that?'. It was things like heavily compressed drumkits and pianos.

"One of the first things he brought in was a Joe Meek recording, which was fairly distorted and heavily compressed. He's also a John Barry fan, so we tended to use strings quite a lot."

Of Ian's instruments, the band favoured the Korg M1 and Sequential Circuits Pro One, which was used to filter external sounds and provide analogue noises. Ian's main workhorses are his samplers, an old Emu Emax I and an Akai S1000 keyboard. These are central to his work with Saint Etienne:

"If there's any kind of pattern to the way we work, it's a mass sampling session at the beginning. Bob, Pete and Sarah will come in with a melody and some bits on record, to suggest what they want to do, then we just play around. A track's not finished until it's on DAT. Quite often, we get to a state where the music's finished from my point of view, and then Bob or Pete will say, 'I'm not sure about that.' At that point, we can literally be one day from the finished mix."

Katmandu

After three years working with St Etienne, Ian was given an opportunity to branch out, when the Vinyl Japan label made him an offer he couldn't refuse:

"I did a nine‑minute ambient B‑side with The Northern Picture Library called 'When Stars Die', for Vinyl Japan. They then asked me if I wanted to do some stuff myself in a similar vein. I'd always wanted to do something instrumental, so it grew from there."

Working under the name Katmandu, Ian experimented with everything he could lay hands on, to get the key ideas or sounds from which each track could develop. Percussionist Paul Pritchard was brought in to 'loosen up' some of the tracks, prompting Ian to explore the sonic properties of another upstairs venue: "A lot of Paul's sounds were recorded in the bathroom, with lots of compression to bring up the room sound. We did record a couple of things while they were held in the toilet bowl — this was inspired by the War Of The Worlds radio play, where the sound of the Martian spacecraft opening up was actually a coffee jar being opened in a toilet!"

I asked Ian how he would like his solo output to develop: "I don't know if I'll ever be completely solo, because I need other people to work with. My main thing is songwriting, but I'm not very strong on lyrics, so I tend to collaborate on everything. Really, what I'm doing with Katie (Marne) is the closest I'll get to solo things. I'm co‑writing and producing with her, so there's a lot of me in what we're doing."

Ian's other recent work, with Brian Foley and Paul Hughes of Universal, has given him more control than before over recordings. This is because, like Ian, Brian and Paul use a Tascam MSR16S tape multitrack and an Akai S1000:

"If they've got something good on a demo, we can keep it, because it's either S1000 format or 16‑track."

Talking Shop

Ian does pick out some favourites amongst his gear. For example, his Studiomaster Series 2 desk was chosen because of its EQ and MIDI muting — but Yamaha's O2R has caught his eye for a very good reason:

"I like the idea of being able to recall everything. At the moment, I spend an hour after every mixing session writing down all the settings I've used on the mix, in case it's needed later on."

Most of Cat Music's equipment was selected for its usefulness, not because it was the hottest gear at the time. Ageing Alesis and Yamaha effects units have been spared the small ads, thanks to their individual quirks. An Atari 520ST with 105Mb hard drive remains the only computer — Ian still uses Cubase for the ST — while on the synth front, a Korg M1R rubs shoulders with a Cheetah MS6 ("Good for wacky noises, but a real pig to program"). And because no modern pop studio would be complete without some analogue relics, Cat Sound has its own unique collection: the SCI Pro 1 and Prophet 5, Logan String Melody, Roland SH3A and TR606, and a Korg Rhythm 55 preset drum machine.

What An Atmosphere

Another reason Ian keeps old equipment is that the atmosphere in a studio is as important as anything else: "A studio is somewhere to work that doesn't make you feel like you're working. I hate studios that are in basements, because you lose track of what time of day it is. Tied in with that is working reasonable hours — I never have a clock in the studio, because I'm more interested in making the music sound good than saying 'either pay me more money, or finish.' If you want to sum it up, it's somewhere to sit around or lie around in — Saint Etienne spend most of their time lying down here, mainly because there isn't room for any decent chairs."

Physical discomfort aside, Ian looks forward to recording with Bob Wratten again, and hopes Katmandu will bring some offers of soundtrack work. His career seems to have come full circle, because he now welcomes the chance to play live with Katie Marne or Universal when their albums are complete. These are bound to confirm Ian's place as one of the country's most innovative producers, and should bring the same level of success earned by his work with Saint Etienne. As they might put it, nothing can stop him now...