As if from nowhere, CAYTO recently assaulted our consciousness with their superb 'debut proper' mini-album, the mighty "Your Atoms Are Laughing." Blown away by the power of this fascinating Scottish quartet, TIM PEACOCK arranged to have a chat with singer/ guitarist PAUL HENRY during CAYTO'S recent spate of UK gigs and got the lowdown on independent labels, Buddhist texts and Tony Blair's arrogance.....
PAUL HENRY has lots to tell me, and he's so affable and interesting to talk to that our chat could have continued for some time longer than the half hour or so we had. Some background seemed as good a place as any to start, so Paul, could you tell us why a fine young Scottish quartet are working with an equally fine record label from Hampshire?
"Yeah, well, basically Stephen (Crabtree) has been putting out new Scottish acts," replies Paul.
"As far as I know, he found us from a list of Scottish bands off some website and investigated further. Actually, he's a real jet-setter, he flew in from Norway to see us the first time(laughs)!"
"Seriously, though, it's a really good label, and it's great for Cayto because we've been sort of working on this since we were finishing at university. That said, he's (Stephen) never really explained why he's keen on covering Scottish bands."
This talk of independent labels turns to the current industry climate. Amid all the talk of downturn and people being laid off at the big labels, is the upside that it's a good time to be going the independent route? Any thoughts, Paul?
"Well, we're very happy with Hackpen. I mean we do our own promotional stuff and we like being involved, so it gives us the freedom we need. I mean, I guess every band wants a big budget for creative stuff, but we've actually produced a lot of our best stuff, like "Head Of A Pin" at home, so y'know, who really needs it."
CAYTO - who also consist of NEIL HENRY (bass, guitar, keyboards), NOBBY (guitar/ keyboards) and drummer PAT McKENNA - have actually produced a self-recorded album of earlier material which is available via their website, but "Your Atoms Are Laughing" is their first official mini-LP and undoubtedly the place to start. Where does the title come from Paul? Is it from your lyrics?
"Well, we actually had six alternate titles, " Paul confides.
"A lot of tracks have actually been recorded for some time and we've got a lot of new songs we're already doing live. That can cause a bit of friction, because I'm well into doing the new songs rather than just stuff from the album, but the album title itself is a bit elusive...it could be from a new track called "Doctor Faustus" we're doing live. On the other hand, I've also been reading Buddhist texts recently...maybe it came from them. Whatever, it reads well and that's an important factor."
One of the things that immediately struck me about the CAYTO sound is the use of dynamics. Something like the album closer "God Is Love" has amazing tension. How did this song evolve?
"That one benefitted from being recorded at home and tweaked about with," Paul responds.
"We finished it at the Chemikal Underground studio in Hamilton, then kind of added further tracks, mixing and matching for another 2 months. The downside was that when we finished it finally, we thought "Shit, we've gotta learn this now to play it live!" (laughs)"
Of course, without wanting to get too Emerson, Lake and Palmer about this, you guys obviously play really well as a unit. Do you think that even though guitar bands seem to be undergoing a resurgence just now that the new bands are scared of showing their virtuosity?
"I don't know, actually," muses Paul.
"Let's face it, the danger of wanky guitar solos is always there, lurking, isn't it? You do get to reap some benefits out of being good and playing well, but I don't think you need to show that all the time. There again, I think it's fair to say that a lot of the new, supposedly "punk" bands like Sum 41 or whoever really can't do more than three chord stuff."
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At a slightly different tangent, there are tracks like "Dirge 2" on the album, which to me seems more of a Post-Rock influenced thing...?
"Mmm, well I can't honestly say that I listen to too much of that kind of thing. I haven't listened to Mogwai much," says Paul.
"Perhaps I should listen to them to find out! (laughs)...No, but I think it's more of a subconscious thing that it ended up sounding the way it does. Plus the title's probably because we had another track called "Dirge 1" previously. Funnily enough, "Dirge 2" reminds me more of Portishead with virtually no vocals."
Meanwhile, how did you come to write "Archimedes"? For the uninitiated, this track is a huge, thrashy explosion of a track, quite untypical of the rest of the album. The track samples George W.Bush, but was it written out of frustration at what Bush and his war-mongering cronies (who seem to be diminishing) are trying to do?
"Not exactly," says Paul. "To be honest, everyone thinks we're all over the shop musically with all the diversity, but this is the only thing we have that's like that."
"Actually, our live show is much heavier. I wrote "Archimedes" prior to adding the Dubya samples and it sounded too oblique. It was more an anti-Capitalist comment based on the marches in 2000, but it evolved from that time. It's a bit of a funny one, really, in that it was originally half-avoiding politics."
The thing is, though, Paul, it looks like he'll go into Iraq now, though we're all praying it won't happen...
"Yeah, it does look like it," Paul agrees. "Obviously we hope not, but it scares me that Bush and Blair don't seem to realise how without allies they are. I mean, half of the Labour Party's gone against Blair now."
"You know, they had huge demos in Glasgow about the Iraq situation," Paul continues, "and Blair was supposed to be there. 80, 000 people turned up,and Blair was supposed to be there to address the people at 1 in the afternoon. He never appeared at the rally. Later, we found out he'd been flown in at 9 that morning, spoke really quickly to hardly anyone and fucked off again. That shows how little he cares about the people, doesn't it?"
Finally, Paul, providing they don't lead us all to some unholy apocalypse, what's next on the CAYTO agenda?
"We're supposed to be doing an EP," reveals Paul.
"It was originally scheduled for the summer, but we'll see. We might do a split 7" or something first. We're toying with another 6-track mini-album or recording a full length LP. We though with "Your Atoms..." 7 tracks was enough. We can sell it for a reduced price and it's more realistic to ask people for £8 instead of £15 for a band they've never heard of, isn't it?"
Absolutely, Paul. Somehow, though, this writer thinks that being unknown is not a problem that will dog CAYTO for long. "Your Atoms Are Laughing" really is a cracking debut. Don't even think about missing out.
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