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Interview:
Kevin Gunther From Catch 22 -
Starland Ballroom August 18, 2012
By Stephen Rainone & Phil Rainone
About 16 years ago, Catch 22 started out as a young NJ ska
band in their late teens and early twenties (the members were
from Old Bridge, New Brunswick, and Keasbey). That’s
about when we started covering their shows for Jersey Beat,
and interviewing the band members at various times during
their career. It’s been about five years since our last
interview, and Kevin Gunther was kind enough to take time
and bring us all up to speed on Catch’s origins, and
what they’ve been up to lately. We did the interview
in the Starland Ballroom parking lot, finding a spot about
fifty yards from the venue, where it was a little quieter.
We talked about Catch22, ska, Michael Jackson, and we also
found a kindred spirit when Steve and I told Kevin about our
experience seeing Catch in Boston when they played on The
Warped Tour back in 2000. My Yankee-hat-in-Boston story is
legendary (well, in my mind it is), and surprisingly Kevin
relates his experience about wearing a Mets Jersey in Boston!
Steve: How long has Catch 22 been together?
Kevin: It will be 16 years this coming January. I joined the
band that September, that’s when we started to switch
to a more ska/punk thing. It was probably in September of
’96.
Phil: I was talking to Steve before, and we were talking
about the first time we, and our friends Frank and Tim Norek
(fellow Jersey Beaters-as Tim would say), saw Catch at Club
Bene in Sayreville, when the band was pretty much living out
of an older minivan…
Kevin: Yes! I remember that now, actually! What year was that?
Did the record (their first album, Keasbey Nights), just come
out?
Steve: That was about 14 years ago…
Phil: I remember doing the interview in the minivan…
Kevin: At the time we had a conversion van. It was an old
Ford, and it was the first van we ever brought. Chris and
I searched in the Sentinel, in one of the local papers and
we found the van in Aberdeen. It was a van that a family had
used, and the guy was saying, ‘Yeah we took the family
on vacation in this van…’ We used that van for
about a year and a half. The first tour we ever did was in
that van. At one point we were driving in Pensacola Florida,
and at one point we heard a noise, and we’re saying
‘This doesn’t sound good!’ Than all of a
sudden we heard a…CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! And our drive
shaft hit the ground, rolled under the van, and hit the curb!
We were like, ‘What the HELL!’- So we got towed
to the venue, and we got it fixed, and it was a simple fix-it
was just a matter of putting it back together. We found someone
on a Saturday to do it, and when we got back we were like,
‘I think we need a new van!’ We brought another
one that lasted us for a while, but everyone told us not to
buy an RV but we did.
Phil: Was the show that we were talking about your
fist show at Club Bene?
Steve: If that was the one with Edna’s Gold Fish, Mustard
Plug…if you remember?
Kevin: I do remember…
Steve: That was my first show…Did you play with
professor Plum and Old School 101 (a different show)?
Kevin: Yeah, but I think we didn’t play with them until
our second record came out. I think “Alone in a Crowd”
came out in 2000? I think we played four or six CD release
parties with them in Baltimore, in Old Bridge we played The
Birch Hill with OS101. Then we played Baltimore Maryland,
Massachusetts, and Philly, because the record was coming out,
and we hit all our best markets.
Steve: I remember a couple of the CD release parties
you were giving out the little EP’s for “Alone
in a Crowd,” and it had River City Rebels on it, and
the other one had “Sincerely Yours,” and “No
Love for the Roadie.” I remember when you played that
live me and Tim (Norek, fellow Jersey Beater), were like,
“YEAH!”- What? Nobody else liked it? I still love
it!
Kevin: Yeah! That was one of our epic failures (laughing)!
But I was telling Kim (Kevin’s wife), this the other
day, but I was joking because Mingus (Catch’s bass player),
when he did his verse on “No Love for the Roadie,”
he sounds like C&C Music Factory. You remember that? Well,
he sounds like that guy (he had a heavy, weird kind of voice),
and I was singing his verse the other day, and Kim was like,
‘What are you singing?’ I’m like, that’s
Minus’ part from “No Love for the Roadie!”
I don’t care what anyone says, that was funny, and it
was clever! We were making fun of ourselves and that’s
one thing we’ve always tried to do. We’ve tried
to not take ourselves too seriously. We’ve never ever
been a band that think that what we do so super important.
- We’re just a band that plays…
Phil: I got that kind feeling tonight seeing the band
on stage. You’re having fun, and you’ve been doing
most of these songs for over 15 years and it still sounds
fresh.
Steve: Just to double check because I was getting bopped around
in the most pit, but did you play anything off of “Keasbey?”
Kevin: We played “Keasbey,” that’s about
it. The “Keasbey Nights” thing is honestly like…we’ve
played those songs so many times and people do enjoy hearing
them but it comes down to the fact that, a long time ago we
had to decide, are we going to going to move on from the “Keasbey”
thing without Thomas? He’s doing Streetlight Manifesto,
and we have no problem with the band, but he’s playing
a lot of the songs…we’re never going to stop playing
the songs from “Keasbey Nights,” but we feel that
in 45 minutes we don’t need to play 5 “Keasbey
Nights” songs. I think by now people know that we have
a lot of songs that we’re going to play that aren’t
“Keasbey Nights” songs.
Steve: They (Streetlight Manifesto), played on the Warped
Tour this year, and basically, every time I see them play
live, I never hear anything off of “Keasbey…”
Kevin: The songs are what they are, and they’re great
songs but they’re also really old. I doubt Less Than
Jake are playing stuff off of “Losers, Kings, and Things
we Don’t Understand” (their first album).
Phil: have you written any new songs recently?
Kevin: I think some of the guys have some ideas, and have
stuff written, but I think if you asked all six of
us the same question, you’d get six different answers.
My answer is that I’ve been going to school for music
education (Kevin recently graduated from Kean University),
and I’ve been very busy with that. I’ve really
needed to focus on that for the last five years. I’ve
stopped working, and I really haven’t done much. I’ve
been playing gigs, but to make a record is a really big commitment
-months. I really haven’t had much plans to do anything,
but who knows. I sure the other guys have a different answer
to that question, where they would probably like to make something.
But now I’m really focused on student teaching in the
fall, and I’m really excited to be a music teacher!
Phil: Where are going to be student teaching?
Kevin: In South Orange and Maplewood which is really a wonderful
school district and I’m really excited!
Phil: Your recital at Kean was a lot a fun, and a
lot different music (mostly classical music). I was sitting
there listening with Frank (Norek), saying that at the end,
he’s got to do some Catch stuff (laughing)!
Kevin: Thanks! I appreciate you coming and writing an article.
It was really nice. That was something that musically, was
the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Preparing for that recital…going to school for music
is very difficult. The only way I can explain it is, when
you think you’re done, you have twenty other things
to do, and that’s not just like one class, I’m
talking like in through the day! You’ve done your two
hours of practicing your trumpet, and then its like, ‘Oh,
yeah I have to practice piano for two hours. Then I have to
practice on the flute a half-hour.’ Now, realistically
speaking, you can’t do that every day, it’s impossible
because you have to do science and math, and all that other
stuff! You never go to sleep as music major… You never
go to sleep thinking, ‘Wow, I had a great day today;
I did everything I needed to do (laughing)!’ It’s
just a constant battle, and for me as an older student, I
didn’t have the benefit of having the attitude of some
of the younger students like, ‘Oh, we’ll get that
done tomorrow,’ attitude. I wanted to get everything
done yesterday! I didn’t have time to mess around. For
me, that’s been a tremendous pressure on me. But looking
back on the recital, I got myself to a level of playing that
I still wish I would have been even better at the recital.
I was really proud of the four, or five hours a day, for three
of four months of REALLY WORKING to get to THAT level of playing.
It gives you an idea of what really, really, great musicians
go through in order to do things like that. It’s so
much different than this (playing for Catch 22). This is fun,
and not a lot of pressure playing. There’s more pressure
from the business side (Kevin is also a booking agent). ‘Is
there enough sales tonight, are we going to get paid, did
we draw enough people, is the club making money or losing
money, are we going to run out of gas before the next show?’
But the playing was always fun, it’s easy-that’s
the easy part. Classical music is-ROUGH! That’s all
I’ll say (laughing)!
Steve: When “Permanent Revolution” came
out, did you do a CD release party where you played it in
its entirety? Because I hear it at the shows, and I think,
’This is great, but it’s broken up (“Permanent
Revolution” is a concept album).’
Kevin: I want to do that! We’ve even talked about doing
it as a show, maybe at my Dad’s theatre (Kevin Sr. runs
the Sayreville Main Street Theater). He always wanted to a
do sort of acting interpretation, or even a narration. Our
trombone player Ian worked really hard doing a lot of research
and history. The album is written…if you read the lyrics
along with the CD it is a very intelligently written record.
Inevitably, I think it gets a little cheesy at times where;
to move the story along there’s things you have to say.
I never thought I’d say, ‘Centristhermador’
on a Catch 22 record, but ok, that works! It is a fun record,
and I was joking at practice the other day saying, ‘This
is a new song off our record!’- And that record came
out six years ago! I was like, ‘Wow, it’s been
a long time!’ I think it was 2006, the year we went
on the Warped Tour.
Phil: Did you headline that year?
Kevin: We’ve never been a band that they really wanted
to put on the tour. The first year we did the warped Tour
was 2000, and we did five shows, and got paid…
Phil: Was that when you played in Boston?
Steve; There was a dust storm…
Kevin: I remember (everyone laughing)!
Phil: We went with Frank and Tim (Norek), so I thought, well
it’s going to be a long a day (they used a race track
to host the show in Boston), and if we got separated, I wore
my Yankee hat. - I figured, ‘How many Yankee hats would
there be in Boston?’ But we found out later, WHY there
weren’t ANY, actually. Our first clue was at breakfast,
when the waitresses’ first question wasn’t, ‘Would
you like coffee?’ but, with a sour puss on her face
asked, ‘Are you sure you want to wear that hat today’?
I mean, you can wear a Boston Red Sox hat in New Jersey, without
getting much grief, but we found that Bostonians felt entirely
different about a Yankee hat Bean Town. Catch 22 went on early
in the afternoon, and we did a short interview with the band.
Then, all through the day, we’d pass people and they’d
say, ‘Yankees suck! (Paul) O’Neil sucks! Steinbrenner
sucks!’- But we kind of dealt with it. But at the end
of the day, we were hot and sweaty, so Tim, Frank, and I went
to get some water, and we left Steve behind, and I gave him
my Yankee hat for some shade. When we get back about ten minutes
later, we saw him running full-tilt forward us with the Yankee
hat in his hand yelling, ‘Take the hat! They’re
gonna kill me!...
Kevin and Jersey Beat's Steve
Steve: Rancid goes on, and of all the bands, they
come on, and they play a couple of songs and they’re
like, ‘Yeah, we love the Boston Red Sox, but you know
what… WE HATE THE YANKEES!! YANKEES SUCK! And I’m
just sitting there in the back of the crowd, and all of a
sudden, everyone turns to me and looks at me, and I’m
like, ‘OHH SHITTT!’
Kevin: I went to see Big D and the Kids Table when I was working
for them as their booking agent. I went up to see them play
in Boston, with the Dropkick Murphy’s, on St Patrick’s
Day, or it may have been a St. Patrick’s day show (
they usually celibate St. Patty’s Day for about a month
up in Boston), at a huge arena. It’s about a 7 or 8.000
capacity arena- a minor hockey league arena. And I said, ‘I
gotta see Big D. in an arena! I gotta go up there!’
So, it was the year that The Mets signed Johan Santana…So
I had a Johan Santana Jersey on… I figured, it’s
THE METS! I think the Red Sox at the time had won a World
Series, so it’s not like 1986 really mattered anymore
to them (do you remember Bill Buckner’s error that eventually
cost The Sox the World Series?). I figured whatever, they
don’t care about The Mets, they hate The Yankees! I
hate The Yankees too (laughing)! Ahh… I got SO MUCH
CRAP, for wearing a freakin’ Mets Jersey!! I’m
thinking’ to myself, ‘DUDE!’- Then the other
day…it’s funny that you brought this up because
the other day I was listening to a podcast. You guys listen
to podcasts? They like, the BEST! It’s like a two hour
radio show for free that you can listen to whenever you want!
I LOVE podcasts! I’ve only been listening for about
two months, but I can’t believe I never listened to
any of these podcasts, because they’re great!
Phil: My editor Jim Testa has his own podcast for
Jersey Beat…
Kevin: Cool… I was listening to Artie Lang on a podcast-
a sports show, and they were talking about how in Boston,
they don’t differentiate between The Mets and The Yankees,
or The Giants, or The Jets. If it says NEW YORK on it…THEY
HATE IT!!! THEY DON”T EVEN CARE IF YOU’RE A METS
FAN, OR A YANKEE FAN… if it says NEW YORK…if you
see NY, that’s good enough for them to just, hate you!
It’s funny because I thought to myself I remember that
(comparing his Mets Jersey story to our Yankee hat in Boston);
it was like, 2008 when I went to see Big D. They were literally
taunting me in the VIP bar area, and I was like JESUS CHRIST!
I can’t get away from this!
Steve: To me, The Mets are one of those teams that
you’re like, ‘Oh, you’re a Mets fan? - You're
fine...
Kevin: Yeah, Exactly! Its like, ‘We feel bad for you!’
Steve: Yeah, like they’d say, ‘Let me buy you
a beer…’
Phil: About a week ago Steve interviewed a young ska band
called, No Vertebrae
Steve: They played at The Stanhope House in Stanhope, New
Jersey. Catch 22 are one of their biggest influences. They
love you guys; they covered a couple of your songs. They were
just amazing! They brought me back to when you guys would
come out on stage wear the suits and ties. They took me right
back to their…
Kevin: It’s funny, I was watching the kids in the crowd
tonight and “kids” is actually a word I would
use because there were like younger people here tonight. I
was surprised! I saw the kid in the banana costume, and I
was like, ‘There’s always a kid in a banana costume
at a ska show!!
Steve: It’s either a banana or a Pikachu costume!
Kevin: Yeah, exactly! It’s so funny, and cool that there’s
a fan base for this style of music, but it seems like it’s
never going to come back to the rage that…it was chaotic
with Reel Big Fish, when they were huge, and all those bands
were like, blowing up…Mighty Mighty Bosstones was really
the band that brought it (ska) to the mainstream, and Reel
Big Fish. But, it’s nice to think that there’s
a place for a ska show in a venue that probably does this
crappy metal…fake heavy metal…emo stuff! There
are a lot of really weird bands out now. There’s a lot
of really NOT good music, and I don’t say that from
like, a ‘ska guy,’ picking on another style of
music. There’s just a lot of BAD music out there right
now! I think the internet has NOT helped, there’s a
lot of “Fashion Rock,” basically where who have
look and dress like a certain scene…it’s like
a Hot Topic scene.
Steve: I went to Woodbridge Mall today with my girlfriend
Kayla, and we went into Chic-Fil-A and there’s this
group of teeny-boppers and all of a sudden, these guys come
over and they’re like, ‘OHHHH!’ I asked
the kids, ‘Who are they?’ and they’re like,
‘Ohhh, that’s Hollywood Ending!’ So we (Steve
and Kayla) did research on the phone, and it was a Disney
band that they put together! We were like, ‘Ohh God!’
They were playing a fashion show in the mall…
Kevin: That’s funny! I was joking with Kim, we were
being, ‘Old people’ (they’re in their early
30’s), and the other day we were watching TV, and there
was a really bad band on, I can’t remember their name.
I said, ’This is pop music now?’ When we were
kids, Michael Jackson was pop music, and Madonna! Maybe we
didn’t appreciate it at the time, but you think about
that, what pop music is like now, like, Katie Perry, or someone,
and it’s not like Katie Perry is bad- she’s fine-
but she’s not Michael Jackson! She’s not Madonna!
I can get caught up into some of it, but there’s a LOT
of REALLY Bad music out there!
Phil: What new music to you like to listen to?
Kevin: (Kevin talks about Show tunes and jazz for a bit-seriously
cool stuff, and then he gets down to the meat and potatoes
of what he likes). If I’m going to listen to music,
it’s usually Green Day. - I listen to a lot of Green
Day. I still love Green Day; I think they’re the BEST
pop band from my generation.
Steve: They’re still one of those bands that
I don’t consider “pop.” I still consider
them “punk,” and I get yelled at and razzled…
Kevin: Yeah, I would say they’re a “pop punk”
band… but I mean “pop” as in a “popular”
sense. To me Green Day are the perfect alternate band. I don’t
think they’ve ever written a bad song…I’m
literally that psyched with Green Day, except for “American
Idiot.” I like the album, but not the song. …I
think Green Day has done it perfectly…if I could model
a career for a band; there’s would be been perfect.
They’ve had albums that really weren’t commercially
successful.-To you and I they’d be commercially successful
but, “Insomniac” was not.
Phil: Last quick question: Speaking of pop music,
“American Pie” (originally done by Don McLean
back in the 60’s), is to Catch 22, what "Ole"
is to the Bouncing Souls. Neither of you want to go near it-
it’s like your Kryptonite! But the rare times that you
do play it, the crowd goes NUTS! Do you think they go nuts
because it’s like it’s the one song you don’t
want to play, so naturally, everyone wants you to play it?
Kevin: The song that we avoid like the Plague, that we’ll
never play again, and honestly, I’m not afraid to say
it is - I think it’s kind of silly, because I actually
want to play it - is“1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4.” The guys
don’t want to play it. There’s a lot of reasons
why…”American Pie” is something we did when
we were kids and we put it on the record which was kind of
silly… when you get old, and jaded… I don’t
know why we don’t do “American Pie” anymore.
I think it’s kind of fun, I would do it, but there are
guys that probably wouldn’t want to do it. I just know
that for some reason “1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4” is not
on our set list, It’s permanently banned.
Besides playing trumpet and sharing lead vocals for Catch
22, Kevin from time to time plays trumpet in pit bands for
Sayreville Main Street Theater. He recently graduated from
Kean University as a music teacher. All this doesn’t
happen without some major support and commitment. Kevin’s
wife, parents, family, his friends, and band members have
long supported him, and he in return. When I wrote the review
about Kevin’s recital back in March, I came up with
the title, “The Glorious Results of a Well-Spent Youth.”
After doing the interview with Kevin, that title is even more
appropriate now. Like they say the apple doesn’t fall
far from the tree.
JerseyBeat.com
is an independently published music fanzine
covering punk, alternative, ska, techno and garage
music, focusing on New Jersey and the Tri-State
area. For the past 25 years, the Jersey Beat music
fanzine has been the authority on the latest upcoming
bands and a resource for all those interested in
rock and roll.
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