A veteran punk musician who last year ventured down the indie folk singer-songwriter path, Sydneysider Blake Cateris continues his quest for gritty yet candid songwriting with his latest release, 'Concentrate'.
The frontman of Molly And The Krells, throughout his career Blake has shared the the stage with the likes of CJ Ramone, Bodyjar, Hard-Ons, Gyroscope, 28 Days and The Getaway Plan, as well as holding a nine-year residency at Frankie's Pizza By The Slice (RIP).Inspired by the likes of Frank Turner, Butch Walker, Dave Hause and Laura Jane Grace, Cateris fuses his stories with the honesty of real-life events.
"This song was born out of the suspicion of living life with AD/HD undiagnosed and all the productivity, functionality and self-esteem issues that come with that," Blakes says of 'Concentrate'.
"I began to notice issues with maintaining my attention on specific tasks, whether fun things like songwriting and movies or mundane things like answering an email from the ATO.
"After listening to the noise on social media of articles and memes of 'if any of these apply to you, you have AD/HD' that most likely were not written by professionals in the field, I started to develop my suspicions.
"The song kind of just turned into a confession of some weird things I've noticed about myself that likely no one else cares to notice. Maybe we all have some weird things about ourselves that no one else notices."
With a Melbourne show this weekend, and ahead of jetting off to UK with his old mate Ed Barnes in April, here Blake share five influential albums that have shaped his own artisty.
Social Distortion - 'Sex, Love & Rock 'n' Roll'
This album has been with me for a long time. Despite hailing from Orange County, I've always associated Social D with the Los Angeles that the rest of the world knows. This album reminds me of all the beautiful things about LA; it's slick, with a rough blend dusted around its edges.Mike Ness' poetry is eloquently spoken with lines that roll off the tongue and penetrate the heart. The strength and character of previous releases can't be discounted, but this is peak Social D to me.
Peter Bradley Adams - 'Between Us'
This is a beautiful and tranquil struggle. The laidback, soft arrangement that flows underneath the sometimes troubled, sometimes affecting lyrics creates this incredible and intangible friction.It's these outcomes in a body of work or piece of music where they extend far deeper down into the core and premise of a song that really inspires me as a songwriter.
I can listen to this while driving, to drift off to sleep, while polishing off a bottle of whiskey in solitude while I tackle the world's problems – Adams' music can be so easily set to so many different real-life scenarios, it is honestly brilliant, cinematic music.
Like anything in life, we must look beneath the surface to even just begin to appreciate something or someone and it's that nuance in this album that makes it a truly remarkable body of work.
Frank Turner - 'Tape Deck Heart'
'Recovery' was the first song that I stumbled upon when it came to Frank Turner. It was the first of the 'punk turned singer-songwriter' types that actually resonated with me and I thought 'this is interesting. . . this is actually really cool'.I had no addiction to speak of, so the subject matter didn't land 100 per cent but I somehow felt like it was me he was singing about. It was wordy, oddly specific about minute moments and details of life that seem to pass by the more simple-minded populist songwriters of the world and above all, it was confessional.
As I ventured deeper in 'Tape Deck Heart', I thought 'this guy is for me'. Like the reason most people develop an attachment to their favourite music, this album made me feel understood. It came into my life when a lot of what I was processing was reflected throughout the very album.
From the crushing, brutal and vulnerable 'Anymore' to the strength and pace of 'Four Simple Words' once it kicks in, this album, with its overt theme of regret has the depth and range to satiate most of my music cravings. My friend Amelia once told me: "You either love Frank Turner or you've never heard of him."
Jethro Morris - 'I Hear Trains When I Sleep'
This is an exceptional piece of vulnerability from Jethro. Every song has a strong sense of identity and purpose. There is even a song called 'Vulnerable' and it makes me want to shout from the rooftop that everything's going to be ok!Not many songwriters can make my eyes well up with tears as they deliver a sucker-punch in the last line of a song. Jethro 'gets it' and this EP (sorry EP, not album) has earned him a place in my list of favourite Australian songwriters.
Rancid - '...And Out Come The Wolves'
Iconic. Punk rock. That is all.Blake Cateris plays Lost Souls Excellent Adventure Fest (Melbourne) 25 February.
