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"With a three-guitar band, tone is
as important as being in tune," says Neil Jendon, lead guitarist and
songwriter for Catherine. "When
we started, we all had Marshalls and we were basically just
stepping all over each other. So
we changed our setups and now we each have our space. Everyone
has a lot of autonomy, and everyone
knows their role in a song."
Amid the Smashing Pumpkinesque din
on Catherine's full-length debut Sorry, Jendon, Jerome
Brown, and Mark Rew play their chords
with hard-driving depth while Jendon manipulates his
Epiphone ("the only guitar under
$400 that still had colors that occurred in nature") in a more
unorthodox fashion. Though Jendon
admits his musical affinities lie across the Atlantic with bands like
My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau
Twins, his current sound owes a great deal to fellow
Chicagoan Billy Corgan, the producer
of Catherine's first EP. And like Corgan, Jendon's a
self-proclaimed "dork who ran home
from high school to play along with his Led Zeppelin records."
Before he plunged headlong into a
serious band, though, a few lessons helped him with the basics.
"I did some brutally boring technique
drills, but I'm glad I learned them because now I can unlearn them if I
want. It's a lot easier to drop that luggage off than to pick it up."