Of all the clichés in the music world, the singer-songwriter dude-with-an-acoustic-guitar shtick may be the most prevalent. On any given night, Chicagoans can subject themselves to the painfully earnest caterwauling of singer-songwriters at a number of venues. One such dude, George Hunter, seemed to become aware of the cliché early on, so he recruited longtime friends Miguel Castillo (bass) and Ryan Farnham (drums) to play with him in what became Catfish Haven. Because they grew up playing punk, they mostly avoid acoustic-rock conventions by channeling punk’s aggression and intensity. Few similar bands match the racket Catfish Haven makes, but few bands mix elements of folk, country, rock, and punk so well. Last summer, the group signed with indie label Secretly Canadian (home to Antony & The Johnsons, Damien Jurado, and Magnolia Electric Co.), which released the group’s second EP, Please Come Back, in late January. The A.V. Club recently spoke to Catfish Haven about its sound, its plans, and its attempts to avoid boring the shit out of audiences.
The A.V. Club: For people who grew up in the punk scene, Catfish Haven’s acoustic-guitar focus is a little unusual. How did that come together?
George Hunter: We’ve known each other for quite a while, and when we got together, I had already bought an acoustic about a year earlier. I was writing a bunch of songs in my bedroom, just taking time off from playing with anybody. I had been playing in bands since I was 14. But I had a batch of songs—I wanted to somehow translate that into a live show, but without boring the shit out of the audience, I guess.
AVC: You guys, particularly Miguel and Ryan, play really hard. Is that a conscious thing, like you want to sound aggressive even without a screeching electric guitar?
Miguel Castillo: I think we play louder than some bands, but I think since we don’t sing backups, and there is no lead guitar, sometimes we kind of play lead guitar on bass or play lead guitar on drums, filling it up that way. We grew up playing in punk bands, so we’ve always had to thrash a little bit.
Ryan Farnham: I think we all like stuff that’s sort of hard-hitting, and we give it our all when we play.
AVC: Catfish Haven’s sound isn’t easily classifiable; it isn’t country or folk or straight-up rock. When people ask you what the band sounds like, what do you say?
MG: People have said “Creedence Clearwater meets Nirvana” or “Otis Redding meets Nirvana”—we’ve gotten weird comparisons like that. [Laughs.] So that’s sort of what we say. It’s been weird, because we’ve been thrown in a lot of different places that we don’t necessarily fit.