Catwalk > Yesterday's Rain

Catwalk is a story of highs, lows and line-up changes. I started the group during the summer of 2005. I had received a four-track cassette recorder the previous Christmas and began writing/recording my own songs after I purchased a guitar for $20. At first it never occurred to me to start my own band to help flesh out the songs, as writing and recording was just something I sunk deeper and deeper into doing. Once I realized I wanted to start a band and take things more seriously, I began to consider who could help me along this journey.

Robert was the first person who came to mind to play drums, as I'd been acquainted with him for some time. There used to be quite a few shows in the area and that's where I got to know him. Usually the bands were bad and when they were, we'd go outside and talk about starting a band. After he said he'd play, he told me about a girl he went to school with named Diana who played guitar. I figured if she can play guitar, she wouldn't have too much trouble learning bass. I met her, she learned some songs I had at the time and that was the beginning of Catwalk.

After playing together as a three-piece for about a year, things weren't working out and we decided we needed to find a new bass player. During this time, I had also been playing drums and bass in another band called WNDRKND, and that's where I met John Knestaut. Not only did he play well, but he was one of the only people I knew that played bass, guitar and keyboards, so I asked if he had any interest in joining the group. He joined and things worked out well for about a year and a half and within that time, we released our first 7 inch off YAY! Records.

For a few months, the band wasn't very active and I considered a whole new line-up to compensate for my loss of direction. I felt things were falling apart and I had to pick up the pieces before the band was almost non-existent. During this period, I thought perhaps a new drummer would help things fall into place. Cris is Eric Bello's (founder of YAY! Records) brother and was Maria's drummer for a few years. Since he hadn't been in a band for some time, he joined Catwalk and was around during the recording of our second 7 inch. In respect, we let John go not too long after Cris joined, as he wanted to pursue school and other things... Once again, we found ourselves looking for a bassist a third time. I met Kristina Maples my freshman year of high school in an art class and later found out she was dating a friend of my brother's. I got to know her and found out she could play guitar/bass. When the opportunity arose, I asked her about playing with us and she was very enthusiastic. At this point, my spirits were high and I felt the best thing to do would be to get Robert back.

Although Catwalk is my main project, it has always been a band. The reasons behind our frequent line-up changes consist mainly of a lack of interest, communication, etc. It feels like we've been through so many line-up changes, but we really haven't. It just feels that way because there are periods where we're active as a band, then we take some time off for various reasons and things change. Our current drummer, Robert, has been the second most consistent member besides myself. There was only one point in time when he wasn't our drummer and that was only for a short while. He's been with me since the beginning and was in the group once again shortly after our second 7 inch was released.

With this current line-up, I'm beginning to feel more and more like we can accomplish anything we want, in terms of music. We've been taking our time with achieving a good foundation and I'm really confident with what is to come in the near future. We're currently working with my brother K.C. as a second guitarist to fill in the blanks and help with our live sound. Very excited!

-Nick Hessler
(Interview w/ Dennis Greeuw)