Catapults – I’ll Be Honest

If you want to find yourself anew, it’s best to search in the tried and true. CATAPULTS from Oldenburg take this attitude towards life to heart twice over on their debut album: On “I’ll Be Honest”, the band celebrates an infectious and approachable mixture of emo and skate punk, which is completely in the tradition of great genre representatives such as Spanish Love Songs, The Hotelier or The Wonder Years, but still achieves a fresh independence with inimitable DIY attitude and unlimited joy in playing. At the same time, the band is always looking for the new in the old, also through their attitude towards life. Upcycling plays a central role on the record, which is thus perhaps exactly the album that the skate scene needed in a sustainability demanding time.

This attitude to life of CATAPULTS is already particularly visible in the music video for the lead single IF YOU DON’T MATTER – NOTHING DOES, for which the band built a guitar out of old skateboards in their own work. In the third single EVERYTHING (I WISH I COULD CLAIM TO BE) CATAPULTS again celebrate self-realization against all odds. To this end, they have shot an inclusive music video in collaboration with Bremen’s Blaumeier studio for people with disabilities. CATAPULTS combine these thematic concepts with their characteristic blend of energetic yet light-footed instrumentals and a vocal voice that skillfully breaks with conventions while remaining accessible at all times.

Already here it becomes clear which central role the honest attitude and social commitment plays in the life and music of CATAPULTS. The band first had to come to this realization themselves when they set the initial spark for their debut album in mid-2019. After two EPs released in the Do-It-Yourself process and performances at renowned festivals such as Rock Am Beckenrand, something big was needed for the album. A concept album, 15 tracks, with interludes and please also a complete storyline! All nonsense. Instead, the four guys from Oldenburg decided on a collection of 10 songs, which together form one of the most promising emo-punk albums of the German punk rock scene. Uncompromising openness and hard-hitting self-reflection create the framing bracket of “I’ll Be Honest”.

CATAPULTS recorded their debut album after almost a year of songwriting in March 2020, together with Sören Kucz, Tom Porcell and their longtime producer friend Paul Zimmermann in the freshly built Limetree Studios near Hildesheim. With “I’ll Be Honest” the band wants to establish itself in the German emo and pop punk scene and become a force to be reckoned with in the European punk rock market. The label Uncle M, through which the album will be released in March 2021, is supposed to help with this. Both extensive tours for 2021 and the first international shows are already being planned in cooperation with Spider Promotion.