The June 2015 issue of Relix featured Catfish and the Bottlemen as one of our Summer Stars. At that time the Welch quartet were touring in support of their debut album, The Balcony, on which they worked with Jim Abbiss, who produced Arctic Monkeys’ legendary debut. We described the results as “a tight 11-track set of gritty garage rock and huge choruses. It’s straightforward and catchy.”

Earlier this year the group released their excellent sophomore set The Ride. The band is so hot in the States right now they are coming back across the pond off the heels of a successful summer tour to play a spate of holiday radio shows in December before ringing in 2017 with shows in Australia. The brief tour is now underway and closes out on December 10 in San Francisco.

We had the opportunity to speak with frontman Ryan Evan “Van” McCann and guitarist Johnny “Bondy” Bond about their success playing stateside, their guerilla roots as a live act and the impact of the early 00s American garage rock scene on their sound.

The first show you are playing when you return to the States in December is in Chicago. It’s interesting to think about how far back that city’s roots in the blues go in England. In fact, the Stones just announced they are returning to their own origins as Chess Records acolytes on their next studio album, Blue & Lonesome. Chicago blues songs were pretty much what their first album, England’s Newest Hitmakers, was comprised of, in fact. Do you feel an affinity or connection to this city yourselves?

McCann: Since we began playing Chicago, it’s always one of the first cities that sells out on our tours. We played at The Riviera a few times, and the first time we played there my voice went out on me when I was singin’. We got about three songs in and then we were like, “Ah, this isn’t really a show.” So we put a load of money behind the bar and told everybody to go get a drink. We put our whole fee on the tab and everybody got to drinkin’ that night and we just had a good time. Chicago has always been a big part of our trajectory out here in the States. And it’s not like we even have any kind of big hit out there, it’s just people get to talking and tell their friends about us and they come to the show. It’s a real natural thing that happens. Last night was about 2500 people and last year maybe it was like 800 or something like that.

What place do you guys like to go play when you come to New York?

McCann: We played Terminal 5 this time and last time we came out here, and the time before that we played the main room at Webster Hall. Back then we had our first album coming out, so after the gig we went into the smallest room in the building and played a few of our new songs there like we did when we first started playing together, and that was class as well.

When you guys first began playing together, I had read you used to play in the parking lots of big concerts after the show let out…

McCann: Yeah, we were like ninjas (laughs). We used to get a generator and set up shop, because we knew there would be like 3000 music fans coming out of a venue like the Hammersmith Odeon no matter what band was on. So we used to stand there dressed as ninjas and play these gigs, and everyone was like, “What’s this band about? These ninjas, they keep turning up in car parks giving CDs out.”

It was almost like busking in a way, right?

McCann: Yeah, definitely. Back in the day when we first started out and nobody was really coming to see us, we’d set up early on university campuses on the lunch breaks and play for people and wait to be thrown out by security. And by doing that, we’d be able to say, “We’re playing an actual gig at a venue tonight at 10 O’clock.” People would then turn up at the gig. It was a fun way to help bring fans into the shows. I mean, instead of turning up to a gig with no fans in the audience, and then by the afternoon the word would get out about our show. We used to all kinds of stuff like that, just as a way to get people to come out to see us instead of no one comin’.

What were these sets comprised of, your own material or did you do a lot of covers?

McCann: Mostly our own stuff, these four-track demos we used to hand out on little CDs. I see them up on eBay now every now and again. Our Walmart in England is called Asda, and we would go there and get a load of blank CDs, sit in the van and just burn hundreds of them. Like when we were stuck in traffic, we’d give people CDs out the van window to the other cars.

It’s great to see how well so many young English bands are doing here in the United States.

McCann: Yeah, me and Bondy talk about that quite a lot, because the feeling we’ve got as soon as we came over here since day one right up until now is one of great encouragement. We feel like the crowds want us to do well and want us get over. There’s that feeling.

Bondy: There’s a real positivity about it, and I think around the time of the first album, because it was a staggered release, on paper shouldn’t have known the album tracks or only knowing half the words to the songs. But they wanted to show us they knew them even more, so the audience was singing every single song from the set before the record had even dropped.

McCann: And then when we dropped the new one after that, they started singing them, too. The more we release and the more shows we play, the crowds are getting louder and wanna tell you, like, “We appreciate you coming over from the UK and we dug into your catalog. We’ve listened to both albums back to back and want to show you live we can sing every single word.” It’s crazy.

Honestly, it reminds me of my high school years in the late 80s/early 90s, when English acts were both on the pop charts with George Michael and The Cure and on college and alternative radio with the likes of Primal Scream, The Smiths, Echo, the Happy Mondays, etc.

McCann: American bands that I liked growing up like The Killers, I know they always would reference like The Smiths as their influence. I think all those bands from around that time—The Strokes, The Killers, Kings of Leon—from the States all did well in Great Britain before they hit big in America. If one of the big magazines heralded a band at the time, then they’d blow up straightaway.

Even the groups coming out of England at the time like The Libertines and The Cribs were making some great albums back then as well.

McCann: The Cribs are one of my all-time favorite bands! I love The Cribs. Every time we get a chance to play with them at a festival, I still go see them. And I think, especially now, they’ve grown into one of the best live bands you can watch out there. They’ll trash the stage up and Gary Johns is still screamin’. That record they did when Johnny Marr joined is such a classic. And that very first album, that to me sounded like a New York rock record. I heard they might be doing another album soon. I hope so.

The Cribs have yet to do a real psychedelic record yet, which I think they have in them. Have you ever thought of adding some psych flourishes to your sound?

McCann: A little like Sgt. Pepper or something, yeah? Well, we might have dreamt a little bit about doing that psychedelic third album and dabbling in that. But to be honest with you, we’ve been touring so much and these two records were written around playing live so these songs are about moving with arms as wide as we can stretch them taking in everything. The time we’ve had in the studio has been quick. The first one was done in a month; The Ride was done in a month. Then we’d go straight back out. We never really had time to just sit and think out a record as a concept, because we just keep going out on the road. Maybe the next one, yeah, because things are getting a little bit bigger now and the songs are getting a little bigger now. It feels we did the first two really quick, so I think this next one will come quick as well but maybe we will take a little more time to sit down and play around a bit.

It’s also interesting the way bands are re-defining the term “psychedelic” as well. Like The 1975, for instance, who play this completely unfurled mash-up of One Direction-style pop and King Crimson-esque angularity that is just crackers…

McCann: We played with The ’75 when they were first starting out and we were first doing our thing, and I remember we played a show with them in Liverpool to like 100 people. We’d bring in 50 people and they’d bring in 50 people. Even smaller than that in places like Manchester; we did these tiny little shows with them. So then fast forward a couple of years and we’re playing T in the Park, and the ’75 are headlining and we are going on just before ‘em, and we had a bit of a moment. It was nice to see how much America’s been taking in the UK side of things, which is certainly helping us over in England here as well.

Bondy: It’s a bit of an unabashed throwback to the time when pop bands would play their instruments like INXS or Simple Minds. It really feels like a welcome return to that form. .