James Colton, the moniker of Boorloo/ Perth-based musician, audio engineer, producer, award-winning composer, and self-proclaimed “music nerd” Andrew Bartlett announces his forthcoming album Emotional Vampire with the release of a powerful punk-infused rock track titled; Catfisher.
Whilst James Colton, as a project, only made its debut in 2022 with the “engrossing and brilliant” (Pilerats) electro-psychedelic track Elevator Ride to Floor 808, Bartlett has been prevalent in Boorloo’s music community for many years, with West Australian Music (WAM) ‘Song of The Year’ awards with Michael Strong and The Ghost Away, The Autumn Isles, The Disappointed, recently having a film score nominated for the 2023 WA Screen Culture Awards, and currently performing in the band Deep Beep.
Written, arranged, performed, recorded and mixed by Andrew himself at Golding Sounds Studios, with some help from Trevor Bryan Cotton on the drums, Catfisher has a striking and dramatic presence. High energy, with intriguing chord progressions, and sensational melodies, the track is an exciting listening experience from start to finish, completely opening up into absolute soaring choruses.
On the inspiration behind the track, Colton shares, “I wanted to write an angry punk song that gives the finger to people profiteering off people’s loneliness and isolation, but in the process I think I ended up conveying some empathy for victims of such deception” continuing “Overall it formed a weird complex thread of emotions, and I think that helped the big choruses stand out, and it still rocks, go bang your head to it if you like.”
Inspired by a range of genres from 70’s soft rock, 90’s grunge rock, fusion and soft, moody jazz, Bartlett describes the forthcoming James Colton album as “an exploration of evolving recording and music production technology.” Continuing, “After working on some film scores over the past couple of years I discovered how incredibly expressive the latest generation of virtual instruments can be. In the right hands, they can be practically indistinguishable from the real thing. This inspired me to see if I could seamlessly blend this new computer technology with traditional instruments in a contemporary rock setting. With the analytical part of my brain occupied with this goal, I found myself rediscovering the joy of creating music just for the hell of it.”
James Colton’s new single Catfisher is out July 26, via Blue Grey Pink.
