Artist Interview: Dave Catching

Who are you and what do you do?

Hello everyone, I’m David Catching. I’m a musician and producer who has recorded and toured with Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, earthlings?, Mark Lanegan, Mojave Lords, Mondo Generator and many other bands. I host, produce, engineer and record with bands at Rancho de la Luna, my recording studio in Joshua Tree, California. 
 

Where did you start from, what’s your musical origin story?

I first became interested in music at a very early age from the music my family played at home and what was being played on the radio in the 1960s and ‘70s. My older brother Jack and my uncle David are fantastic musicians. They both inspired me to become a musician myself and to be in bands. 

I had a few friends that played various instruments and, when I got my first guitar at the age of fifteen, Jack and my friend Price taught me a few chords. I then started playing in bands with a few different friends, playing cover songs until we could write our own.  

In 1978, I started playing live shows with my band Red Sharks and a few other bands around town. I became involved in a band called Modifiers. We were pretty popular in the club scene and were invited to play a show in LA with a band called The Gun Club who we had performed with in Memphis. We went to LA in 1983 and played the show and we went over well. We made a lot of great friends and we made a decision to move to LA in early 1985. 

 

What’s the coolest thing you’ve done recently? 

I’m always doing things I consider cool but, this week, I’ve been working on an album with some of my friends and one of my favourite bands called Masters Of Reality, who I toured and recorded with over the years. Our friend Alain Johannes is now in the band and we had a great time recording the new album. 

 

What’s something you’ve worked on recently – or are currently working on – that you’re excited about or proud of? 

This marks the 31st year of my studio, Rancho de la Luna, which I started with my great friend Fred Drake, who sadly passed away in 2002. I’m constantly making albums that I consider very exciting with all sorts of bands, some that are huge some you haven’t heard of yet. It’s always an amazingly fun time recording.  

For the last year and a half I’ve been working on an anniversary album with lots of incredibly cool friends of mine playing on it. My friend Paul Frazer is producing it and helping write it with all our friends. It’s an album that I am most proud of; the most important that I’ve ever worked on. It will be coming out later this year or early next year accompanied by a documentary on the 31 years here at Rancho de la Luna. 

 

What drives you to create music now?

Music itself drives me to stay focused and have fun with recording and playing live. It’s something I can’t live without. It’s so fun and inspiring to have bands here and help them to realize their vision. It’s always been extremely fun to play live and to see the world, and how we all connect in so many different places around the globe. 

 

We know you’ve got an impressive collection of amps, pedals and cool stuff. What are some of your favourite pieces and why?  

There are so many favourite pieces of gear here because there are literally thousands I use to create the music that is recorded here. My first real guitars –  a 1958 Fender Stratocaster and a 1968 Gibson Les Paul that was made into a double cutaway by Strings and Things in Memphis, Tennessee in the early ‘70s – are two of my favourite guitars because I’ve had them since 1978 and have travelled the world with them.  

My Echo Park flying V is another favourite. It was with me in Paris at the Bataclan when I played there with Eagles of Death Metal during a terrorist attack where I lost a lot of good friends.  

I have a lot of Yamaha guitars and keyboards that I’ve had for a long time and use constantly. This list could go on and on and on as there are over eighty guitars and bases at Rancho de Luna. As far as amps go, I have an interesting old Fender black panel Super Reverb that I use quite a bit as well as a black panel Princeton. I also have an MP custom amp on loan from my friend Bill Ryan who makes Dream Studio Guitars, which I use a lot.  

I have a nice selection of Hiwatt amps, Peavey amps, Valhalla amps, old Supro amps, Zinky amps and Lanham amps which I love and tour with. Colby amps, vox amps… My friend Dave Raphael makes Fucktone Amps which are superb! Dave also makes AwTAC audio equipment; EQs, compressors and even microphones. I use these daily. 

As far as effects pedals go, this may take quite a while! 

I have so many friends that make amazing pedals and they all come into use to help create the sounds we come up with here. I just created, with my friends at Gran Casino Factory, a pedal that I find truly unique and amazing. We call it FRED – Frequency Rearranging Experimentation Device. It’s an octave fuzz, phase-shifter and reverberation pedal, dedicated to the genius of my Rancho partner, Fred Drake.  

I collaborated a few years ago with my good friend, Dr No, on a fuzz octave wah pedal called the Roadrunner. Dr No is an incredible artist that also creates some amazing effects pedals and has collaborated with everyone from Alain Johannes, Troy Van Leeuwen, Sarah Lipstate and many more. 

Right now on the pedal board I use live and a lot in the studio is a TC electronic tuner, a Jim Dunlop Cry Baby, a Jim Dunlop Rotovibe, an Origin Effects M-EQ DRIVER, a Dr No Colossus, an Earthquaker Devices Disaster Transport, a Solid Gold FX Lysis, a Boss Digital Delay, a Solid Gold FX EM III and an Earthquaker Devices Astral Destiny, all running into a Radial Big Shot ABY to split the signal into two amps.  

My friend Jamie Stillman from Earthquaker Devices has been a collaborator here at Rancho and I have a wide variety of his pedals here. I believe Jamie is hugely responsible for the coolness, durability and array of effects pedals created today. 

I started using Origin Effects pedals when they first started producing them and have found them extremely well-made, and they have the exact sounds I’m looking for in what they’re offering. They record amazingly well. All these things make for limitless combinations of sounds which heighten the excitement and fun of creating, recording and performing live.  

 

What’s your process for getting guitar tones when working with bands?

A lot of times I’m given an idea of what the artist is after and, after being here for 30 years and knowing the gear so well, I can help put together what they’re looking for – usually pretty quickly. It is cool when we do have a little more time and we can experiment but a lot of times you have to go with your instinct and most people are pretty happy. 

It’s hard to miss when you use a good instrument into a good effect mic’d with a good mic into great EQ, it takes very little to make it even better.

 

How do Origin Effects and our products fit into your work? 

Origin effects fit into my work perfectly. It’s super easy to dial in any great tone with any of the pedals. I’ve been using the M-EQ pedal a lot because it gives you a wide array of tones and boost, from just a little to really hitting it hard and that comes in extremely handy when working fast. I can’t wait to get into a lot of the other pedals you make because I’ve been so impressed with the few I have.