Building The Shelf with Katcheen Tongues

A new series that highlights artist-run organizations that support fellow independent artists and their community.

Last week Music Shelf debuted “Building The Shelf” with San Francisco’s nonprofit organization Big Leap Collective. If you missed it you can check it out here.

This week Mustard had the pleasure of being joined by Katcheen Tongues, an art collective, founded by Chuck Harp and Jon Carlucci. Together we discussed Katcheen Tongue’s formation, their influences, and so much more.

1. Mustard is thankful to have Katcheen Tongues join them at Music Shelf. How are you both doing today?  

JC: Doing fantastic, thanks for having us.

CH: Great, thank you for taking an interest in our work.

2. Before we begin Mustard must say that they love the cleverness of your name. Who came up with the name? What are some things tongues often get caught in?

CH: It’s a mutual creation between Jon and myself. We wanted to a do a subtle Dragon Ball reference so I thought of Katchin, which is the strongest metal in the Dragon Ball universe. And Jon came up with adding Tongues as a reference to the hip hop collective, Native Tongues Posse, which we both love.

JC: We had to alter the spelling a bit to ensure the pronunciation was easy for anyone. The direct translation would be something like “sharp tongues”. It wasn’t until after we came up with it we realized the play on words in the name “catching tongues” so it’s funny how things work out.

3. After coming up with your name, did the art collective shortly follow? Could you share more about the formation of Katcheen Tongues?

JC: The collective came before the name. We have been creating together since elementary school when we’d steal our parents video cameras and make home movies. The natural progression was to combine Chuck’s writing passion with mine for music. Our first musical journey together was actually creating several punk songs just for fun. We realized how much we enjoyed working with each other in a musical capacity and wanted to keep it going.

CH: The idea of working together definitely came first. Unsure of the direction, I pitched Jon the idea of doing a poetry project and we instantly went to work. But we were both hesitant on using the word ‘band’ for what this was. So, we decided to call it an artistic collective so we could add in likeminded friends in various mediums and genres.

4. Who or what influences Katcheen Tongues?

JC: It’s a pretty eclectic list of influences, anytwhere from Tribe Called Quest to the Grateful Dead to Dragon Ball Z.

CH: Besides those previously stated, Gorillaz surprisingly were a huge influence for us musically and when it came to the concept of an artistic collective. There’s essentially two “core members” but weave in various musicians, producers, or traditional artists for each project. That was key with us when starting. We want to make this larger than just Jon and myself. Personally, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gil Scott-Heron were pretty influential for me as the writer of the group too.

5.  Katcheen Tongues spans from the West to East Coast. How can someone get involved? What does a typical event or meeting entail?

JC: We don’t have a “typical” meeting, we’ve created tracks playing instruments through our phones. We’ve also created tracks inside a rehearsal studio when we’ve met up in person.

CH: I was back East the winter all this started. But our entire second projects was done online. Recently however, I can say Jon and I worked in person again out West. Obviously it’s better to do this in person, but we all have different projects. Time and money are hard things to come by these days. Now, who is in the collective can be up for debate and vary project to project. Obviously we’re open for collaboration but we’re still pretty tight-knit. Like we knew we wanted to work with our good friend Alex Ervin (of Sleep Index and formally of bottomshelf) and when we reached out he luckily signed on.

6. Last year Katcheen Tongues released a self-titled EP. Could you share more about the process of putting that together?

JC: It was material we were sitting on for a few years. All the tracks were recorded in around 6 hours one night in my parents’ basement. It was a very impromptu session but those can sometimes lead to the most authentic material. We used one electric guitar, Garageband, and even made a vocal booth out of a pillow fort.

CH: We were trying to figure out exactly what we wanted to convey, and how best to do it. I came in with a six pack and some prewritten poems and we started to experiment with sounds and phrasing. The poems were quickly altered and some tracks were left on the cutting room floor.

7. Two months ago Katcheen Tongues released “Letters From The Lookout.” What was the inspiration behind your latest release?

CH: We wanted to do something a bit different. Expand on what we originally did, but have more of a jazz and lofi hip hop style. Ervin was intricate to this. He really helped guide us to where we wanted to go. Couldn’t have thought about doing this without him. He is truly a great artist.

8. In our ever-expanding digital world letters seem to almost a thing of the past. If Katcheen Tongues could write a letter to anyone who would it be too? What would the letter detail? Do you believe it is still important that humans know how to compose letters?

CH: I think I’m in the minority here but I still send letters and cards haha. It can be fun. As for who would receive a Katcheen Tongues letter, I think it would have to be any of our influences, the living ones at least, and thank them for the art they created.

JC: Chuck is definitely the old school one and is all about the letters and other pre-digital mediums. I think the skill and ability of physical writing is one of the single most important parts of human history, not just creatively but from a knowledge standpoint. In our digital age it is difficult to find opportunities or even reasons to physically write when everything can be done so quick and effectively via technology.

9. Mustard wonders where Katcheen Tongues is looking out from.

CH: From a cramped overpriced apartment just below Kami’s Lookout, and just above Hell itself.

JC: I’m looking out at the road rushing under my wheels.

10. What are some goals of Katcheen Tongues for the upcoming year?

CH: We hope to continue to expand and build on our skills, as well as bring in more great artists to join us. Also, we want to have a new album by next year and would LOVE to do live shows. So get in contact if you’d like to book us.

JC: To have a happy and healthy year, also to expand our creative output, possibly beyond music. As always we are trying to pump out as much music as we can.

11. Where can readers find more information about Katcheen Tongues?

CH: You can find us at:

Spotify: 

 

Bandcamp: 

https://katcheentongues.bandcamp.com

 

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-196684021 

Chuck’s personal website: https://www.chuckharp.com/poetry.html 

Ervin’s Sleep Index project can be found here: