|
February 2000
Derek's relationship with Carla comes to an end, resulting in the sale of
their Malibu mansion. Carla returns to Europe to continue her illustrious
supermodel career. Derek moves back into his disheveled one-room apartment in
Montreal. Says Derek: "It's good to be home."
April 2000
Flooded with inspiration since his recent split with Bruni, Derek places a
call to Steven, now living with his sister in her apartment. The two best
friends get together to start a new dark, ambient music project - The Void.
"I realized that I can only serve my purpose in life when I am
alone," Derek was quoted as saying in a New York Times interview.
"When I am in love, I have nothing worthwhile to impart. I am useless. I am
clinically dead."
The duo enter Treble Studio - formerly known as Ice-Pik - to begin production
on The Void debut album.
Mid-April 2000
Gus is invited by Uffe Cederlund and Jörgen Sandström to produce a few tracks
for the forthcoming Entombed release, Uprising. Upon arriving in
Stockholm, the very in-demand producer receives word that his 6 week old kitten,
"Lemmy", needs to be put on a 24 hour suicide watch after attempting
to jump off the balcony of Gus' 33rd floor high rise apartment. Subsequently,
Gus is forced to cancel his production commitment with Entombed and return home
immediately. Reached for comment Lemmy declared: "ma please uh". June 2000
Derek and Steven independently release their self-titled debut album, The
Void. Featuring seven songs in total, the album is a complete departure and
estranged entirely from the renowned heavy sound of Catalysis. Long and
brooding, the songs are an amalgam of ambient techno and new wave goth. No
touring plans are announced.
July-August 2000
Steven receives a call from keyboardist and acquaintance Angelo Scalzzi of
local band Yellow Afternoon, looking to fill an opening slot for a pair of local
gigs. Steven re-establishes contact with Gus, pursuading both he and Derek to
play the shows. They perform two surprise gigs at local club Bogeys to an
intimate, receptive crowd response.
Mid-August 2000
Energized by the crowd reaction and getting re-accustomed to the groove of
playing music, Catalysis officially re-unite as a power trio once and for all,
confident in this solid line-up.
The guys are all equally excited. "It's good to get away from my
shattered personal life and just rock behind the drum kit again," drummer
Steven Seth comments.
"I feel fantastic!" was all guitarist Gus Siewert could say.
And bassist/vocalist Derek Abel states: "This is all I wanted from the
start. A committed group, a fuckin stable line-up, and kick-ass songs."
The band decide to record a follow-up album to Wrought From The Ash.
August-September 2000
Pre-production begins immediately. Derek writes and records a demo of seven
all-new original tunes.
October 2000
Songwriting continues. Derek and Gus collaborate on several new songs. The
response so far from record label EMI and from manager Rav Reeve is ecstatic:
"This is incredibly heavy music. This group is intent on reclaiming their
throne at the top of the heap."
Mid-October 2000
Steven delays the pre-production and arranges with Molson to play a blind
date show at a local club to test out the new songs.
Steven and Gus get into a few heated arguments over the direction of
Catalysis, and a crisis ensues. Gus states: "Yeah, we had our shouting
matches, but we get along fine on a personal level. It's all good. In fact, all
of the great rock bands have had to deal with internal tension. And we're a
fucking great rock band."
Derek threatens to quit the fold on several occasions, but realized it was
just his emotions getting the better of him. "At this point in my life,
Catalysis is my main priority, but if I had to be in the same room with Steven
and Gus for one more day, someone was going to die. Me, or them, I don't
know...but someone...definitely."
 November 2000
The band plays at local club Jailhouse with fellow local bands Yellow
Afternoon and Everglow, unveiling five songs from the forthcoming album. The
response is overwhelming.
Once again, the band sparks controversy during the introduction of one of
their new tunes, "Martyr", in which Derek made crude references to
devout churchgoers and religion in general. The controversy escalated when
offended fans of Christian band Everglow shouted obscenities at Derek and
attempted to boo Catalysis off stage.
Derek later commented in local alternative paper The Mirror: "Maybe I
could've been more selective in my phrasing, but I don't appreciate having to
constantly defend my position regarding religion. I don't hate God. These are
just my personal opinions. Listeners are not obligated to agree with me or my
views."
The band was also thrown at the forefront of controversy when a slight
altercation broke out after the show between Gus and Derek and Yellow Afternoon
vocalist Josh Hartley, concerning rather demeaning remarks made by Gus about
Hartley's pretentious character. Gus harbors no regrets: "Besides
OLP's
Raine Maida, Josh is the biggest fucking cunt in the industry."
To which Derek added: "What kind of a fuckin name is 'Yellow Afternoon'
anyway?"
Mid-November/December 2000
Derek reveals the title of the upcoming album at a local press conference: Silence,
Exile And Cunning. The excited bassist/singer also stated that there may be
an accompanying mini-album or EP to coincide with the release of the album, but
details are unclear at this point.
Meanwhile, inspiration continues to flow at an astounding rate. Besides
already-revealed song titles from Derek such as "Dawn Of Nothing",
"Ground Zero", "Martyr" and "Doubts", Gus has also
penned two brand new tunes, "Dither" and "Ousted". Derek
again approaches the boys with another demo tape of six new songs. "This is
a dream come true," comments manager Rav.
Steven adds: "I believe Derek's writing has reached an entirely new
plateau on this album. His maturity in the style and structure of the songs is
clearly present."
"We're taking it slow," says Gus. "Right now, we're not
concerned with dropping songs or classifying them or anything like that. We've
got a daunting task ahead of us. With 22 songs to record, we're not pulling any
punches. Right now we're just gonna get the whole batch down and decide where
they'll end up later."
Mid-December 2000
Catalysis is set to officially begin production on the new album. The band
enters Boardwalk Studios to begin recording Steven's drum tracks, the same
studio where they recorded the drums for their first album Wrought From The
Ash two years ago.
AFTER WORD
The band speculates production will run into the new year and last probably
till late February or early March, when they can hopefully plan an official
release date for Silence, Exile And Cunning sometime around late March or
April. A massive, full scale global tour is expected to begin in the summer of
2001.
| 
