I love him, you love him, everybody loves him. It's Katanak back with another sizzler, and this time the Brisbane bard has conjured up a pop-bop anthem. Dropping like it's hot tomorrow on May 3rd, 'Lights of Tokyo' is coming to a platform near you and we have a very special sneak-peak of the track to deliver into your ear holes. It's a bopper:
My favourite part of this lil' ditty is the blaring lights breakdown at the end. You can see it unfolding live. Imagine it's the last song of the set, the audience is gushing and each collapsing wave of sound comes with a hot serve of smashed up cymbal.
We sat down with Katanak to talk everything from the new track, his fast-approaching tour & details of his upcoming EP:
It’s been a while since our last Q&A, what have you been up to since your last single and the Baz Lurhmann movie? I heard you did some song competitions and played Brisbane Fest, tell us your trials and tribulations!
It’s been a busy time since we last caught up last year. I’ve been gigging my heart out and have been writing and producing all of my new music for 2023 and beyond! There have definitely been trials and tribulations trying to fit music in with my full-time work, but where’s the fun in making life easy. I’ve been working with Aidan Hogg and Matt Mcguffie on my latest single ‘Lights of Tokyo’ which has been a blast. It’s out on the 3rd of May... and it’s been 7 years in the making... So who doesn't want to know more now!
My passion is producing as well as writing. I’ve been doing my own music, and I’ve also started doing demo work with a well known Australian singer songwriter, that unfortunately I am not able to tell you about... Yet! Let’s just say, this is pretty huge! There’s a few emerging artists that I’m going to start working with soon as well. If you are reading this and you are an emerging artist, get in touch with me via IG @katanakmusic or email - katanakmusic@gmail - and let’s chat!
The new single is called “Lights of Tokyo,” can you tell us what it’s about and what inspired you to write it? Where & when can we get our greedy ear holes wrapped around it?
‘Lights of Tokyo’ was written about one of my mates visits to Japan. He was telling me stories about everything he got up to over there, and with a couple of embellishments I had a really wicked song. I love using this mate for inspiration because he gets himself into the best situations (maybe not for him) but for me it provides great Inspo! In fact, as an aside, he also inspired ‘Take Us Back’ and our video was shot in his garage.
My mates family and mine are good friends so we travelled to Japan together back in 2015 and one of our best family folklore stories from this trip, that will be passed down through the ages (could have gone very badly though) was both families were walking around the outside of the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the Emperor’s official residence, which has this huge moat running around the whole thing. It was winter and there was ice on the moat. What’s a kid to do but throw rocks into the water to break the ice. We were all having a turn at throwing rocks and my mate's dad said ‘alright, that's enough, just one more each.’ The next thing we know there is security running everywhere and it’s ballistic. They ran up to our group and asked if we’d seen anyone attacking the palace and my dad’s mate goes ‘you mean these guys’ and points to us. We had the whole security team around us and they interrogated us for about 20 mins and google translate was not cutting it! We had to show passports, provide information about where we were staying and they said they would be tracking us while in Tokyo. It could only happen to my mate!
Japan has always sparked an interest because it’s just so different to what we know here. They have these little alleyways that wind through really interesting areas, in certain cities there are still lots of people walking around in traditional dress and there are so many people in every area you go to! We know nothing like that here!
I am excited to hear you’ve got a debut EP coming out, what super-secret information can you share with us?
The only super-secret is that it’s all completely different to my previous music, so you’ll need to be following to know more, haha!
You’re touring midway through this year, that’s awesome. Where can we catch you and who are you playing with? Which towns are you most excited to see?
You can catch us playing:
Fri, June 9 | The Club Hotel, Bundaberg
w/- The Baby Breaks
Sat, June 10 | The Goat Bar & Cafe, Rockhampton
w/- MATH, Silky Fuzz & The Baby Breaks
Fri, June 23 | TANK4, Cairns (acoustic set)
Fri, June 24 | Elixir Music Bar, Cairns
w/- Rob Howe & Cinnamon Sun
Fri, June 30 | Otherwise Bar, Townsville
w/- Local bands still TBC
Sat, July 1 | Empire Hotel, Mackay
w/- Weathered, Comfort Royale & Noah Davis
Sat, July 8 | Tomcat, Brisbane
w/- TYDE & The Plane Sailors
Sat, July 15 | Norton Music Factory, Caloundra
Inside Stage w/-High Tropics, Aspy Jones, Sailing in Space, Nuffin Butta
Outside Stage (acoustic) w/- Pete (Owls of Neptune & Darcy Kate
Sat, July 29 | Rockhampton River Festival
STILL MORE TO TBC
I absolutely loved playing up north Queensland last year! The vibe and the atmosphere up there was fantastic and live music is super supported. We had people up dancing from the first song! The crowd was super energetic and I can’t wait to go back.
We haven’t been to Bundaberg or Rockhampton before, so looking forward to that. It’s awesome to announce that we will also be playing the Rockhampton River Festival the month after that which should be wild!
There are so many good bands that we are playing with over this time that I’m seriously spoilt for choice as to who I’m looking forward to seeing. I’m just going to say ‘ALL OF THEM’!
To everyone in regional Queensland, get out and support us and the local legends we are playing with! You will not be disappointed.
Hell yeah, you heard it here first! I know I'm pumped for that sweet tour. Highlight your calendars for June & July, kiddies. Thanks again to Katanak for reaching out to us and bedazzling the senses with another dance-inducer. I think there's a lesson to be learned here. Don't throw stones at castles.
Catch him in a town near you, and I wish all the best to Brisbane's Finest on the road!
