How did Catalpa Catalpa come to be?
HAYES SHANESY: The band is a duo, Justin Stewart and myself. We started Catalpa Catalpa in the spring of 2002 when Justin moved back to Cincinnati after graduating from college. I had just recently borrowed a four-track cassette recorder and was getting into recording. We played in bands together in high school and were good friends and had talked about playing again. We began very rudimentarily putting things together on that little four-track, really pretty out there found sounds and field recordings. One of the first times we got together we recorded the sound of an electric pencil sharpener, Justin’s dog licking the microphone, a really simple bassline and a little guitar melody. We did a lot of sound manipulation and really really simple instrumental songs that were more sound based rather than musical. As I began getting more serious about recording and collecting gear we began working more with melody and rhythm while still playing with noises and sounds. Describe your music and
