Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
Interview with Geoff Waye, Guitarist for CATEGORY VI
PD: How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?
GW: Melodic. Heavy. Traditional, yet modern. Stratospheric, melodic, powerful, and soaring. Something that brings to mind the classic heavy metal sounds without being totally derivative or stuck in the past.
PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.
GW: The band was formed by Geoff Waye in St. John’s, Newfoundland back in late 2009 early 2010. The next key member to come on board was vocalist Amanda. As for how we/I came to make music – because metal and playing and creating original music mean everything to me. When I started the band, all I had in mind was something like “I wanted to form a melodic metal band with a female lead vocalist”. The goal was never to be symphonic/goth metal like a lot of female vocal bands tend to be, but to be 100% metal which for me is a mix of traditional metal, thrash metal, and power metal.
PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?
GW: Some people play guitar and are content to just jam out to their fav songs. That’s where I started but early on I stopped learning other people’s music as I wanted to write my own. So what inspires me to make music is something internal and probably undefinable. I love playing guitar, and when I do, it’s to write music/riffs. I mean, if you’re a painter, you paint your own paintings, you don’t sit down and look at the classics and re-paint them. What’s the point? Other than to maybe hone your skills and learn how to mix colors etc. My influences are a combination of what I first played along with – bands like Metallica, Slayer, Dokken, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, etc….and what I listen to has an influence in some subconscious way I would assume. I listen to all kinds of hard rock to black metal so there are probably influences from across the heavy music spectrum in what I come up with. For Category VI, when I have a riff that has that classic heavy metal feel, I know it is more suited to this band.
For the new album, Amanda’s lyrics are very personal to her and her life, the struggles and the power to overcome adversity. There are a series of song descriptors that we did about every song on the album which are airing weekly on the Moribund Records YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/MoribundOfficial) where each song and its meaning is discussed. That would be the best source for checking out the meanings in more detail.
PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?
GW: Simply put, to create killer heavy metal. Hopefully, other people will enjoy it, but for me, it’s the creation of music that I get off on the most.
PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?
GW: Persevering and getting our third record out. There’s not a big scene here, there is ZERO money to make, so the fact that we are releasing this album on the legendary Moribund Records label is a proud moment for me.
PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms
in the day of the home studio. How is that going?
GW: Promotion is for PR people and record labels lol. Well you know what I mean, I am focused on my guitar and writing songs. I’m not a PR person. I don’t mind doing interviews and sharing our stuff on social media to promote what we are doing. My challenge is to come up with what I think is a cool riff, not to spend too much time on promotion. If you get caught up in that game to worry about the other million amazing YouTube bedroom guitarists who you will never play like, you will just get lost. I emerged from the bedroom to play/jam long before social media and that game, so it’s never been my world. As for how it’s going – it’s going well in that we’re just a little band from Newfoundland and we’re signed to a cool label. I don’t have aspirations to be a huge rock star – so for me, success is having music professionally recorded, released, and distributed. Even that alone is awesome.
PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?
GW: We are on the island of Newfoundland, so booking shows/tours is not something we normally do. When we play it’s just a matter of hooking up with some local bands, or maybe opening for a smaller touring band when they come here to open for them. We’d like to get to play outside of our province of course, but it would have to be the right timing (we all have jobs that come first and can’t just vanish from our lives). We don’t have a show coming up right now, we’re hoping to line up a release show to coincide with the album release though.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?
GW: Overall I hate it lol. I mean, I love the ease at which I can open YouTube and check out a new release or music video to see what I think. But the whole thing has led to people thinking music is “free”. It’s not. It takes years of work and a lot of money to record and release something all for someone to stream it for free. But that ship has sailed, the genie is out of the bottle, Pandora’s box is opened, etc etc. lol. The only download/streaming site that I like is Bandcamp as the profit sharing is fairer to the artist. The micro cents per play from the Spotify types means that thousands of bands will never see a dime. Those making money on Spotify are mostly artists who already have money. For the rest of us, it’s just a way for people to check out the music, and my hope is if they like it, they will buy a CD.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
GW: “Painkiller” by Judas Priest as it’s the definition of heavy metal. Or maybe I should go with some #1 metal song like “Enter Sandman” not because I like it but because I could live off the royalties of that alone and write music and never worry about bills. haha
PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?
GW: I LOVE music but yes there are lots I don’t like about the industry – fake people, bands who make it that suck, the streaming services, etc. If I could change one thing it would be that everyone who liked music would actually buy physical media for all the music they like.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
GW: This interview and a few more like it lol. Ok more seriously, I’m working on promotion, we will be doing a music video soon. I’m also currently writing and recording my second solo album for TRISKELYON (https://www.youtube.com/@triskelyonmetal) which features a bunch of guests including Keith and Amanda from Category VI! It’s bit heavier than Category VI but it still has a melody and I would call it “melodic thrash metal”.
PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online?
GW: Stay up to date on what we are doing here: https://www.facebook.com/CategoryVI
The upcoming Category VI album FIRECRY will be out on March 24th 2023. People can order it directly from the label: http://www.moribundcult.com/product/DEAD304.html
PHD Megastore is the best place for direct EU order – https://www.plastichead.com/ But the CD will be available at almost all other major mail-orders and distro’s (ie Season of Mist, EMP Catalog in Germany etc etc). Amazon, Amazon UK and every EU country. “Firecry” is available for Pre-Orders at ALL Coalition of Independent Music Stores (https://www.facebook.com/cimsstores) locations across America!!! So, support your Local Indie Music Store or Pre-Order Your Copy Now. 🙂
We have some music videos, lyric videos, and song descriptor videos released on their YouTube channel in the coming days/weeks: https://www.youtube.com/user/MoribundOfficial. Our first single for the song “Firecry” is out now and has been getting some cool feedback so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odqnpiCzCks
Thanks for having Category VI!
CATEGORY VI links:
Band/Artist location – Newfoundland, Canada
Facebook – You Tube – Soundcloud – Bandcamp – Reverbnation –
Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer –
Check our page for Category VI
