12 May 2025
Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with Chris from Glasgow band Catalyst Symphony to find out more…
Who is in the band, how did you meet, where are you from and how did you come up with the name?
We’re from all over, but we met in Glasgow based on a combination of factors!
Guitars – Chris Armstrong (Irish). Formed the band shortly after moving to Glasgow, put out posts on JoinMyBand and local Facebook pages looking for musicians to play the music with a demo of Nova.
Vocals – Wiktoria Wizner (Polish-German). Moved to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. Was introduced to the band via a friend of a friend who was our previous bassist, and immediately fell in love with Nova and asked to join.
Bass – Tamara Jordan (Maltese-English). Found the band through JoinMyBand, one successful audition later and she’s been our bassist for over 2 years now!
Drums – Darren Spence (Scottish). Found the band through Facebook, then introduced us to Shane Ferguson, our live guitarist, an old friend of his.
Keys/Fiddle/Harp – Maya MacAdam (Nepali-British). Met the band at a gig where she was performing as her solo project, Maya’s Radio Orchestra. We gained an immediate mutual respect for each other’s music, and when we got chatting after the show she asked to join!
The “Catalyst” part of the name refers to growth and change, which is the subject of much of our music. Whether that’s personal mental health growth, or positive societal change. The “Symphony” part helps differentiate the name and to communicate our style!
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
So many to name with six members in the band! For overall commonalities, classic melodic metal and progressive rock bands like Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Rush, are influences many of us have in common, as well as the Celtic folk music most of us grew up around.
In terms of recent influences, the big pushes towards the sound we developed came from ambitious artists and composers that fuse metal, orchestral music and folk. Whether that’s the folk-classical fusions of Gustav Holst, symphonic metal like Wintersun, Blind Guardian and Nightwish, or rock-influenced orchestral composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Hiroyuki Sawano.
Aside from these core influences though, there’s all sorts thrown into the pot. Anything from post-rock to shoegaze to blues rock to “sillier” styles like glam, pop punk and anime music. If we think it sounds cool, we’ll find a way to make it work!
How would you describe your sound?
Dramatically optimistic symphonic metal. We combine the voice of our brilliant operatic mezzo-soprano with melodic heavy metal instrumentation and authentic string and keys parts. Our music features heavy contrast, light and dark, soft and heavy, sparse and full, in order to communicate the story of overcoming the challenges we all face and emerging on the other side.
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release is an EP called The Light Inside! We’ve already described the music, but lyrically, the three songs all contribute to the overall ethos of growth and the struggle to do so. Pseudo-title track Eden is about making the world a better place for the people we love; Nova is about standing up for the rights of women, LGBTQ people, and other oppressed groups; and Salvation is a more personal story of developing one’s mental health.
What’s your local music scene like?
We love it! There are very few places in the world where musicians from backgrounds as nationally and musically diverse as ours could meet and create music together, and we love that Glasgow’s music scene plays host to so many different styles and ideas.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
Our primary efforts are working on a full length album to follow up The Light Inside. The music is written, the recording is coming along nicely, we’re just still chipping away at it! Aside from that, we have several gigs and a tour coming up to promote The Light Inside, including our first ever headlining show at Ivory Blacks on June 12th!
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Too many to name! Although if we had to pick one, it’d probably be Fellowship. We played with them a couple of years ago and they were absolutely incredible, just the absolute sweetest guys as well, and we think Wikki singing with Matt would sound pretty awesome!
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
Attempting to fit onto the stages of Bloc+ or the Banshee Labyrinth with 6 musicians is a pretty funny visual in and of itself! Practically had our elbows tucked in just to be able to stand next to each other, never mind play.
Do you have any upcoming live dates and performances?
We have our first headlining show in Glasgow at Ivory Blacks on June 12th to promote our recently released EP. We’re also supporting Tales of Time in Edinburgh at Legends very soon, May 17th!
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
That everyone is welcome with us. No matter who you are, what your background is, whether you even like metal or not, we want you to feel at home with our music. Thank you.
You can find out more about Catalyst Symphony on their website or via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, TikTok or YouTube, and you can find upcoming gig information here.
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