Roxx Catalano

$7.50 for all international shipping is actually selling me short in order to give the customer a fair deal. It costs me roughly $9 per album to post. Which over several 100 etc is quite a loss but that is ok. It doesn't factor in to account paypal fee's, cost of the packaging itself etc...it is just the direct postal cost. But i'd rather fans get the music cheap as possible \m/

Ahh I see how that would seem contradictory,but perhaps I worded it wrong. Yeah absolutely I wrote the lions share of the music, which is not to detract from the others exceptional playing at all! I couldn't have done it alone. When I say it didn't reflect me (and i can safely speak for RJ, Lace and Grant too) as a musician I mean more in a global sense, an aesthetic etc, we had a vision of a hard rocking band with a long career and it didn't work out as intended. I believe if left unchecked, that album would have been much worse, and I'm thankful we never did a 3rd album. It's difficult not to air dirty laundry on this matter but out of respect I won't. DLC could have and should have been a LOT more, I think we had real staying power With regard to credibility and taste, it was extremely micro-managed for squeaky clean radio friendly family friendly fun, which interestingly enough was the marked opposite of mine, Lace, RJs and Grants lives at that time, and i truthfully think if that edge had been allowed to remain a bit more then it would have made the songs and vibe a lot better. Either way that is in the past now, and I appreciate the positive sentiment about my latest album, I'm actually already looking forward to writing the next album already. It will have more interesting song structures i think, and probably bigger chorus's....and more power. I don't think i will ever stray too far from that sound, it's what first got me into the 80's music, which was better than the rubbish other people were listening to when i was at school in the 2000's. And yes Spanish CD's have been mailed, and in response, yes also the album etc is only avail thru my big cartel. I was offered a few record deals but rejected them in favour of DIY for this album alone, I was born in New Zealand and that 'built in the garage' mentality is an inherent trait. Next time I will probably go for a different tack. Who knows, that's the exciting thing about having a solo rock band.

Hey guys, my name is Roxxi Catalano, ex-singer of DLC and creator of CATALANO Stumbled on this thread and had a brief read, in response to some things and in addition to others: Firstly thank you for listening to and purchasing my work, both current and previous, and for listening to it enough to formulate opinions. I’ll share some insight! CATALANO is definitely not meant to be a DLC #2, I guess sonically there will be touch points because well….i wrote 80% of DLC’s music, hooks, lyrics, melodies and the majority of the guitar riffs too….so it’s only natural that this should follow suite. I guess it’s simply my songwriting style. Regardless of who the ‘shredder’ is, everything I write in any genre will always have that ‘sound’. I had bands before DLC and they too sounded much the same, if you ever get to hear these rare recordings, you will agree... Admittedly, and for various reasons, I personally never felt DLC reflected myself as a musician accurately, so this latest album of mine, Dark Skies, is more ‘me’ than that band ever was. I have created this simply from a love of music, from a love of singing and creating rock music and also a love of the 80’s ‘sound’ and sonic dynamic. I certainly don’t intend to emulate DLC in any form whatsoever, there is no commercial drive and undertow here, which was something my previous lead guitarist Casey was forever pushing at the cost of all credibility and taste. Futhermore I don’t intend on emulating anything at all actually, I am going to create music that foremost I like and if people also enjoy it and get behind it, then that is an exceedingly welcome bonus. If they hate the fxck out of it, i’m not worried, i’ll still be sleeping well and having steak for breakfast. Naturally people will draw a continuation from Street Level to Dark Skies, and in my opinion Dark Skies is better…but that’s biased perhaps. I think what I would like people to realise is that this is entirely homegrown, I wrote the songs, all the riffs, all the lyrics, melodies, arranged, recorded, organised, promoted, funded, designed all of this right down to the photographs and art, all with the distinct and accepted risk that nobody would be interested. There’s no sponsors or benefactors, it’s about as ‘real’ as it gets to the extent that while I’m able to, I am personally mailing CD’s from my local post shop. And i really fxckin’ like that, because that dynamic doesn’t exist in music much anymore. It’s organic. Over time the sound will change, there will definitely be another CATALANO album, and it’ll be good, infact I can assuredly say it will be better and you can hold me to that. With regard to production, correct it is a bit more ‘raw’ and basic, that is quite intentional to be honest…I don’t know for others but I always felt Street Level was a bit over mixed, a bit bland. Ofcourse it was produced really well from a commercial aspect but I felt there was a certain quality missing. It’s like Sykes era 1987 compared to Slip Of The Tongue….S.O.T.T was missing a bit of its ‘fxck’…brilliant but efficient and clean. For me this is my turning away from DLC, my own vessel, my own course, and anybody is welcome to join! I’m sure the next CATALANO disc will be indeed slicker as budget increases and in turn that will annoy a whole other group of listeners haha I like my rock with power, with a sharp edge, with fxcking substance. Music that makes you wanna crack a cold beer and kickoff with some girls or cruise the beach! You get to that point in production where you cross over the line from voltage into sterility…and in the first instance I would rather stay on the former at the risk of rawness than the latter. It would only be another few compressors before people were all like “too dry, too dull, too fxckin’ thin, sounds like rubbish” Fans are fickle, whatever you create there will be people that hate it, and that’s fine, but i would never compromise what i personally like to hear, after all I’m the one who has to live with it and have my name attached to it. Vocal mix…I’m really not sure what you are hearing, but I will concede to the sentiment and leave interpretation up to the listener. Thank you to those who have purchased, I can’t stress more the key effect this has for musicians, the fundamental frame of all of this is fans like you who buy the music. It makes it all possible. (Especially in this day and age of digital piracy!) NB: There will also be a limited edition line of CATALANO t-shirts coming in the near future, keep an eye on the FB. Regards, keep kickin’ ass and thankyou for your shared opinions! \m/ Roxxi Catalano