Catholic Action

Name, where are you from?
I’m Chris McCrory and I’m from Glasgow, Scotland.

Describe your style in three words?
Neil Young ‘71.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Parquet Courts at Mono, Glasgow on Halloween 2013... First time I’d ever stage dived. A band on fire behind their homemade Halloween masks.

If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?
Mulatu Astatke and Alice Coltrane because I’d be transfixed by both of them. The line up would make no sense but I don’t care. In fact, as I was writing this, the very song I was thinking of by Mulatu Astatke came on in the café I’m sat in. (Pink Lane, Newcastle) Cosmic.

Which subcultures have influenced you?
I was a skateboarder for a very long time, and I still roll around the local park on my time off. I was always drawn to that subculture, it was so free and inclusive and at that time in Scotland, it wasn’t very cool. Skateboarders were seen as freaks and chased around by neds constantly. It just made us band together stronger. It entrenched our lifestyle and solidified our friendships. Skaters stick together. The music was always great too.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
I’d like to have a pint with Jesus Christ. I think he’d have some interesting points of view - He’s a socialist superstar. How all the right-wing, conservative nuts the world over have adopted him as their saviour, I will never know. Real cognitive dissonance hours there.

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
I’m a record producer by trade... I hop between studios and record bands for a living when I’m not playing with Catholic Action so this one is not strictly a venue... but we played a session in Maida Vale studios the other year in the same studio they did the Peel sessions in. Everyone who is anyone has played there. It’s where they housed the Radiophonic Workshop too. You could feel the history in the walls, it was almost spiritual for a music nerd like me.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
Chris Cohen. Hands down. He’s a masterful songwriter, producer and arranger who is criminally underrated. Based in Los Angeles, he played guitar in Deerhoof for a while but now he’s quietly making otherworldly, classic pop.

Catholic Action will return with their second album 'Celebrated By Strangers' on 27 March 2020. It will be released on Modern Sky Records and can be pre-ordered at c-a.lnk.to/CBS.

Visit www.catholicaction.co.uk for more information.