About me...
Hi! My name is Caitlin (aka Cat or Catface!), and I created, and managed the
NI Unplugged project. I also play in the N.Irish melodic pop-punk band
No Matter. (facebook.com/nomatterband)
The idea for NI Unplugged came about as my band had been asked to record an
acoustic version of one of our songs for an acoustic punk album a Scottish punk
label was assembling. Having had a stream of opportunities canceled and with one
of our members owning an acoustic guitar we were happy to take part. But it got
me wondering about something for N.Ireland.
Knowing it would be acoustic versions of original songs, I thought it wouldn't matter
what genre a band was, so why not get a collection of artists from N.Ireland
regardless of being indie, pop, rock, or punk to contribute stripped back songs
recorded during the lockdown to raise money for a local charity. I contacted a
handful of bands expecting little interest as few knew me personally and being
different genres, presumably had never heard of my band either! But I was
pleasantly surprised to discover that lots of musicians thought it was a great idea
and were happy to be involved.
The next few days were spent contacting musicians I thought might be interested and able to take part and very quickly had 50+ musicians on board! And less than 4 weeks later the compilation was released! All created during the UK lockdown whilst following the government health and safety guidelines.
As well as undertaking all the managing, admin, processing of the project and its social media, I also created the artwork (my artist name is Catface Design) and this website to help promote all the artists involved. I wanted the imagery to be something simplistic to represent the at-home vibe. So I designed the line drawing of a guitar against an armchair but with little nods to N.Ireland in the picture. The guitar stickers are the Belfast Fish, The Mussenden Temple, and the H&W cranes, the objects on the table create the Giant's Causeway pattern, the notebook has a sketch of the Titanic building and the cushion is the Dark Hedges.
My own band is DIY based so we are used to managing the band, recordings, our gigs, and booking our UK, Ireland, and European tours as well as dates in Canada. I do the majority of our artwork and promotion, design our merch, drive for any European shows, etc so undertaking this project didn't seem crazy to begin with but as it grew to the size it became, whilst still working full time in a pharmacy during the lockdown, I realised I might need some help in order to make it as professional as possible to honour all the hard work the musicians had put in. I contacted Start Together Studios looking for some advice on how to do this, and Rocky O'Reilly very kindly offered his own time, also having never met me, to master the tracks to make the idea really come to light.
I'd like to thank all the musicians involved plus Start Together who put their faith in me as a stranger to deal with this. Without their contribution to the project, it would not exist!
If you are interested in any of the musicians on the compilation, all their information can be found on this site to contact them directly, or you can contact myself and I will point you in the right direction!
