Words by Luke LaBenne
Toronto four-piece Cootie Catcher blends studio and home recordings on their new album, Something We All Got. The result is sufficiently polished while preserving their basement rock grit. The title fittingly captures the existential exploration of songs, and with three of the four members trading singer / songwriter duties – in a meta sense it could refer also to how Sophia Chavez, Anita Fowl, and Nolan Jakupovski express themselves while delivering cohesive themes and feelings. An exciting offering from a unique rising band, songs convey weighty emotions through bouncy rock jams outfitted with glitchy breakbeats, swirly synths, surprising samples, and innovative track manipulation.
Off Shelf: I’m a big fan of Elephant 6 and K Records, and there are moments on Something We All Got when I was reminded of some of my favorite DIY rock gems. What are your crate-digging favorites that influenced your songwriting, sound, or aesthetic?
Nolan Jakupovski: All four of us have different influences but I have lots of CDs by Mouse On Mars, Seefeel, Vladislav Delay. Those artists have some huge electronic influence on the glitchy tinny production I try to mimic. On the indie rock side, Anita and I have been on the hunt for the Dear Nora Three States vinyl for a long time – someone let us buy it off you! Cannot overstate how much Dear Nora has impacted both Anita and I.
OS: This is the first project that you partially created in the studio. What was the process like, both at home and in the studio, and was it a strange adjustment at times?
NJ: We recorded the drums and most vocals at Threshold in Hamilton, Ontario with my childhood friend, Trevor Cooke – his little brother Brendan was our original drummer back in 2023. Felt a bit of time-induced pressure being in the studio that we’re not used to. We visited the studio three times over several months between 2024-2025 due to our hectic schedules, recording 4 or 5 songs a time. Guitars, bass, synths, scratches, and beats were all done at home or our rehearsal space similar to our previous album, Shy at First. Definitely feels like a load off the shoulders to go to a nice studio and not worry about things sounding the best they could, just show up and see microphones we could never afford and have someone familiar take care of engineering speeds up the process!
OS: You have three songwriters and trade off vocals throughout the album. What are your writing processes and how do they intersect? Do you all write your lyrics independently or do you collaborate as well?
NJ: Whoever is singing is the person that wrote those lyrics. Sometimes someone will write a verse and then show the other to get an understanding of the melody and write according to said lyrics. Anita and I did that on “Wrong choice” and “Pirouette”. Usually lyric writing is strongly independent in this band though.
OS: In “Straight Drop,” the lyric “I’d rather cry in public than in front of you” perfectly captures a relatable, specific feeling. Why do you think this mass-scale vulnerability often seems more accessible than showing that to someone close to us?
Anita Fowl: Sometimes I’m surprised how relatable this lyric ended up being for people. I wrote it when I was crying on the bus a lot and I felt like a crazy person just crying on public transit. Yet somehow that felt easier than addressing the problem I was having. I guess it feels less vulnerable to feel things on your own terms, even if it’s not in the appropriate space. The lyric feels really vulnerable, but ironically that’s what I was avoiding, and I think everyone has struggled with that at some point.
OS: From the realization stated in the title of “Take me for granted” to the lack of effort pointed out in both “Gingham dress” and “Puzzle pop” – do you find songwriting helps empower you to state and recognize your own worth when maybe others fail to recognize it?
Sophia Chavez: I think songwriting helps me recognize my value but not always from a place of clarity or empowerment. Most of the time it’s very stream-of-consciousness. The realizations come and go, and even when I have them, I don’t always live by them right away. I end up writing about the same situations because I’m still trying to untangle them. The songs hold moments of awareness, even if real life takes longer to catch up.
OS: These songs would still be enjoyable as straightforward rock songs, yet the added elements like the bleep-boops on “Straight Drop,” the synths and chirps on “Lifestyle,” and the chopped vocal samples on “Puzzle Pop” take the songs to an interesting new level. Did these arise from messing around with the recordings after the fact or did you have this unique sound in mind beforehand?
NJ: That’s kind of our shtick from the get-go even before being a band. Sophia uses her DJ controller to manipulate audio live, which is definitely in mind beforehand. Every time you see us live it’ll be manipulated a little differently. It’s almost another voice in the band.
OS: Many of these songs explore the messy yet necessary impulse to connect with other humans. Is that desire for connection the “something we all got” that the album title refers to?
NJ: The album title is a funny acronym doesn’t really mean anything else, to be honest. But maybe you are onto something there!
AF: That is definitely a theme of this album but yeah, like Nolan said it was mostly silly. [laughs] However since we’re on the subject, my interpretation of the album name is how different the four of us are, so the album is made up of something unique each of us brings to the table.