For the past nine years, Charleston-based instrumental outfit Catholics has been evolving, shifting, and redefining itself as a post-rock collective. Their latest album, Synonyms of Void, marks a triumphant comeback after a period of uncertainty brought on by the COVID lockdowns.
Led by Tyler Beezlebub, Catholics have navigated lineup changes, creative shifts, and even a stint as a solo project, but now they’re looking ahead to a strong 2025 and beyond. I caught up with Tyler for a Q&A about the new album, how it came together, and what’s next—including a split release with Jacksonville’s Prinze Jr. dropping in the near future.
Stream the new album below, and read on for the Q&A with Tyler.
Catholics – Synonyms of Void (2024)
Q&A with Tyler Beezlebub of Catholics
Extra Chill: Who is Catholics, and how did the current lineup come together?
Tyler Beezlebub: Simply put, Catholics is a Post-rock collective. We often operate with fewer members as a core band, however our reach expands pretty far into our scene and friend groups. We also like to touch on multiple genres, so our boundaries are a little fluid, but I enjoy subverting people’s expectations on what’s next from us. The current lineup is made up of half of a Charleston band called An Era of Echoes (John Shafer / Josh Lynes), myself, and one third of the Philly band Countdown From Ten (Daphne Getty).
TB: This incarnation of the band came together during/toward the end of lockdown. Our original second guitarist (Tallon Knight), and our previous drummer (Andy Munz) had departed the band due to creative differences and other commitments in late 2020. Our previous bass player (Andrew Krepelka) and I initially carried on but he had his second kid and stepped down. After that, I started making a ton of trips to Philly with my buddy Arman Serdarevic of the band Cuzco.
You mentioned that you went solo for a while. Can you tell me what made you decide to revisit this project?
TB: It’s just kind of the way that things worked out once Covid took hold. Two of my family members are diabetic, so I took social distancing pretty seriously, which then resulted in me stuck in my loft writing a bunch of pieces of songs to then take to Philadelphia and hammer out with Arman and Daphne. I never really took a breath to be honest, I always asked myself what the next move was to make things happen in the most impactful way.
TB: I absolutely would not have been able to carry this on without those two absolute angels and also the band Countdown from Ten for lending us their practice space to make writing possible (Thanks Cam and Ariel!) Not to mention John Shafer who, at the time was pursuing a career in film scoring in Los Angeles, helped me finalize the composition of these songs through what we lovingly refer to as “Shafer dirty edits.”
Will you still play songs from the original EP, Guilt?
TB: We definitely still plan to play select tracks from Guilt. We are aiming to play two tracks from Guilt precisely. Maybe even doing a reimagining of one song where we mess with the existing harmony.
Tell me about the recording process for Synonyms of Void.
TB: The recording process for Synonyms was definitely a learning experience, as was Guilt. We went into Truphonic to do our drums with Elliott, Elsey and Eric Rickert. And from there, we tracked the majority at our studio Mama Satan’s House. As well as some guitar at Big Animal.
TB: We recorded the strings that were arranged by Shafer Via a remote session in LA with one of our friends, Cristóbal Gato (who also mixed our upcoming split) leading the quartet and producing the session. That was done at Kenny Harmon’s studio.
TB: Most of the horns were recorded by Nick Hale in LA; Ben Dulong and Shafer recorded some additional saxophone here and there. Then we sent everything to our mix engineer Max Grazier of Exit Slip Recording / Grazier Audio. And then full circle back to Truphonic to Jeremy Lubsey for Mastering.
You have a split coming up with Prinze Jr. later this year. How did you link up with them?
TB: So actually our old drummer, Andy Munz, Is the one who sort of set that up before his departure. Our friend Ben, who plays guitar in Prinze Jr. was also in a band called Umanita Nova whom Catholics had played with on a few occasions. Then we got to talking about it and realized we both have this mutual love for a Chicago band called Loose Lips Sink Ships. Ben then linked us up with Jeremy from Salvaged Records and we made the dang thing happen.
On a scale of 1-10, how chill is Catholics?
TB: Ambition wise we have 0 chill but at the same time we are cooling hard on 10 all day.
Anything else you want to mention?
TB: I mean, I think really I would just like to thank everybody involved and everybody that has put up with my (Tyler) annoying ass for the last nine years. It feels weird to say that it’s been that long. All of our original members that got us where we are today and all of our friends that have helped us along the way. To the future: We have some plans for tour and we have a lot of material we are recording and we are facilitating even more collaboration and potentially working with another producer. We have some great surprises in store.