Australian DJ/Producer, Katalyst, or Ashley Anderson to his mum, is one busy man. He’s released two solo albums, Manipulating Agent and What’s Happening, which garnered ARIA nominations and numerous Australian Dance Music Awards. In between all this he’s produced and remixed many acts and also put together his own two compilations of remixes. He set up a label and produced a record as part of the project Space Invadas with fellow artist, Steve Spacek. Short of walking on the moon comes news that Katalyst is back armed with his third solo album, Deep Impressions, so named because of all the different musical styles that have left an indelible mark on himself as a producer and an individual.

The AU Review’s Larry Heath caught up with Katalyst to discuss the album, what happens when you get 32 rappers through the studio and about an upcoming, not-so-secret show.

You’ve got a couple shows coming up. You’re playing the Ivy Pool next week...

Yes, we are. That’ll be interesting. I’m not quite sure how that will go down but y’know, I’m sure it’ll be good.

Have you had a chance to check out The Standard, which opened the day before last?

No, where’s that?

In what was the Lo-Fi Collective above Kinselas.

The very top floor? Right, I remember when there used to be loads of gigs on, back in the day... Friends of mine did parties. That was quite a happening room back in the nineties.

Yeah, I think Blink 182 and people like that played there.

Yeah? Well there you go (laughs).

You’ve got your new album coming out tomorrow, Deep Impressionswhat can you tell us about it?

Well I guess it’s the third solo record that I’ll be releasing in Australia and it also gets international release through bbe in London for the rest of the world. It’s not a million miles dissimilar from the last record, in the sort of format of quite a few different genres have gone on the record and quite a few guests have laid some tracks with their goodness. But I think from the last record to this record production-wise I have worked on a lot of music over the past four years, y’know my game has improved somewhat considerably, so I’m a lot happier on a sonic level with this record than the previous attempts. And y’know I’ve kinda been looking at it in retrospect as maybe part of a trilogy if you like. I might be going to change-up part of my style for the releases that are going to follow this [one] that I’ve already been working on and some that are already completed. So to me it’s kinda the third in a series, y’know it’s Katalyst thus far.

In between (sophomore album) What’s Happening and Deep Impressions it looks like the majority of your time was spent on the Space Invaders project (the ARIA-nominated project with Steve Spacek and the ARIA-nominated album, Soul-Fi)...

Well look yeah, I run their labels and do a lot of – we’re pretty hands-on – with the truly independent music that we release. And myself and my partner are kind of along with Remote Control who do our marketing and publicity and whatnot to kind of do those records. So there’s a lot of work behind the scenes on every release and it chews up a lot of time out of the creative world. I guess, yes Space Invadas did actually chew up a lot of the time and energy.

But in the background the whole time the Katalyst record has slowly come together as well as two other records I have completed. One of them is mastered and ready to go, I’m just waiting for the set release date next week for that.

A record I’ve done with my mate from Portishead, Geoff Barrow, we’ve got 32 rappers on this record; it’s pretty much the underground, kind of dirty, old-fashioned hip-hop record with a twist. I mean obviously there isn’t 32 rappers on my hip hop record, it only runs for 70 minutes...and one of the people that we discovered through that project have gone on to write a record with him as well and he features on the latest (Katalyst solo) single, “The Clapping Song”. He goes by the name of the Coin Locker Kid.

I’ve definitely been keeping busy outside of and between those two records with the label and also just finding time to write music for these other projects as well.

You certainly never stop and you mentioned of course, (MC) Coin Locker Kid is on the record and who else will be making guest appearances on the album?

I’ve got a few leading guests Stephanie McKay is on there again and is one of my favourite soul singers out of New York. Bootie Brown is a new name on there – the member of The Pharcyde, a nineties hip-hop group. Steve Spacek is on there, y’know on a chorus on that track. Jane Doe is Jade MacRae’s new alias and she appeared on there and she is also on the Space Invadas' record. As was Buff 1 who also appears on this new record, who’s a really talented rapper out of Detroit who also appears on the other record I mentioned. Who else have we got there? Mr. Clean. No one’s really heard much of Mr. Clean...He’s been around in the underground in Sydney as a respected MC for 15 years plus. I’m looking at doing his next record on the label sometime next year so I thought I’d enlist his services, get him on there. Also Hau from Koolism does the records we do on Invada and makes an appearance. Just trying to think of who else is on there. I probably should have a copy of the record in front of me so I can remember. I’ve got so many projects going on and song titles soon become, “Oh what’s the name of that song?” and I’m like, “I can’t remember the name of that song!” (laughs)

KweenG who I haven’t worked with before appears on “Ready To Drop”. We shot a little homemade video and she’s from KillaQueenz, based in Sydney as well. So quite a few Aussies on there with a sprinkling of international flavour.

Representing the Australians is always good to see...

Yeah, I like to think internationally on all the music that I do, but y’know it’s always good to enlist the services of local talent first and foremost I guess.

Speaking of local talent, you’ve got the Fat As Butter festival coming up in a few weeks. And I do believe this is part of the reason we’re speaking today.

Yeah, that’s really good. I’m looking forward to that, they’ve got a good bill lined up and y’know we’ve got a good show lined up. Coin Locker Kid is gonna be out of from The States for a run of shows. I’m actually going to do a secret show in Sydney. You can win tickets to it and that kind of thing. It won’t be advertised to the general world out there. Well it will be advertised but you have to apply to the competition to actually be able to come to the show, hopefully at the end of October as well.

It looks like it isn’t going to stop for you for the rest of the year. I’m sure there’s plenty more to be announced – Melbourne album launches and all that stuff.

Yeah, that’s coming later today actually. The announcement about the 20th of October launch down at The Toff there and I think I’ve got eight of the guests off the record.

That sounds like that’s going to be a great show and Fat As Butter should go great too...

Our band will as well [include] drums, keyboards, bass, samplers and electronic trickery all going on. We should definitely off the spot.

Wicked. Congratulations on the new record and what are you hoping people take away from it?

Look I just hope they enjoy the experience, y’know? Part of writing this music was to try and create music that made people feel how I feel when I was listening. Pretty inspired...As long as people can connect with some of the material on there and are mildly entertained then it’s a win.

Well hopefully that’s exactly what happens and from the sounds of “The Clapping Song,” I’m sure it will resonate well. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us today and we will no doubt see you out on the road very soon.

Look forward to it, thanks again.

Katalyst plays Fat As Butter on October 22 and Deep Impressions is out now through Invada Records/Remote Control.