Review Fix Exclusive: Fields of Violet’s Rafael Katigbak Talks Influences And More

Review Fix chats with Fields of Violet’s Rafael Katigbak, who discusses the band’s origin, creative process, goals for 2018 and their new EP.

Review Fix: How did the project start?

Rafael Katigbak: It started when I wrote a couple of songs that were a bit different and that didn’t fit the context of my other band. I decided that this was going to be its own thing. So I just kept writing and doing demos in my home studio and later on found other musicians to help me bring the songs to life.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Katigbak: Firstly, all the songs start out as instrumentals. Sometimes, songs start from me playing around with my guitar or keyboards. But sometimes ideas come to me in unusual places and times like when I’m driving or when I’m waiting in airport boarding gates. When that happens, I just hum the tune and record it on my phone. Joint writing sessions aren’t my favourite because you force yourself to come up with something just so you can say you’ve been productive. Also, I like to review my work thoroughly which I can’t do in that setting.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Katigbak: My personal favorite in this EP is Starlight. That was the last song written. Actually, I already had 5 songs then so I thought the EP was finished. But then I was just playing around with my guitar and I had this image in my head of me walking into the stage, picking up the acoustic guitar and start playing a simple groovy tune that gets everyone clapping along to the beat. So I came up with that part and started humming the melody straight away. The next parts just came to me, it was amazing to see it unfolding almost by itself.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2018?

Katigbak: Well I’ll be mostly working on promoting this album but probably planning and writing for the next release as well.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Katigbak: That’s a really good question. I think if there’s something I want people to know is that good music is still in demand and still exists even though it doesn’t seem like it when you listen to commercial radio. The reaction I’ve been getting is “Wow, the instrumentation is amazing.” Well, that’s how music used to be and how it should still be. Real artists are still out there dedicating their lives to their craft. This is a solo independent release and I went through the trouble of getting good musicians and real instruments playing on the record. Why do big acts with 100x my resources produce music that’s bland, synthetic and unimaginative?

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*