Catalyst Symphony create dramatically optimistic symphonic metal, for fighting the battles that truly matter.
These introductory words in the press release made me curious. That’s why I listened to the debut EP ‘The Light Inside’ a little more closely. OK, it contains only three songs with a total playing time of just less than seventeen minutes. But it’s enough to get an impression of the quality. But the information I received about Catalyst Symphony was a bit sparse. A reason to ask the Scots and their female singer from Koszalin (Poland). Singer Wiktoria Wizner as well as guitarist and band founder Christopher Armstrong answered my questions.
MHF: Hi, I’m Rainer and I write for Metalheads Forever Magazine. I’m pleased to be able to do this interview with you. How are you doing?
Wikki: Hi, I’m Wiktoria (Wikki), and I am fine, thanks for asking! Currently on the train to the opera in Lithuania where I have a rehearsal tomorrow.
Chris: Hi, I’m Chris, I play guitar in the band, and I’m doing pretty good! Surprisingly warm here in Glasgow at the minute, so I had a lovely walk around the Botanic Gardens earlier.
MHF: You are a young band that is certainly little known outside your home country. Please introduce yourselves briefly.
Wikki: In June Catalyst will celebrate its 3rd birthday! Or maybe a little bit earlier, as I joined the band on 19th of June 2022. We are a bunch of creative musicians who want to be the change in this world through our music. We play our own songs and always try to include an important message in them. Our squad is very international, however we proudly introduce ourselves as Scottish symphonic metal band.
Chris: As you mentioned earlier, we describe ourselves as “dramatically optimistic,” which to us means that it’s not just about blind optimism, it’s about finding the light in the darkness. We can’t all be brimming with energy and super cheerful all the time, so our music tries to reflect that by blending light with dark, soft with heavy, gentle with powerful, so that contrast can tell the story of overcoming the struggles we all face and hopefully make it a little easier to face them together.
And as Wikki says, we live in Glasgow, but we’re from all over! Darren and Shane are local lads, but I’m Irish, Wikki’s Polish-German, Maya’s Nepali-British and Tamara was born in Malta. It’s one of the things we love about Glasgow’s music scene that a group of such diverse musical and national backgrounds could meet and create music together.
MHF: In my review, I assumed that Catalyst Symphony was founded in the summer of 2022 (first post on Facebook on 14 July 2022). Is my guess correct? How did you get to know each other?
Wikki: You are correct. Thank you for checking it so carefully. We were formed in June and we had our very first gig in August 2022. I was introduced to a band via a mutual friend of our previous bassist. Chris has formed the group. Tamara saw our announcement and contacted us for a bass player spot. Same with Darren, we desperately needed a drummer and we ended up with a drum prodigy. And we met Maya at one of the gigs. After a short chat, she came over to audition with us, but it just a formality as we all wanted her onboard really badly.
Chris: The story of Wikki joining is very funny, so I have to share it. I asked at our first ever rehearsal if anyone knew a singer, and our old bassist said he “knew someone who can sing.” Turns out that was the greatest understatement in history! And yes, after that Tamara and Darren found posts I’d made on JoinMyBand and Facebook looking for members, Shane’s a long time friend and musical collaborator of Darren’s so was an easy choice when we went to add a live guitarist, and we met Maya at a gig with her solo project, and had an immediate mutual admiration for each other’s music that resulted in her offering to join!
MHF: Your front woman Wiktoria is from Poland but has apparently been living in Scotland for some time. How did this move come about?
Wikki: I came to Glasgow in September 2019 to study in the Opera School of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. My delayed graduation happened a month before my adventure with Catalyst had begun. I am currently working in an Opera in Lithuania so life can be a little bit crazy. Oh, and technically I am half-Polish, half-German, my father and his family are from Hamburg.
MHF: When listening to your first EP ‘The Light Inside’, I was especially impressed by her voice. Does she have classical vocal training?
Wikki: Thank you! Yes, I hold two degrees, MA: Vocalism and MMus: Opera. I have worked as an opera singer professionally since 2017 in Poland, UK, Lithuania and France.
MHF: You received funding from Creative Scotland for the production of your EP. This is a public body that supports the arts, film and creative industries in Scotland. How did this come about?
Wikki: We would never receive this funding if it wasn’t about Maya, her hard work, determination and creativity. She told us about it and did an incredible amount of work filling all of the papers, checking all of the rules, etc.
Chris: As Wikki says, that was entirely Maya’s idea! She’d worked with Creative Scotland before with her harp group The Willow Trio, and we never would have thought to apply for the grant for ourselves if not for her suggestion, but it was a great idea and I realised immediately sitting down with her to fill out the various forms that we were the exact kind of act they were looking for. We’re incredibly proud and grateful they were excited by what we were doing, and agreed to help fund the EP to be as great as possible.
MHF: How did the songwriting process for ‘The Light Inside’ work? Do you have a main songwriter or did the songs evolve together in the rehearsal room?
Wikki: Chris is our main songwriter, producer, organiser, arranger, booking agent…I could keep on going. They’re able to produce a masterpiece overnight.
They wrote the lyrics for SALVATION and NOVA but was hesitant with the third song-now known as EDEN but back in time it had a different title. That was the very first time I contributed to the songwriting process and offered some ideas to Chris. We combined it together and ended up with EDEN.
Maya and Tamara are also incredible songwriters, with a massive help of Chris I do also create some music.
Chris: Thanks for the flattering words haha. I’m our primary songwriter, yes, but to me a big part of that is being able to take everyone else’s suggestions and interpretations of their own parts on board and fit that into the big picture vision. I really love the way little details get added over time that strengthen the songs, especially in SALVATION, where Wikki improvised that entire vocal cadenza in our first rehearsal and Maya added a harp part to the intro, both of which made the song so much better.
Writing the lyrics to EDEN with Wiktoria was a blast! I had a rough idea and a couple of lines and shared those with her, and a few days later she sent me back enough lyrics for two entire songs! It worked really well because I was then able to go through and pick out my favourite ideas and start building the overall concept for a love song about gratitude and making the world a better place for the people who make it better for us.
(Also, I have to humbly add that the lyrics for SALVATION were originally written by my younger sibling, award-winning author Jonty Armstrong, when we were teenagers, and then I updated them when I formed Catalyst Symphony. Don’t wanna steal the credit there!)
MHF: Are you happy with your release?
Wikki: We are over the moon!
Chris: Delighted! It was a lot of work putting it together and we’re incredibly proud of how it turned out. Huge thanks to Creative Scotland for the funding and Richard at Orpheus Studio for the fantastic work, helped elevate the sound to the heights we knew the songs were capable of!
MHF: How did the press and fans respond to the EP?
Wikki: So far, we have absolutely incredible feedback, fantastic reviews and very high scores. We did not expect people to be that enthusiastic, so we are beyond happy and grateful for such a kind reception.
Chris: Very positive thus far, long may it continue! Our fans have been so kind and so excited for the music, it’s crazy to see friends blasting Nova on loop cause they love it so much, or have total strangers message us to tell us how much they loved Salvation!
MHF: You have played as support for bands like Fellowship and Ascension. You’ve performed at a few festivals and are going on tour in July with Anchorsmashed and the Swedish folk metal band Lombolo. I assume all in the UK. Are there also concerts planned in other countries?
Wikki: We would love to go abroad. It takes a lot of planning and finances play a big role here. The topic keeps coming back and we hear people from Europe & all over the world asking about our potential performances in their countries. Let me assure you-we do what we can. Nothing brings more joy than performing on stage together for people.
Chris: Yeah, as Wikki says we’d love to play outside of the UK, but travel costs and accommodation etc definitely make it a daunting prospect until we can grow our stature a little more. We know we have a lot of fans in Germany, so it’d be awesome to play there some time, perhaps on a support tour? For now, though, we’re looking at opportunities within Scotland and the wider UK to get our music in front of the people we know will love it. But playing in Europe is definitely something we’d love to do some day!
MHF: Last year you reached the semi-finals of ‘Metal 2 the Masses’ and are also nominated in at this year’s. What does this success mean to you? What experiences were you able to gain from these performances?
Wikki: This year we are lucky to call ourselves the finalists. When the news was broken to us that we had received a golden ticket to the final, we were ecstatic. It is an incredible opportunity to see how vast and inclusive the metal scene is. We exchange experiences with other bands and form great friendships. Definitely learn from the mistakes and try to improve ourselves every single time. It was an incredible day and night at the finals and we couldn’t be more grateful for such an opportunity.
Chris: It was a great experience! We really levelled up our live performance, especially adding Shane ahead of the semi finals, and chatting to the organisers helped a lot with refining our stage show. We also met a bunch of amazing musicians from the other bands! We’re already planning a gig in June with Chekhov’s Gun, who we met in the first round, and there’s a couple of other bands we got chatting to at other stages who we’d love to share a stage with again!
MHF: Are there any further plans for Catalyst Symphony? Are there plans for another EP or perhaps a full album?
Wikki: The album is ready :). We have enough songs for at least two LPs! Our plan is to perform and reach to as many people as possible. And create even more music of course.
Chris: “Ready” is a strong word, haha. The music is written and the recording process is coming along smoothly for our planned debut album, but these things do take time, especially with everyone having other musical projects and work and the like. And yes, we have a bunch of music ready for the next album ready to be worked on as soon as Album 1 is finished! I’m personally very excited for that as it’ll be a great opportunity to build the songs together with the band, or with these specific performers in mind!
MHF: Thank you once again for the interview. Is there anything else you would like to say to the fans at the end?
Wikki: ‘The light inside will never die’.
Chris: Thank you all so much for the support! It really means the world to us and it helps keep motivation high to keep creating more and better music for you all. See you all soon!
Catalyst Symphony are:
Wiktoria Wizner – Lead, Backing Vocals
Christopher Armstrong – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Tamara Jordan – Bass
Darren Spence – Drums, Backing Vocals
Maya MacAdam – Violin, Viola, Piano, Synth, Har, Backing Vocals
Discography:
Nova – Demo 2022
Eden – Single 2025
The Light Inside – EP 2025
Social Media: Bandcamp – https://catalystsymphony.bandcamp.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/catalystsymphony
Homepage – https://catalystsymphony.com/home
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/catalystsymphony_band/
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/4ncX5loC9SGYw4WfHCRAHm
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc58XJzikjuKGv2xRNNzwtw
