Localized: Cathode

Come get electrified at this month’s SLUG Localized! Dive into the digital cyberpunk world of synthwaves, as you indulge the 16-bit vibes of Cathode, the Tron-like experience of Runestomper and the futuristic club sound of Jandro. Come to Kilby Court on Thursday, April 23 for a night of sensory overload! Buy your tickets here!

“It’s one of the harder shows; it gets so cold. This is probably the second coldest Illuminate I’ve been to,” Lars Shurilla, better known as one half of Cathode, says while we huddled around a fire stand. It was 30 degrees that night at Illuminate, Salt Lake’s yearly public festival filled with strobing LED lights, art exhibits and music from synth artists and DJs. But the low temps and breeze did not stop people from showing up. Everyone was bundled head to toe as they perused the exhibits and jammed out to Shurilla as he showed off his synthwave and video skills. “This is my fifth year playing,” he says. “I play it no matter what if I can.”

“I asked my brother to teach me, so he pulled out a Super Nintendo, put in a cartridge and taught me how.”

Shurilla got his start long ago in Madison, Wisconsin. He cites his parents’ love of Elton John and musicals as getting him into music and his brother for showing him the basics of chiptunes, which got him into electronic sounds. “I asked my brother to teach me, so he pulled out a Super Nintendo, put in a cartridge and taught me how,” he says. Shurilla tinkered with old video game console soundchips before getting his first analog synth, the Moog Slim Phatty. It wasn’t until he saw Ben Folds at Summerfest after wisdom tooth surgery earlier that day that he got the desire to play live. He credits his first show under the name Immortan while opening for the band Magic Sword: “I reached out to the venue like, ‘Hey, do you have anyone opening for Magic Sword?’ They said, ‘No, do you know somebody?’ and I said, ‘Yes, me!’”

After meeting Drew Caster, who is currently based in Seattle, they formed Man-Made Men. After errors made by Spotify with their artist page, they renamed themselves to Cathode in honor of their TVs. It didn’t take long for Shurilla to find his way to the SLC Synth Alliance, a group of synth musicians who help each other in any way possible. It was at a show for Conquer Monster, a chiptune group, where other Synth Alliance members referred him to Chris Nielsen. Shurilla found a community who supported him and his music, showing him new techniques using the Little Sounds DJ tool for his music and how to alter his videos live on stage, including at the recent SLUG 37th Anniversary Party.

“If you want to and you like it, go for it. I have fun with them and know enough to get out of it what I like, and a lot of it is happy accidents.”

“I had so much fun, a lot more fun than I was expecting,” Shurilla says. “It was just one song, and I didn’t feel rushed at all, and the crowd really got into it. It was really freeing, liberating in a way to not do my whole setup because I usually have the projector and multiple TVs, and it’s a lot of work. I just had the one TV, a very simple setup. I did the one song, banger, and got out! It was a happy time, I loved it.” Shurilla is getting ready to release the song “Neon Above,” and after that is a collaborative song with fellow SLC synth artists Runestomper and his incredible cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.”

Shurilla hopes that he can get more people inspired to check out the Synth Alliance and give music-making a shot. “Go for it,” he says. “If you want to and you like it, go for it. I have fun with them and know enough to get out of it what I like, and a lot of it is happy accidents. Get into it if you like, and if you wanna learn more, the Synth Alliance is a wealth of knowledge and has lots of people who know what they are doing. There are so many different types, so you can find something that is good for you that you enjoy. So go for it.”

Read more from past Localized features:
Localized: Nadezhda
Localized: The Apathetics