Cat (Jorge Booker)
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The band hasn’t dropped an album yet, choosing instead to construct their debut masterpiece entirely behind closed doors. We sat down with Cat, the band's powerhouse guitarist and lead vocalist, to talk about perfectionism, trading heart strings for guitar strings, and why he won't stop until the entire world knows his name.
Q: "Let’s start at the very beginning. You take on massive double-duty as both the lead vocalist and guitarist for Insufficient. Where did that drive come from?"
Cat: "Honestly, ever since I was a kid, I’ve just loved music. I’ve sung my entire life. Deep down, since I was young, I've always wanted to be famous. My family called me a "go getter" which is the nickname of a person that, if they want something they'll do what they need to do to get it. I guess I've always kind of been this way. I will say that I never thought I'd learn the guitar. My dad gave me his acoustic guitar and for the first 4 months it was purely decorative."
Q: "What finally made you pick it up?"
Cat: "My buddies back then both played guitar, so I tried it, but I actually gave up at first. Then, my grandma passed away. I wanted to learn a song for her, so I picked it back up again. It took me a whole week just to learn this one song—it was only four chords, repeating the exact same strumming pattern over and over. But something clicked. I was a huge gamer back then, but as I played more guitar, I stopped getting on my console. Next thing I knew, the same friends who persuaded me to start playing were calling me good and saying I was better than them."
Q: "That’s a wild jump—going from a four-chord acoustic tribute to crafting heavy, low-end nu-metal chugs. How did your sound evolve into what Insufficient is doing now?"
Cat: "When it comes to artists I listen to, it’s never a case of "I want to sound like that." It’s more like, "Man, I want to create something as iconic or unique as that." That’s a big thing for me. When you're writing low-end chug songs, it's so easy to accidentally repeat the same strum or chug pattern someone else did. I’ve always wanted to be apart from the rest, but uniquely belonging in the same way.
My dad used to play bands like Staind and Breaking Benjamin, which got me into rock, but I wasn't completely hooked. Then, when I was fifteen, I told him I liked rock but not that much. That’s when he showed me Deftones. The first thing I focused on was the guitar, but then I noticed the vocals. The vocals were an instrument themselves instead of just an add-on. After Deftones, he showed me System of a Down. Let me just say, Daron Malakian blew me away. He found a way to take crazy, wacky, silly riffs and have them lead into beautiful bridges and choruses, and those harmonizations between him and Serj? Oh yeah. I get my heavier and silly side from SOAD, and my melodic vocal pieces are definitely derived from Deftones."
Q: "You and your co-creator, Audi, are currently writing and tracking Insufficient's debut album in total secrecy. What has that studio dynamic been like?"
Cat: "The most challenging thing is trying to showcase all the skills and versatility we have in just one album. We might end up holding back on some things for the sake of the listener's experience, because in the end, it’s all about the fans and their support.
Me and Audi are absolute perfectionists, so it’s really a fight against who is okay with what. I might like a riff, but he’ll hear a single note that’s off-tempo. Or he’ll lay down a backing vocal track that he thinks is good, but I’ll hear a singular note that's flat and make him redo it. Those are just the kinds of things we knit pick. We hold ourselves to incredibly high expectations. This album is going to set the baseboards so we can start to walk, but it's not going to define us. Our sound is only going to develop more and more."
Q: "Let’s talk about the name Insufficient. It’s a heavy, unforgiving word. Where does that come from?"
Cat: "The name actually comes from a habit I have when making music. I made the name up myself. I didn't want an entire title for a band name; I wanted something singular and direct. I chose "Insufficient" because anytime I worked on a song, when it was about done, I'd listen to it on repeat. That in return, would make me not like the song anymore, and I'd shelf the entire thing. Riffs, lyrics, and all would be stuffed away. It always felt not good enough, or like something was missing, I just didn't know what."
Q: "A lot of bands debut with a safe sound, but you're aiming straight for ambition. For the critics who think the modern nu-metal revival is just a passing trend, what does Insufficient have to say to them through this music?"
Cat: "For the critics that want to talk down on the nu-metal scene, just know that Woodstock '99 proved to the world how unified chaos can be. This era of nu-metal, I want people unified like that again. I want to look out into a crowd and see people like me. People enjoying life, people that have dreams, people being people instead of just a society."
Q: "You've got the vision, the discipline, and a debut album cooking in the dark. Before we let you get back to the studio to finish recording with Audi, what is one final message you want to leave for the future fans reading this?"
Cat: "My one and final message for the current and future fans is that we're all insufficient in our own way, and that's okay. What's not okay is not knowing why. Thank you"
A huge thank you to Cat for stepping away from the studio and taking us behind the scenes of what is seeming to be one of the most intense, calculated, and raw upcoming debuts in the modern numetal scene. The moment Cat and Audi pull back the curtain and drop the first single of the album, you'll read it here first. Until next time, stay heavy, look out for each other, and remember: "We are all insufficient in our own way, and that is completely okay." - Cat of Insufficient
Signing off. - JS