Grittier Chaos: An Interview With Utah’s Feral!Cat?Red!

By Staff | May 28, 2026

Hailing from The Beehive State (yeah, we had to look that up), the punk outfit Feral!Cat?Red! crafts a chaotic fusion of sludge, doom, mathcore, and hardcore. Their debut EP, How Do You Know, When You Are Old Enough To Know Better?, channels raw emotion and gritty experimentation, unleashing frantic, disheveled energy. Drummer Sam plays as if his life depends on it, while bassist-vocalist Annie delivers guttural, desperate screams that intertwine with Ben’s distorted guitar thrashing. After a memorable set at Utah’s women-led BITCHFEST, the band continues to collect sticky notes from fans and leave crowds disoriented and exhilarated.

Welcome. Well, for starters, what’s the story behind the band’s name, Feral!Cat?Red!, and the punctuation?

Sam (drums): In honesty, it was inspired by a song by the song “Red Feral Cat” by Ephilexia, a post-rock solo project. Such a great listen. ‍

Annie (bass): I actually did not know that, that’s silly.

Ben (guitar)/Sam: Full Of Hell’s name came from a song Spencer Hazard really liked too. When I first figured that out I was kind of bummed, haha. Same with Slowdive actually as well, after Siouxsie and The Banshees.

Sam: I like it because it’s unexpected! We are a very different genre from post-rock. The punctuation is the same unexpected confusing deal. Kind of annoying.

(Ben, Annie, Sam all trying to verbally say !?! out loud and giggling)

Ben: How the fuck do we transcribe that? oooh!eeeeuuuh?aaaah!

How did the unique blend of sludge, doom, mathcore, and punk come together for Feral!Cat?Red!?

Ben: I think the first song we all wrote together was the last track, when we write together it’s heavy and sludgy, experimental. It still gets mathy though somehow.

Annie: Last spring I was writing a lot of sludge and doom. I couldn’t walk for two months after a knee reconstructive surgery so I was writing a lot. Absolutely in the sludge. The first track of the EP and the last track of the EP are both from poems I had written around that experience.

Sam: I grew up with punk records! A few of the songs on the EP I had written some years back and really wanted to keep organic with whatever genres they fell into on their own.

What can fans expect from your debut EP, “How Do You Know, When You Are Old Enough To Know Better?”?

Sam: The debut really is a beginning sample of what grittier chaos Feral!Cat?Red! works as. We recorded the EP a few months into beginning to figure out Feral!Cat?Red!. We get personal and creative very quick.

Annie: It’s very charged and genuine. I was all over the place during recording. Just hooting and hollering. Connection with music is all I have left in my hands when I open them to people.

Ben: You have to get on that Feral!Cat?Red! bullshit!

What was it like to debut your new EP at Utah’s BITCHFEST in May, alongside Castrator and Solicitor?

Annie/Ben/Sam: WE HAVE A BITCHFEST LIVE (ish) MUSIC VIDEO OUT ON OUR YOUTUBE IF YOU WANNA KNOW HOW IT WAS!

Annie: I felt like Mini Me from Austin Powers for like one second and it threw me off. It was because of the few times during the set I bit my pointer finger. He bites his pinky though so i’m not even him anyways. Castrator had me mesmerized, death metal is one of my favorite genres. Women know metal like the back of their hands! Women led metal festivals are ones you shouldn’t miss!

Ben/Sam: The bands’ performing alongside us at the festival drew sticky-notes of cats for our sticky note collection we started collecting from the crowd, so fucking fun. Someone came up to me at the merch table and asked me if I knew what day they were going to officially die. Haha.

How do you shape your live energy?

Sam/Ben: In Salt Lake City you get bands like Cult Leader, where the room becomes disheveled immediately into their set. We love that. We like erratic and we like movement. Our other projects set a tone for our stage presence.

Annie: I am always glued to the way Ben plays and thrashes around. I’m intimidated by Sam on drums. He plays like he is going to die after the set.

With members from Acid Hologram and Cudney, how do your different backgrounds influence the songwriting process?

Ben/Sam: Acid-Hologram drinks a lot of Twisted Tea, and Cudney Drinks a lot of PBR. Together we are sort of like an unreleased beer that you can drink.

Annie, how does your vocal approach channel both the intensity of EyeHateGod and the raw presence of Sin34?

Annie: Sludge and punk vocals can have a lot of variety, I usually take on lower register guttural to smooth out a piece. But you need to complicate and emotionally charge the piece too. I love doing that. Pathetic screams of despair. I need to correspond with Ben’s distortion and guitar. Sin34’s vocalist dives into their vocals and does not seem to need to give any second thought. It reminds me to admire that in my own work. I get caught up in the process and don’t think about how I am going to sound. When something vocally comes out a bit “off’ it’s special to me.

What message or feeling do you hope the audience took away from your set at BITCHFEST?

Ben/Annie/Sam: Music is the kind of thing you should listen to.

Anyone you’d like to thank?

Gunner and Spence of Aces High Saloon! https://aceshighsaloon.com/

Thea of Dark River Photography! https://www.instagram.com/dark.river.photography/

Litzie Writer of SLUG Mag! https://www.slugmag.com/authors/litzi-estrada/