I’m Scot Apathy, host of NEWHD’s emerging artists showcase Z-GR! Radio, where we spotlight artists who are driving the evolution of modern Rock, Pop and Dance music. I had the opportunity to pick the brain of an artist I’ve been following since 2022 and who has become a Z-GR! Radio favorite – Cat Temper has been a featured guest on the show twice before, and when I saw that he had a new album dropping, I decided to see if he’d be willing to do a Q&A session to go along the release and his guest appearance on Episode 54, which will focus on his new record, Hissteria.
Mike Langlie is the mind behind Cat Temper, a solo endeavor that pairs analog synth textures and vivid conceptual themes with retro-themed visual aesthetics and clever cultural references, all filtered through a distinctly feline lens.
His latest release, Hissteria, is a bold and biting commentary on media saturation, chaos, and noise—wrapped in synthwave stylings that feel both nostalgic and immediate. It’s aggressive, cinematic, and, like much of Mike’s work, far deeper than it first appears, and I am a fan for good reason.
Today, we’ll explore the music, the process, the philosophy, and the man behind the cat.
Let’s dive right into the album
Q: What is Hissteria all about?
A: Cat Temper explores the sounds that made me love music growing up in the 1980s. For Hissteria I mix together some points in that musical evolution tha
t didn’t overlap at the time and spit them out to see what happens. Prog bands like Rush and The Alan Parsons Project, hair metal like Def Leppard, and synthpunk like Sigue Sigue Sputnik and early Devo. The album and track titles are puns on Def Leppard songs appropriately enough.
Q: How is Hissteria different from past Cat Temper albums?
A: Previous albums leaned harder into either punk or atmospheric directions. This one has much more traditional rock song structures and sounds, for me anyway. There are still plenty of surprises woven throughout.
Q: Who Created the Album Art?
A: Mizucat, aka Jaqueline Ruther from Germany, is a popular illustrator in the retrowave scene. She really nails the graphic aesthetic of the 1980s and 90s mixed with anime and early videogame influences. I love working with different artists to bring each album to life and was thrilled to finally have her involved.
Q: Where can people listen or support the album?
A: All my music is available on Bandcamp. You can also find most of it on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music but Bandcamp is my top choice.
About the Music & Sound
Q: Your sound blends synthwave with a strong personality—how would you describe your sonic identity?
A: It’s a bit hyper and in your face, a little schizophrenic, and has a sincere sense of humor and fun without irony.
Q: What’s your process like when creating a new track—from initial spark to final mix?
A: Everything starts by just playing around, finding the personality in a particular synth patch. A riff or progression naturally forms to fit a sound. It builds almost randomly, trying unlikely combinations of sounds and styles until things work. Sometimes I combine 2 or 3 different ideas and am surprised by how well they work together in ways I couldn’t have planned. A track never ends up where I plan it to go so I’ve learned to be open to where things take me. It’s as much about trusting my gut as it is chance.
The editing and mixing stages are as much about stripping things out as polishing what’s there. Often I end up removing the seed a track grew from and might reuse it for a different song.
Q: You’ve got a knack for punchy titles and playful feline-based wordplay. Do the titles come before or after the track?
A: I have a notebook full of potential cat puns titles. But ideas for entire albums still come to me in the middle of the night. I’m a huge fan of concept albums and always have one outlined as song names that fit a theme before touching an instrument. A title helps set the course a track will take. Several releases are obvious homages to my favorite bands and albums, at least in titles if not musically.
Artistic Persona & Themes
Q: The “cat” theme runs strong across your music and branding—how did that start?
A: I’m a graphic designer as well as a cat lover. For me the branding and visuals are as important as the music itself. The “purrsonalities” of my own cats definitely inspired this project. Sometimes friendly, sometimes fierce. Cute and cuddly until the claws come out.
Q: How many cats do you share your life with?
A: My wife and I have always shared our house with 2 cats at a time. We’re often tempted to bring home more but the general rule has been one for each lap!
Visuals & Albums
Q: Your album art is consistently creative and fun—what is the process you use to develop the art?
A: For past projects I created most of the artwork myself. Being a solo musician can sometimes be lonely and I enjoy having visual artists involved as a kind of collaboration and way to get some outside perspective. I follow a lot of artists and pick whomever fits each album. I provide a lot of art direction and copious sketches and references, but give artists the freedom to do what they think works best.
Gear & Production
Q: What’s your current synth setup—hardware, software, or a mix of both?
A: I’ve collected and sold a lot of gear over the decades but still use stuff I started with as a kid. My favorite synth is also my first: the quirky Casio CZ-101. Other faves are the beefy Novation Bass Station II; the Roland JU-6A; the Yamaha TQ5; a variety of old drum machines like the Boss DR-220e and Alesis SR-18; and weird pieces from small companies like the Game Cat noise box from Error Instruments and the Hello Kitty drone synth from Lullaby Machines.
My DAW is Reason which has a lot of great built-in synths and effects. I use a lot of VST soft synths, several of which always crash my laptop in the middle of session. Some in regular use are Native Instruments’ Massive, Blamsoft’s VK-1 Viking Synthesizer, and the Arturia V Collection of classic synth emulations.
Q: Best snack for long studio sessions?
A: My glass is always full of Diet Dr. Pepper.
Community & Influence
Q: Who are some of your biggest musical influences—retro or current?
A: Devo blew my mind at an early age for breaking the rules and having anarchic fun while still being accessible to a radio audience. Synth pioneers and rebels like Laurie Anderson, The Art of Noise, Wendy Carlos, Yellow Magic Orchestra, POLYSICS, Atari Teenage Riot, Trent Reznor, Skinny Puppy, Severed Heads and many more. Trevor Horn is a big influence with his over-the-top arrangements and production style.
Q: Are there other artists in the synthwave/retrowave scene you’re excited about?
A: A lot of synthwave artists excite me, some of whom I’m happy to consider friends and peers. A few pushing the envelope the most are Alpha Chrome Yayo, Architrave, Binaural Space, CZARINA, Rubix Kitten, Watch Out for Snakes, and many more I could go on and on about.
Q: What’s your relationship with the synthwave community like?
A: I was thrilled to find the synthwave community embracing everything I was teased for liking as an 80s kid. I relate to it whole-heartedly but my own music definitely sits on the periphery. I’m thankful that some folks in the scene enjoy my stuff and seem to get what I’m about.
About Your Music Library & Listening Habits
Q: What does your personal music library look like—are you a vinyl collector, digital hoarder, or somewhere in between?
A: I started with vinyl and cassettes and moved into CDs when those became the norm. As a college radio DJ and zine maker I had access to tons of promo records and discs. That plus ripping off mail-order record clubs like every other kid in the 80s helped me build a huge collection. I stopped buying physical formats for a long time until discovering indie artists selling their own merch on Bandcamp. My record collection has exploded from that in recent years. I also have several hard drives of digital music which I keep obsessively organized.
Q: What’s the last album you added to your library that totally blew your mind?
A: A couple great albums I recently got are the delightful Cowgirls and Synthesizers by Hyperbubble, and the self-titled album from Temporal Waves, a tabla master mixing synths and hand percussion.
Q: Album you wish you made?
A: Not an album but one single I’ve always been envious of is “Warm Leatherette” by The Normal from 1978. Absolutely perfect minimalist synthpunk with no wasted notes or flair. My stuff is way too busy to ever come close but I keep trying.
Q: Do you revisit your own older albums? If so, do you hear them differently now?
A: I’m don’t revisit my own work much. After countless hours spent wrangling tracks I lose all perspective to enjoy them as actual songs. Only years later can I hear something I made and sometimes be happy with it or wonder how I did it.
Q: Any favorite soundtracks or scores that sit proudly in your collection?
A: I’m a huge fan of anything by John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream and Angelo Badalamenti. If I had to pick one score from each I’d say Escape from New York, Firestarter and Mulholland Drive.
Q: Is there an album you’d consider your ‘desert island disc’?
A: I’ve always considered Duran Duran’s Rio to be a perfect album I never get tired of. Those 5 guys play like they’re all in different bands but somehow combine in a magical way for that record.
COLLABORATION & SCENE
Q: Have you ever collaborated with other artists?
A: After butting heads with people in several bands due to me being a control freak I realized I work best solo. Once in a while I manage to get out of my own way for some cool collaborations. The most high profile one was with Fred Schneider of the B-52s doing a cover song for a Doctor Demento tribute album.
After a few instrumental Cat Temper releases a lot of people said they wished I would do songs with vocals. I approached 10 singers I like with a range of styles and spent a couple years making the More Than a Feline album. That was a huge labor of love for everyone involved that I haven’t had the energy to try again!
Q: How do you stay connected to fans and the synthwave scene? Is community important to you?
A: I’m a huge fan of indie music and like to support DIY artists as much as possible. Bandcamp is great for discovering and supporting musicians and I have a huge collection there. I also keep up with musicians and artists on social media and enjoy sharing their work.
PHILOSOPHY & PROCESS
Q: Do you ever make music that doesn’t fit the Cat Temper project? Where does that go?
A: I’ve never been too concerned with following a concise set of rules with Cat Temper. I allow myself to explore different sounds and styles with each album and don’t feel the need to create a new project for each experiment. Not everyone who likes one thing I do may be into the other stuff and that’s fine. I’m confident that there’s a consistent thread tying everything together simply due to it all coming just from me.
Q: What has surprised you most about your evolution as a musician since starting Cat Temper?
A: Having long ago given up any illusions of becoming rich or famous from making music, I’m always surprised to get positive feedback for stuff I make solely to entertain myself. Especially when I change gears and go in directions that challenge my comfort zones.
FANDOM, GEEKERY & EASTER EGGS
Q: There are tons of classic album references in your music—do you intentionally hide Easter eggs for fans to find?
A: I definitely wear my influences on my sleeve. Lots of tracks have a big spaceship landing filter sweep sound inspired by Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” because it’s awesome. The Nineteen Eighty-Four album has several obvious nods to classic songs like Van Halen’s “1984”, a-ha’s “Take On Me” and Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” among others.
Hissteria has a few references as well. “Hair Raiser” includes a synth sound based on Missing Persons’ “Walking in L.A.” and the breakdown in “Dangerpuss” owes a debt to “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys.
FUTURE & EXPERIMENTATION
Q: Would you ever break character and release an album under your real name?
A: Very unlikely! I’ve always made up personas for creative projects. Fans of one are often unaware of the others, and those who do figure it out are kind of in a small club. Few people in my real life even know I make music.
Q: Any genres you’d like to sneak into future releases—metal, reggae, ambient, etc?
A: I really want to make a dungeon synth album. A couple of dissatisfying attempts ended up deleted. I’d also like to try an ultra-minimal single keyboard or piano based album to see how well I can write songs without my usual layers of clutter and nonsense.
Q: What’s Next for Cat Temper?
A: There’s always something in the works. A new set of tracks was made to get my feelings about the current US political nightmare out of my system. The tone is simultaneously melancholy and contentious. I plan on happier output after that!
About Z-GR! Radio
You can hear Z-GR! Radio weekly on Fridays on NEWHD Los Angeles and again on Saturdays on NEWHD New York; the stations can be heard on TuneIN, Audacy, Amazon devices via Installed skill, Apple Music/CarPlay the NEWHD Radio app on iPhone or Android or it can be streamed directly from newhdradio.com. More info on Z-GR! Radio and links to streams and info on all Episodes of the show can be found at newhdradio.com/zgr.
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