Born on the U.S.
Virgin Island of Saint Croix, Katalyss was not initially
into playing an instrument. However, he had been singing
along to songs on the radio, as his mom loved listening
to music. Sports were his first true interest. Winning
trophy after trophy in track and field events and
capturing all around athlete of his Jr. high school, he
had no significant interest in playing an instrument
until "the bets" that sparked his musical
fire. "The
bets" happened one day as he came to school and was
listening to a few of his friends bragging about who
could play which songs better on a mini keyboard. Katalyss interrupted the argument by telling them that
none of them were playing the songs correctly and that
they should all just kill the noise. As a result, they
began taunting him and betting him that he couldn't play
the keyboard better than anyone who had tried. He then
told a few of them "fine, you're on" and asked them to
give him a few minutes since he had never really played
a keyboard before. Before long, Katalyss turned around
to his friends smiling and began to play one of the
songs and won the bets. Poetry had been the main form of
expressing Katalyss' innermost feelings until the day of
"the bets". He then began playing keyboards and writing
songs in 1987 and never looked back.
This self-taught
musician and vocalist graduated from high school in
1991. By the time he was nineteen years old, he had
already won the most prestigious musical award in the
Virgin Islands called a "road march", twice, while
attending the University of the Virgin Islands. To
further his education, Katalyss relocated to the U.S.
mainland in 1993. While attending a technical school in
Atlanta Georgia, he began playing keyboards with two
reggae bands called "Red Skull" and "Afro-Safari", but
it wasn't too long before the musical "fire" took over.
Katalyss found himself being late for classes and his
work-study program on a regular basis because of losing
track of time while practicing keyboards and singing.
Eventually, the inevitable occurred. He dropped out of
the technical school after being contacted by the
Healers, a Colorado band. The Healers were very
interested in his musical abilities. based on a demo of
the works he had done back in the Virgin Islands. "The
Healers" reggae band told him he'd be hired as soon as
he could get to Colorado. Katalyss relocated to Colorado
within two days and performed as a vocalist/keyboardist
with "The Healers", He began touring around the U.S.
mainland with other reggae artists as an opening
vocalist and keyboardist. Katalyss then returned to
Saint Croix after touring with reggae artist "Shinehead"
in 1997. One of the main reasons for Katalyss' return
was at the suggestion of Shinehead and Shinehead's fans.
They felt that he was overqualified at playing keyboards
and being a background vocalist for any artist.
Consequentally, he moved back to the Virgin Islands to
begin the shaping of his careeer as an artist while
producing and recording material for many of Saint
Croix's artists. |