Punktuation-What is the name of your band?
Cave In
P-Is there any significance behind the name?
CI-Nope it's just one of those names that you find while looking in a dictionary or it's one of your favorite band's song names...and you need a name for your band when your 15 years old.
P-What bands did you and the others listen to when you were fifteen?
CI-Lifetime, Threadbare, Converge, Quicksand, Piebald, Into Another, Deadguy, Rorschach, Coalesce, I guess to name a few of the hardcore bands we were or are into.
P-What style of music do you guys play and how would you describe it to someone who's never heard you before?
CI-Umm that's always hard to describe your music to someone.....it's post hardcore apocalyptic space stoner rock...thats a good description I guess.
P-Where do you guys reside?
CI-Boston, MA
P-What is the scene like there?
CI-Amazing, so many great bands covering all the different genres....as well as many cool supportive people.
P-How does the scene differ in Boston compared to other places you've played?
CI-Well because we have so many bands, shows and supporters, people tend to take our amazing underground music scene for granted......you find that people in other places are much more appreciative of bands touring through...they tend to take it less for granted because they don't have much of an underground music scene where they live.
P-Would you say for the most part there is a good hardcore/punk scene?
CI-Yes definitely, you can find it all in Boston.
P-What made you guys interested in playing to crowds?
CI-Well when we started when we were younger we just wanted to play in front of people and lose our shit....it was amazing to us back then to have people's attention...now I guess playing in Cave In is almost a religous experience for me....the crowd, the energy, the vibe...just a positive spiritually enlightening experience.
P-Who writes the lyrics and what messages might be found within them?
CI-Steve writes mostly all of the lyrics...they range from personal experiences to even talking about dreams we have had.
P-What kind of dreams do you guys have?
CI-I had a dream about a hot air balloon..it's kind of a long story but it involved a hot air balloon, the Beatles, and all took place above a night lit city...but we wrote a song about it...it's one of the songs that will be on the Hydra Head limited 7 inch.
P-How do you guys come up with your ideas?
CI-Steve is the main writer but over the past year we have become much better as a band working collaboratively...we just play what we feel like....try to get a good groove and catch ourselves from writing filler material.
P-Is there any experiences that stand out in your head that were the most memorable from playing?
CI-Hmmm gosh there has been tons of memorable things that stand out...I guess the first time we played the west coast was completely overwhelming for me....I had never been there up until that point and people knew who we were and were so attentive to us when we played...it was the furthest I had ever been away from home and it was a great experience...California dreaming.
P-What kind of feeling do you get when you go through towns and people know all your songs?
CI-It's extremely gratifying when people are excited to see you, sing your songs and are just into what you are doing...its definitely a very spiritually uplifting experience.
P-Do you guys have any special rituals while playing or practicing?
CI-We always eat Campbell's Fiesta Soup at band practice...rituals for shows????? Well we are late all the time if that's a ritual.
P-Why Campbell's Fiesta Soup before your practices?
CI-I have no idea, it's just what the Brodsky family has in their cabinets...it's a quick vegetarian sloppy bean soup...mmmmm good!
P-What do you guys wish to accomplish in the future?
CI-Just bring our music to the furthest level possible.....a level that all of us are comfortable at..and just make some timeless music that maybe someday will be looked back upon and be important to people.
P-Who are some of your influences?
CI-Radiohead, Failure, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Beach Boys, Failure, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Neurosis, Beatles...I could go on and on.
P-Is there any bands that you think are pushing the limits right now, who we should watch out for?
CI-There are some great bands coming out of Boston right now-The Hope Conspiracy...a great heavy hardcore band with ex members of Harvest and Piecemeal and my new up and coming favorite, Barbero....a great Boston rock band...that girl can rip on the guitar and she's an amazing singer.
P-How did Cave In manage to become part of the Hydra Head family?
CI-Aaron just saw us perform at a show in Worcester, MA 4 years ago and it's been a happy marriage ever since.
What did that feel like?
CI-Completely overwhelming and exciting...we knew there was something special about Aaron and his label.....and most of our friends were working with him and had nothing but good things to say about him.
P-Do you think you have a pretty well-rounded following?
CI-It depends where we play I guess...it seems like lately the "older" people in the crowd enjoy us more and understand what we are trying to do...needless to say we have cleared more than a few rooms in the past year playing our new material. but yeah we have all kinds of people come and see us-old, young, you name it.
P-How does your new material differ from your older material and why do you think some people are clearing the room when hearing it?
CI-Well, it's songs we like to play. It's definitely not as aggressive...we are just writing music now influeced by what we listen to...like I said before- that anger from a few years ago is just not in us...well as far as people clearing the room...why do you think? They don't like what they hear and that's ok....lots of people want to kill each other and we just dont have the mosh like we used to. Who comes to a Cave In show and what should they expect?
CI-4 dudes with planets on their amps playing their hearts out and doing the thing they know best...we also try to portray a musical journey with very little pauses of silence in our set...taking you from the beginning to the end with our songs.
P-Is there any specific reason you guys like planets and space so much?
CI-No, I think we all have some strange fascination and curiosity with it, that's all...for me, I just think all things like space suits, planets, ships, satellites, are just soo cool looking...i'm just very curious about that stuff...just think of the word "SPACE"....what is out there?
P-Any last words of wisdom?
CI-If your van overheats on tour get it fixed RIGHT AWAY.....thank you.