I've been a Cave In fan for a while. Nevertheless, it always amazes me when I see them play live -- it's like I forget how relatively young these cats are. Yet there's the songcraft, technical proficiency, and stage presence that many seasoned performers still have yet to master. Plus, Cave In has arguably had two successful careers (in their "hardcore" incarnation, and then in the Jupiter/RCA "melodic space-rock" context)...and it looks like the young Bostonians are about to embark on a third chapter in their musical journey. If their recent Houston show at Walter's in support of Perfect Pitch Black is any indication, this could be the realization of the ultimate phase of the band. Space City Rock spoke with band frontman Stephen Brodsky about Cave In's past, present, and future.
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SCR: Okay, let's start off with rumor control. Perfect Pitch Black has you back on Hydra Head. What happened with your RCA deal?
Stephen: It's all done -- disintegrated. The label morphed into a monster that we didn't foresee ourselves trying to deal with in the future.
Another change is that Ben Koller from Converge is now playing drums for you guys. What brought that about?
Well, J.R. [original drummer John-Robert Conners] hurt his wrist really badly, and he also had some other things take priority in his life above playing music with us.
Is the door open for J.R. to return if he wishes?
The present time is the only answer to this question.
Describe the genesis of the material on Perfect Pitch Black. I've seen it described here and there as kind of a glorified demo for what was to be your next RCA release, but to my ears it seems like a fully realized album.
Well, we tried pretty hard to sonically assemble it in such a way that it flows like an album as much as possible...but yeah, it started out as merely demos for what was to be RCA Record II.
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 LINKS:
Cave In
Hydra Head Records
New Idea Society
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The first thing that I'm sure many notice about PPB is the re-introduction of some of the earlier Cave In heaviness. How did the band go about re-introducing that aspect into your songwriting?
It had a lot to do with relearning some of our older material and really enjoying the aspect of playing those tunes live again.
Do you think that if the next album had been on RCA that there would still be that harder edge to it?
What you hear on PPB is what we wanted to use for our follow-up to Antenna, regardless of who would be releasing it.
Is that you doing the screaming on PPB?
No way! Do you think I could scream like that now if I really tried? Caleb [Scofield, bassist] has one of the sickest screaming voices we've ever heard.
As far as your live show goes, have you re-introduced some of the Until Your Heart Stops/Beyond Hypothermia-era material into your set?
Yes.
What songs in particular?
"Moral Eclipse," "Juggernaut," and sometimes "Halo Of Flies."
I personally believe that you guys should have been huge after the release of Antenna -- that album blows away most contemporary loud rock -- but it seems that RCA may have fumbled a little with the marketing push (although I did see the "Inspire" video in Target once). If you are approached by another major, do you think that you guys would go down that path again?
I'd take a free dinner from anyone, but I'd have to be seriously out of my right mind to sign something like that ever again.
Are you guys currently working on new material with Ben?
Yeah -- two songs in the can.
If so, can we expect something in the vein of PPB that melds old Cave In with Cave In 2.0?
It's too early to say, but with Ben there is a broad spectrum of musicality that we can explore -- being that his skills as a musician are quite extraordinary.
Tell us about the side projects you have going on. I liked the New Idea Society release quite a bit. Can we expect to hear more from that project?
Maybe in some shape or form -- it might not have the same title, but Mike and I will probably always be involved with each other's music to some degree.
What was it like playing the Lollapalooza festival? I know that a couple of the guys from Failure jumped up with you to do some tunes at one point.
Yeah, that was a trip. We had half of Failure up there with us in Pittsburgh to play "Magnified" with us. Awesome!
In closing, would Cave In ever be open to having a song featured on the soundtrack of a direct-to-video horror movie about witches?
As long as it was used during one of those cliché vampire-movie-orgy-scenes involving opium and a nice satin bedspread. END
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