CAULDRON (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking your time. How is everything doing right now into the CAULDRON’s camp?
Oh pretty good. Just busy breaking in the new drummer and getting ready for our new record to come out. Been brewing for a while now so she’s bout ready to burst!
– You have a new album coming out in a couple of months, entitled “Tomorrow’ Lost”. What are your expectations with this new effort?
No expectations as we’ve come to expect nothing. Its better that way you’re not setting yourself up for dissapointment. Anything is a bonus! We will continue to do what we do and see what happens.
– You’ve never lost your essence and have always remained true to yourself and music style but, what could you say are the main differences between this new record and your previous “Burning Fortune”?
I think the production is better. We are more happy with the mix this time, especially the guitar and drum sound. Ian was also more involved in the songwriting this time. Almost everything is co-written between the two of us. I think it has helped refine our sound a bit more.
– In fact on your new opus there’s a song named “Burning Fortune”. Is it a nod to your sophomore release?
Its just a song title. We had a couple of other titles going around for that song when Ian suggested we just call it Burning Fortune. We thought that was a cool idea to have a title track off a different record, like «nobody does that anymore!?!»
– I think with this new CD you’ve gone a step further in songwriting terms, creating a more dynamic effort, moreover it seems you are really focused into the songwriting, is that true?
Yeah, songwriting is always first and foremost. That is our main goal.
– Lyrics aren’t not the usual stereotypes on your kind of Metal. It seems like they deal with real experiences but, what does inspire you to write them? What do some of the lyrics on “Tomorrow’s Lost” deal with?
Most of them are about real life stuff, day to day struggles that come with life I suppose. I don’t like writing lyrics and find it kind of hard, but I also don’t want them to suck because it will ruin the music.
– Moreover there is plenty riffage on this new piece, it’s seems to be even more guitar-oriented. Did you now since the beginning how did you want this CD to sound like (you haven’t changed radically though)?
That’s probably because Ian has become more involved in the songwriting. Everything has been a natural progression for us, nothing was planned out ahead of time.
– Once more Jameson Elliott (whom already worked with you for “Burning Fortune” and also did the two GOAT HORN’s albums) has produced “Tomorrow’s Lost”. Why did you decide to go again for him? On my view he has managed to capture, once more, a really organic and thick sound. Did you also record this record live in the studio?
We recorded the bed track live together in the same room just like we’ve always done and then overdub the vocals and lead guitar. Jameson is the best guy we know so we stick with him.
– When we interviewed you last January you had around 9 songs ready so, how have the recording-sessions been? As I guess everything may have been quite fast.
Recording was smooth. There was a bit of a crunch there at the end of March, start of April, but we work well under pressure I guess. Recording with Chris Rites was a pleasure; he’s very professional and saved us a lot of time tracking.
– This time around the cover artwork has been crafted by Todd Kowalski, what did you want to represent with it? As it’s quite different to your previous artworks, it’s a painting and not a photograph with a girl on it.
We originally wanted a painting for Burning Fortune too, but that didn’t work out. We just wanted a dark and morbid looking landscape with a source of light, similar to some of our favourite painted record covers.
– All this about your upcoming opus being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Honest uncompromising hopelessness.
– Your bad luck with drummers hasn’t changed during this time. Drums on the album were recorded by Chris Rites. Did you have him as session drummer?
Yeah we left him with the demos as we were going on tour last February and he had them all ready to go by the end of March. We rehearsed for about 5 days together before we went into record and that was it.
– Anyway you have recently announced Myles Deck as your permanent new drummer, do you think he will finally be a steady one?
Yes, it appears so but only time will tell.
– So far you have recorded an album per year, is it easy to keep and deal with such strong activity? With your first album you already created quite a buzz into the Heavy Metal scene so, does the support from your fans and good reactions from the press motivate you in any way to keep on working constantly?
Actually, it was two years between Chained and Burning! Yes, for us it seems quite natural what we do. It is quite motivating too I suppose now knowing that we have a bit of a following who anticipate what we do; that is a cool thought. But ultimately we’re just fans of this music and we like to create music that we want to hear.
– Listening to your music I have always had the feeling you are strongly influenced by the NWOBHM and bands such as WITCHFINDER GENERAL, ANGEL WITCH, IRON MAIDEN or JUDAS PRIEST, but I’ve also noticed certain riffs that seem to be inspired by METALLICA. Anyway, I would like you to tell us which have been the 5 most influential bands and albums for CAULDRON.
My all time might be something like this:
Dokken – Under Lock And Key
Metallica – Master Of Puppets
Lizzy Borden – Love You To Pieces
Halloween – Don’t Metal With Evil
Judas Priest – Defenders Of The Faith
But it is too hard to limit it to just 5!
– Checking your MySpace out I’ve found something which I’m really curious about. Next to some quotes about you from several well-known Metal magazines, there’s the next one: “Worse than Bon Jovi” (by Bongiovi). What could you comment on this? Is this actually true? I figured he may be too busy spraying lacquer on his hair and getting shots of botox.
Ah, that quote comes from some stalker we used to have who would always seize the opportunity to post something negative about us. we found it quite entertaining actually and started posting some of his stuff.
– Well, moving to another subject, some months ago you played in Spain. How did everything go? Any nice memories or too much booze?
Spain was amazing and we can’t wait to come back. We’d like to thank everyone there for a great time and can’t wait to see everyone again! It was awesome, great metal fans!!
– And do you already have any touring plans in support of “Tomorrow’s Lost”?
We have some Canadian shows in October and then we are looking at another European tour for December.
– That has been everything from my side, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you now want to add any final words; feel free to do it.
Thank you! Stay hard!
