Mar
24
Son of Aurelius Interview
Son of Aurelius are a ticking time bomb in the U.S. extreme metal scene. Come April 13th their first album “The Farthest Reaches” (Good Fight Music) is gonna explode across the musical landscape and anyone caught in its blast radius can expect to be jarred from their comfort zone. Combining death metal’s brutal-technical bent with an ample dose of melody and intelligent lyrical themes, Son of Aurelius are five souls who simply CANNOT be ignored this 2010. Here’s guitarist Cary Geare talking about the album, group hugs, and what happens behind the scenes during a video shoot.
Hello Cary. How excited are you with the upcoming release of “The Farthest Reaches”? Are you giddy all the time now or do you still manage to stay cool?
Cary: We’re all really excited to have such a quick release. We all worked really hard on the record and it was super cool for Good Fight Music to move things along so fast and make us a big priority.
According to the official bio, it all began with Josh Miller and the three-song demo he wanted to put out. What was the biggest incentive for you to hop aboard Son of Aurelius aside from the material that came out of those demo sessions?
Cary:The biggest selling point for me was to work with engineer Zack Ohren. I’m good friends with the fellas from Decrepit Birth and Odious Mortem and I had always heard about the Odious sessions with Zack, and of course his recordings are amazing. It was an opportunity I knew I couldn’t pass up on, but at that point it was just a little project, we didn’t know that it would end up turning into Aurelius.
The name of the band has its roots in Roman history (Aurelius being a prominent family in ancient Rome). The band name was actually a song title first, if I’m not mistaken. Were other handles for the five of you floating around before you adopted Son of Aurelius?
Cary:Yeah it started off as a song name and Josh [Miller, vocals] suggested it be the actual band name. It sat well with everyone so we just went with it. Seriously thinking of band names was tough for us; we generally would just joke around with mock names that we thought were funny.
There are also a lot of Greco-Roman themes in your songs. Do you read up on these or do you just recall what you learned in high school/college?
Cary: Our vocalist Josh really came up with the initial idea of having the ancient Rome theme and we just ran with it. I know he did a lot of research for the lyrics he wrote. It’s not strictly hostorical though, some songs are more like an homage. There is our own fiction and story in there amongst the myths and historical stuff.
For a band that’s just starting out, you already have songwriting chops most musicians would envy. Do you all collaborate when writing material or is there just one ideas man in the band?
Cary: We all bring something to the table, generally one guy will write a song all the way through and the rest of us will learn it. That gives each song it’s own identity because we all have different styles and influences.
Individually, the band’s chops would make most ‘scene’ musicians pee their pants. What’s a Son of Aurelius rehearsal like? Is it ever stressful?
Cary: Practice is always fun, we know what we need to work on and we’re all really dedicated to our instruments and making sure everything sounds great. There are always frustrating moments but we’re all friends and it never gets tense or stressful.
One of you came from Berklee, right? What about you and the other guys, what kind of background do you bring to the table?
Cary: Yeah, Max [Zigman, bass] spent some time at Berklee practicing bass up the ass. I’m mostly self taught. I never took formal lessons but I learned as much as I could from friends and other players I would play with, just lots of practice everyday. I know that Chase[Fraser, guitar] is the same way too. Max and Spencer [Edwards, drums] both were in highschool Jazz band together, but they got their chops up all by themselves. No one in the band ever had regular lessons.
How did the band hook up with Castle Ultimate Studios? Any of you got previous recording experience?
Cary: Josh had done some recording there in the past so he was familiar with Zack and had gone through the motions there a few times with other bands. Chase has worked with Zack while he was in Animosity as well. For the rest of us it was our first time doing a professional recording.
The album was recorded in 15 days. But then again, was the pre-production for “The Farthest Reaches” so somplete you got everythign down pat by the time you enterd the studio?
Cary: Most of the songs were written long before we went into the studio, a few of the tracks were songs I had written for a side project Chase and I were doing long before we were in Aurelius. We all wanted to make sure the material was done before we got to the recording, that way we could have time to rehearse it and make things go faster in the studio. Very little was written while we were in the process of recording, just a few things here and there.
It seems you guys came out of nowhere and are suddenly on everyone’s lips. You haven’t even got an album out and your Myspace is teeming with friends and a good label is already backing you guys. Can you try explaining why it’s coming together so fast for Sons of Aurelius?
Cary: I hope folks just dug on the music we were making and got excited. We tried to go all the way with what we did, from the music to the recording to the art and theme. We’re all passionate about it and it’s starting to pay off for us, which we are really lucky to have happening so quickly.
The guys over at Metalsucks have been rooting for you since last year. How does it feel to have such dedicated fans this early? When you learned about this, did you tell your parents?
Cary: We were all really stoked to read they’re articles about us. When I first heard that “Metalsucks” was talking about us I assumed the worst. It was a relief to find out that they dug our stuff. My folks have always been really supportive but I don’t think they would understand how cool it is for us, it’s death metal after all.
Be honest with me now, what kind of expectations did/do you have for “The Farthest Reaches”? Are you guys planning on stealing Lady Gaga’s fire?
Cary:Well we’re all hoping for the best. I believe extreme metal is getting more and more popular and it’s starting to become part of popular culture in subtle ways; just look at how popular Dethklok is. I don’t think it will ever be anywhere close to hip hop or pop music in terms of popularity. That’s what makes it cool though, it’s what makes death metal fans so dedicated and supportive. We’ll take a handful of awesome metal fans over a million Lady Gaga fans any day.
The band already has a short video clip to its credit, “Mycordial Infraction.” What went on during the shoot that the rest of humanity might never have known?
Cary: What I remember most is how god damn cold it was in that warehouse. We shot really late into the morning and by the time we wrapped I wouldn’t be surprised if it was below freezing in there. At one point we all went to Mcdonald’s to get a midnight snack and I got pulled over. We told the cops we had to get back and shoot the rest of our video, they let us go but not before asking several times if we were stoned.
Is that the cover art of “The Farthest Reaches” I see on your profile in Good Fight Music’s website? Jesus Christ, it’s awesome! Who the hell did it? Concept, execution, everything…who? The one on your myspace is pretty attractive as well.
Cary: Both the Myspace and cover art was done by Joshua Belanger. Our vocalist Josh really ran with the cover idea of having Pandora opening the box and chaos spilling out. He has been in contact with all sorts great artists for a while and when he gets an art idea he is immediately on top of it. Joshua had a style we all really were digging on, and in a genre where covers are overly intricate and brutal we thought a more colorful and illustrated style would stand out. He really hit a home run on both of his pieces.
How far does each of you live from each other?
Cary: We all live in Santa Cruz within a couple miles of each other. To make things even more convenient we practice at our drummer Spencer’s house which is in between everyone. He’s got this insulated room he built in his garage that cancels out the noise so we can play all night without pissing off the neighbors.
When the five of you are having a serious disagreement, who yells “group hug!” and pulls everyone together?
Cary: We don’t have too many issues but I’m usually the guy trying to play referee. We’re all mellow guys so there’s never any fights, but we do have disagreements sometimes. Nothing that can’t be solved with a discussion and some beers.
I have a thousand more questions for you guys, but time constraints prevent me from asking them all. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I wish your album tons of success. Do you ever want to get rich off of playing death metal?
Cary: Well that would be nice, but no one plays death metal to make money. We just want to make the music we love and have fun. If success comes our way we will consider ourselves very lucky.
