Cavefire Cinema

What's the meaning behind the band's name?
Shit. This is going to sound like a pile of esoteric horse crap – but the truth is when we were work shopping band names, we started by asked ourselves, why do we want to play music? I’d been reading a bit of philosophy at the time and came across Plato’s “the allegory of the cave”. In it, he talked about how people can only know a perception of reality and that there is an underlying “true” reality beyond what our senses can know. He does this by asking us to imagine prisoners shackled in a cave whose entire reality is made by shadows projected up on the cave wall from a nearby fire. It’s deep shit! I am pretty sure the Matrix was based on the same thing. Anyway, music, for me and the guys has always been about trying to say something that connects people. You know, something that is true to us all. That’s why people write break up songs. Because everyone knows what if feels like to have some girl rip your heart out and f*** you in the ear.


How the band started??
I’d like to tell you that we all met at a hot dog eating competition or something, but the truth is, Cavefire Cinema rose out of the ashes of another band called Sculpt. Sculpt were really cool and were making big waves but for all of the normal rock ‘n roll reasons it fell to pieces. Bedford (Singer) and Stevan (Drums) recruited Jeesbie (Bass) and me, and it just became something completely different, so we renamed. By the way, Bedford would definitely win the hot dog eating competition. He is focused... disciplined!


What's the message to transmit with your music??
Most of the music deals with relationships. It’s universal. I love music like Rage against the Machine and System of a Down, that talks about bringing down the system and how f***ed the world is, but in the end, happiness come from hanging out with cool people. Sometimes it’s fun to tip over cars and burn them, but you don’t want to do that shit by yourself.


What's your method at the time of writing a song?
We have a very particular method. It always starts with a guitar riff. It’s rock and roll you know. The riff doesn’t have to be too complicated or anything, it just has to have something to it. Drums give it the energy, so we try some different ideas, tempos, patterns etc and then we fill it out with bass. We would usually record at this stage and then hand it over to Bedford. Sometimes it is done in a couple of hours but usually it takes a few months to get the song exactly right. We don’t like to rush them – it takes time to articulate things in exactly the right way.


Which are your music influences??
We all have our different influences. For Stevan it is Jon Bonham (Led Zeplin drummer), Bedford wants to have Chris Cornell’s (Soundgarden, Audioslave) babies, Jeebsie is currently stalking Steve Wilson from Porcupine Tree and for me it is Tool. We don’t really talk about, “let’s go for an Alice in Chains vibe on this one” or anything like that. It is a lot more organic than that, but you can never leave your influences behind.


What plans do you guys have for the future??
Well we have just finished an album which will be due out for release shortly. It was recorded by Kieran Kenderessy (Birds of Tokyo) at Loop Studios here in Western Australia. We really liked what Kieran did with the last Birds of Tokyo album, Universes, which was huge. I think it went Gold. The plan is to get out on the road and tour the shit out of the album early 2011.


Which has been the funniest prank you guys have been or took part while on tour or after a show??
Jeebsie is the prankster of the band. He has this whole Stephen Wright deadpan thing down to a fine art. Do you call them dad jokes in the US? That’s what we call them. You know those lame jokes your dad makes that are maybe 30% funny but by the sheer volume of jokes recited, he gets this weird cult status. That’s Jeebsie. If the guy could be fucked with Twitter he would probably have ten million people following him – but I think he is too busy stalking the dude from Porcupine Tree.


If you guys were stranded in the middle of nowhere after a show or while on tour. The help is 65 miles away from where you guys are, ¿Who would you guys send to look for help? And if while the rest wait, there's no food and the only way to feed yourself is by eating each other, ¿Who would you eat first?
I am telling you now; if anyone is going to look for help it is me. I am not entrusting my life to anyone stupid enough to choose playing in a rock band as a career! As for being eaten, I think Jeebsie and Bedford would be best to knock off Stevan first. He is a 6’6 Serbian who loves steak. You don’t want someone like that around when they are hungry. He’d be polishing off the last leg bone and asking for seconds!


Which country you guys would love to play?
I would love to play somewhere wild like India or Nigeria – some place where they don’t usually get bands like ours. Europe is cool and I love the US, but as a good friend of mine once said, there is no point having an immune system unless you use it.


With which bands you guys would love to share stage??
That’s hard. Maybe The Mars Volta – those guys are nuts. If Soundgarden reform I would love to play with them. Oh, and the Doors – for the naked chicks.


Are you guys OK, with the direction the band is going actually?
Definitely. We have an album due out in a couple of months and we have started working on material for the next album already. The new material is similarly energetic and melodic but will definitely be more complex than Discipline. We are pushing ourselves more and more with the new material. It’s exciting to see what comes out.
- Vents Magazine

AN affection for the unlikely union of zombies and Richmond footballer Ben Cousins has inspired a song from a heavy rock band with local roots.

Cavefire Cinema will be launching their debut single, Where The Sun Is, this weekend at a show with Crankenstein and Ol Bougainvillea.

Recording the track at Loop Studios in Leederville in May, Darch resident and drummer Stevan Draca said the former West Coast Eagles mid-fielder proved to be a point that stuck in the mind of Bentley singer John Bannerman.

“John is a big AFL fan,” he said. “It is a bit unusual, but the lyrics were inspired by Ben and John thinking about how he would be feeling, getting kicked out of the West Coast Eagles. I guess it kind of has a bit of a pissed off vibe.”

Accompanying the single, the quartet also filmed a clip earlier this year designed to show their funnier side.

Called Zombie Love Story, the clip follows a flesh-eating couple with the streets of Fremantle acting as the backdrop to their blossoming romance.

“Our guitarist Simon (Mendelawitz) knew two friends who used to live in London who attended an event called Zombie Club every Saturday night,” Mr Draca said. “They would both dress up and walk around parts of London; it’s quite well-known.

“The clip ends up with the pair falling in love and they go out on a date; we just happen to be the band that is playing at the pub they go to. But the theme is zombie night at the pub, so everyone are zombies – it’s a bit of a parody.”

The band will be looking to release their first full length, Discipline, in early November. The launch will be held at Manhattan in Victoria Park on Saturday, July 31.
- Wannerooo Times