-- A long-awaited new album “White Silence” is released finally. I am so excited and happy about it. In your interview for the EP “Planets of Old”, you said that you tried to record songs real quick, so I was expecting the album would have been out sooner. The actual release was one and half year after the EP release. Are there any difference in the way you recorded the EP and the album?
Stephen : Glad to hear you like the album. It took longer to record than the EP mainly because we did all the recording ourselves. So as you can imagine there was some trial and error involved, and also the fact that we were meeting once a week to piece together the puzzle. And some nights we'd end up just hanging out without recording or even playing a note, which was fine too.
-- I heard that the band self-produced “White Silence”, which you had never done before. I assume that you did learn a lot about the knowledge and actual skills of recording through your solo works during hiatus. Could you please tell me how you recorded the songs of this album? What are the major changes of differences compared to your previous recordings?
Stephen : We would set up like we usually did in our old rehearsal space and record live instruments to Pro Tools. It was one of the largest rooms in the old building we used to play in, which has since been vacated. Most overdubs were done in there, too. But then "Heartbreaks, Earthquakes" was a trip that took us all over New England. Adam started that one as a home recording, then we did vocals and drums at our space. There's a piano track that we put down out on Cape Cod last summer. And finally the guitar solo was tracked by Caleb early one morning after a night of us partying up in New Hampshire.
-- You have put various types of music together in this album and I was wondering if there were any particular roles among each member. For example, one is in charge of “metal part” and another is in charge of “pop part” or something like that. If there were, did those roles come naturally in the band? Also, could you pick up the biggest contribution from each member, Caleb, Adam, JR and you, in writing, playing, recording, or whatever roles you can think of?
Stephen : It's funny how people have preconceived conceptions of who were are. For this record, I think we all stepped outside of our own boxes, so to speak. You can hear an expanded vocal range from both Caleb and Adam, and even J.R. got on the mic for the same track we had him playing a trash can. As for myself, I got to step into the recording scenario more closely with Cave In than ever before, which was both fun and also a bit challenging at times, especially when the things got loose and the fun started to catch up with me!
-- Hard and heavy songs are followed by “Heartbreaks, Earthquakes”, which is so impressive in this album. Sounds to me a bit like Pink Floyd. Please talk about how you wrote songs in this album, especially “Heartbreaks, Earthquakes”.
Stephen : Adam showed us the basic home recording he did, and I came up with some vocals that we recorded together. Then Caleb played the heli-bass, which we dialed in to sound like a helicopter. J.R. reinforced the heli-bass with his drum parts, and the guitar solo was the icing on the cake.
-- Not only Caleb, but Adam sings more in this album overall. Three of you sing in turn or sometimes sing together. How did you arrange those multi-layered vocal parts? Additionally, who wrote the lyrics for this album and how did you work on writing the lyrics?
Stephen : Usually whoever came up with the basic idea of a song was guiding everyone else along the creative process. The same pretty much goes with the lyrics, too. And I think playing some of these songs live helped flesh out certain ideas, both musically and lyrically.
-- At the recent stages, you seem to play wide selections of songs, including some from the early days. How do you choose songs to play live? Any criteria for the selection? Do you have any songs you wish to rearrange and play from “Antenna” and “Perfect Pitch Black”?
Stephen : For a show, we try to group songs together that have the same tunings, to keep things moving quickly. And in most cases, these songs will also have a similar feel. It's also gotten to the point where we've sort of narrowed down a large handful of songs from our catalog that seem to hold our collective interest.
-- I am sure soon you will hit the road to support the new album, and please tell me what your future plans are as Cave In. Also, I do wish to see you on stage in Japan. As you know, we have been going through a difficult time here. However, many cities, including Tokyo, are safe now and hope you can make it to come here for a Japan tour. It’s been quite a while and lots of fans are waiting.
Stephen : We don't have any major tour plans for this album. Extensive touring for Cave In these days is pretty much out of the question because of families and jobs. But recently we had a blast doing a short run of shows in northeastern US. And I speak for everyone here by saying that Japan has always been great to us and we'd love to go back. If only there was a way to make that flight just a tad bit shorter!
-- You came from hardcore / heavy metal scene, and have reached to the point where you are the one and only: no other bands sound like you do. That being said, could you name a couple of bands that you still feel sympathy with, and that you think you have a lot in common with?
Stephen : We did a couple shows with Coalesce at the end of 2009 which was a lot of fun. They've been at it for longer than Cave In and it seems both bands are in similar positions, finding ways to balance music and our lives outside of playing. Also the shows we did with Isis last year were interesting. Watching our friends go through the process of their longtime band breaking up was something we could relate to in our own way.
-- Just curious, but could you talk a bit about some stories when you took part in Converge’s latest album, “Axe to Fall”?
Stephen : That was when some of us had rediscovered a love for skateboarding. So there was a lot of that happening outside of the studio. Also we made time to work on a few other songs. Those sessions are still floating around and I'd be into finishing them up someday. We'll see.
-- Please tell me about your personal favorites these days. They could be bands, albums, songs, shows you saw, or other things like books, movies, etc.
Stephen : Right now I'm in the middle of reading Kafka OnThe Shore. I loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and so far this one's sitting well with me. Last record I purchased was a vinyl copy of "Another Green World" by Brian Eno, which up until now I don't think I've ever come across on wax.
-- You have introduced reviews on “White Silence” in press on your official Facebook. What are your reactions to those reviews? Any interesting or impressive ones?
Stephen : As I said before, we always get a kick out of people trying to decipher what we're all about. But we've confused the hell out of people enough at this point to keep things interesting. For the ones who still care, hopefully it's all in good fun.
-- This is going to be the last question; why is your twitter account “sonicdeathwall”?
Stephen : Hah hah, that's something Caleb said in an interview about trying to picture his life without the band and hitting a wall, "a big fucking sonic deathwall".
