interview with the band Cephyre

Melodic death metal can go in many different directions. Some bands go all out for melody, others lean towards aggression and sometimes you get a combination of both. Cephyre, although a young band, balances somewhere in the middle. The debut album called A Gleam Within the Gloom goes through this. In 25 minutes you will enjoy both.
Alan – Hi. You are a relatively young band in terms of its duration. When and where did you form?
Johannes - Hello there and greetings to Czechia! The band is located in Herborn, a small town right in the middle of the Hessian region in Germany. In early 2021 we had our first rehearsals as a three-piece only consisting of drums, one guitar and vocals. From that we gradually evolved to the present line-up.

Alan – So who is in the band? And how did you get together?
Johannes – We have all known each other for decades; sharing various rehearsal rooms, stages and even school desks, so we had the fortune to skip the part of getting to know each other or figuring out, if we chimed in on a human level. Cephyre started way before our first rehearsal with our guitar player Jakob showing me some demos he produced after his former band split up and me sending him some of the ideas I had recorded at home in reverse. After realizing, that these fragments went pretty well together, we decided to take them to the rehearsal room with Manu on drums, who was Jakobs next-door neighbour at this time. Shortly after that Chris joined us on bass and backing vocals and when we reached the point of refining the guitar parts by adding a second guitar he suggested to ask his brother Roland, if he was interested. Roland answered that question with not only enhancing the material we had written to that point but also bringing his own ideas to the table right from the start. So the transformation from being just a notion to becoming a band was kind of a natural process. 

Alan – Do the band members play or have they played in other bands or projects?
Johannes – We have all played together in a metal cover project in the past. Manu is also playing the drums in his Thrash Metal band Centrate, Chris has played in numerous hardcore bands since his childhood, such as Business as usual, Out for a Kill and Blind Youth, who have recently released their latest album. I was a part of the Gothic Metal Band Samsas Traum in the late 90s when they started. Jakob has played in the Death Metal band Bloodsky and before that in the Gothic Metal band Serenade of Silence, which also featured Roland on drums.

Alan – You recently released a mini album (EP). Where did you record it, who did the mastering, do you have any guests on the album?
Johannes – All tracks were recorded in our rehearsal room, our living rooms, our cellars and even our kitchens and bedrooms. It was our conscious decision to do everything possible by ourselves for the first release in order to really get to the core of the material without having to worry about time schedules or budgets. When it came to the final mix and mastering we however had to realize, that the recordings could really take benefit from bidding farewell to this dogmatic approach. So we took all the tracks we had and gave them to our friend Sascha Stange, who had produced the album of his own band Miles2Fall shortly before, from which we assumed, that his conceptions of mixing would be a great match with our ideas of what the songs should sound like. Apart from Sascha and ourselves there was no one involved in the production process.

Alan – How satisfied are you with the work? And how do you rate it in terms of listenership?
Johannes – Sascha did a great job and really hit the nail on the head with his suggestions, so we are absolutely satisfied with the final steps of production. In hindsight though I would say, that we could have figured out earlier, at which points an external perspective would have been helpful. We will never know, if that would have made major changes to the final result, yet it would have definitely accelerated the release. But that is water under the bridge now and we have learned a lot of valuable lessons by producing the EP just the way we did. Almost the same aspects apply to the point of presenting our music to a broader audience, but this is also something we are currently working on.

Alan – If we could in a nutshell. Describe the songs. Both musically and lyrically.
Random Noises: It is exactly what it says it is; a soundscape, just a short intro to set the right mood and create a certain atmosphere.
A Gleam: The title track deals with Plato’s allegory of the cave and contemplates its key aspects from different angles. We tried to transport these lyrical ideas within the music by working with slightly harder contrasts than on the other tracks, which resulted in a clean polyphonic chorus framed by significantly more aggressive parts.  
Regret: This is the first song we have recorded together. The heavy midtempo-riffing on this track was something, that Roland brought in during our first common rehearsal and since then the song has become something like an anthem for us, as it was part of every single gig we have played so far. It picks up the lyrical notions in “A Gleam” but shifts focus to the aspects of taking chances for one thing and grieving over missed opportunities for another.
Refuse to Reconsider: Crudely put, this one deals with the problems of being controlled by outside forces or feeling like a small cog in the system. We purposely wanted to keep that track gloomy yet rough, so this might be the one, that comes closest to its first draft, which was composed in about an hour.
Distraction from Reality: The last song of the EP is the first song, that we wrote together. Musically it might be the one, that presents most of our stylistic bandwidth, as this is the one, that somehow started it all. Lyrically it deals with self-awareness and breaking out of environments like the ones we deal with in the previous track, thus completing the circle and bringing us back to the title track in a more relatable and contemporary approach.

Alan – Where will you present the album? Concerts, festivals, abroad?
Johannes – As the songs existed long before they were released, we already did present them on several occasions. There will be some more gigs in summer and autumn and also a small weekend-tour in late December, when we play the support slot for Samsas Traum on their Christmas shows. But so far these are all located in Germany, as playing abroad needs a little more planning beforehand. There are some interesting ideas for that, but right now I would not go as far as using the word “plan”. We are still kind of figuring out the best balance between playing shows and recording new material at the moment.

Alan – I won’t ask if you’re preparing something new and fresh. The mini album is out. So more like something spicy?
Johannes – Actually, why don’t we go with “new and fresh”? I incidentally mentioned new material and as an upside to taking a little more time with the first release we have already finished around 80% of the songs for our full-length album in the meantime. There are also sketches and fragments for two additional mini-albums we might intersperse at some point, because some of the new songs do not fit into the context of an album but should instead be released in a way, that allows them to stand on their own. So there is indeed a lot to come and we might even call some of it “spicy”, but it is just a glimpse too soon to go into details right now. We will definitely keep you updated, though.

Alan – My favorite question. Fun/funny. Did you experience any funny moments while recording the album? Or while performing?
Johannes – Playing small venues as well as organizing shows always have a certain degree of bizarre humor to them. So it seems only logical, that these degrees add up when you combine both things. In case of our own Festival “Roots of Metal“ we did not do the math correctly, because they at least multiplied. When we arrived at the venue, still a little deranged, because we had played a show the night before, we first learned, that the owner had obviously not payed the cleaning crew, which was why they did not show up. So while some of us started carrying stage-parts and equipment, the others had to clean the room from decorative leftovers from a wedding party that took place the day before. Shortly after that, awareness grew, that we did not exactly clean the room for our own event but for a childrens’ birthday party, which started while we were in the middle of building the stage. Obviously the owner had decided to rent out the venue to as many people as possible at a time, so while we were trying to get things done, there were little girls in princess dresses running all around the place. As if that were not enough we ran into another surprise when we tried to prepare the backstage area. And when I say surprise, I am talking about a bachelor party on segways having a blast exactly where we intended to place beer and food for the other bands who were about to arrive. It may not sound too funny, but we could not stop laughing for that whole day, because of the sheer amount of absurdity taking place all around us.
 
Alan – Zines are mainly read by people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Do you know these two countries? Do you know anything about metal or festivals in these countries?
Johannes – I have only been to Czechia for vacation once and could therefore praise your landscapes, your hospitality, your food and your beer, but I guess, that is not exactly where you are going with the question. Regarding Metal I can say, that the Brutal Assault is a highly renowned festival, but unfortunately none of us had the chance to attend it so far. Our drummer Manu has played a tour in Czechia some years ago with his band Centrate and our bass player Chris was there with some of his hardcore bands. He keeps calling it a place of longing for the underground and will actually play two shows in Liberec and Hradec Králové in May with Blind Youth, our friends in Ground2A and the Czech Hardcore band Everday Hate.

Alan – We’ll stay in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Do you know any bands from those countries?
Johannes – I have seen Gutalax at a few Festivals. Another Band, that comes to my mind are Master; you have to decide for yourselves, if that counts, but I would say they reside in Czechia for long enough by now to include them. Also I have recently discovered Altars Ablaze, as I have seen them on the billing of this years In Flammen Open Air, which I will be visiting in late Summer. I’m looking very forward to seeing their show.

Alan – As we said, you have only been around for a short time as a band, what do you consider your biggest successes so far?
Johannes – Being an underground metal band it would honestly feel a little pretentious to use the word success, but of course it depends on how you interpret the word. Mastering challenges has always felt like a greater success to me than just randomly being rewarded for some minor effort. Challenges we had a few and had to master a few, so I would say keeping the band going and not losing our focus at the very beginning felt like a greater achievement to us than we could have imagined, because we started playing together roundabout the peak of the pandemic. I have to admit, that I don’t know exactly, how the situation was in Czechia and Slovakia, but for us there were times when we were facing obstacles like curfews and contact restrictions, not to mention actual infections, which made it hard to even rehearse in full format at a certain point. So it was a great relief when we could finally meet as a group of five people again, and of course an even greater relief when we could at last perform our material in front of an audience.

Alan – How are you getting into the metal community’s subconscious? Is it good or slow – gradual?
Johannes – When you release your own music you want it to be heard and you also want it to be somehow appreciated, otherwise you could as well stay in the rehearsal room and preach to the choir or even stay at home and sing for your cat. So I think it never really feels enough or fast enough. On the other hand we are totally aware of the fact, that our mixture of styles is a little special and therefore not suitable for everyone. So if I had to answer that question as a multiple choice test, I would probably go with “gradual”, but we are fine with that.

Alan – Summer is slowly approaching, any tours planned? Or playing abroad?
Johannes – As I mentioned earlier, we are absolutely thrilled to begin recording our new stuff as soon as we probably can, so there is just not enough time to really think of a serious tour this summer. Right now we try to set our focus to the shows, we have already booked for this year and we also work on adding some more occasional dates. Playing abroad is something we strongly consider, and this will definitely happen in the middle-term future, but for now the tendency goes towards finishing the full-length album first and in the meantime already starting to schedule shows for the period after these next recordings.

Alan – I hope we will hear about you in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, thanks for the interview.
Johannes – We sincerely hope so, too. I will let you know, when we are coming around as soon as it is ripe for a decision. Thank you so much for your commitment to the metal scene and for having us!

https://www.cephyre.band/en
https://www.facebook.com/cephyre.band