CARCER CITY
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 20th November 2009.
Carcer City hail from England's music capital Liverpool. They play a properly heavy music that'll clear fluff from places you didn't even know you had places. And that's a good thing!
Hi Guys, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
CC: We're Great :]
Could you give us a brief history of how Carcer City got together?
CC: Well, Patrick and Owen were in a band that split-up but still wanted to carry on being in a band. Patrick met Lewy and Steve through a sound engineering course and Joss was already friends with them so the two halves came together nicely.
How long have you been a band now?
CC: We formed in November 2007 so two years now.
If you don’t mind me saying, you look young but pump out a really mature, cohesive sound. Have people been surprised when they see you after hearing the power of your music?
CC: We always seem to have people coming up to us after playing saying they we're impressed or just enjoyed the show so i guess some people are surprised.
Did you come together with a shared love of the same type of music, or do you all have quite different tastes?
CC: We all of course have a love for the type of music we play but what we listen to varies. When we're in the tour van there can be anything from ambient to classical, ragga-jungle to Beyonce; it's a bit random haha.
Is the music you make the natural result of your respective talents, or was it a conscious decision to play a specific sound?
CC: Well it's Patrick who writes everything so it's the sound he writes.
How would you actually describe the Carcer City sound to someone who hadn’t heard you before?
CC: Haha we hate this question! We always find describing ourselves tough because we have a few different faces to us. We have the techy side with all the chromatic riffs and weird time sig's and then we have simpler sections and melodic sections too. We've said before that we don't really have any boundaries to our sound but if we're forced to give ourselves a genre it'd be something along the lines of "tech-metalcore" or something haha! We usually just say "scouse-metal" though!
What other bands would you compare yourselves to, and who were your major influences?
CC: Architects is the obvious one but also bands like Misery Signals, FellSilent, Periphery, Ion Dissonance, etc..
Liverpool has a reputation as a great city for music. What’s it like for you guys? Is there a decent metal scene?
CC: We have a really nice reception in our home city and we really enjoy playing there. We'd say there was a decent metal scene there yeah - not as good as it used to be.
Do you have a strong local following, or is your fan base more widespread thanks to MySpace etc.?
CC: We do have most of our fans around Liverpool but we've been further afield and people still know the words to our songs which is just awesome.
What is a Carcer City live show like? I get the impression it’s gonna be one big swirling pit from start to finish!
CC: We always put on a performance, too many bands just stand there. We like to have fun and get everyone involved.
Onto the new album, ‘The Life We Have Chosen’... how does the material compare to your previous EP release, ‘Affliction’?
CC: It's not super-different but, i feel as time goes on, we're exploring more into what we can do as a band that's interesting as well as finding our sound. I feel this album is the most "together" record we've made out of the three we have so far.
How did the writing and recording process go? Did the album come together easily or was there a lot of blood, sweat and tears?
CC: Well Patrick had a load of idea's - he has this ability to just write things in his head, you'll see him go into a daydream and start air-drumming it's crazy. Then he just sat in the recording studio for two weeks and laid it all out.
Did you use any special equipment to get your sound?
CC: On record we used a Line 6 Spider II amp that was D.I'd. Live, Lewy has a mesa-boogie dual rectifier and Owen uses a Marshall head. Steve has a Gallien Krueger which was also used on the record.
Is there any moment on the album that defines the Carcer City sound for you? What are you favourite tracks?
CC: Nah not really - like we said before we can't really define it. We can't really pick our favourite tracks either - we like them all, which makes us sound really into ourselves haha.
What was it like getting signed to Transcend? How did the deal come about?
CC: We had a few offers from a few different labels but none of them benefited us as much as Transcend's did. We got in touch with that label through our manger from The Legacy Agency and we had a few talks and signed some papers and that was that really! :]
Had you already finished the album when you were signed?
CC: Yeah the album was finished in terms of writing in the summer. When we got signed the label pushed us to get all the recording, mixing and mastering done and all the artwork too so it could be on shelves by the autumn.
Are you happy with the reviews so far?
CC: Well yes and no; Rocksound gave us a slightly above average score but a harsh write-up. I don't think that reviewer appreciated what we were doing at all. We've had some online reviews that have been very positive however and anyone who's bought the album from us has told us great things. So all-in-all we're pretty happy with the response.
Are there plans for a big tour in support of the album?
CC: Early 2010 we'll hopefully have a few tours lined-up ;)
What was it like playing the Hellfire Festival? Did you get a good reaction from the crowd?
CC: It was really fun! We weren't expecting many people to be there with us being first ones on on the smallest stage but the place filled out quite nicely and the sound was great. We really enjoyed that show!
Any particular bands you’d love to tour with in the future?
CC: The list is too long! We'd love to tour with Viatrophy and Bleed From Within again though - we had good times with them.
Who parties hardest out of the guys in Carcer City? Are you doing your best to live the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle?
CC: Probably our driver Matty. We once spent a ridiculously good night in Nottingham - Matty doesn't remember it.
What’s the worst thing any of you have done when drunk?
CC: There's too many to choose from, most of which would probably get us into trouble so we best stay quiet on that one :|
What’s next for Carcer City? Are you all about promoting the new album at the moment?
CC: Yeah very much so!
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
CC: Playing Xbox!
Anything else you would like to mention?
CC: Just check us out! You might just like us! And if you see us at a show come say hi 'cause we love chillin with different people. PEACE.
Thanks for your time :) Jon at Rock Realms
The new Carcer City album, The Life We Have Chosen is out now on Transcend Records. Check out the Rock Realms review here for further details...
Thanks again to the guys for their time.
http://www.myspace.com/carcercity
