Danny Green Quartet
Cathedral X - Photo by Amanda Schoepflin
In the "About" section on its Facebook page, Cathedral X describes itself as "An interruption." Indeed, the local group isn't a band so much as a multimedia art project, putting on elaborate performances that combine abstract visual elements with dark, atmospheric music.
Now, Cathedral X is ready to celebrate the release of a new cassette tape, Child, which comes out via Mario Orduno's Dream label on Tuesday, Nov. 20. True to the group's experimental style, the tape is rife with stark folk guitars, twisted polyrhythms and pitch-bent vocals, all caked in a grimy texture.
In time for the group's cassette-release show at The Casbah on Tuesday night, I did a quick interview with member Amanda Schoepflin via email:
Tell me about 'Child.' Is there a particular idea or theme behind it?
The theme is about one's inner child, and the ability to harness that nature into adulthood.
Tell me about the song "How Does the Self Be." What's it about?
I start to see pieces of what is me. She is the empress of his heart. She comes comes in darkness [to] find a way but the pain just stays. The song is about fighting darkness that is eternal, the struggle of discovering the reality of suffering and maybe channeling intuition into progression.
That and the song "Cover Songs" both sound very folksy, but they have really spare, gritty production. What made you want to record them in that style? Do you see the production and texture as a key element to the music?
Yes, I do think that doing it in that style is more accessible to me in the way that it allows me to instantly capture the song as it occurs—rather than crafting and revising a product. My process just isn't at that place. My life is constantly shifting, moving and changing into something else. Each song is pure luck in the way that it is only a documentation of emotion in a very specific element of time or space. I've been doing first takes and keeping those. I've been considering it descriptive consciousness. It is the only ritual I can have where I am able to feel connected, communicative and respectful of life and dimentionality.
Thom Yorke from Radiohead recently gave you guys a shout-out for your song "Intimacy vs. Isolation." Have you given any thought to what he might've dug about it?
No, but I'm looking forward to sending him a copy of the tape. Mario really made it look so beautiful as our first physical release.
What can you tell me about your show on Tuesday?
It is the first show after our [San Francisco] performance, Assimilation (below), which was a sort of new beginning for all [of] us. So we are all feeling a sense of uncertainty, excitement and limitlessness.
Cathedral X plays with Tamaryn and Young Prisms at The Casbah on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
Now, Cathedral X is ready to celebrate the release of a new cassette tape, Child, which comes out via Mario Orduno's Dream label on Tuesday, Nov. 20. True to the group's experimental style, the tape is rife with stark folk guitars, twisted polyrhythms and pitch-bent vocals, all caked in a grimy texture.
In time for the group's cassette-release show at The Casbah on Tuesday night, I did a quick interview with member Amanda Schoepflin via email:
Tell me about 'Child.' Is there a particular idea or theme behind it?
The theme is about one's inner child, and the ability to harness that nature into adulthood.
Tell me about the song "How Does the Self Be." What's it about?
I start to see pieces of what is me. She is the empress of his heart. She comes comes in darkness [to] find a way but the pain just stays. The song is about fighting darkness that is eternal, the struggle of discovering the reality of suffering and maybe channeling intuition into progression.
That and the song "Cover Songs" both sound very folksy, but they have really spare, gritty production. What made you want to record them in that style? Do you see the production and texture as a key element to the music?
Yes, I do think that doing it in that style is more accessible to me in the way that it allows me to instantly capture the song as it occurs—rather than crafting and revising a product. My process just isn't at that place. My life is constantly shifting, moving and changing into something else. Each song is pure luck in the way that it is only a documentation of emotion in a very specific element of time or space. I've been doing first takes and keeping those. I've been considering it descriptive consciousness. It is the only ritual I can have where I am able to feel connected, communicative and respectful of life and dimentionality.
Thom Yorke from Radiohead recently gave you guys a shout-out for your song "Intimacy vs. Isolation." Have you given any thought to what he might've dug about it?
No, but I'm looking forward to sending him a copy of the tape. Mario really made it look so beautiful as our first physical release.
What can you tell me about your show on Tuesday?
It is the first show after our [San Francisco] performance, Assimilation (below), which was a sort of new beginning for all [of] us. So we are all feeling a sense of uncertainty, excitement and limitlessness.
Cathedral X plays with Tamaryn and Young Prisms at The Casbah on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
