Bandinterview: Cedron

Haastattelu

Hello. Which wounds are to be healed by time?

CEDRON: Hi there! Alright! Let's dive deep on the first question, I like it. 'Time heal all wounds' is an old quote used for ages, and an easy way for putting struggle away. Sort of "Nah, get over it! With time you will heal yourself!" That's why we added 'but leave me dead on the inside', because that's what happens when you don't take your mental illness seriously. The open physical wounds will heal for sure, but the reason why the scars got there in the first place will remain. In this song I am talking about always falling in the same patterns in relationships. How you don't give each other love anymore, and just staying together because of the fear of being alone.


Do you sing about your personal experiences in your new video single TIME HEAL MY WOUNDS

CEDRON: Yes. All of the lyrics that I write are from personal experiences or personal thoughts of things in general. That's what makes it so scary to release songs about it when you know that people around you will know who/what you are writing about. But it's on the other hand a better way to heal some inner scars than just saying that with time it will fix itself!


In general: how do you find the stories and the lyrics for your songs? How did it work for your upcoming album, which will be released in February 2016 on Redfield Records?

CEDRON: Everybody has his stories inside. And this is my way of sharing them. I had a hard time reading these lyrics a couple of months after they were written, because the first half of 2015 was very self-destructive. I had a big struggle with black thoughts which could have ended up very bad if I didn´t get help in time (thank you Swedish health care for taking me seriously when I needed it). These months came to form a whole bunch of stories about my life at the time. Not only for CEDRON but also for some other side projects and Swedish spoken-word parts that are only used sometimes in our live set. I went to a psychologist for a couple of months and that person told me to write a diary. I'm not comfortable with doing that, so instead I started to write lyrics and poems with the theme of what I went through, and how it made me feel. Some of them have changed since then, but must of it are from that time. Also: This is not a healthy way for making an album. But now we did. And it makes me feel a whole lot better to be able to look back on this, and not being in it anymore.


With whom did you produce your newest album, which is more or less your second long player (after CHASED BY SHADES in 2013 and the EP WATCHING THE SUN TURN PITCH BLACK in 2012)?

CEDRON: We produce this on our own, like we always do. We don't have the money for a producer or anything like that, and at first thought it would feel weird to have a 5th member to tell us how to do our songs. It was recorded and mastered by Dennis Bertilsson, our guitar player at Studio Bertilsson / Bilda Studio Söderhamn. We always try and make the best of times when we do stuff. So we brought the Söderhamn Hardcore crew, our closest friends and sometimes family down to the studio during the whole process, and we rely on their inputs on it as well.


Did you have a certain aim or goal when starting to record? Which experiences from the productions in the past you did not want to make again?

CEDRON: Since we do this ourselves, we don't really have a deadline to work against. Which means you easily get kind of lazy. Having to much "fika" (you better google that one haha) in the process. When we recorded Chased By Shades it took way to long time because we always ended up in the skate-park instead. This time we had more discipline in creating the album.


Is there a so called magic moment for you on the album? A track or a part which (still) gives you goose bumps while listening?

CEDRON: I really like the last song of the album. It's not like an ordinary hardcore track. It's a short song that have a pretty long spoken-word part followed by a really heavy, almost black metal-flirting second part with both the drummer, Joakim Pettersson, screaming "Söderhamn state of mind" and me, Anton Larsson, screaming the title of the song together with a wall of evil sounding guitars and bass.


"Blistering passion, addictive riffs and crushing vocals filled with emotion. This is CEDRON. The modern hardcore four piece based in the cold parts of Sweden..." This is a quote from your facebook-site. What else can you tell us about your hometown Söderham in the north east coast of Sweden? How do you stay healthy and fresh while the nights go on for months in wintertime?

CEDRON: Yeah, we didn't write the first thing ourselves, haha. Living in a small town in Sweden this far up in Scandinavia is special during these winter seasons. We don't stay fresh and healthy. We stay inside with our radiators on max basically. I have a love-hate relationship to this season. It's dark and beautiful with the snow and all, but it's so cold. I remember as a kid that all the public transports and schools shut down because it was too much snow to even open the door at home. Luckily we don't have that now. Jinx.

How important for you is the aspect of playing live shows?

CEDRON: If we didn't get to play live, we wouldn't have been a band. That's for sure. Being on tour is probably the most important element of evolving as a band. You learn so much from it and you make so many new friends at shows. It would feel very odd just shouting and playing our asses off in the studio and then not be able to do it live while stage-diving on people you've never met. It also influences the music once you know what parts you like the most during a live set. And of course listening to the entire band you share stage with!


What is the background of choosing a plant as your bands name? Did you make any experience with CEDRON, which is also used in the medicine?

CEDRON: We really don't know. We found out that it was a plant not too long ago. We couldn't come up with a good band name, so we went to a 'crossword help' page and took a word we thought sounded pretty rad. We asked on our facebook page if someone had experience of using the Cedron Tea that's kind of popular in some cultures. Someone wrote in Spanish about it. We google translated it, and it seems to be good when you have a lot of pain during menstruation. I bought a pack of it on ebay, but haven't tried yet. I hope it will be tasty. Maybe it would be a great drink to serve on our release party!


Your first release from 2011 is called HOME AIN'T ALWAYS HOME. How did you find each other to found a band and make music? Tell us the story!

CEDRON: Both before and after that song was out we did a couple of demos and toured a little bit. It was usually my father who drove us to the shows. Kind of pretty when you look back at it. Thank you dad! We all come from Söderham, which is really small as you might have understood by now, so everyone basically knows everyone. With a music interest we found each other pretty easy. We were always the youngest band. Between 14-16 years old. Our songs sounded so bad. We had no idea about what we were doing, even if some of us had played in bands before as well.


Last but not least: 5 of your favourite hardcore songs...

CEDRON: This is a very very hard question. There are so many awesome bands out there and I change my mind all the time. But I just did that "Your year on Spotify" thing so I think I should take that as some sort of guidance on this one (NOT IN ORDER):

1. No Rose, No Skies by Have Heart
2. De Få De Stolta by Håll Det Äkta
3. Statement by Got It Alone
4. Tilde by Touché Amoré
5. Blessed Burden by Defeater


Das Interview führte Anton Larsson, Sänger von CEDRON


LINK: c-tube Profil von REDFIELD RECORDS