Image of Cave In taken from the band's Myspace page.
Metalheads, punks, and Boston music fans rejoiced last week at the announcement that local metalcore quartet Cave In are ending their hiatus with a new EP and a little gig at Great Scott on July 19th. Word quickly spread throughout the Internets about the "reunion" [as an aside, Bostonist would like to note that the band never broke up, and reunions are usually the result of a break up], and the band issued a little statement on their Myspace:
Needless to say, the show is sold out. Though Cave In were never on the cover of Rolling Stone or seen carrying loads of Grammys in their first go-around, in the few years that they've been hiatus their fan-base has only grown as blogs, magazines, and inspired musicians across the world have dedicated wistful words in the group's honor.
Still, it's all a bit of a surprise for the band, as frontman Stephen Brodsky tells Bostonist. In an exclusive interview, Brodsky answers a few questions that have been on Bostonist's mind since last weeks announcement.
Bostonist: What was the key element that's ended the Cave In hiatus? Did the four of you guys decide to start practicing together again, or was it one person's persistence, or something else?
Stephen Brodsky: It was actually Caleb [Scofield, bassist] who suggested that we get together and play. This happened only a few months after he moved back from California. And there were no objections to that.
Bostonist: Considering Cave In's members have become involved in many musical projects since the hiatus (including your solo material and Pet Genius) when did you find the time to come together and put together the new EP?
SB: The four of us nailed down a night that was good for everyone to play. Originally, it was Wednesdays. That's since changed. Anyway, it went like this for a couple of months until we had written a new batch of tunes. We purposely kept the number of new tunes to an EP's worth so that we could record them seemingly as quick as we wrote em'.
Bostonist: What came first, the idea for a reunion show or the possibility of recording new material?
SB: Recording new material, simply because we've always thrived on creativity.
Bostonist: Details about the new EP, Planets of Old were leaked on The Phoenix's On The Download blog, which resulted in The Phoenix taking down the piece and then re-posting it later that day because initially it seemed that information about the album wasn't supposed to be released. What was your, or Hydra Head's, original plan in terms of releasing the details of the EP to the public?
SB: It's not that the information wasn't allowed to be released. What happened was, certain bits of the Phoenix blog ended up being incorrect. Specifically, technical stuff like who worked on the recording. But at the time, there was no press release info of any kind for Planets Of Old, so no one really had any way of knowing who did what. Since then, Cave In issued a statement about the EP to help curb any further confusion about the details of its existence.
Bostonist: When will Planets of Old be released?
SB: Hydra Head has given us the OK to promote July 19th as a "record release show" so there's a good chance we'll have our copies to sell by then. In which case, I'm guessing Hydra Head should have some available through mailorder around that same time.
Bostonist: Considering the large Cave In fan base in Boston, you guys could have chosen to play anywhere in Boston for your first post-hiatus gig. Why did you choose Great Scott?
SB: We had no idea how to gauge what was gonna happen when we booked our first show in Boston after almost 4 years. So we took both a reasonable and modest approach.
Great Scott has a very good sound system and a decent capacity for being a smaller venue. And apparently, the day tickets went on sale, our show sold out in 4 minutes. Let me tell you, it's never happened like that for Cave In playing Boston before. Needless to say, we're thrilled! And... now we know we really can't suck at this one! But our rehearsals have been a blast, everyone's heads are in the game, and it'll surely be a good time for all.
Bostonist: Any plans for a tour after the Great Scott show?
SB: No.
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