INTERVIEWS PRINT

Interview: GroundSounds takes communion with Cathedrals

Jon Berrien
Latest posts by Jon Berrien (see all)

San Francisco has a lot to offer: The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, those cute little cable cars…
 
Well add the band Cathedrals to that list. The San Fran-based duo stays on the grind, they have been burning up the inter webs as of late, with some seriously fresh new tracks.
GroundSounds chatted with both Johnny Hwin and Brodie Jenkins about their newly released single “Want My Love,” signing with their new label Neon Gold and more, check out the exclusive interview below.

 

For those just discovering Cathedrals, how did you two meet?

CATHEDRALS: We went to college together, but somehow never met! We actually met post-college through a mutual friend from school, Tommy Leep (now we call him the Godfather). Both of us were in between bands at the time and feeling super antsy about not making music. The first time we jammed, we wrote a song in the first few hours and knew it was something special.

What made you decide on the name Cathedrals?

CATHEDRALS: We’d been passing ideas back and forth for awhile without getting anywhere, so we decided to take it next level. We got in a room together with a million different multicolored post-it notes, and just started laying down whatever words popped into our heads. In the end, we wanted a name to encapsulate the imagery and thematic elements of our music and partnership: duality, surrealism, sensuality, etc., so we wrote down all of these ideas on post it notes, shuffled them around, and found what we were looking for.

Can you tell us about the writing process and inspiration behind the track “Harlem?”

Brodie: “Harlem” came out of a process that we’ve been doing a lot more lately. We like to call it “vocal playgrounding” because essentially, Johnny lays down a stripped-down instrumental and creates a little sandbox for me to play in – I just jam on top of the track for as long as it takes to come up with some really rad melodies. Then we arrange and hone.

What are you guys currently listening to?

Johnny: Loving the smooth textures of SOHN, the angular beats of Tessela, and the angst of the Arcade Fire who blew me away at Coachella this year.

Brodie: I’ve been really into Rhye and Kurt Vile lately. SOHN’s new album is amazing. And I’ve been rocking Fleetwood Mac a lot in honor of their upcoming reunion tour!

We heard that you recently signed with a record label, who did you sign with and what was this experience like?

 Johnny: Right after we released Unbound, Brodie texts me with a link to Neon Gold’s blog post about the song. Shortly after, we get an email from Derek and Lizzy asking to meet up since Lizzy was swinging through SF with MS MR. We’re big fans, so it was a bit unreal to read their blog post, get their email, and chill with Lizzy for an afternoon in Dolores Park all within the span of a couple weeks!

Brodie: Now, we’ll be releasing our debut EP with Neon Gold! Derek and Lizzy are incredible people, and we are beyond stoked to be working with them. They’ve supported us from the very beginning, and we can’t think of a better label to put out our first body of work with.  

Can you tell us about working on your third single? What is the inspiration behind this track?

Brodie: “Want My Love” is about two people finding solace in one another from afar and trying to breach the distance between them. It stemmed from conversations I’ve had with musician friends on the road who feel like they’ve lost touch with the people they love or just can’t seem to find any lasting relationships because they’re traveling so much. It’s definitely our furthest venture into R&B territory so far… full of lust and longing. I wrote the song’s skeleton + lyrics on the piano one weekend at my parents’ house and recorded it on my iPhone. When I sent it to Johnny, he took the melody and completely redid the chord structure and instrumentation. At first, I didn’t like it because it was so different. And then I realized it was exactly what the song needed. It was one of those amazing collaborative moments when I knew I needed to trust him. He hears things I don’t hear, and the changes he made breathed new life into the song.

Johnny: I had just gotten back from Burning Man and made this skeleton of a beat that somehow had a chord progression that perfectly fit with Brodie’s vocals on WML. It became a jumping off point for several versions of the song. We had a version that was more of a four-on-the-floor dance version that we’ll probably release someday as a remix. That guitar solo at the end emerged out of one of our jam sessions. We were both pretty stoked about it.

Brodie: Once we had the song roughly arranged and produced, we sent it to our friend Max Savage, who does all of our mixing. Somehow, a guitar track hadn’t made it into the files he received, and he ended up sending us this super stripped down version of the song. At first we were like, “whoa… that’s wrong” and then we realized it was way better than the original version. So we kept it that way!

“Unbound”, is a chill track! Were you two surprised by how quick the song caught on? What was it like working on “Unbound?”

Johnny: It’s crazy to think how old that song is and how long it took for us to finally get it out. The original demo was made in the summer of 2012, before we were even Cathedrals. I made the beat over lunch and put together vocals/lyrics the next morning. It sat around for awhile and then when Brodie and I got together, she jumped on the track and then we went through a slow process of oscillating between polishing the production and working on new material until we decided “hey let’s just get this out and put ourselves out there.” We weren’t completely sold on releasing this as the first single either, but we couldn’t have been happier with how well it’s been received.

What people, places, and books have inspired you guys most?

Brodie: I’m a big lover of gothic novels: Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Woman in White… I love to draw from that. But I think most of our lyrics come from everyday experiences, relationships, memories and moments that really impact us. 

Johnny: I grew up on the Smashing Pumpkins and a lot of my tendencies towards nostalgia come from that period of my life. I’m also drawn to the poetry of Robert Hass and his ability to evoke so much emotion in such short, impressionistic scenes of little things in everyday life and relationships.

What is it about electro-pop that attracts you to this sound?

Brodie: I don’t think we planned to be in this particular genre—it just happened. We could have just as easily formed a surf rock band. But there’s something about my voice and Johnny’s musical sensibilities that led us down this path. We’re really inspired by the duality of organic blended with electronic. There’s something so beautiful when they merge, with the electronic elements lifting the organic up into this surreal state, and the raw elements grounding the music in something soulful and real.

Johnny: Electro-pop is such a catchall genre, it reminds me of when everything was put into the “alternative rock” category which I think still exists on iTunes! Our music draws from a ton of influences, pop and electronic musically obviously but also R&B and deep house—the list goes on. I think we’re more dream-wave than electro-pop 😉

What do you two enjoy most about San Francisco?

Brodie: The weather, the people, the music, the food, the drinks, the architecture… I love it all.

Johnny: We’ve formed a very loving community here over the last decade—a group of friends pursuing something bigger than themselves and pushing the bounds of their creativity while maintaining a humility grounded in the appreciation of how lucky we all are to be working on what we love. It inspires.

What is CATHEDRALS currently working on? Can fans expect an EP or Album?

CATHEDRALS: We’re currently in the studio working on an EP. More on that soon…. !

http://www.soundcloud.com/wearecathedrals
http://www.twitter.com/wearecathedrals
http://www.wearecathedrals.bandcamp.com