Spring

It's end of the month time, which means news update time. Only this time, there isn't a whole ton to report. We are still waiting to hook up with Matt Bayles to mix this record in late April. Still have one more month of fidgeting around in anticipation. Once this is mixed and mastered (all is going to be finished by May 10), expect a giant avalanche of news to begin descending. Album title (it's been decided), Artwork (it's being worked on), Tours (lots of stuff already in the works), Song titles (still need 4 more of those, yikes) - all of this will be made known very shortly after return home from the hospital with our new addition to the family in the form of this record. In the meantime, we've been doing... a whole lot of nothing. Which, after like 5 years of touring straight, is kind of a nice change of pace. Expect all of that to change very soon though obviously. Take care and talk to y'alls next month from Seattle.

Back from Europe, NYC This Weekend

Greetings from un-seasonably warm and un-winter like Massachusetts. We had a short but sweet little time over in Europe last week. We packed a lot of action into 7 days out there and could not have had a better time. Absolutely one of our favorite treks across the pond. Lots more touring over there - all over the continent - will be happening this October so if we saw you last week, thanks for coming out and hope to see you with the new record. Phil took some photos you can see on Facebook here, there's an audio interview hosted by I.C.I.T. Webzine in Gothenburg, Sweden you can listen to here. And of course, be sure to check out Erin And Vickers' first installment of "Man Vs. Tour", filmed across all 4 countries for your viewing pleasure. There's more where that came from, just gotta get back on the road to keep 'em coming. As you can tell, we take every single aspect of this band %100 seriously and there's no time for horsing around in Caspian. Post-Rock epic-ness 4 life.

Still waiting to hook up with Matt Bayles and mix the new record... Still planning on mixing April 27 so still have over two months. Waiting is difficult obviously but it's giving us some very good perspective that will only benefit the final product. Lots on that in due time. Album will hopefully make it out this September.

We have our first show in New York City in over a year and a half this Friday (Feb. 24) over at Webster Hall Studio with the amazing Pianos Become The Teeth and Tidal Arms. Tickets are selling fast for this so please try to show up early and make it in. Doors are at 7, and our set time is 10pm. We'll be playing old and new material. Be gentle. And enjoy yourself - we are really looking forward to it guys.

Tracking Complete / Europe Tour

Tracking for the new album is complete. Much props to both Q Division Studios and Radar Studios for being such awesome spots for musicians to create and get busy in. We had a blast recording these parts and, for the first time, got to throw in lots of instrumentation we weren't initially expecting due to the abundance of great new tools to work with. Mixing will take place in late April out in Seattle with the album producer Matt Bayles so we have some down time to sift through all of this and cull through the madness. To say this album is "dense" is an understatement... There is a ton going on musically and it will take us some time to get a grip on it. We threw in the kitchen sink on this one. Looking forward to finishing this up and getting it out to you as soon as we can.

In the meantime, we have a short but sweet European tour kicking off next Monday. Really excited for these shows and only wish it were longer but so be it. Dates are as follows:

02-06-12 Hannover, DE @ Bei Chez Heinz

02-07-12 Hamburg, DE @ Haus 73

02-08-12 Copenhagen, DK @ KB-18

02-09-12 Aarhus, DK @ Train

02-10-12 Oslo, NO @ John Dee

02-11-12 Trondheim, NO @ Samdundet

02-12-12 Goteborg, SE @ Fangelset

-We also have a special, one-off show in NYC happening later in the month-

02-24-12 New York, NY @ The Studio at Webster Hall (with Pianos Become The Teeth, Tidal Arms)

That's all for now... Enjoy the remaining days of winter and we'll talk to you this Spring.

Recording Plan / Shows Announced

Happy Holidays, friends. Hope you get some time to relax over the next few weeks!

Lots happening on our front as we plan for 2012.

Some new album news

We've finished writing our new album and will begin recording January 2 with production from Matt Bayles (Minus The Bear, Mastodon, Isis) and Will Benoit (Constants, Radar Studios). We'll be tracking the bulk of it at Q Division in Boston with Matt and then heading down to Will's for extra work all month. Mixing will be happening out in Seattle late-April at Red Room, and we hope to get this out to you sometime late summer / early fall 2012! It's been quite an experience putting this one together and we're excited to get this started. Read a little more about it at Punk News by clicking HERE.

Some more shows announced for 2012

We've officially announced a run of shows for February including a brief European tour in Scandinavia this February, as well as our first New York City show in over a year. Dates below:

2/6/12 Hannover, Germany @ Bei Chez Heinz

2/7/12 Hamburg, Germany @ Haus 73

2/8/12 Copenhagen, Denmark @ KB 18

2/9/12 Aarhus, Denmark @ Train (Post-Fest)

2/10/12 Oslo, Norway @ John Dee RSVP

2/11/12 Trondheim, Norway @ Samdundet

2/12/12 Goteborg, Sweden @ Fangelset

2/24/12 New York, NY @ Webster Hall Studio * RSVP

* - with Pianos Becomes The Teeth, Tidal Arms

Live at Old South Church EP Now Available for Pre-Order

We are extremely excited to announce the release of our first ever LIVE EP! These songs were taken from a performance of ours back in October 2010 at a huge cathedral in Boston, MA called Old South Church. The event was a benefit for Amirah, a local non-profit that exists to aid victims of human sex trafficking. Proceeds from this will go directly to Amirah. This is will be released exclusively as a limited Vinyl (1000) / digital only deal so get them quick while you can. TONS of information including information on Amirah, photos from the performance, vinyl color options and lots more can be found by clicking HERE. Check it out.

The Atlas Ladder

Philip has been working on some solo material this autumn. You can listen to a demo track "LSH" under The Atlas Ladder moniker at Phil's soundcloud page and the link below. Recommend playing as loud as possible in an isolated space.

LSH by The Atlas Ladder

Autumn

Hey guys. Fall is slowly descending upon us up here as we get deep into September. Nice time of year as I'm sure you've heard... Leaves and cider and crisp evenings. It's a nice time to be around, and for the first time in a long time, we are actually here to enjoy it instead of being on tour. Lots of Patriots football to be seen. Looking forward.

We have some more finalized news regarding the new album. Dates are being booked at Q Division studios in Boston for tracking, with John Congelton at the helm producing. We will track up here and mix at John's studio in Dallas upon completion. This is great for us as it's only 20 min. from our hood instead of 23 hours. Nice. Depending on what happens with the finished product, we still aim to have this out to you by early summer at the latest.

Got some local MA shows (our first in eleven months!?!) on tap for November. It's insane that it's been so long, but we needed some space. Space taken - and now it's time to get back in it. Nov. 11 it's going down at the wonderful Iron Horse in Northhampton, MA with our buds in Hadoken. Yes, that's 11.11.11. And the 12th, we are currently booked at Great Scott in Allston but are looking to move the show up here to Beverly so we can do something ALL AGES instead. Want to accommodate all shapes and sizes. We will let you know what the final venue decision is going to be when it happens.

Finally we just want to thank the good folks of Washington DC and Philadelphia for coming on down to these shows last weekend. Was nice to get back up there and sweat like dogs again. We debuted a new song that we hope you liked, and officially retired the Quovis-Further Up-Further In "trilogy" in Philadelphia. It's been a long run with those jams and since we've performed it over 500 times, we figured it was time to put it on the shelf. Crazy.

Anyways, we love you and hope all's well.

2012 is shaping up to be QUITE the busy year. Get ready....

~xoxo~

Caspian.

Summer

Nothing quite like the summer time up here in Beverly. Thick green trees, blue beaches and fish on the grill - it is supreme. Except maybe days like today, when we are nearing the century mark with excessive heat warnings and it feels like you are being licked all over by a sweaty beast. Rough out there. It's hard to imagine that just 6 months from now we will be getting slapped in the face by sub zero wind chills as we stumble through 10 ft. snow drifts trying to dig out cars. So it goes.

How are you? We feel like it has been awhile. Our last show was now over 3 months ago but it kinda feels like 3 years. We've been busting out new songs in prep. for this new album around the clock all summer. The last month and a half has been especially productive and we are starting to really see the new album come together. It's tough to explain where this one is heading sonically. Some things will sound familiar and some won't. Very hard to say, but as always, we can %100 reassure you that these songs are coming from the same internal place they've always come from, and t0 re-visit that place is an engulfing experience every time.

Anyways, the final plan is to record this in November with John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Appleseed Cast, St. Vincent, Explosions In The Sky) down in Dallas and hopefully get it out to you in Spring of 2012, at which point we will be hitting the road hardcore as always and going everywhere we can. There will obviously be way more information on all of this towards the end of the year, but we wanted to keep you in the loop.

We are happy to announce some recently confirmed shows for this fall as well:

Sept. 16 Washington DC @ Black Cat W/ Tone, Savage Republic

Sept. 17 Philadelphia, PA @ M Room W/ Tone, Savage Republic

We are stoked to get back on stage and perform as it really has felt like forever. Besides a yet to be announced Boston date, these are the only shows we will be playing for the rest of 2011. We hope you can make it out to them and HIYA!

That about covers it. If you're having a nice summer = Cheers. We miss all of you and hope you are well, always.

~xoxo~

Caspian

AbsolutePunk Interview

Philip recently sat down with absolutepunk.net for an in-depth interview. Here is the interview in full. You can also visit their site to see the full article HERE. Thanks to Steven Shmunk for the questions and being friendly.

Are you still happy with the decision to make Tertia available for free download? Is it something you'll do again? What other formats are you planning for?

We thought it was a good, forward-thinking idea at the time, but the site we used to host the experiment was still in its early stages of development and some things went wrong with the overall process. Not sure we'd be involved in the same scheme again unless it's a service that has been road-tested more by other bands. As far as formats, I'd like to finally see a cassette tape release and a USB flash drive (with random goodies on it) in addition to the traditional digital, CD, and LP.

What are some of your favorite record labels? Have you ever thought of going to a Temporary Residence or Thrill Jockey size label? Gotten any offers?

I've always been a huge fan of Kranky and Matador. They're probably my two favorite labels of all time. My first 'crush' on an indie label was with Constellation (Montreal) around 2002. They set the standard for the way I view labels and the business of releasing music and interacting with their customers. For the next Caspian album we'll be putting it out there to see who bites like we always have. I think Temporary Residence is a fine label but already has a few bands who we sound quite a bit like, and to keep a diverse catalogue...yeah it doesn't seem like something we'd be offered. I can't really talk about record labels without mentioning The Mylene Sheath obviously since they are really one of the best, most committed indie labels in music today. They've treated us incredibly well.

Tertia was accompanied by prose poetry. I swear there was a short story written for The Four Trees, but maybe I'm not remembering correctly. While instrumental music can "tell a story" on its own — via dynamics, tempo changes, moods, etc. — because there are no lyrics do you feel it's necessary to include actual text to capture everything in your heads?

There was indeed a handmade, special edition release of The Four Trees that we put together (75 total I believe) that included some prose poetry by our friend Tom Mathe. ForTertia, we didn't feel it was "necessary" to include text — we included it because it added a nice layer to the overall aesthetic experience of the album art and was a response to the music that felt unique, sincere, and well-crafted. We didn't include it to give people a clue into the overarching narrative of the album or anything like that.

Do you ever think of adding vocals to your music? Not necessarily a lead vocalist, but just incorporate the voice into your sound.

Absolutely. There's been talk already of having some vocals on the next album here and there in a more upfront and direct way than just background oohs and aaahs. We are very much into the idea and plan on writing a song or two that revolve specifically around vocals. People who dogmatically reject vocals in post-rock always strike me as sort of strange since the voice is essentially just another tool to make music with.

What direction do you feel the new material is going in? Are there any new styles you're exploring? Is there a predominant mood? Song lengths?

That's a good question and I don't think we know yet. It seems like there is a collective desire to get more textured and less face-melting with our guitar work this time around. We could do that heavy buzzsaw wall of sound guitar thing all day long but we did that on the last album and to do another record full of that would feel awkward. In terms of personal inspiration, there's a road here in the North Shore that winds along the Atlantic ocean. Folks around here call it the "Cape Ann 500." Takes an hour and a half or so to drive from bottom to top (Beverly to Rockport). Back in the day, when music was developing itself as the most powerful thing in my life, I'd drive along that road at 3am blasting records all the time. All kinds of stuff from Radiohead to Boards of Canada to Sigur Ros to Sun Kil Moon to you name it. You're out there when everyone else is asleep and you feel like you own these beautiful surroundings. It's a very personal feeling of ownership and awareness that I haven't really experienced with anything else since. That's where music was at the height of its powers to me and personally I'd like to make an album that is a homage to that experience. Make the kind of album that I'd actually want to put in the deck and listen to in that exact moment in an effort to reconnect with a more innocent side of myself that's been busted up by touring for 6 years. Whatever would sound good in that moment is what I'm looking to make.

Any bands in particular that have been influencing your writing for the new record?

I guess we'll see how they manifest themselves in terms of influence, but I've been hearing a huge amount of amazing new music lately. True Widow, Grouper, Fredrik, This Will Destroy You, the new Young Widows...those are all just incredible records. Lots of great stuff happening out there right now.

Since the post-rock scene has essentially reached critical mass, how does a band stand out? Any advice for fledgling post-rock bands?

Well it's no secret that post-rock is one of the more "emotional" genres of music out there obviously, and I think that when you're working with emotions so intimately, it's important to be as genuine and sincere as possible with them when it comes to displaying them or using them as inspiration. People in the audience or behind a record player (or the cold, white glare of a computer screen these days) can sense when something is coming from a genuine place of inspiration, and with "post-rock" it's really difficult to fake that or put it on. So I'd say just make sure that you're looking for constantly finding creative ways to react to random inspiration in a way that feels personally sincere. Listening to critics or reading too much into the speculations or reflections of where post-rock is headed doesn't have a lot to do with making heartfelt, genuine music that you'd take bullets for, though it can be a rousing discussion sometimes I guess. I always like what Philip Glass says with the whole "If you don't like my music, you don't have to listen to it. Nobody is forcing you to do so, there's plenty of other stuff out there to listen to instead." When you look at it that way it's like, why not just try to be as genuine as possible with what you create and then just see what happens.

What bands in the scene do you feel maintain a distinct and relevant sound?

Mogwai has always kind of been the one 'post-rock' band that I can put in whenever. Most other bands I have to really be in the mood for it, but with those guys I don't so much need to be, and I really, really love that about them.

What bands have you especially liked to tour with?

It's impossible to pick just a few. I can't think of a band we did NOT like touring with, though some have been friendlier and more approachable than others definitely. We seem to luck out when it comes to touring mates. Of course there's our core, little Boston family of Constants and Junius, but even with them it doesn't feel like we are touring with another band since we are all so close; it kind of just feels like one big band out there. We had an amazing time with Native, Chiaroscuro, Arms and Sleepers, and Sainthood Reps in the states recently. Just plain amazing bands and people. There's just too many to name really.

What have been some of your favorite tour stops?

I especially enjoyed Glasgow, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong last year a lot. Those are amazing cities. We have some close friends in Nashville, TN that make rolling through there every tour feel kind of like coming home, so that is always a pleasure for us as a band.

Where's somewhere you'd like to tour but haven't had the chance?

Japan and Iceland! Those are the two places I've been wanting to go the most for what feels like an eternity now, long before the band even showed up. Hoping we'll make it there next year.

Any thoughts of doing another split release?

Definitely. We hope to set aside 2 songs from this writing session and release 2 splits before the new album comes out or sometime around it's release. Hoping that comes together with Native and Sainthood Reps.

Anything else you'd like to add?

It was nice to meet you and talk in Charlotte man, really enjoyed the discussion and hope to see you again somewhere down the road. And go Celtics.