Cea Serin [Interview]
Cea Serin’s upcoming sophomore album The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay will be more than worth the ten-year wait. Fusing a multitude of styles both metallic and non-metallic and sprawling over almost 50 minutes despite being composed of only five tracks, The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay is a tad epic, and raises a number of questions. TMMP posed a set of said questions to multi-instrumentalist J. Lamm – and the answers were nothing short of fascinating…
Your sound is a very diverse mix of metal styles. Who are your major influences?
J. Lamm: I think the diverse sound comes from the combination of not only a wide variety of metal but a diverse palette of non-metal. I started off playing piano, so I was mainly focused on learning piano music. But then I started to get into bands like Megadeth and Alice Cooper, which lead to me getting a bass guitar—I saw it as the underdog of the band.
My bass guitar teacher introduced me to the albums of Yngwie Malmsteen. After hearing Yngwie I was hooked on guitar instrumentals. I became obsessed with shred guitarists and I would buy anything on the Shrapnel Records label. Anything by players like Joe Satriani or Steve Vai would be right up my alley. So I was coming from a piano background, transitioned over to the bass guitar, then became heavily influenced by the whole ’90s guitar hero movement.
I was always very excited about discovering new music—regardless of genre. I didn’t care what was “cool” and “lame.” I didn’t care if it was country music, new age music, or death metal. I was interested in hearing all the different ways instruments could be used in different forms of music. And now, looking back, I can say that my biggest musical influences were always Yanni, Sarah McLachlan, Megadeth, Lord Bane, and Joe Satriani. I think those were the ones that had the biggest impact on me.
How did Cea Serin come to be?
J. Lamm: Keith Warman and I met each other through a similar “musicians seeking…” ad at a local music store. We shared a lot of the same interests in music: We both grew up on Barry Manilow, the Bee Gees, Journey, and of course all the shred guitarists. So Keith and I formed this progressive metal band called Ashen Dawn. That band existed for a couple of years but we struggled writing enough material, finding a singer, and getting things moving properly.
Even though we had never played a gig, we were very determined to build our own studio and practice room. When we completed the room, Keith and I invested some money and bought a studio keyboard: a Roland D-20. This keyboard was a “workstation” which doubled as a keyboard and drum machine.
Once Keith showed me the basics of how it worked, I pretty much went to town on it. At the time, I had become frustrated with Ashen Dawn and being limited in what I could say in lyrics. I also thought the music was a little limiting. I was the only one in the group who was into bands like Carcass and Cradle of Filth as well as Ivanhoe and Fates Warning. I always imagined what it would sound like to mash up musical genres that, on face values, were so diametrically opposed. Sometimes we’d be working on a song and I’d suggest a death metal riff, but no one else would be into it.
So I started writing songs with this drum machine with the express intent on making something unique. I tried very hard to make every riff memorable, putting special concern towards the sensible amalgamation of opposing styles. Not just jumping from one style to another, but seamlessly weaving things together so the listener never notices.
When Keith heard what I was working on he suggested we make a studio project for fun. This resulted in our first demo tape. From that point on Cea Serin was a real thing.
The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay took 10 years to complete. What were the advantages and disadvantages of dedicating that amount of time to this project?
J. Lamm: There really are no advantages to taking this long to make an album. I actually wanted the record to be wrapped up and out in 2005. This album is a logical bridge from our debut album and our upcoming album, The World Outside. The debut and the one we’ll be working on—the third album—are tied together by Vibrant Sound.
There were several factors that made this album take so long. We had a couple of setbacks when it came to recording. We actually had to re-record the drums three times. There was either a sound problem, a software issue, or we weren’t able to do what we thought we could do. It wasn’t a problem with the performance, just technical stuff that we had to learn about as we went. Then Hurricane Katrina happened and that was another setback. Keith ended up recording and re-recording all of his guitars multiple times as well.
We have certain roles in the band. I write the songs and lyrics, play the bass, do the vocals, and perform all the keyboard stuff; Keith is the guitarist, audio engineer, and makes sure the album sounds good. Believe me, I didn’t want to take this long to finish the album. The band never broke up. We were always together—just doing different things.
Describe each of the songs on The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay in one sentence each.
Holy Mother: Adrenaline flushed prog-thrash—like Pantera meets Shadow Gallery—that favors intensity over atmosphere while hinging on a story about a psychosis-laden religious delusion.
The Illumination Mask: The schizoid musical machinations of this song mirror the up-and-down behavioral patterns of a mind relaxed in a spiritual safe zone that’s being invaded by its own inner demons.
Ice: A Sarah McLachlan cover where the acoustic guitar is transplanted to the piano, musical ideas from the original song are expanded, lyrics are changed to reflect the change in gender, and all while retaining the song’s original darkness.
The Victim Cult: Fluctuating tempos, atypical key changes, dual choruses, centered in objectivism and fuelled by the aggression towards those with the absence of self.
What Falls Away: A familial saga conveyed via a myriad of styles, emotions, and dynamics—the quintessential summation of where Cea Serin has been and where the band is going.
What is your favourite track from The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay?
J. Lamm: Well, this album contains one of my favorite Cea Serin songs of all time: The Illumination Mask. It’s one of the first songs I ever wrote for Cea Serin, and I’m very satisfied with it. I’m glad people are going to finally get to hear it. The Illumination Mask is one of those songs that I could play live a million times without it ever growing thin on me. Victim Cult is close to me as well since it deals with certain philosophical issues that I’m interested in. But The Illumination Mask has been with me for a long time, and I have this special place for it.
Will you be touring this album?
J. Lamm: We’ll see what happens, I guess. As far as things are going right now I’m diving right into getting The World Outside recorded and ready. Once that album is done and out I can finally die in peace.
What are your major passions outside of music?
J. Lamm: I’m actually quite passionate about books and writing. I go through a book just about every week. I even just signed on with Charon Coin Press to publish a recent short-story I wrote in one of their upcoming State of Horror anthology books. I’m quite excited about that, because I want to really try my hand at publishing and writing more.
I’m also active with painting and music education.
Beyond The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay, what does the future hold for you?
J. Lamm: I’m currently steeped into a new project outside of Cea Serin. Whether or not it gets sold or picked up is a mystery at this point. But I have to prepare some material for presentation and so far I think it’s very good. It could be a big deal if I pull it off. Of course, as I mentioned before, I have a short-story being published by Charon Coin Press in their book State of Horror: Louisiana coming out.
Aside from all that it’s just all about getting back to work on a new Cea Serin album: “The World Outside.”
Links
Check out TMMP’s review of The Vibrant Sound of Bliss and Decay here.
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