For those of you missing out on classic sounding grunge music then look no further than Melbourne’s Cicadastone, who will be releasing their second album ‘Cold Chamber’ on Friday 19th March through Golden Robot Records. Recorded back in 2019 and delayed for a year from its original release date, vocalist, guitarist & producer Mathew Robins is chomping at the bit to move on to the bands next chapter even on the eve of the release of this chapter. You see, Robins is a man who likes to move with the times…. A one door closes as another one opens. Their acclaimed debut album ‘Chance Collide’, released in 2016 hadn’t even left the mixing desk before Mat Robins had started writing the follow-up. With a different line-up since the first album with Tommy Sunset (bass) & Jarrod Medwin (drums) joining Mat and his brother Mark, Cicadastone are itching to hit the stage at Stay Gold on the 19th of March to officially launch the album.
The Rockpit video called Mat as he was closing down after a busy day of interviews. We discussed the creation of the album, Mat’s approach to song writing, the frustrations of delayed launches as well as making a vid clip during isolation & lockdowns.
Sean: Hey Mat, how are you?
Mat: Good thanks mate.
Sean: Firstly, congratulations on finally approaching the eve of releasing the new album, ‘Cold Chamber’. I know it’s been a long wait with what has happened in the world, but we are finally here.
Mat: Yeah, I mean we originally submitted it to the label back in late 2019 for it to be released this time last year so we finished recording this album a far while ago now. It’s certainly a relief to finally have it out there. Personally, I can move on because I need to [laughs] but also because during that time we already have another album of demo material ready to go so although it’s been a year pushed back, its also a year closer to the next record.
Sean: The tough thing for us was that you released that wonderful documentary ‘Inside the Chamber’ which gave us all a little bit of an insight into what was going on and also the creation of that stunning artwork, which I think is just breathtaking.
Mat: Mind blowing isn’t it?
Sean: Unbelievable. So, of course we have been sitting here waiting that extra year with you.
Mat: Its funny. We released that documentary thinking we had a release date and obviously what was waiting round the corner for all of us was just that… around the corner and none of us knew what was going to happen and that all our lives were going to be put on hold so to speak and now here we are. Only the other day on social media, I reposted that link for the documentary because I’m thinking, “Now! Now you should be seeing the documentary” [laughs]
Sean: It was brilliant so I must go back to re-watch it. So, we’ve had three singles so far, which have all been great releases but with this album you genuinely could pick any of the tracks, such are their strengths. Is it difficult to choose what to release?
Mat: I think over a bit of time you start to know and are able to see clearly which ones the potential singles are going to be and what they do as a song. ‘Box of Anger’ was big riff, catchy chorus. ‘Dying in Sunshine’ had the radio chorus and… it’s kind of funny but ‘Out of Sight’ was a bit of a grower for me. A few people said it should have been a single and the label got behind it and it was also a different pace so it kind of made sense. So, yeah, I believe there are potentially more songs that could be played or pushed.
Sean: I don’t know what it is about ‘Burden That You Wear’ but it keeps drawing me back to play it.
Mat: That song is a really old one actually. I wrote that song before I wrote any of the songs on ‘Chance Collide’ and it was going to be on that album but then I wrote the song ‘Chance Collide’ and they way I felt about it was that they were similar in pace and in delivery and in that sense both bring something similar to an album so I didn’t wat to put them both on the same record and because ‘Chance Collide’ was new and fresh at the time it got the vote and then saved ‘Burden That You Wear’ for this record, which I feel was good move because I think it’s a great song.
Sean: Love that little guitar bit in there near the end.
Mat: That cool little melody line? Yeah, its pretty good. Its pretty epic. It could be a movie track that song.
Sean: So, for our readers who haven’t heard of Cicadastone before, ‘Chance Collide’ was the debut album in 2016 but you were already writing for this album almost immediately after ‘Chance Collide’.
Mat: As I said with ‘Burden’ there was definitely an overlap of material from that time and the same has happened now. I have already got an album worth of material. It kind of doesn’t really stop. You just keep writing songs. I’m not one of these song writers who writes sixty songs and then picks & narrows it down to the best ten. I don’t do that. I just believe in writing what you write at the time with the thoughts you have at the time and that’s really important because I’m not some hit machine. I’m just a person with thoughts & experiences in my life and at the time that’s what I wrote and so that is more important to me than writing sixty songs and picking ten rippers.
Sean: So, it’s all very ‘here & now’ so to speak?
Mat: Absolutely. It’s very much a snapshot of my life captured & recorded and that is why I need to move on and get this album out because I need to. I’m really proud of these songs but I’ve already moved on to other things, so I need to release that now. Literally release that [laughs]
Sean: You just touched on how you write and its very much how you’re feeling at the time, but do you come up with lyrical ideas first or is it the melodies & riffs that come to you primarily?
Mat: More often than not it’s a progression with mentality and also syllable driven. I work a lot with syllables I like and occasionally I will have some lyrical content to start with but its definitely more music, syllables, melody and then I let my lyrics dictate how I’m feeling at the time before I start jotting things down. I do a few re-writes and tweak words to make them more relevant. You don’t get them right first go every time, you know. With some of the demos I’ll make mental notes and when I play the demo, I’ll remember in the third line to say this or tweak that or I might want to add an extra harmony, so I always have these little mental notes that when I get into the proper recording for an album, I just need to check it off my little internal list. It’s just how I work.
Sean: It’s almost like an ever-evolving creation.
Mat: It sure is.
Sean: And surely being a producer of you own music there must be times you come out of the studio, get into bed and wake up thinking, “Oh damn, why didn’t I do it this way?” Are you tempted to fiddle a bit now & again?
Mat: Yes, that has happened. There are one or two songs but its time to move on and I’m happy with both of our records. And that’s saying a lot because I know there are songwriters & artists who aren’t 100% happy at times but I think I’m pretty much close to 100%. I’m very content.
Sean: You finally got to play a live show back in February. How was that for you and did you get to road test any of the new material?
Mat: It was really great. It was amazing just to get on stage and plug in a guitar again. We kind of played what we had played previously. We didn’t get time to practise for a new set [laughs]. I hadn’t seen those guy, apart from my brother Mark, I hadn’t seen those guys in a good eight or nine months so when we finally got into the room for a rehearsal, we figured we didn’t really have enough time to practice the new material, so we decided to go over what we kind of remembered. It all came back pretty quick, but I think for the album launch we are looking at bringing in a couple of extra songs that we haven’t played yet, just to broaden the set a bit. It’s a special night for us so why shouldn’t we play some extra songs?
Sean: A great line-up at Stay Gold, with Stone Trip and The Vendettas, who I caught up with last time I was over in Melbourne in February last year. If I knew our WA Premier wasn’t having his finger hovered over the “Close Border” button I would have made the trip over.
Mat: Its funny because we are going up to Sydney the week after to play at Frankie’s on 25th March and we were like, “Shall we book plane tickets?” Then we thought there may not even be a guarantee there could be borders open so we’ve opted to drive because potentially we may have to turn round and go home. I’d rather do that than be stuck there or give up a plane ticket, so we are going to just drive for that particular show.
Sean: One of the cool things you did during the lockdown period was you managed to shoot a video for one of the singles with all of you appearing in it even though you couldn’t all meet up.
Mat: Yeah, because as you know Melbourne was in a pretty crazy lockdown and for a long time too, so we were going to release ‘Dying in Sunshine’ and the original idea was that we were going to get a proper video guy in and pay him or her and put a bit of money into it, which was cool. We felt it was the most radio friendly song to release so it made sense to do that but of course at the time we couldn’t even leave our homes, so I just started filming stuff in my house, found some cool bit and pieces and made a little set. Then we had a small window of opportunity when we could have people over and I just got one band member in each night… we weren’t even in the same room together. So, I think Jarrod (Medwin – drums) was first over, then Tommy (Sunset – bass) and then my brother Mark (Robins – guitar & vocals) and each night after they had left, I would just chop up the footage, so I was kind of editing & filming it each night as we went, and I had no idea wat it was even going to be. I though it turned out great in the end. I was really happy with it.
Sean: It was certainly a testing time where everyone had to begin to think outside the box.
Mat: It was good therapy for me too because it gave me home projects to work on. I had my days too, but I did the ‘Dying in Sunshine’ video and then I did a lyric video for ‘Out of Sight’ and for that one I had absolutely no footage, so I decided to go online to find stuff and make stuff just to try and make something. It was a good way to pass the days I think… and I probably spent about two weeks on that. I would wake up and wonder what I’d be doing today. I’d say to myself, “I guess I’ll be working on that video that I have no idea what it will be” so I just kept chiselling away at it and finally got it there which meant we also again had a video for our single release too which is pretty important.
Sean: The bonus of you shooting your own vids at home is we got to see the moment the CD’s arrived, and you & Mark got to open the box for the first time.
Mat: You know what? That was real. I had received that box that day and I really wanted to open that box, but I thought I would wait for Mark to arrive because that way we can open it together and it will be honest, so we did it. Since then, we received the vinyl and we’ve already opened that, so we’ll have to film it and pretend [laughs].
Sean: Something else that has changed from the first album is the line-up. Both Tommy & Jarrod weren’t with you for the debut album. Have they given you something different as a band?
Mat: We’re fortunate that it didn’t impact too much because I’m just a ruthless record producer and I just get what I want [laughs] and also because I’m a song writer I have a vision of what I want and so I really worked with Jarrod to make sure the kick patterns didn’t sway into something different. I wanted them to stay true to what the demos were, and they replicate the first record in respect of the feel & shuffle of the band. On the first record we had Adam Pedretti from Killing Heidi on drums and Mick Quee, who you will know from Hailmary and those guys were great. It just kind of ran its course as they were busy doing other things and we kind of needed to find a new rhythm section and its sort of fell into place in the end.
Sean: I’d love to delve into finding out the musicians that interest you a bit more by asking my restaurant question. If I booked you a table for two hours and you could invite three guests from the music world dead or alive, who would you choose?
Mat: Ah, Jesus. Well, I would have to keep it in the 90’s because that’s what I love so I would be a liar if I didn’t say I wanted Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) so we could sit and talk guitar riffs all night. That would be amazing. Probably Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) would be one of them also. He would be pretty amazing to chat to. And maybe Chris Cornell (Audioslave & Soundgarden) would be pretty incredible too.
Sean: I’ve had Chris before as an answer but not Jerry & Scott.
Mat: Jerry Cantrell has been my biggest influence over the years especially with my guitar playing, which isn’t amazing, but he’s definitely shaped where I’m going with it both tonally and musically. He would definitely someone I’d love to chat with. Maybe one day. But they say you shouldn’t meet your idols, right?
Sean: Book the table next to theirs and just listen in [laughs]
Mat: Right, good idea [laughs]
Sean: So, what was the last album you listened to?
Mat: I was in the car a little earlier and my son was blaring out Stone Temple Pilots ‘Core’ which is a cool record because I think it’s a great example of great songs but not recorded amazingly. It sounds good but doesn’t sound huge and you can kind of hear issues with it but it’s a great example of it not being about the recording, its about the songs. And that’s what makes a great album.
Sean: So as a songwriter yourself I’m interested to know, if you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Mat: Oh, it would have to be one that makes lots of money [laughs]
Sean: You can’t have ‘Happy Birthday’ [laughs]
Mat: [laughs] I was just about to say, ‘Happy Birthday’. That’s a big question. I couldn’t tell you to be honest. Something meaningful in life maybe. Something that moved people and made a difference. Good question but a hard question.
Sean: Well, I know we message regularly but it’s been great to talk to you in a more official capacity about ‘Cold Chamber’ and we wish you and the guys all the best from all of us at The Rockpit, not only for the album but also for the launch night at Stay Gold. It won’t be long before we are chatting about the next album.
Mat: Well, it won’t be far off because we are looking to get into the studio mid this year. All the pre-production is done. There’s twelve really ripping tunes and I’m really happy with this potential third album and the next chapter for this band too. There are a few surprises on there as well as what you’d expect too. So yeah, good times to come.
Sean: I look forward to it. Thanks Mat.
Mat: Catch you soon. Thanks mate.
