With the release of their debut album, Gauteng-based rock ‘n roll outfit Cadillac Sun are on a momentous rolling ball that isn’t attending one bit to Newton’s laws of motion. The self-titled collection exhibits high-energy distortion, a handful of pinched harmonics, endless amount of wah and even emotive and staccato U2-esque techniques. No force seems to be stopping, opposing or constraining their ambitious motive to succeed.
Timothy Kohler: Cadillac Sun was initially inspired by and henceforth driven towards a concept album involving a variety of differentiating vocalists. What made the band decide to abandon this notion and employ the workings of Carl Heydenrych – your now sole lead vocalist?
Cadillac Sun: The idea behind the concept album was all the brain child of Emile the founding member of the band.
His first love has always been rock & roll. When he decided to toy with the idea of actually recording some material he decided that doing the rock song first off was maybe a good way to ease into the project. The writing process went so smoothly with Carl and Francois Jones (drummer) that the concept album was soon scrapped to focus on a more rock driven sound.
When rock & roll comes calling you have to listen.
TK: Your self-titled debut album was recorded by David Grevler at Anti Motion Studios in Johannesburg, who’s recorded a diverse array of musicians from Crashcarburn to Matthew Mole. What made you decide to work with him?
CS: The main reason we decided to record with Dave was his work on the Man As Machine albums. The textures on the first album was something that appealed to us. We wanted to keep our sound dirty and not too polished and Dave was on board from the get go. He cleaned our sound up just enough that we still kept the live element of our sound. He truly is a master at what he does and was a fantastic opportunity to work with one of our countries best producers. And the coffee they make isn’t bad either.
TK: A lot of varied textures and dynamics are evident throughout the album, from high energy, angsty distortion to emotive and choral timbres. What was the writing process like for this particular arrangement of pieces?
CS: A lot of material was written by Emile before the band was even born. Tracks like “Gimme Some More” and “Can You Feel It?” are older songs of his that the other 3 members just added slight nuances too and twists to spice the songs up. A lot of the newer material like “Broken Bones” and “Never Seen Before” were written with more involvement by all the guys together.
The band has never really gotten together and said “we need some emotive choir patterns here or a more grit in this section”.
It’s been a creative process that has seemed to flow effortlessly. Like pieces of a puzzle taking shape. A lot of elements also just seem to fall in place in studio. Anti-Motion Studios has such vibrant and creative atmosphere a lot of the harmonies for backup vocals were written on the spot. Most of the guitar solos were also done on the fly in studio to hopefully add to the rawness. The aim has always been to make something that’s real and vibrant and hopefully it comes across on the album.
TK: Emile Snyman is known for his past endeavours in Rebel Train Surfers and Smokehouse. Have the rest of the members in the band been involved in any other projects within the music scene?
CS: Carl and Jones were in a band called Hiccup. Emile’s previous bands used to play with them in the Vaal and Potch areas frequently.
Hendru Basson used to play on the Sun City circuit and with a group called Changing Faces.
TK: The album features a somewhat unexpected but pallet-cleansing ballad which features Natalie Reid Ross on vocals. Considering the contrasting texture compared to the rest of the album, what provoked the decision to work with Natalie and produce such a strikingly different and uplifting piece?
CS: A big reason that Cadillac Sun was born was due to Emile not wanting to see talented individuals not getting a chance to do their thing. Giving guys like Carl, Hendru and Jones a vessel for creativity. One such a person was a close friend Natalie Reid-Ross.
They were in an acoustic project called My Endless Odyssey with long time writing partner Dirk Badenhorst. “Soaring” was a bit of an ode to nostalgia. Natalie has one of the best voices in the country, goose bump stuff.
It’s something someone would not expect on the album and we like that element of surprise. It has divided opinions across the board from fans. Who made the rules? They are there to be broken and isn’t that the point of music? Pushing the borders and rustling a few feathers along the way.
TK: In a saturated local rock and roll scene, is there a particular method, tool or modus operandi of sorts that Cadillac Sun utilise to stand out in the crowd?
CS: The market is quite saturated, it’s true. We have always believed if you make something real and from the heart you will always stand out from the crowd. Having an album we believe in and with some clever marketing strategies we believe that we have the golden ticket moving forward. Everything is looking up for the band at the moment and we need to keep persevering. It truly is a long way to the top if you wanna rock & roll!
TK: Finally, what are Cadillac Sun’s future plans? Is there an inaugural national tour in the works?
CS: We have just finished our Gauteng album launch tour and we are finalists in the “Pop Filter Studios – Making The Muso” battle of the bands with a slot at Oppikoppi up for grabs. It has been a fantastic experience and we would like to thank everyone who came out to watch us play. The writing process has already started for album number two so that is really exciting.
Plans are being made to do a Cape Town tour sooner rather than later and hopefully a music video shoot in the near future.
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Listen to “Cadillac Sun’ below on Deezer.
