“If this is art, we should be pushing bounds, not sticking with the common pattern.” (An Interview with CVLTVRE)
With just three months left in 2018, we are stretching out and moving towards a soft horizon of future possibilities. As this year begins wrapping up, we are excited to see future acts unfold. This group of musicians is doing just that—expanding our view to encompass that which is untouchable. We are thankful and excited to be talking with the boundary-pushing group, CVLTVRE.
HM: Many of your lyrics are narrative and poetic in nature. How is your testimony evolving? What is sparking this shift?
C: Our lyrics used to take more of a vague, subtle approach, mostly to leave interpretation open to the listener in order to affirm what the song means to them. We still do that very much, but lately our sense of shift has added allegory, to try to attack topics on levels that are deeper than the more common solely emotionally driven types of music. If this is art, we should be pushing bounds, not sticking with the common pattern of love songs, breakup songs, sad songs, and party songs. We hope to continue to do this with our future music.
Building on that, many of your songs deal with honesty. What is your relationship with honesty? To whom are you aiming to be honest to? Whose honesty do you depend on?
Honesty is our closest friend. When we allow honesty to take over, we experience less anxiety, more freedom, and overwhelming peace. More than anything, we truly aim to be honest to ourselves—and we believe that, in turn, will lead to honesty with our family, friends, music, and fans.
Tell us about what inspires you. In past interviews, you’ve mentioned being inspired by a wide range of artists, spanning all sorts of genres. How do those pieces come together?
Musically, we are deeply inspired by artists like Thrice, Manchester Orchestra, and Balance & Composure. We are also inspired to this day by the artists that molded our tastes when we were young musicians—people like John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ryan Adams, David Bazan, and so on. Finally, we are inspired by local artist friends, like Set Sights, fairwell., Commonwealth, Differences, and more. The act of watching them work, shift, and push ideas in their own ways inspires us to keep doing the same. The pieces come together when we think about how all these artists convey the ideas and feelings we are trying to create.
How do you approach exploring identity and purpose within music? What lessons have you learned along the way about yourself individually? As a band?
We approach identity and purpose first within ourselves, and do our best to pair it with honesty. Usually, that seamlessly transpires into the sound we want to hear. It has taught us to push boundaries in music. Also, we’ve learned that at times, genres can be cages to break out of—not so much categories or descriptive tools. And, on a personal level, we’ve learned to be patient, to try to give more than we take in live performances, in conversation, and in relationships.
Describe your collective body of work using 3 songs that are not your own.
“In Exile” by Thrice; “Reflection” by Balance & Composure; and “Top Notch” by Manchester Orchestra.
What questions do you aim to answer? What answers do you aim to question?
To live life with your greatest purpose. That is an answer and question both.
So much of punk as a genre is rooted in politics and community ideologies. Do you carry these concepts with you in your music? If so, how do you execute them?
We do, but more so for the sake of our own history and growth. History repeats itself, so the more you learn about it, the more you can stand on the shoulders of the histories, politics, and communities that built you. Also, some of us have a deep relationship with a higher power, and we carry that with us each day, always taking one day at a time.
What music were you listening to 5 years ago? 3 years ago? Now?
5 years ago, we listened to John Mayer, Touché Amore, Thrice, Title Fight, Modern Life is War, and a lot of hardcore. 3 years ago, John Mayer, Thrice, Touché Amore, Ryan Adams, and Julien Baker. And now, we mostly listen to John Mayer, Touché Amore, Thrice, Jesus Piece, From Indian Lakes, and once again, a lot of hardcore.
What would you like to share with your audience? What would you like them to share with you?
We want to share a community with them, where they can be as much a part of our songs as we are—taking the mic at live shows, stage diving, and having person-to-person, heart-to-heart, mind-to-mind conversations. And we’d like them to share their story with us. Nothing is more powerful than a person’s story.
Your debut EP is titled All Life Is… Act One: An Act of Letting Go.What future acts are you working on—musically, artistically, emotionally?
We are currently working on a full-length album. All we can reveal now is that it will be about the different forms that pain takes in our lives. There will be more acts coming soon in this saga of EPs and we look forward to sharing them with the fans!
Bio: CVLTVRE is an American emo/post-hardcore band from the Inland Empire in Southern CA. Community is their belief. Join them in life.
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