Echoes Of The Future With MAT ROBINS From CICADASTONE

Interview by Kris Peters
Rising from the ashes of the grunge era, Melbourne rock outfit
Cicadastone have spent just over ten years refining their sound
amid a musical revolution that saw their style of music shunned
from mainstream darlings to backseat troublemakers.
Following their 2016 debut Chance Collide, Cicadastone found
strength in the fact that although grunge-infused rock was
generally on the outer, people started gravitating towards their
version of it. With more than a passing nod to some of the
heavyweights of that musical movement, Cicadastone quickly set
about sprinkling their own DNA into the mix and by 2020's Cold
Chamber their efforts in bringing together music from all corners
of the rock spectrum were beginning to be noticed.
For their third, and most decisive album to date, Cicadastone have
signed with new label XMusic and are obviously enjoying the freedom
to allow their natural creativity to dictate the sonic balance of
their music.
The result is Future Echoes - out May 31 -, an album that draws
from both previous albums, but also shows Cicadastone's musical
growth and diversity like never before.
The band last week dropped lead single In The Crossfire, a meaty
slab of rock goodness that offers a glimpse inside Future Echoes
while only scratching at the surface.
HEAVY sat down with vocalist Mat Robins to find out more, starting
with In The Crossfire.
"It's just one of these riffs that I had lying around for a long
time and I couldn't do anything with it," he began. "And then one
day it all happened in half an hour. I bashed the song together and
jotted down the lyrics and found my focus. It all came together
really fast, and we demoed the song, and it was the last song that
we wrote for the record. But it's probably the most radio-friendly
rock single we've got, so it worked out pretty good."
We ask why the band chose In The Crossfire as the first
single.
"I just think it's the most obvious, forthright song," he shrugged.
"It's got the pace - we're predominantly a band that doesn't push
pace. We love our sludgy, slow riffs (laughs). The label were eager
to push the faster songs, so it was an obvious choice."
In the full interview, Mat talks more about In The Crossfire,
Future Echoes as a whole, what they were going for musically with
it, the press release claims that it is Cicadastone's biggest
statement yet, how it is a new chapter in the band's history,
signing to XMusic and what it means for the band moving forward,
how Cicadastone have grown musically over the three albums, their
upcoming Stay Gold gig with The Midnight Devils and more.