The Art of Prog

NOTE: Greg Hasbrouck interviewed Cage vocalist Sean Peck in July of this year.

Greg: How’s everything?

Sean: Everything is good. Just another day in sunny San Diego, down by the beach.

Greg: Oh, that’s beautiful. Well first of all, thanks for taking time out of your day and for being flexible at the last moment (I had to push back the interview one hour, at the last moment).

Sean: Well, there’s nothing I like more than talking about myself. (mutual laughter)

Greg: That’s cool… because this is the perfect format for that. Why don’t you start off by talking about your music. For someone heading to ProgPower, who hasn’t heard of CAGE, how would you describe your sound and which of your albums would you point them to?

Sean: Our music is somewhere between Heavy Metal and Power Metal. We’ve kind of adopted the Power Metal moniker as we’ve gone along, just because the speed and intensity has increased as we’ve continued to write. But basically, we grew up during the Heavy Metal heyday of JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, OZZY, SCORPIONS, TESTAMENT, early CRIMSON GLORY, SAVATAGE, bands like WASP and even DOKKEN, with the Hard Rock stuff, and KING DIAMOND and METAL CHURCH. Just took all those influences and formed an amalgamation; just taking what I think are the best parts of all that stuff and put it into a band that’s got their own signature sound, that doesn’t sound like a copycat. And really focus on writing good, good, songs. That’s kind of what the goal is. We’re all Heavy Metal fans, that’s kind of why we did the band. So the policy for writing songs is; as a Metal fan, what would I want to listen to and how would it make me feel at the concert? Pointing to the albums, the very first album we were voted, by Rock Hard Magazine Europe, best new band of the year. Out of like a thousand bands. So we started at a very high level, and the critics have told us that every album has gotten better and better and that our current album, Science of Annihilation, is the best one. I would point them to the new album, because at least that’s the one the critics and fans believe is the best so far.

Greg: Perfect. So I was reading your bio, and it said that hearing Ozzy’s “You Can’t Kill Rock n Roll” was something of a seminal moment for you. Why do you think that song, or what about that song, had such an impact on you?

Sean: You know, the truth is, I was kind of a late bloomer on Metal. I was a guy who was into FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, DURAN-DURAN, friggin BLONDIE and stuff. I was living in Alaska at the time, and I had a lot of friends, of course, who were into Metal. And I came down to visit some friends in California and they were like, “Dude you gotta hear this Ozzy album.” And I’m like, “Ozzy? This stuff’s crazy.” It was one of those songs, where I listened to it over and over. That really got the ball rolling. Something about the melody and the power of that track. Something magical about it. And the Randy Rhoads factor. The first JUDAS PRIEST album I got into was “Defenders of the Faith”, that’s how late of a bloomer I was. But it’s cool when you discover a band like this and you find out they have eight other albums.

Greg: So as you began to develop as a vocalist, I would assume Rob Halford and King Diamond were two of the vocalists you drew a fair amount of influence from. Who would say are some of the less obvious influences that impacted your style?

Sean: Well King Diamond didn’t come around till much later. I didn’t discover him until the friggin “Abigail” album. I didn’t have a clue who MERCIFUL FATE was or anything like that. But, you know, it was Dickinson, Halford, early QUEENSRYCHE, even some of the Hard Rock vocalists. Just singing along to songs.

I started out singing as a Metal fan, you know with posters on the wall, air-guitaring around my bedroom, and trying to hit the notes. Then I moved from Alaska to California, to go to college in San Diego, and there was this band playing “The Trooper” who didn’t have a singer. So, I grabbed this little Radio Shack microphone with like a two foot cord and that was the start of my singing career.

The less known influences would be, once I discovered them, the first few CRIMSON GLORY albums… hearing Midnight sing was awesome. I dug the KING DIAMOND stuff, just because of the vocal melodies and the different voices that he uses. I always try to take that approach. Especially when you do records you kind of take a different vocal approach on each song, so the singer doesn’t sound monotonous. Early Savage… I like that stuff. Just the stuff I like to rock to, I would just sing along to it, no matter who was singing. But Halford is probably the biggest one.

Greg: Have you had any formal vocal training?

Sean: Not really. I took a couple of classes at San Diego State, but that was for singing friggin’ Broadway tunes. I don’t know if that really trained me for anything. That was just an easy A. I did go to this vocal instructor who was featured in People magazine, her name was (Elizabeth) Sabine. I spent one day with her. She had taught a bunch of… (Ron) Keel… a bunch of Metal singers, back in the day, how to scream and stuff. She had a real interesting, different approach on the voice; on how the human body was constructed kind like a stereo speaker coil, that the voice was electro-magnetic thing… and how breathing was not as much of a factor as traditional teaching made it out to be. Besides that, it’s been learning on my own. The key to singing, to me, is finding your own identifiable tone so that when people hear you they instantly go… like Ozzy, you hear him sing and you go, “That’s Ozzy.” Or Sting or somebody, you instantly know who it is just by the sound of their voice. And I think I’ve managed, luckily, to get that. And I think it’s a real gift to the great singers, especially in Metal.

Greg: So here’s something I learned while prepping for this interview… I think I’ve owned “Darker Than Black” since I saw you at BW & BK in Cleveland, but I was unaware that some people would describe you as a Christian Metal band. Do you think that’s an accurate description or too broad a generalization?

Sean: What’s funny is, some of the Christian Metal fans question whether we’re a Christian band, and the non-Christian, secular fans accuse us of being a Christian band.

Greg: So rather than getting kudos from both audiences, you’re getting crap from both?

Sean: Well… we’re getting a lot of support from both really. We’ve always hinted through our albums that the light always seems to prevail but darkness is always hovering around. With the “Hell Destroyer” album, the Christian fans really gravitated to that album because it was heavily based on (the book of) Revelation. And it was meant to lay a heavy trip on people.

Greg: I had read that it was based on the Book of Revelation. Was there something specific that inspired you to write on that subject?

Sean: Well, I’m always interested in religious prophecy and conspiracy. I had a pretty profound event that happened in my life, that provided me with some empirical evidence that there are spirit… there is a spiritual plane. I witnessed, whether it was an angel or an apparition, face to face with my wife at the same time. So it wasn’t just me seeing some blob of light in the corner. Me and her both saw this thing… completely detailed, like when the ghosts came out of the Ark of the Covenant, in “The Raiders of the Lost Ark”. That’s the closest explanation I can give. So just like when someone sees an alien spacecraft… They can try to convince people, but when you’ve seen something with your own two eyes, especially having another person there to corroborate it… Some people have to rely only on faith for that kind of thing. But when you have that kind of experience, now you’ve seen something. You don’t have to rely completely on faith that there’s something else going on. That definitely had a profound effect on me, on my personal spirituality.

But first and foremost, we’re just a Metal band. The new album didn’t really have a whole lot of Christian themes to it. Because we always have to keep it interesting for the Metal fans. We all happen to be Christians in the band, but that’s not necessarily the number one driving force of the band. To me, it’s not a bad thing. All the Satanic imagery in Metal is so cliché and retarded to me. Sometimes it’s refreshing, especially with the cover of the “Hell Destroyer” album, to show the other side and make god’s warriors look even more bad-ass than the satanic stuff.

Greg: So “Hell Destroyer” is obviously a concept album. I’m curious, did you find the boundaries that a concept album constructs more useful, in that it kept the songwriting process focused, or more restrictive, in that it created artificial boundaries?

Sean: I thought it was a lot easier for me. I’m a big comic book… nerd as it is. Originally, it was going to be a full comic book. We had it storyboarded out. Anyone who has it knows it’s a 30- page Heavy Metal graphic novel. There are images drawn out for each song and an extra paragraph of text describing the story, as if you’re reading a book. So there was a lot to it. We actually had a working video game for it, where you’re flying a Hell Destroyer around shooting demons out of the sky. So there were some big, big plans to it. It was also almost an 80-minute album. It’s almost like two records… super huge. But creating the story, once I floated the idea out to the guys, they were fully down with it. It was real easy just to keep writing it.

When we planned to do a concept album, I’m like, what’s the ultimate concept… let’s just take good vs. evil and close the book on it. We started at the crucifixion of Christ and ended 100 years past the apocalypse, so we covered it all. It felt real good to get that out of our system.

Greg: So you mentioned San Diego earlier, which is where the band is from. Is there much of a Metal scene in San Diego? Either when you were starting out or now?

Sean: Now there’s a real good Metal scene in San Diego. The cool thing now is the kids are really into it. We play a lot of all-ages shows. We play with Screamo bands and Death Metal bands and then we get up there and do our things. These kids, their jaws hit the floor. They run up to the front and they’re banging their heads for the full set. They’re buying the shirts. I pick my sixteen year old up from school and there are kids walking around with CAGE shirts.

Greg: Very cool.

Sean: Super cool. Yeah… the scene in San Diego is great. I think it’s better than the L.A. Metal scene. People here aren’t afraid to rock… crowd-wise… really go for it. In L.A. someone always has a claim to fame and is looking at you with a skeptical eye it seems. I’ll defend the San Diego Metal scene all day long. Part of the secret to our success… We started the band in ’92, when Grunge was taking over and all these Metal bands were abandoning Metal and trying to chase a trend. We became, virtually, the only Metal band left in San Diego. Because of that, we got to open up, at an early stage of our career, for everybody. Even a band like GREAT WHITE when they would come through. They draw 1,000 people. For a band like us, that really wasn’t that good back then, it was a great opportunity to get exposure and also learn how to be a good live band in front of a big crowd like that. Eventually, as the years went on, we were opening for MAIDEN, PRIEST, DIO… all those legends who you grew up with their poster on the well. So it was a dream come true and definitely a major accomplishment. It also allowed us, early in our career, to really hone in on what it took to be an amazing live act; how to control the crowd and how to keep the Metal vibe alive or create it if you start out at a dead spot. The other bands in San Diego hated us for years because we got every opening friggin’ gig that there was. So we were pretty well hated in town because “why does CAGE always get those shows?” But, that’s just how it goes.

Greg: So you mentioned the legends. I heard in a recent audio interview you gave, where you turned the question around on the interviewer and asked him if he thought there would ever be another MAIDEN or PRIEST. So let me throw that back to you… do you think the scene will ever get there again?

Sean: Well, of course our ultimate goal, we would love to be that band. I’m super skeptical. I don’t think there’s ever going to be another… I mean, you’ve got METALLICA, but I think they’re kind of a different situation than what PRIEST and MAIDEN are. Who’s on the landscape that could capture that kind of excitement and that kind of magic? I don’t know. I think the genre is more healthy now because I think the roots are so deep now. Metal will never be uncool again. This is based on what I’m seeing from the kids. I’m really skeptical that there will be someone else. I think CAGE has got the blueprint for it… we do what we do live, we kind of sound like that style. But it’s been a long, slow road. We’re not in it for the fame, we’re in it for the love of Metal and the feeling that it gives us; sharing the experience with the fans. I’m just real skeptical that we’ll ever see that. It may just fade off, where there’s just a bunch of mid-level bands in the genre, but no one who will ever be a MAIDEN or a PRIEST.

Greg: Do you think it would even be good for the genre? It seems you can pretty easily correlate Metal’s demise creatively with its rise in popularity.

Sean: I think it would be nice to have a couple of classic Metal bands have a good hot buzz where they’re doing some arena Metal type stuff. That was the fun thing for me; pulling up to the L.A. parking lot at the Long Beach arena for the MAIDEN concert. Everyone in the parking lot partying. MAIDEN cranking out of every car. New, young bands passing out flyers. To me that was really a lot of the buzz and the excitement. You know, lots of girls at the shows. That’s why, when the Glam Metal thing was happening, the guys went; because there was a bunch of hot chicks at the shows. That’s why I’d go to the CINDERELLA concert. Yeah, the music was cool, but there was also a lot of girls. I think it would be healthy to get a few more big, big acts. But, like I said, the genre… I think the roots are deeper in the classic Prog / Power genre, where there’s a deep-rooted appreciation for the style of music and there’s probably more bands in this kind of scene than there ever has been. Just not the “next big thing”.

Greg: So we talked a bit about “Hell Destroyer”, let’s talk a bit about the new album, “Science of Annihilation”. First off, will you be doing any touring in the U.S. to support it?

Sean: We’re going to play Tampa before ProgPower. Then we’re going to play ProgPower. Then we’re going to do two shows in New York, which is the first time we’ve ever played New York. So we’re real excited about that because we went for years and years with people going, “When you gonna play New York?” So that’s finally going to happen. And then we’ve got some Mexico stuff we’re going to do, because Mexicans are some of the greatest fans in the world for CAGE.

Greg: Really?

Sean: Our new DVD coming out is a show from Monterrey, Mexico. I’ll put the Mexico fans up against even the European fans anytime. We’ve had some amazing experiences down there. We just did Vegas, we did Phoenix, we just did three weeks in Europe. But, we’re probably not going to do a full U.S. tour unless the situation is right.

It’s getting more and more healthy for CAGE. We’re enjoying more success than we ever have before. We’ve probably sacrificed some publicity and being further along in popularity and success for real successful personal lives. Everyone in the band owns a home and has a family and has a good career outside of music. So we’ve been able to not have to sacrifice a real prosperous lifestyle for the band, which a lot of people do and that’s definitely cost us. I get e-mail like, “I don’t understand how you guys aren’t just huge”, you know, we get that like every day; especially when people see the live performance. And people actually get pissed off about it. But there’s nothing you can do.

We’re happy to get the opportunities we get, and now we’re starting to get offered a decent amount of money to play and that makes things more and more possible. We were able to do our first European tour ever because we got a good offer from the Elements of Rock festival which was a Christian festival that we headlined. Then we did a headlining tour from that, to support the new record and that really got us a lot further. If we could have toured for every album I’m sure we’d be way further down the line. It’s our fifth record and we just did our first real tour. So it’s definitely a factor, but you know how it is for all the bands, it’s economics primarily.

Greg: So you mentioned you have a DVD coming out, what is the release date on that?

Sean: We’re hoping to have it out by the end of the year. Most of it’s done, we’re just filming little “Cribs” episodes, they’re pretty funny… fuck around the house, showing our junky cars, instead of a Mercedes. So we’re putting that stuff together. But the concert footage is pretty much done. And just by the end of the year, we’re hoping to get it out. But there’s still a lot of buzz on the “Science of Annihilation” album, that’s still selling really well.

Greg: So on the topic of the “Science of Annihilation” album, how would you say it compares or differs from your previous releases?

Sean: Well it’s definitely like I said. We’ve been critically acclaimed to have turned the notch up and have a better and better album each time. I can’t even think of a band that’s put out five albums; started at such a high point and then been able to make their album legitimately the best one five times in a row. Again, the emphasis is on songwriting.

The thing that’s different about this record is…

This ends Part One of Greg’s interview with Cage vocalist Sean Peck. The complete interview can only be found in the official (printed) ProgPower USA program given to all attendees. If you want to read the entire interview, you have to come to the show!

Final Note: All photos/images used to illustrate this interview are used in compliance with the principles of Fair Use. They illustrate reviews, opinions, and interviews with the band members who created the albums and on whose official web sites and MySpace pages some of these images reside. The photos of the band are borrowed from the band’s official web site. No copyright violations are intended.