CEREMONY

by Jason Walsh

For the past few decades, the Bay area has a long standing tradition of spawning original and memorable punk and hardcore bands, and as time has grooved along, the sound has transformed as well. CEREMONY is one of those bands that infuse these different styles and influences, while making their voice unique and ultimately their own. Formed in 2005 under the name VIOLENT WORLD, the guys from San Francisco’s suburbs have put together an impressive collection of music to date and made quite a name for themselves. “Rohnert Park,” their third full-length release, drops this June on Bridge 9 Records, and sees the band continuing to experiment with phrasing and elements rather than cranking out clones of their previous efforts, “Still Nothing Moves You” and “Violence Violence.”

As word of mouth spreads, certain bands begin to experience more appreciation, which in turn creates more responsibility. The rigors of recognition can take its strain as a once beloved project with roots in a garage transforms into an all-encompassing entity. I had a chance to talk with CEREMONY frontman Ross Farrar about the new record, “Rohnert Park,” how it was influenced by their hometown, and how as time moves along, things continue to change, but not necessarily for the better.

Tell me about this new record you guys have coming out on Bridge 9 Records.

It’s called “Rohnert Park” and the title of the record is the town that all of us grew up in. It’s a small town, 45 minutes north of San Francisco. It’s a suburb and since most of us have lived here our whole lives we decided that it could be a good title for the record. Most of the stuff that we’ve done thus far has been about Rohnert Park pretty much.

So what is about that area that’s special for you guys and the for the band?

Well, that’s the weird thing about it. It’s not special, per se, it’s more of something that we’ve kind of loathed for a long time. Growing up here, there wasn’t much to do and pretty much hated growing up here. But now that I’m getting older and I had to move back to Rohnert Park from the city, I’ve kind of figured out that I actually like living here. It’s quiet, nice, and just now recently I’ve found the pleasure of living in the suburbs. I used to hate it but now I like it.

That seems to be a classic ongoing theme, in a lot of punk and hardcore bands from back in the days, talking about growing up some where that you hated and when you finally went on the road, went to the big cities and all that, you kind of return to that place and realize, “hey, it wasn’t that bad to begin with.” The alternatives can be worse.

Yeah, definitely. Before I moved back to Rohnert Park, I was living in West Oakland and it was really crazy. The neighborhood I was living in, there was shootings happening all the time, a house burned down right next to me, just all kinds of crime, violence, terrible shit happening all the time. So, when I moved back to Rohnert Park, it was kind of like a breath of fresh air again.

And it’s funny how you draw inspiration from this place that you didn’t really like but now it seems it’s come full circle for you.

Yeah, definitely. I didn’t think it was going to happen like that but a lot of the stuff I’ve been doing lately, a lot of the writing and all that, is kind of a muse for Rohnert Park, just growing up here.

So what drew you to music? How did you get involved in music?

I got into music because of punk and hardcore. I wasn’t into music before that. I’d kind of listened to, I don’t know, bands that my friends listened to or my parents or whatever it was. About a year before I got out of high school, I met these kids that were into hardcore and they started taking me to shows and that’s when I started getting into music. I think that was in 2001, 2002, and right after that, about a year after I got out of high school, I started some bands. Started a band called HAMMER TIME, and then a year after HAMMER TIME I started CEREMONY and just been doing that ever since.

What is it for you about performing music, writing music, and going out and playing music…what about that calls to you? What makes you wake up in the morning and go, “Man, I love doing this. I want to keep doing this?”

Well, that’s the thing. I’m not too sure about that because I still haven’t figured it out. When we started CEREMONY it was just a little punk band from Rohnert Park and we were playing shows and things started to escalate from there. And as far as it being my passion or thinking about it when I wake up in the morning, I don’t really do that because I have so much other stuff that I’m going through and dealing with right now, and we haven’t really been doing much as a band lately. We just finished the record, we haven’t been touring, we haven’t really done much. We’ve only done that AFI tour and that was for two weeks but besides that we haven’t really been doing much lately. As far as what drives me to do it, as of right now, just doing it because it’s all I’ve been doing for so long now. I’ve been doing it now for about six years so. It’s kind of weird.

So is it not fun for you anymore?

No, it’s still fun for me but it’s not the same. It’s not the same as when I first started doing it. It’s gotten bigger now, we’re doing bigger stuff, things are more demanding. It’s not as fun as it used to be. It’s still fun but it’s a little more daunting now than it used to be.

So is it just you’ve been doing it a while, you’ve got kind of a bigger following, bigger reputation now, do you think that’s taking away from when you guys first started? You know when you guys first started, you were like, “we’re going to start a band…we’re going to have fun, have a good time doing this,” and now you guys are at a different point in the band’s career. Is that possibly what the problem is?

Yeah. It’s probably a mixture of that and like just being an asshole. A jaded little asshole. Yeah, it’s been a long time and I don’t really know what’s going to happen next. We just wrote this record and we’re going to tour on it and then probably fucking happen again and again or maybe not. I don’t know. Kind of one of those things that I’m not too sure about I guess.

So have you had a chance to go through the record, now that it’s finished, listen to it top to bottom? What do you think about it?

Well, whenever we record a record, there’s always a lot me listening to it over and over again, trying to figure out if I like it or not, and with the new record I would say there are parts that I like but like anything else, I’m still unsatisfied with it. After I listened to the record, I feel like there could be more things I could have added. Could have made things better. But all in all, I feel like it’s pretty good.

The record comes out in June. Before that happens you guys have a few shows in California and then you guys are heading over to Korea and Japan. Tell me about that.

Well that’s an interesting story because one of our friend’s band has been to Japan numerous times. A lot of people have gone there and said, “hey, why aren’t you guys going there, what’s going on?” We’ve had a problem with that for a while because we put our record out on a label in Japan. There’s only two labels in Japan that put out the hardcore records and one of them went under. That was the one we put our record out with so we couldn’t tour because the guys that put out the record also bring the bands over. So he was out of business, he wasn’t doing tours anymore, and since there was only other guy out there that was putting out American bands and bringing them over, we were kind of screwed in that situation. So, we just now got hooked up with they guy who does tours in Japan so this will be our first time going there. It’s really exciting.

I was going to say, this being the first time, have you ever been over to Asia before?

Defintely not and I fell like it’s going to be a definite culture shock for me. I’ve heard lots of crazy stories about Japan and it’s going to be interesting to say the least. I’m going to bring my camera and take lots of pictures. I think that’s my biggest concern at this point, just taking pictures when I get there.

And that’s good because you’ll have those memories when you come back, this being the first time you guys go over there together. It will be cool. I think it will be a good experience for you and hopefully a good tour for you.

I know. I hope so.

After that the record releases and you have some East Coast dates. Who are you going on the road with that, do you know?

Not really sure yet. We might go with a band called PUNCH which is also from the Bay area, a punk band. Besides that, I’m not really sure. As far as East Coast bands, I’m not sure who we’re going to be touring with yet. I have no idea.

So do you guys still do a lot of shows in the Bay area?

We haven’t been doing any shows because we’ve been doing the new record lately. I guess the plan is not to play any shows until the new record’s out. That’s been a long process to say the least. We haven’t put out a new record in about a year and a half, so we’ve been playing shows here and there, but as far as playing a ton of shows, we definitely haven’t been, which would be good. We’re actually are going to be playing a kid’s 18th surprise birthday party. It’s going to be fun. I guess he’s a big fan of CEREMONY, it’s like one of his favorite bands so we’re going to show up at his house before he gets there and as soon as he comes in, we’re going to start playing. That’s the consensus right now.

18th birthday party, you guys are just going to crash his party and play a show. This is going to blow this kid’s mind.

Yeah, he’s going to be really pumped about it hopefully.

Very cool. Like I said the record comes out June 8th, you have a lot going on. What would you say to people out there that read this, why should they check out the new record from you guys?

Well, the biggest reason I think is just to hear it because it’s much different than anything else that we’ve put out so far. There’s all kinds of weird things on the record that people wouldn’t expect. We have about three interludes that are tied to each other in a certain way. I can’t let it out yet but they’re tied out in a certain way. You’ll find out. And, it’s not as fast and aggressive as the other records. It’s more punk, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-esque songs. There’s also some mellower songs. Even mellower than punk verse-chorus songs, if you can imagine that.