Metal Inside

With “…where memories combine…” you have released your first album with a record company. How were the reactions to it?

J. Lamm – I have mixed feelings about the reactions toward the reviews that we’re getting. On one side I like that people are enjoying it because that’s why I’m really putting the music out there. There has been a lot of good press lately but I think this spills over into the realm of “hype.” The hype is hard to live up to. If a fan has heard about Cea Serin and they start checking out some reviews their expectations may become to built up for the actual album to live up to. There is another side of me that was wishing for all bad reviews. I think every artist really wants to be misunderstood on some level. So when reactions are good that leads me to believe that people understood me when I thought I was being a bit deep. But then maybe they are only responding to a more immediate level. This immediate level is good for Cea Serin because its what pulls most people in, however, there is a more visceral level that can be explored that I have heard little response to. So far the reactions have been to this initial first impression the music gives off: the sense of melody and aggressive flair. I am, however, very pleased with the fact that the majority of the interviews I’m getting are asking about the lyrics. It shows that people have an interest in this style of lyric writing and the substance behind the songs.
Was it a difference for you to release a “real” album after a couple of Online-CD’s?

First, we only did one online CD and the difference is huge. When it came to our online only CD, “Chiaroscuro,” it came down to the simple fact of us being on mp3.com to get this CD available. It was a pretty good deal that mp3.com offered to us and their other artists on their site. It was a deal that many of us took quick advantage of.
It worked like this: you upload your songs to your mp3 site and they give you a set criteria to work with on how to put those songs on an mp3/audio CD. This CD was made by mp3.com per order. This way they didn’t have to print a 100 copies before selling a single one. They let us upload an album cover and gave us space to add lyrics. We also got to pick the price of the CD. The down side was that they didn’t offer any specialized customization in tracks like cross-fading or making it zero seconds in between songs instead of the normal 2 second pause. It was also nice to have a CD to give out to people you met without giving them just a tape. when we started out we only had the ability to produce demo tapes. Now with CD burners its much easier to get a respectable audio medium to people.
When it actually comes to a producible and realistically marketable product, the source of the record deal is always the ideal means to an end. Our label set us up with a very good artist to make the visuals correspond to the audio and they’re also taking up the distribution end. Instead of us doing the leg work we now have a label with contacts and a means to get the material to the people who want to hear it. The most important thing is to get the material to the people and to not make it difficult to obtain for those who desire it

About which topics do you write your songs, especially the ones on the new CD?

I like to write about real situations but focus mainly on the smaller details within those situations that makes the big picture a bit more relatable and human. It’s human psychology and the experience in how we deal with situations that excites me. I like to dwell on the hidden details on things that fester beneath the surface that most people don’t bother to ponder.
For example, I once saw an old woman eating alone at a restaurant. I thought that was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. Not because they were alone but because of the events that led up to this one day that I had to witness. She had a husband at one time. And every day they woke up together, had breakfast together, parented children together. They shared vacations and holidays and survived their toughest moments in life as one team joined in marriage. But one day one of them just slipped away and now every morning she wakes up in a bed that’s too big for her, has a meal meant for one; the kids don’t stop by as often as she’d like because they have lives of their own, lives that she gave them and helped nurture. Everything is painful and a bittersweet reminder. A smile followed by a distant frown. Her home is a temple for moments that she can never reclaim. That’s why a woman eating alone in a restaurant grabs my attention. That’s why I stare at people a bit too long. Everyone has a story to tell.
However, “…where memories combine…” deals primarily with just three subjects. “The Surface of All Things” is actually four songs linked together in a common theme, and then there is “Scripted Suffering: Within and Without” and “Into the Vivid Cherishing.”
“The Surface of All Things” delves into the relationship between the creator and the creation. It’s lyrical theme is accomplished by not using any personal pronouns such as “I,” “me,” etc. I want to be able to read it as if from two angles: the view of the mass to their single creator, and the view of the creator to their own creations. You don’t have to believe in God or not to get this because you can take the lyrics personally. Your ideas, your beliefs and all the work that you do is yours. Your ideas are the property of you and should be changed by no one. If you have a bad day this affects how you create. At one point in my life I was very happy for a whole year. For that year it never rained on me. But the day I left my lawyers office after filing a divorce it began to pour down rain in my city. I noticed this happening every so often and it was almost like I was controlling the weather. Obviously, that’s impossible but it deals with the same kind of concept. Our creations can eventually take over us just like our mood and our conditioning affects what we make and how we make it.
“Scripted Suffering: Within and Without” is about my need to put myself in difficult situations to challenge myself. I think life is all about the stories you tell and I think that if I just sat at home and did nothing I would be wasting my life. I’m faced with decisions that would normally require a lot of thought towards my future but if it has to do with a huge challenge I’ll accept it and “cross that bridge when we get there.” But ultimately I HAVE to cross the bridge, that’s the deal. If I say I’m going to do something I’m going to do it and finish it. For example, when we got the call from our previous bass player inquiring if we wanted to form a full band and play at the Prog Power pre-show, I accepted. I knew this would be a daunting task considering we had never played live, had to find a drummer and teach new people the song to get tight in 6 months. It was something that would be more rational to say, “you know what, that’s not enough time to get a band together and get tight for such an important show, especially since two of the guys live 300 miles away from the core of the band. But accepted the task and it came with a deadline to meet. It was ridiculous but we pulled it off…somewhat. “Scripted Suffering“ is more about recognizing your current limitations and taking the opportunity to eliminate those limitations and crush the force that opposes you.
“Into The Vivid Cherishing” is a bit more specific in its detail. It deals with a real situation that occurred to an ex of mine. I’ve told this story a hundred times now but I think that by telling it again to more people it will really get across what Cea Serin is going for lyrically. This song really takes into account my grip on focusing on the smaller details for a larger picture. It deals with, in a round about way, how my ex’s mother died of pancreatic cancer. I wrote the lyrics in a way that could make it more relatable though to other people in similar situations. The areas of focus for this song was really just two main areas with smaller instances throughout. The first, and probably most important, was when the mother and daughter were in a room together towards the end of the ordeal. I focused on a moment of silence. There was a time when her mother got to the point where she had last her muscle control, yet, she still had her mind together. They’re in the same room and the daughter has all these things to say to her mom but she can’t quite find the right words to say. You also have the mother who wants to say something to her daughter but can’t physically say it. So there is this moment of silence between them where nothing needs to be said. It’s more important that they’re together and words aren’t even necessary.
The other instance is after the passing I imagine that a time had come when the change in life was so fresh. As morning broke on a new day and the daughter wakes up she doesn’t realize that her mothers gone but as it quickly comes back she has to relive it again.
The instrumental at the end of the album was meant as a bonus track. It was really a companion piece to “The Surface of All Things.” for me. I didn’t really intend for it to be on any album but I liked it quite a bit and thought the supporters of Cea Serin would like to see a different side to us.

What and where is the place “…where memories combine…”?

Being that this is the album title I want to address why I named it that. I wanted the album title to be a little different than most album titles. So what I decided to do was to make a new verse (as if from another song) for the album title. What I did was take four lines from the songs on the album and picked some that not only made sense together as a unit, but stood for something individually. So the actual name of the CD is: “embracing the absence, where memories combine, so the tongue may incite, for the days left behind.”
Each one of those lines comes from a different song but actually means something when put together. I then chose the one line “…where memories combine…” to be the titular line and represent a condensed version of all four lines. It’s a summary for what that says.
So we have that coupled with the image of the “puzzleman” on the inside jacket. I really believe that in life we are always looking for pieces to an internal puzzle. Sometimes we find pieces that almost fit and we try to force them to fit (almost going back to Scripted Suffering) but its the pursuit of those perfect pieces that combine internally to construct who you are. Like I’ve mentioned before, your ideas and what you create are a reflection on yourself. The memories are the residuals to this as you go through life completing your goals. Not only is it your mind but its the construct of your personality, the “I” your ego, your superego, your id. It’s what makes you who you are. It your Cea Serin.
How did you come on the idea with the tap dance?

I’ve always been a big fan of most performance art, or really just art in general. When I saw presentations like Riverdance, Lord of the Dance and then Feet of Flames, I was just simply amazed by the choreography and the discipline involved. Not only was the music of Bill Whelan and Ronan Hardiman cool but the rhythmic patterns and percussive sensibility complemented the score magnificently. When I went out to get the soundtracks I noticed that they had omitted the tap dancing from the CDs. I was very disappointed. It was like the music was missing their drummer or something. There was this huge gap in there that I wanted back. I had to resort in taping the entire performance on (Cea Serin guitarist) Forrest’s computer and converting that to mp3 so I could listen to it the way it was meant to me.
Well, now you can see where I’m coming from. “The End of Silence” is the song with the tap dancer in it and that particular section deals with the metaphorical death of many things. So when it came time for me to get the materials together to represent the death of art culture, history (and a section that reflects a moment of my own past to be dead) I chose a tap dancer to represent the death of art, a dusty record skipping at the end of its reel to be for culture, the tearing of paper to represent our language and history, and all culminating to me bursting a TV tube for the death of how we now get our knowledge (I don’t want to say “media”). “The End of Silence” being the systematic assassination of all we know in both the physical and non-physical realm. I got a lady to tap dance on that section from the place I used to take singing lessons.
This was definitely one of those “cross that bridge when we get there” kind of things. I wrote that whole section of music knowing that I wanted a tap dancer. There was a while there where I couldn’t get one due to time constraints and conflicting schedules. But it all worked out in the end. Keith (Cea Serin lead guitarist) was really responsible at making that whole tap dance section come to life. This was the first time that the dancer we got ever heard this kind of music and she wasn’t quite sure what to do. I had to beat on the stage with my hands to give her an idea of what I wanted. We ended up taking just a bunch of different takes of her doing things to little sections here and there and Keith took that and pieced together something that really worked.
What is the meaning of CEA SERIN and what is the origin of this name?

I really walked into a wall when I chose that name for the band. I never imagined how many times I would be asked this question over and over again. It got to a point where I started to make up meanings behind the name to keep myself from getting bored with answering the same question over and over. But I think the real meaning behind it would be very interesting to some people.
So here it is:
Every band, I think, seeks an adequate name to sum up not only their sound and style but their lyrical leanings and philosophy on life. Some names for bands fit really well, i.e. Motley Crue, Garbage, Bush, etc. But that’s really the aim for most musicians – to get a name that represents what the band is all about.
Now, I’m not the kind of person to do things the way of tradition. I don’t like opening up a dictionary and just picking some names out of a book and hoping to hit upon something cool. I don’t like the idea of just picking a cool song, book, or part of a movie for the name of my band either. I wanted something original. I wanted something that when people saw it they would want to pick up the CD and ask themselves, “what is this?” I didn’t want a name that sounded to stereotypical either. I mean, when you hear the name Laceration you immediately think, ‘just another death metal band.’ When you see the name Emerald Oracle you think, ‘hmm, just another power metal band.’ When you see the name Gaargahl you immediately think, ‘atmospheric black metal? or trollish pagan viking black metal??”
No thanks. I wanted a name that when people saw it they didn’t know what to expect. So I had to come up with a name from my own mind, devoid of language and injected with the meaning that I exactly wanted for it. I would make up my own word and phrase and I would make it mean exactly what I want it to me. I name it, I define it. Just like there are some words in french or in German that don’t have a word to correspond in English. There wasn’t a word that meant exactly what I wanted it to mean. So I had to make it up.
So the phrase or the name “Cea Serin” is a direct metaphor for what this band is all about. You can even use it for yourself as well. It’s like a crest or a coat of arms that stands for a family name. Cea Serin stands for what we are all about as far as how we write these songs, what the lyrics represent, how we run this band and act, and what we stand for as a group and as individuals.
It’s the perfect marriage between namesake, definition, and the continuation of a bands stress on originality.
You describe your sound as Mercurial Metal. What do you mean with this?

I don’t want to be lumped in there with the Progressive Metal crowd. I don’ t like us being referred to as “progressive” metal because most progressive metal bands aren’t really progressive at all. They are copying their peers and creating cycles of the same sounds that have been going on for decades now. I also don’t agree with the term “avant-garde” because that term denotes that we are bringing something different to the field and I disagree with that as well. Right now what we have done is just combine elements of sound in, at least what I feel, an original way. There are probably bands out there that have elements to what we are doing but for all the comparisons that we’ve gotten I don’t agree with the sentiment that we are like Dream Theater or Fates Warning. I disagree with that completely.
Our sound and our attitude in the music changes so frequently in the given context of a song. It doesn’t just stay in the standard prog metal formula. It shifts from death to prog to experimental. There are just elements all throughout from what I have grown up listening to. So we’re not doing anything vastly original as far as what we have brought to the table, but I do feel that our presentation is what sets us apart. That’s very limiting I believe but in the context of this question I think it suffices.
If we’re going to argue over semantics of what defines “progressive,” “black,” “death,” and “avant-garde” and where we fall in that mix I will in effect throw the term “mercurial” in there. This term frees us up in the respect of what people will come to expect of us. The term “progressive” now only denotes high pitched singers, long songs and flashy instrumentation. It has nothing to do with progression in sense of the word. “Power” metal is just a term bastardized from Pantera. When Pantera broke on the scene they referred to their style of music as “Power Metal.” This was even the title of one of their independent releases prior to their record deal. Now the term is used for bands that play uptempo drums (especially on double bass), high vocals, pop sounding choruses, etc.
My point is that there is this stereotype now associated with these genres and sub-genres that I don’t want to be a part of. I’m not writing lyrics like power metal bands write lyrics. I don’t sing like progressive metal singers would sing. I don’t arrange my songs like black metal bands would. I just don’t subscribe to any of their ideology. However, we get asked to be a part of Prog shows and we get lumped into that genre because we do have long songs, cerebral lyrics, and the occasional vocal wail.
I just really like the term “Cea Serin for the eccentric and esoteric” because it really defines who our listeners are. It really is a statement that we embrace the unexpected and that we don’t embrace the current musical conventions that have been set up by the torch bearers. The term “mercurial” literally means a constant shift in styles.
The website mp3.com was certainly a big help in your career. How do you see the problem mp3 has against which the industry fights so heavily?

I don’t think that the same problems apply to bands of our stature. We don’t have to be concerned with problems that Metallica is facing because we don’t have the millions of albums out there that fans are lapping up. The main problem I see arising for bands like us is that when we have a debut album come out it is very important for us to make a strong showing in sales. If we don’t, then why keep us signed? Let’s say we have 1000 copies out of our first CD and 400 people can easily download for free without buying the CD. So maybe 600 people end up buying their own copy. That just doesn’t look very good for us. I think that’s a very conservative number too. I think we had over 400 people at least see us one time the occasions we played. I think that there are around a thousand people that have maybe heard the name of Cea Serin. One club can fit 400 people easily into their space. Currently, the limited edition CD we have available to people is the only version we have available. There are only 1000 of those made. We’ll have some normal editions pretty soon, but you can see my point.
I even think it was Michael Kiske that was very upset over the fact that his Japanese fans didn’t buy enough of one of his albums so he lost his Japanese deal.
There are definitely pros and cons to the case. I’m pretty sure that the pros outweigh the cons too. However, I don’t like it when someone emails me saying how much they like the CD, and when I ask where they found it out of curiosity they say something like Napster. Well, if you liked it so much its only 13 US dollars, thanks but with support like that there might not be a second album. Don’t get me wrong, there will be a second Cea Serin album.
Usually when radio DJs discuss how much they love things like Napster and how the bands should stop complaining and start making money off playing live again, they don’t take into consideration of bands like us. We don’t have the money to fly around the world and make money at concerts. The best we can do right now is have success regionally in our area. Plus, bands like Hole and Metallica don’t really make a killing off album sales because they’re too busy paying back their advance, the money that they spent on the 5 videos they made, tour costs, money to pay roadies, legal fees, the money it took to record and produce the album, etc etc. Yeah, all that has to be paid back. If they make a video for 5000 dollars, that’s 5 grand they have to pay back to the label via royalties. So usually its true, a bands makes their money on the road. The 20 bucks a head to go see a band is one thing. The merchandise, however, goes almost completely to the bands. Once I sell X amount of T-shirts to pay back how much it costs to make them its all profit and pretty good profit at that. Cradle of Filth know what they’re doing in this field, take them for example.
But then again if it wasn’t for mp3.com and the exposure that we got, we wouldn’t be where we are at right now. I will occasionally get a CD burned for me by someone who thinks I might like it. If I do like it, I’ll go out and buy it. That’s just the respect that I give the bands. Most people aren’t that way. They’ll get a CD burned and listen to it till they get sick of it. So when they see it they won’t buy it. On the other hand it also saved me from buying a lot of garbage

The most “actual” news entry on your homepage is from 20th august 2000. Was there nothing interesting after that date?

I hate computers. I don’t know anything about websites or designing them. Nor do I care. The stuff that we had up on that site was just from me tinkering around and from Keith throwing his hat into the multimedia field.
We were recently luck in finding someone that really was into our music and they did a fan site at: www.cea-serin.com
So that’s the site I’m plugging right now. Other than that I have bought the rights to www.ceaserin.com but I don’t really plan on doing anything with it in the future right now. I might hire someone to make it and I might be able to keep it up with simple HTML. I just hate computers. I have a computer at my house with only the function of word processing. I have no internet connection. I just borrow a computer to email and get contacts.
So its not that there wasn’t anything going on, I just don’t feel like messing with website stuff. I hate it.

You have offered a part of your income from mp3.com to the Chuck Schuldiner Medical Fund. How have you felt when Chuck finally died because of his illness?

First I want to say that I tried to donate money to the Chuck Shuldiner Medical Fund but when I got in touch with whomever was in charge of that they told me not to send anything. They said that for some reason they could only take in amounts of 500 bucks or more or there would be some penalty or something. I might have some of the facts wrong about this since it was so long ago but ultimately they told me to not send any money and wouldn’t give me the address so I could secretly do it. The medical fund that was set up for donations was actually advertised in Metal Maniacs so I wasn’t clear why they didn’t want me sending any money to it. Not only that but we didn’t really make mounds of money during the time we were trying to do this. I think I had a check for like 115 dollars I was going to send before they turned me away. After that I didn’t get a check from mp3.com until they closed down.
What did I feel when he died? I didn’t really feel anything. I never met him and I never knew him personally. Whatever personal feelings I have towards someone I only know through media exposure would be conjecture. I just found it to be sad that a great musician who was influential to so many current musicians was suffering from a disease and had no health insurance to help him fight it. So many people think that musicians who have record deals are just famously rich. That’s not the case. We do this because we love it, and get paid very very little for it. There are only a very few bands that actually can make a living doing this. Even most the guys who are able to tour overseas have day jobs to come home to.
Fact is, people die everyday of disease and accidents, it wouldn’t be rational for me to zero in on someone I don’t know and feel bad for them. This may come across as being cold but the same can be said if someone died in my own family that I didn’t know. I have an uncle right now that if he passed I would care less. There’s pictures up of him around that I’ve seen but I don’t see him, don’t talk to him, and don’t care about him. I have three people that I would call friends and my immediate family. That’s all I have emotional room for…my writing takes up the rest.
I would like to one day start a large Medical Fund that can be used much like the Comic Book Legal Defense fund can be used when artists get in trouble. I could be used to help offset the cost of costly medical procedures for life threatening illnesses. It would be something that Chuck Billy or James Murphy could have used.

Which influence did DEATH have on your music?

The same influence that every other band I listened to had on me. Some bands are more obviously prevalent in our sound than others. I get a Shuldiner comparison in my vocals sometimes I guess. However, I don’t really think about what riff sounds like what band as I work on it. It’s true that whatever we are exposed to in some way helps make us who we are. And by listening to Death over the years I’m sure in some way it has shaped my own sound. I’m just not sure in what way that has worked with me. I have so many CDs from so many styles. I no longer idolize a particular singer and no longer want to model myself after one guy. I no longer hear a bass player who is great and want to learn everything he or she does. This is something I wish to avoid completely. I don’t want to think to myself, ‘i want this song to sound like this band,’ and I never have an aim to what one song is going to sound like. Whatever happens, happens through concentration on a topic. I don’t limit myself by thinking about my influences and do things how they would do it. It’s only how I would do it.

For a short period you had a bass player and a drummer. Why have your fired them both?

I’m sure they wouldn’t want me telling everyone about that. The reasons were both personal and professional. They have their issues but it won’t be in Cea Serin.

In your band info, it is written that it is more important for you to be heard, than to be seen. Do you not like live concerts?

I like live shows but I don’t feel the compulsion to perform for people. Most metal shows are filled with just a bunch of people waiting for you to screw up so they can judge you. But it’s also fulfilling to play for those couple of people that have been waiting to see you for a long time.
It is important for me to stress the fact that our faces aren’t the things responsible for what you hear on CD. Bands have a vain need to get their faces seen so that when they go out in public they might be noticed. They can’t wait to put on their leather jackets that they just bought so they can pose in some graveyard to look cool. I could care less what they look like. If they have long hair, makeup or masks, of if they’re with a bunch of hot girls, it all just looks ridiculous to me. I’ll thumb through some magazine and every picture of every band looks the same to me. Each genre has their own designated look that you have to have to be accepted.
Playing live has some necessary evils that come with that. For the longest time I wanted to perform behind a veil of silk that covered the stage that didn’t really hide us but just obscured us. I don’t like getting up on a stage that is elevated above the crowd and have all eyes on the band. I’m just not that needy for attention, nor do I need anyone’s validation for what we’re doing.
Not to mention that I do things out of spite a lot of the time. When people tell me that we need a drummer to record, I prove them wrong. When they say we need to have pictures for press, I’ll prove them wrong. To be totally honest, when Cea Serin first started out we actually did have promo pictures, and those pictures were only of me. This is back when I didn’t really think of the repercussions of promos and I didn’t really come upon the theories and beliefs I hold now. What can I say, I’m a little older and a little wiser. Cea Serin, back then, was more of just a solo project for me when I was in a band called Ashen Dawn. Now I hold myself, Keith, and Forrest in an equal regard. We all pull our own different weights.

Which song of yours is the most important for you and why?

The most important song right now for me is a song that will be on the second CD. I’m always perfectly happy with the outcome of all the songs that we’ve done, but this one particular song has really raised the bar for my own song writing. I’m really happy how things are coming out and how it has come together. I don’t have a name for it yet but it will probably be the first track off the second album.
But as far as the more recent stuff goes off “…where memories combine…” is concerned I would really be hard pressed to come up with just one song that does it all for me. Maybe “Meridian’s Tear” because that song is closer to what I’m doing now at present time. I like the computer voice and the overall lyrics and I especially like how the music goes into the bass solo and then out of it. I like the two separate choruses that come together as one at the end. There are so many factors I think of to determine my favorite. As far as Keith’s solos go I really like his long solo over “Sudden Faith pt. 2.” That song is one of the bonus tracks on the limited edition CD and also came off the Chiaroscuro demo.
I don’t really have one favorite song though. This kind of question is kind of like asking a parent to choose which kid they want to kill if they had to choose.

What are the five most important records in the history of music according to you?

I take it your asking me about my personal favorite CDs? I’m not sure I could actually pin down the five most important albums in the history of the world but as far as I’m concerned I can probably narrow it down for you.
1) Devil Doll – Dies Irae,
2) Yanni – In My Time,
3) Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,
4) Lord Bane – Age of Elegance
Number 5 is sort of up in the air. I waver on Dream Theater – Images and Words, Yanni – Live at the Acropolis, Cradle of Filth – Dusk…and Her Embrace.

The top 4 are set in stone though. For the longest time I didn’t think anything or anyone could unseat Yanni’s In My Time album but Devil Doll came along and changed my perception on music. I would throw the other Devil Doll albums in there as well since its pretty much some of the best stuff out there but the other musicians have been such a constant in my music rotation.
Now, in the history of the world? My decision is based on albums that everyone should own – albums that people can learn from and enjoy. Yanni – Live at the Acropolis, Devil Doll – Dies Irae, The Best of Mozart and Beethoven, Beatles – the White Album (I don’t own this but if you want to study pop song and lyric writing not better place to hone your skills than with the Beatles. I have studied their work through various literature and lasting memories), and I’ll go ahead and throw in the avant-gardistic movie “Begotten” because it is a recording after all.

Which records do you have at home in your cupboard?

Too many to mention. I literally have close to a thousand CDs that I bought individually. Well over a thousand albums that friends have burned for me and not liked though. These albums range from just about every genre of music. From country to jazz, metal to Celtic, hip hop to Goth, avant-garde to pop. I just got a shipment in from The End Records of the entire Dornenreich re-mastered catalog as well as Angizia’s 39 Jahre Für den Leierkastenmann which I like very much. I’ve recently become quite enamored with the works of Ute Lemper, especially her Punishing Kiss album where she does the Scott Walker and Nick Cave songs.
Some of my favorites right now, that I believe are worth mentioning are Zero Hour – Towers of Avarice and Metamorphosis , Lanfear – The Art Effect, Anathema’s new one, Blue Man Group – the Complex, Braindance – Redemption, Damn The Machine’s s/t, Josh Groban – Closer, Hatebreed – Perseverance, Iced Earth – The Glorious Burden, the new Killswitch Engage, the new Sarah McLachlan, both albums by Ours (I’ve been spinning this band quite a bit lately), the new Coheed and Cambria, Skillet – Collide, Sonata Arctica – Winterheart’s Guild, are just a few of the new CDs I’ve enjoyed currently.

Which historical person would you like to meet?

None. Every time I meet someone I had a bit of respect for they would quickly crush it. It’s just that when I listen to a band and I have a certain affinity towards them I imagine them being a little like me. I imagine them acting a certain way like they present themselves in their music. I remember when I met this one band that I used…I used… to like a lot, they completely shattered my perception of them. I thought they were serious artists that had respect for themselves and their fans. I thought that they had a better grip on the world around them and their role in the society that embraced them. Nope. Sorry to disappoint I guess. They were more interested in going to strip clubs, getting wasted before their shows and acting like idiots around everyone.
Everyone I meet, I’m let down.
There is actually one person that I would like to meet outside of music that I wouldn’t have to kill and that would be Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame.
The other person I want to meet I would have to murder to save him from this terrible world that doesn’t deserve his music. Since I can’t kill everyone on the planet I might have to kill him. I won’t mention his name though. In a way, and in essence, I’ve already tried to kill him. By studying his work and reading about him, by trying to uncover all the magic that surrounds his music, this whole discovery process kills the idea. By uncovering the magic it attempts to destroy the magic.

Any last words?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you. Hopefully I’ve given some insight into the world of Cea Serin and that some people out there reading this will find a certain kinship with us. I think that there are people out there searching for that band that best represents them and so far they are unsuccessful, hopefully we are that group that can bring some semblance of bliss into their life. I think I’ve said enough. Have I said too much? No, there is one last thing I want to add.

“True illusion, material error, does not exist in the heightened field of the imagination, but the illusions of knowledge exist all the more. And all the more so the feeling of new knowledge can and must extend into real life.
“The truth of life lies in the impulsiveness of matter. Man’s mind is in disorder in the midst of concepts. Do not expect man to be content; just expect him to remain calm, to believe he has found his rightful place. For only Madmen are really calm.”
~Antonin Artaud

Remain calm.
~J. Lamm

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