Before Caveman released their newest record, Otero War which is a shinier, more hook-heavy version of their normal dream-rock selves they spent the better part of a year workshopping some of the songs on the stage, trying to piece together the best possible versions.
The song Never Going Back was a whole different song we had three different versions, basically, said frontman Matthew Iwanusa. When I first wrote it, it was like the opening of the song very low-key the whole time. Then we turned it more upbeat. Then, when we got to the studio, we decided to do a little bit of both.
And that was the goal for this album: to work as hard as possible to hit the next level of craftsmanship. Which means how much you like this melodic and clean cluster of songs depends how you feel about the chaotic, yet vibrant nature of their first record, CoCo Beware.
CoCo Beware was more of a feeling for everything, where this new record is a lot more song-based, Iwanusa said. Were trying to write complete songs. Its not better in any way to me. But, its been nice writing songs that are more complete.
Next, the goal will be to, in a relative sense, bring together both sides of the equation balancing the old with the new. And theres already more than a little of something new in the works.
For this one, I only took a week off and Ive already written almost a whole other record, Iwanusa said. I think because we did [Otero War] and its a lot of poppy songs that I want to go the other way on a few things, but still, in others, went the same direction.
Caveman performs at Zanzabar on Friday, Sept. 9. $10-$12.
This article appears in September 7, 2016.
