City Of Caterpillar’s formative days in Richmond, Virginia in the late ’90s and ’00s were shaped by both sparse crowds and a fiercely loyal network of bands and musicians. Many of those musicians never lost touch with each other. “Even people from our earliest shows still do things for each other,” says original COC drummer Ryan Parrish (also of Iron Reagan) who rejoined the band after it was dormant for nearly two decades. “When you are surrounded by people who make you feel like you can do something, it builds confidence. Sharing energy gives everyone energy.”
City Of Caterpillar’s self-titled debut — a difficult-to-categorize record sometimes labeled post-rock or screamo — became enormously influential in the years after the band’s 2003 breakup. That posthumous interest led to a series of shows beginning in 2017 and ultimately the unlikely comeback Mystic Sisters, due September 29 from Relapse. The album retains the vitality and innovation of the first record while further exploring dynamics and loops. It may be one of the unlikeliest albums put out on Relapse this year but (to this writer) it’s one of the year’s best albums. Parrish talked to us about the band’s history and how Mystic Sisters happened.
Where did you leave things when the band split for the first time?
I was in the band from the beginning but left earlier. We did a little bit of touring, put out a demo and a live seven-inch then did the full length. Right after that was recorded I left. I was in Darkest Hour at the time and was swamped but they kept going. After that, they did a lot of touring and had some demos but then folks just sort of list the spark. It (the band) disappeared.
The shows were never heavily attended. Sometimes there would be five people. We played in basements and abandoned buildings and outside. Some of the best shows were up north in a basement. Not all of them were poorly attended – there were lots of bands out there building the scene. They did seem like they were always busy after I left so it was shocking to see it fall apart.
When you made the debut album did you think of it as just a project? Did you think it had legs?
I actually did. I didn’t want to leave but just had too much going on with Darkest Hour. I’ve always loved being in the band with the guys and they are top-notch musicians. I always knew there was something special. But back then I didn’t think about stuff like that. There was no realization we were getting popular or were making a difference. We just played anywhere that would have us.
There is something to be said about the purity of that – creating without expectations.
The band doesn’t exist for anyone – it exists for the music we make. Brandon (Evans, guitar and vocals) has always said it’s never been about us – it’s just about trying to work together on the music. Music has always been the focus.
It does seem like if you bury something in the backyard for two decades it will become a thing.
(Laughs). That was a shocking part of this – realizing after all this time that people care or started to care. It’s not that we didn’t meet those people but we didn’t meet thousands of them. The reunion shows were flattering because a lot of people seemed to care. It made it feel like we’d done something and were totally oblivious to it. It’s remarkable how much good music is overlooked.
Reunion Shows
After the reunion shows did you immediately think you still had something?
We just wanted to see if we could still play those songs. When I made that record I never got to tour on it or play those songs live. I never got to support it. It felt like closure for me to play those shows. One show turned into another pretty fast and it escalated. We were all happy to do it but we never discussed a record during that time. It was about seeing how things felt. After those shows, everyone went back to their lives. When Jeff (Kane, guitarist) moved back to Richmond we started to talk about doing a record. Brandon was still in New York then and they started playing with ideas. When Brandon moved back here it gelled. When everyone was in Richmond we could take some of these ideas and make them a reality.
Did the way you work together change?
We got right back to the way we did things. We’re all a bit more focused and can concentrate more on how songs are written. Back then we threw stuff everywhere. We still have an element of chaos but things are a bit more planned. We thought about songs more than we ever have which was an interesting new element to the process.
Was Mystic Sisters put together before or after the worst of the pandemic?
It was a little before, during, and after. We did the reunion shows in 2018. Jeff and Brandon started meeting together pre-Covid. The last song on the record was the first idea we worked on. Brandon never stopped working during Covid and was isolated because he was in New York. Brandon lived through the gruesome part of the pandemic in New York and none of us went up there during that period. Jeff and I did manage to get together a few times.
Once Brandon got here (Richmond) in November 2020 things were less crazy but it was still a weird time. We started working on it in earnest then and into 2021 although it was still on and off with kids and families. The album was pretty much finished by the end of 2021. We just had to wait for the record to come out. It’s been a hell of a process and a lot of it seemed like waiting.
Where does the title refer to?
Brandon came up with it and could explain it better than I could. It has to do with his family as he recently lost his father and stepdad.
Mystic Sisters
Mystic Sisters is not something I’d ever call a metal album. But it’s on a metal label and the marketing touches metal fans. What about this would appeal to people who are largely into metal?
All of us come from a heavy background. Jeff was in (the grindcore band) Enemy Soil. You don’t get much heavier than that. I grew up with death metal. Brandon’s screaming in Pg.99 was brutal. We all come from Born Against style punk and metal. No matter how pretty you make something there’s still a dark underbelly to our music that connects it with metal.
The people who are best at heavy music usually have a voracious appetite for music.
It’s also in the eye of the beholder. We aren’t doing blast beats but we do rhythmic things that take it way outside pop rock and indie rock. Every song has a crazy tuning and tonally it sounds mean.
Did you end up on Relapse through a personal connection?
Honestly, it was a shot in the dark. I’ve worked with them before on other bands but I didn’t think for a minute this would interest them. I just didn’t know if it qualified. At the same time, I thought it couldn’t hurt to send it to them because we are from that world and we have metal bands playing with us. It was a long shot but lo and behold some of them knew us from the early days. They’ve always done an awesome job so I was very happy with this.
Some of their bands are metal but they are outliers…I’m thinking of albums like Brutal Truth’s Need To Control.
I’d be totally happy with people calling us metal although the other members might not like it. There are connections to metal sonically so it’s not a far cry. It both does and doesn’t make sense. (laughs).
Genre is useful when you need to file albums in a record store. But with self-releasing, it matters less.
It’s anybody’s game. People will just make one song on Youtube now and they are a band.
Where do you want to take this now that you are a viable band?
We’ll tour as much as we can and have some things in the works for the rest of the year and 2023. We will get out there while the record is fresh and new. We probably won’t be this diehard play six months out of the year band. But we will be playing – we don’t want to sit around and be dormant.
Let’s say this album lands with someone who doesn’t know anything about you. How would hope it was received?
I’d hope they can set aside any judgments, listen to and understand it for what it is, and don’t try to categorize it. I have a friend who passed away who always said genre is obsolete. I hope people just listen to it – it doesn’t need to be categorized.
