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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nCage the Elephant picked an odd title for their third album, Melophobia<\/i>. The name refers to a fear of music, which seems like an unfortunate condition for a group of musicians. In the case of the Kentucky quintet, though, they\u2019re only averse to certain types of music\u2014specifically, the kind that doesn\u2019t feel honest. \u201cWe were trying to fight that voice of fear that tells you not to do a certain thing because it\u2019s not cool, or won\u2019t be perceived in the right light,\u201d singer Matthew Shultz says. He sat down to discuss how that goal affected\u00a0the new album.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What prompted the album title?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s not so much a general fear of music. When we\u2019re making a record, the struggle is the fight against fear-based writing, to be pulled away from your convictions and write to project images rather than to be a good communicator. In the human struggle, there\u2019s an overwhelming urge to project images that are deemed socially acceptable. You try not to be poetic, look artistic or intellectual, or to write a song just to be a pop song. Or, on the other end, writing a song for the sake of obscurity. We really just want to be good communicators and write in naked honesty. That\u2019s our melophobia.<\/p>\n
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Did you share a common vision?<\/b><\/p>\n
We started on opposite sides of the spectrum about where we wanted to see this record go. But it worked out for the best because it gave the record more diversity, more depth. I\u2019m really glad it turned out that way, because you can be your own worst enemy. You can get stuck in your particular vision and have blinders on, and not see beyond that. You abandon so much because you\u2019re trying to hold fast to where you want to take a creative work. It\u2019s nice to have other people in the band to reopen your eyes. It\u2019s always a learning experience. One of the strong points of our band is that every member is a writer, so we have a good check-and-balance system. Each person is on a different level at different times, and we balance each other out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What did that mean for Melophobia<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve always held true to the motto that many literature writers hold to, which is to read way more than you write. So in a musical sense, we listened to as much diverse music as we could, and then interpreted it our way. We were trying to find a hole that we didn\u2019t necessarily hear being filled at that time. On this record, I stopped listening to recordings altogether. It was like trying to draw a childhood best friend purely from memory. It was incredible the way my mind would create sonics that never existed based purely on emotional attachments to the music.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Did you feel a sense of vulnerability?<\/b><\/p>\n
Any time you give a piece of yourself, you feel vulnerable. I tried to think about writing this record as if I had a parent who was lying on their deathbed. I\u2019d think about the types of things I would want to say and write from that mind frame. If it\u2019s really easy to say, then it\u2019s probably not worth saying. Though that depends on where you are in your life. Sometimes difficult things can be\u00a0very easy to say.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Did that mindset lead to themes?<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if there was any particular theme other than the human experience\u2014trying to capture the rise and fall, the peaks and valleys, and all the things between.<\/p>\n
\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Cage the Elephant Overcoming fear leads to inspiration for the indie rockers\u2019 latest Cage the Elephant picked an odd title for their third album, Melophobia. The name refers to a fear of music, which seems like an unfortunate condition for a group of musicians. In the case of the Kentucky quintet, though, they\u2019re only averse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1536,7299,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11343,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341\/revisions\/11343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}