Danny Cavanagh – Anathema

Anathema has become known throughout Europe and the Far East, as a heavy metal band. Yet since the release of their new album titled, “A Fine Day to Exit”, that no longer will be the case.

Danny Cavanagh, guitarist/ songwriter and spokesperson for the British group, has had quite a bit of explaining to do lately.

During interviews with the media, one key question kept coming back to haunt him.

Why has Anathema changed their sound so dramatically? The new Anathema music bears virtually no resemblance to the heavy metal music that Anathema has become known for as their signature sound.

“We can’t make the same record twice anymore”,Cavanagh says during a recent interview. “We just can’t. After all, bands change.”
Yet the dramatic change Anathema’s music has undergone, Cavanagh says in the following interview, is only part of the new, “Grand Plan”, for the group. And within the music tracks on, “A Fine Day to Exit”, Cavanagh says Anathema possibly has a real future as an internationally recognized rock act.

“It’s good when people get it, Cavanagh says,” then they understand it.”

(Q)- The new album, “A Fine Day To Exit”, is a dramatic change for the band. That is highly unusual for a band such as ANATHEMA, which is known as a heavy metal band.
(DC)- That’s not so unusual. I mean that wasn’t an unusual set of circumstances for The Beatles or Pink Floyd. I mean The Beatles are a classic example of a band that developed in a great way.

(Q)- If rock music is still an art form, which to many people around the world it still is, then change is a part of the process of creating art. Did your record company or anyone outside of the band have a say in bringing about the change in the music that ANATHEMA has recorded for “A Fine Day To Exit”?

(DC)- That’s not for other people to do. It’s for the band and the (recording) producer to do. You know what I mean? It’s nobody else’s business until the tracks and all recorded and finished. I mean the record company always matters, but at the end of the day they’ve always left us alone do create our own music. So we’re OK as far as that goes. I couldn’t stand it any other way. If somebody tried to interfere in our songwriting and recording process, then I wouldn’t put up with that. Then we wouldn’t be the band that we want to be in the end, whenever the record is released. Any band that is really, really good, never needed the record company to tell them what to do with their music.

(Q)- Do you want to explain that last statement a bit further?
(DC)- Nobody told Nirvana, Pink Floyd or Radiohead what to do. It’s just like that. The great band are left alone, because that’s when they do best.

(Q)- When did you discover that beauty can be expressed through dark sounds within music?
(DC)- It started even before I was playing music. I remember listening to the “Moonlight Sonata”, by Beethoven, which is a great piano piece. It’s very, very dark. It’s very beautiful and I must have been about only eight years old when I first heard that. So that was kind of the first real piece of music that grabbed me totally. So that would be a first time I heard that. As you start to play, you start to write a song or two and you get that feeling in your stomach that you’re creating something that’s OK.

(Q)- Hopefully it is beyond just being, ‘OK’. Your life’s purpose is maybe found at times, within the mix of the music.
(DC)- Well, it is a genuine honest album. (“A Fine Day To Exit”) In a way, what the songs are talking about is more important then the songs themselves. The songs are making comment on things that are every important and real and in fact, they’re more important then the band. What it is called is, ‘reality music’. It’s mind music, it’s a state of mind stuff feelings towards difficulties, communications, it’s just basically honest songs.

(Q)- How has such a dramatic change come about for the music and ANATHEMA?

(DC)- Personally speaking, I’d have to say that I’ve matured and a lot of that comes from me girlfriend. Her name is Sonia and personally for me, since I’ve been with her, I’ve felt like I’m starting to grow up. For everybody else in the band, it’s certainly been quite different. While there is still a real immature, funny side to the band, there is a part of us that wants to be well and OK now and that is different from where we were several years ago.

(Q)- There is a growing movement within the world of rock music of people who want to put the headphones on and really get into the mix of the music, that the recording artists and record producer has placed within the music.
(DC)- It goes right back to the classical artists doesn’t it? I mean look at “OK Computer” by Radiohead. That’s a big, big album and it’s really kind of a “headphones album”. It’s like Pink Floyd and “Dark Side Of The Moon”. For me personally, I’ve really analyzed the (recording) mixes those albums and I’m used to the stuff by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters and The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper”. And, there’s always been a movement within rock music where you get into the music a bit like you just develop yourself into the music for a little while. I think it works well in a live situation it’s enough.

(Q)- How does that translate into your live show?
(DC)- I mean did you ever notice that, bands like The Beatles, Radiohead and Pink Floyd, where great live bands as well. Black Sabbath is just the same. Oasis is coming from a similar, English background, they’re about being a great live band.

(Q)- You have to find what is called “the sweet spot”, within the mix of the music you’re presenting live to your audience.
(DC)- Yeah. When we’re writing the songs, we view the songs as the listeners. Because if it comes down to a new song that we’ve been working on and we don’t like it, then somebody else is not going to like it.

(Q)- How do you write your songs?

(DC)- Usually at home at night after my girlfriend has gone to sleep. In the evening and the nighttime I write the songs, usually on the keyboards and the guitar. And the songs almost always start as individual compositions and then I bring the songs to the band and then they listen to it and decide what should be done with the songs. The songs are written from an individual perspective and then turned into a group thing. The challenge for us now is to build a great team around us with our organization, a team that can do their jobs well, promoting this band. It’s going to be a lot of work. But, it is something that we can achieve and we have two albums as a goal to perfect it. This album is the first of those two.

(Q)- While you are working on the craft of songwriting and improving while you working at your songwriting efforts?
(DC)- Some songwriters are, in a kind of new, original way, keeping a kind of twist on the old proven way. There’s the old, proven way for writing the basic classics. It is a craft, it is a skill and you never perfect it. You just keep trying. Sometimes you get moments when everything clicks into place in the (recording) studio and you all as a band, really get such a buzz off of it. That, even if it never happens again or it just happens once in your while career, then that’s cool. Because you got somewhere, it’s part of you. You get this feeling of, ‘Eureka! I’ve found it!’. We’re basically talking about human being and a human condition and communication. I mean, genuine music is a good thing to do, it’s a noble quest. It’s something that more people should do. It is about the eternal human spirit in a way. You show your spirit and your mind on an album of music and it’s possibly your essence. People like John Lennon, when he wrote that song, “Imagine”, that was the perfect statement for him. That’s what people go for. We’re not trying to write a song like “Imagine’, but we can go for the same situation when in songwriting, you kind of crystallize your feelings about life.

(Q)- Those are the moments when, pursuing the craft of songwriting and utilizing your skills as an artist become completely worth while.
(DC)- Absolutely. Isn’t life about that?

(Q)- Did you feel that way when your new album was completed?
(DC)- Yeah man we did. We kind of did. I think we’re just getting better at it. I’m really looking towards the next album, I’m hoping that one is going to be better.

(Q)- Do you have any songs for your next album completed or worked out?
(DC)- There’s loads and loads of songs kicking around. There’s about twenty odd songs. But the songs aren’t finished yet. But there is a loads of songs and tunes and ideas, there really is man. Now the challenge for us is the challenge of teamwork and communications. Then there’s the challenge of sonic magnificence.

(Q)- Do you have feedback from your fans which helps you whenever you’re creating songs and laying out the song structures for new material?

(DC)- When you’re writing and creating the songs, you don’t really think about the fans reactions to it. It’s more like our reactions to it. Afterwards when the album is all dusted and polished off and done and you get some reactions from the fans, then I do like to listen to their reactions. And, I’ve got some really positive reactions from this new album. I’m hearing people tell me they, “get it’ and that’s important.

(Q)- How well can your fans get to know you from your music, especially your song lyrics?
(DC)- If you want to get the personal stuff, it’s in the lyrics. In interviews, with magazines and newspapers, you get to hear the answers to some questions and stuff, but within the lyrics, you have to guess your way through.

(Q)- You do not seem concerned with your public image as a recording artist to become one of a rock star. So many others in Britain do. Why?
(DC)- I like to keep everything as far as that’s concerned, right where it is. When you’re at festivals and concerts, you’re going to get noticed. But, in England around the streets no. I mean we want to be successful, yet we measure success in the soul. And although we want to do OK and add some money to our pockets, I want to stay anonymous. I do. I do not want to be famous at all. It’s not my personality. You can find the truth about me in the music.

(Q)- What is the live show going to be like now that the music has dramatically changed for ANATHEMA?
(DC)- The ideal situation wold be to tour with a big band that we support and we play well every night with a good sound. And a decent light show. That’s what we want to do. We’ve done ten years of the European metal scene so what I want to do now is to take America on a different angle. ANATHEMA is much wider a band then any of the metal bands that are within that scene.

(Q)- Your new record could prove that.
(DC)- We need to be pushed outside of the metal scene. It needs to be done and I’m worried that that might not be the case.

(Q)- Why do you want to earn the spotlight by performing live in front of large audiences?

(DC)- I think our songs are genuine. It’s a genuine struggling band we’ve got a hold of here and we’re still hungry. It’s not necessarily the spotlight that I want. It’s more like a spiritual thing really. I don’t want to be the center of attention onstage with some projector focused just on me. I want to draw the people’s attention to the band’s music. It all ties into the idea of not wanting to be famous, just wanting to be a success.

(Q)- Do you have a crystal ball?
(DC)- No mate I don’t. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen next. I know what’s going to happen hopefully. I can make all of these plans and tell you what I want but what I get, might be something else.