Interview: Cardiff alternative rock band Crimson City release first EP

Amelia Jones

Welsh experimental rock band Crimson City have released their debut EP – a fiercely DIY, five-track statement born from collaboration, frustration and an unshakable urge to make something meaningful in a ‘collapsing world.’

We Regret To Inform You The Vibe Continues To Deteriorate, was written through months of intense rehearsal, disagreement, and creative excavation, the EP rejects polish and commercial expectation.

Instead, it favours live energy, textured songwriting and thematic depth. Exposing ideas of identity, isolation, emotional entropy, and the strange freedom of existing at the perceived end of things, the record captures a band determined to follow curiosity rather than convention.

Crimson City spoke to Nation.Cymru about throwing songs away, recording on a shoestring, the importance of grassroots venues, and why making art is worth the psychic pain.

Tell us more about the EP — what was the writing process like?

We don’t care about being commercial or wearing matching blazers or whatever. We want to make art and we want it to be interesting. This causes us great amounts of psychic pain.

We’re picky. We get together and play a lot, and everyone is very opinionated. About a dozen songs got thrown away while we worked towards the five that ended up on the EP, though nothing stays in the bin forever. Lyrics, riffs, melodies all float back over time.

Where was it recorded, and were there any memorable moments in the studio?

With the EP we knew it needed to be: DIY, live, and not cost us vast quantities of money.

Our first two singles were recorded with an engineer in Bristol and cost about £700. This probably seems like a lot of money to a non-musician, but it’s just what it costs. So the EP would have probably ended up costing us a couple of grand if we’d gone down the same route. Between us we’ve got all sorts of microphones and cables and just through: why not? Let’s see how good we can make it if we do everything ourselves.

We booked a room at Music Box Studios which cost like £65 for the day. Setting up all the mics and recording equipment took hours, and we had to fight against all sorts of technical issues. We ended up having to go to Argos to get the one specific cable none of us had to make an interface work.

The most memorable moment was hitting play on the first take and hearing it had actually all worked. That and finally putting away that last cable at the end of the day. It was exhausting, but we did it. Our very good friend Theo was on hand to film various bits during the day, which eventually became the music video we released for Cruel Dreaming.

What inspired the themes or lyrics on this record?

We’re reacting to the world around us. Do you think the Romans knew it was all going down the toilet? Maybe we’re lucky enough to be the ones at the end of it all. Rather than see this as a depressing idea, we think it’s quite fun. Freeing even.

You always have a choice of what you do, so why not enjoy yourself and make some art while you can.

Who were your biggest collaborators, and how did they influence the sound?

Our friends and family, the promoters who took a punt on us, each other. And it’s not just other people, it’s physical spaces. Bands needed places to practice and play in, and venues that bring communities together. We are deeply indebted to Cathays Community Centre for creating somewhere we can rehearse that’s decent and doesn’t charge ridiculous rates.

Proper grassroots music venues are incredibly precious to us, but they all seem to be getting bludgeoned to death over the past few years. That’s more genuinely distressing that the wider collapse of civilization to us. We played The Moon, it closed (then reopened, then closed again). We played the North Star, it closed. Maybe we’re cursed?

There seems to be a wave of beige homogenisation flowing over everything. Cardiff Music City has been set up to help venues in Cardiff, but they don’t seem to be helping venues on the ground? Especially when you hear about their massive and expensive opening night galas. Surely money is better spent helping those who need it rather than throwing fancy parties.

What’s next for you in terms of touring — any special plans?

We’re taking the gigs as they come. We’ll be at Fuel Rock Club opening for Gaye Bikers On Acid on Friday 23rd January in Cardiff. In between shows we’re hammering out the shape of the next EP.

Are there any songs on the album that hold a particularly personal meaning?

We definitely aren’t making any money out of it, so everything we do is instilled with personal purpose. We aren’t writing popular music about meeting someone down the disco.  We want our songs to be musically, lyrically, and thematically interesting. Again, this causes us great amounts of psychic pain.

The EP explores themes like being forsaken in the vastness of physical and metaphorical space, creating fake versions of yourself over and over because you don’t actually know who you are, and staying zen while everything around you slowly becomes slime.

While that’s a cute summation, we don’t want to dissect every individual thing too much. The aim is to create something people can connect with, and leave them room to make up their own minds.

Looking forward, where do you see your music taking you in the next year?

More of everything. We’re working on our next opus, and will be recording our next EP early this year. We’re always trying to get a little better at everything we do, every time we try to do it. More gigs, more videos, more music.

Hopefully civilisation stays around a little longer, because we’ve got plenty left to do yet.

Listen to their newly released EP here.