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Cage The Elephant are set to play Union Chapel |
Stampede! It’s Cage against the machine
PREVIEW: CAGE THE ELEPHANT
Union Chapel
CAGE the Elephant come across as a little crazy. Siblings Matt and Brad Shultz grew up listening to Christian music in a hippy commune in Kentucky, discovered Hendrix when their parents split up, and formed a band.
They will support Glasvegas on Saturday at the Mencap Little Noise Sessions – 10 days of acoustic shows with a line-up including Seasick Steve, Biffy Clyro, Kasabian, Adele, James Morrison, Florence and the Machine, Damien Rice and Keane.
Frontman Matt says he is not looking for understanding: “I live a lot up in my head so I don’t live a lot in the outside world.
“I’ve always grown up around music, Christian music. We weren’t allowed to listen to anything other than that. When I was 16 my parents got divorced so we went out and bought records. My first record was Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock. I started coming of age, thinking about different things, doing a lot of heavy hallucinogen stuff.”
Do they think they are rebelling against their strict Christian roots? “I wouldn’t say we’ve gone against it,” says Matt. “We just live our life. Maybe I was running from it, I don’t know. But it’s not like I’ve been intentionally like ‘screw the church’. My ideas have changed.”
So how does he come up with his songs? “There’s not one particular thing that makes me want to write. Things have happened, or times when I’ve put out a bunch of pictures that are emotionally provoking and written to that. Sometimes a song inspires me, or I want to write a story that’s totally fictional. I like writing about groups of people. My best song is the song I haven’t written yet.”
The boys had been living in Leytonstone but recently moved back to the US. Living in Leytonstone, Matt says, “was cool, weird, multicultural. We made some friends but it was boring for the most part. We had a lot of nights in.”
England, he says, has opened up new experiences: “I love milk in tea now. I’ve become a Colchester United fan. I pulled it out of a hat. That’s my team and I’ll support them forever.”
And they’ve toured with some big bands: “The Foals was cool because they were a young band that hadn’t really exploded,” says Matt. “It was inspirational to see a band rise up. One night we trashed a dressing room with them. Queens of the Stone Age was really cool. We’ve been listening to them since we were younger.”
But his promises for this tour may not be strictly true: “I’m planning to commit suicide on stage at some point. Burn myself alive in protest at peanut butter sandwiches. Suicide roulette.”
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