CEA SERIN: "It is that joy of creating something for yourself mixed with the appreciation of what nature has to offer."

Our next stop takes us to Louisiana, where we meet with the mastermind behind Progmetal band CEA SERIN, Jay Lamm. They'll release their third album, "The World Outside", on September 12th via Generation Prog Records, a 70min opus consisting of 6 tracks, also featuring some illustrious guest musicians. 

Welcome to join us for a chat and learn more about Cea Serin's musical background, the name's origin, and the beautiful cover artwork:   

Band-Links: WEBSITE / BANDCAMP / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM 

Hey Jay, thanks for making time to answer my questions. How are you today?

Doing well today, thank you.  I’ve been in my studio for the past few days working on guitar tracking for a new album.  Not for Cea Serin, but for a new band–or project–I’m putting together.

Nice! You’re set to release your marvelous, new album in September, the first in 11 years. How do you feel about it, and how was the reception so far?

I have to tell you, it’s a huge relief mixed with a bout of joy and pride to finally get this album out there. Relief because I’ve been living with these songs for many years now, and there was a point where it just seemed like it would never get finished. I’m the kind of person where when I have a goal set for myself, I have to see it through to the end. So, it was weighing on me fairly heavily to get things wrapped up so people could finally have it.

I know this is the best stuff I’ve ever written, and the culmination of years of working out kinks and nuances within my song-writing process. So, I’m very happy with how it  turned out and can’t wait for people to finally get a chance to hear it and have it part of their collection.

The reviews have been slowly rolling in and, so far, things have been quite positive. It’s always great to hear people enjoy what they hear, and it’s phenomenal to think that it will become part of their lives for years to come.

Let’s take a look at the beautiful cover artwork: What can you tell us about its origins?

Thank you. I did the album artwork and photography myself for this album. There was a span of time of about 5 years I was waiting around for our former guitarist to record his rhythm tracks and lead guitars. In that time, I decided to take up photography and really threw myself into it. Every day I did tutorials, practiced, shot pictures, edited, and really learned a lot about photography and the art behind editing and manipulating photos.

The idea behind the album title as well as the album cover actually came from two places. On one side, I was listening to a radio program where the host was talking about how there’s all this talk about doom and gloom about the world, but he looks out his window and sees that everything appears fine. Sure, you can’t get a proper read on the state of the world by looking out of one window. But the point is that I believe we should rely less on what people on the television tell us about the state of the world, and trust our own eyes. With that being said, I had watched a movie one night called “Ratcatcher” where this kid is told about a new housing development in the next town over. He takes a bus ride to see these new houses in development and starts to wander through one. There’s no construction workers around, no neighbors to interrupt, just a kid walking through this house still in the early stages of being built. He sees unpainted walls, toilets left uninstalled, bathtubs waiting to be put in place, etc. Then, he comes across this open window that looks out upon this vast field of tall grass. He sits on the window frame for a second to relax and take it all in, and then jumps through the window to run and tumble through this field of undisturbed grass.

I was thinking about the point of that scene and what it was meant to represent. You have this child existing in this unfinished house, still in development, a relative blank slate of what it could one day shelter. The kid himself had come from this impoverished area filled with crime and struggles. So, he’s wandering through this house and looks upon all this potential, it’s the progress of what man can make. Then he sees through this window and looks out upon a beautiful field of grass untouched by the hand of man.

It is that joy of creating something for yourself mixed with the appreciation of what nature has to offer. And it’s also a subtle reminder that no matter what your circumstances are, you can improve upon them by the decisions you make. Through that line, it’s also about how suffering and struggle shouldn’t be considered the norm, but an exception. To the listener, they should always take stock of their surroundings and realize that the world outside isn’t as bad as some would have you believe.

That's truely an inspiring story! Speaking about themes, could you dive a bit into the album’s topics with us, please?

A large chunk of it revolves around the scope of individuality. “Where None Shall Follow” is centered around the struggle to break free from the well-worn path to carve your own way despite what others may say to dissuade you. “The Rose on the Ruin” however is about a person, or people we come across, that seems to have all the potential in the world but we see them throw it all away in the pursuit of short-term gains and notoriety. “Until the Dark Responds” deals with the pursuit of goals, ideals and purpose; while dealing mostly with the individual it also takes a look at mankind in general and our relentless scope to achieve more and explore more despite overwhelming odds or the roadblocks that seems to always get in the way.

“All the Light That Shines” is a reminder that as we move through the darkness we can act as a beacon to others. That song is connected up against “When the Wretched and the Brave Align”, which mainly deals with never surrendering your choices to others and never allowing your expertise, skills, and energy to be compromised by those who wish to use you for their own covert benefits. And lastly, “Wisdom of the Aging Fathers: Three Regards to Reason” is about how we go through life meeting up with several parental figures, or mentors. We are meant to gain wisdom from those who came before and ultimately will attain some sort of peace of mind by surpassing our mentors, not out of defiance but out of respect in how we have carved our own path thanks to their guidance.

Musically speaking, “The World Outside” offers a lot for a prog-loving heart, like wonderful instrumental parts in a great variety building up a dense atmosphere. What is your musical background, and where do you draw your inspiration from?

I started playing piano and taking lessons on that at the age of 12. When I hit 14 I got into Megadeth and was able to hear the bass guitar in the mix for the first time. When that became unlocked to me – being able to tell where the bass guitar sat in the mix – I started to understand the role of the bass guitar and how it was misunderstood. I liked that. So, I started playing bass and taking bass guitar lessons around that same time. Eventually, I began taking lessons on drums and voice as well. Guitar actually came last for me and when I took that on, I took several years just working on right-hand picking technique.

Although I was initially inspired by Megadeth, I was really getting into the guitar hero subset of albums coming out around that early 90s era. I was getting heavily into Joe Satriani and all the Shrapnel Records stuff. I was getting into bass players like Randy Coven and Stu Hamm as well, all about bands like Cacophony but also getting into things like Fates Warning.

I tried to keep an open mind with things, and since I liked piano so much I eventually heard Yanni and became super-influenced by his stuff. But it was mostly his live albums, “Live at the Acropolis” and “Tribute” that influenced me the most. I liked the mix of styles as well as the incorporation of so many international musicians who added their own spin and flavor with their solos into Yanni’s music. But it was years later I began to get into the heavier stuff like Carcass and At The Gates. It was the Swedish Melodic Death Metal that did something for me. I just like that fast tempo and those types of riffs.

Inspiration can really come from anywhere. I’m always on the lookout for new music regardless of genre. I just recently discovered the work of jazz musician, Matthew Halsall, and I’ve been listening to and discovering a lot of his work. I’ve been trying to think of ways to incorporate that modern jazz sound with grindcore currently.

That would be a wild mix indeed :-) "The World Outside" takes us on a 70min journey, but consists of “only” 6 songs. With each of them clocking in over ten minutes, this is already very proggy just looking at the numbers. Was this intentional, or just happened? And could you briefly describe your writing and recording process, please?

It actually just happened that way. I’ve certainly written shorter songs before and I’ve been working on shorter songs now. But, for the songs on “The World Outside,” they just happened to all be that length.

When I write a song I always start from the beginning and work on it to the end. I don’t do what a lot of metal musicians do and write just a ton of riffs and then cram all those riffs together and call it a song. I start at the top and work my way across. Sure, I might have some riffs that I know I want to incorporate later on into a song, but the challenge is to figure out how to get to that riff and make it make sense.

Many of the songs start off with an extended intro. This is because a lot of the times I’ll sit down at the piano and improvise something. Just, whatever mood I’m in. Songs like “Where None Shall Follow” and “All the Light That Shines” started off that way and the intro you hear on the album is what I played for the first time. By that, I mean, I’ll fool around with an idea, then I’ll hit record and perform something and just keep that moment in time as it is.

As far as the recording process goes… 
For “The World Outside” I wrote the entire thing using my Kurzweil K2500S as a MIDI sequencer and drum machine. I eventually got Cubase and was able to export my drum program into that as well as my keyboard tracks. So, I record drums and keyboards first. Then, I record a simple scratch guitar and bass track for my reference and send the stems of the audio for each track over to Rory (the drummer, who lives in Nashville, TN) along with a tempo track which also contains the time signature changes. Rory learns the songs and records his drums at his studio, then sends his drum audio back to me and I simply replace my drum program with his real drums.

At that point I dialed in a rhythm guitar tone and recorded the actual rhythm guitar tracks. Once I was happy with the guitars, I dialed in a bass tone and recorded all the bass tracks. 

I usually wait to do all the lead guitars before tracking vocals, but seeing as how I was waiting around for the guitarist-at-the-time to do that, I went ahead and recorded all the lead and harmony vocals. Then, after getting sick of waiting for leads to get recorded by our former guitarist, I decided I was going to contact a bunch of my favorite guitarists from around the world to see if they would be up for recording some solos for me.

So, I ended up doing the same thing as with Rory. I would send these guitarists my audio tracks for the songs along with a tempo and time signature track. They recorded their solos on their end and sent them back to me where I imported them into my project.

A lot of remote recording.

Was amazed to hear some illustrious guests here. Let’s make a little time trip: How did things start for Cea Serin?

Cea Serin began while I was in another proto-prog metal band called Ashen Dawn. This is the band where Keith Warman (guitarist for first two Cea Serin albums) and I had met and started working together. In fact, you can still find some of that stuff on YouTube.

Anyway, Keith got a Roland D-20 keyboard from a friend so he could add it to our studio space we had all made together. He showed me how to use it since it had a MIDI sequencer and drum machine. This is what I used to start writing the early Cea Serin material.

Eventually, Ashen Dawn fizzled out but Cea Serin was getting a lot of good attention here and there. This was back in 1997 when we released our first demo tape. So, for a long time it was just Keith and myself working on songs and making demo tapes.

How did you come up with your band’s name, and is there a deeper meaning / story behind it?

I came up with the band name because right when the band was starting up was when the internet was becoming fairly widespread for people to use. At least, it was in the early days of widespread internet usage. I’m talking about, there was a computer lab at my college but I had yet to acquire a computer for myself. But at that time, I was quite aware of search engines and how they worked.

So, when it came time to think of a band name, I wanted to come up with something that would be fairly unique. A name where, if you typed it into a search engine, only results coming back would be about the band and not shared with something else. I didn’t want to name the band some random heavy-sounding word that would also bring back search engine results for unrelated items.

I wanted a name that sounded good to say but would also require the fans to know how to say it correctly. Like, if someone said the band name wrong…those in-the-know would have to correct them.

I liked band names like Xysma and Lyzanxia. I thought they sounded very unique. But then I started thinking about what a name really means and what a name really represents. Basically, I wanted to invent a name and have it mean exactly what I wanted it to mean.

I thought about how certain actors had names that preceded them. Like, when you mention Jack Nicholson, you immediately think of him in his most iconic roles. Not necessarily him as a person, but him playing the role of Jack from “The Shining.”
‘Cea Serin’ represents the sound, the material, and the lyrical essence we put into the world. The core of what something is and what it stands for—that is its cea serin.

Awesome! Let’s talk about Cea Serin live: Do you have plans to bring “The World Outside” on stage?

We’ve played live and had several incarnations of live bands over the years. We’ve played as a two-piece as well as with a full band of five members. I played bass and sang lead at the same time, and I’ve had bass players in and out of the band. 

For “The World Outside” though? I’m not entirely sure that’s in the cards right now. I live in Louisiana and Rory lives in Tennessee. The guest musicians we had on the record live all around the world. I’d have to put together a full band from scratch again, and I’m not sure if there’s a huge desire to see that, if I’m being honest. Cea Serin is a very niche band, but it was always a dream of mine to debut the album’s first song at some festival like Prog Power USA.

Totally get that. USA are well known for being the home of countless great rock & metal bands. How would you describe your local music scene, and did you notice changes over the past years?

I’m not even sure if there is a local music scene in my area at this point. Certainly not a rock and metal scene. The only live bands I see playing out and about are Country, Zydeco, and Blues. The venues that used to host rock and metal have all closed down, too. It’s a sad scene where I’m at right now. It’s even rare for us to get national / international touring acts to come through.

The last live show I went to was actually Cirque Du Soleil’s “Corteo”.

I’m not sure if it’s a statement on the state of rock music right now or a statement on the changing tastes of the American consumer. I not only notice the closing of music venues in my area but many other local-type of businesses. It seems that when I drive through my area, the only businesses I see that are open are storage units, pawn shops, gas stations, used car lots, and fast food. I think most people just do their shopping online, watch new movies via streaming, and discover new music online as well.

Maybe it’s just a big change in the culture because I hear a lot of people are reading less, too. As in, this is the first generation of kids growing up that haven’t read a single book all the way through.

Actually, I think New Orleans is still active with music venues, but I haven’t been out that way in a long time.

As an experienced musician: Where do you see the biggest chances and challenges in today’s music business?

You might know about this more than I do. Because I haven’t been keeping up with the changes at all. I’ve been doing the same thing year after year. Every Friday I check the new releases on a few websites, look up the bands I find interesting, and buy a CD or digital download from what I think sounds cool.

The big change I’ve been seeing is the shift in releasing full albums to releasing a video and a single, then a video and a single, then a video and a single.

I see that with the advent of being able to record at home has brought upon a slew of bands that can easily get lost in the sea of new releases.

So, that’s one of the biggest challenges right now. Keeping up with the changes in the industry while trying to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

With that, I tried releasing a series of video accompaniments to the music videos we release on a bi-weekly schedule. I’m not sure if it’s going to pay off but for every music video I release, I follow that up a week later with a “visual diary” which is a look into the creation of the song and some behind the scenes details (can be found here).

What can you tell us about your future plans?

After the release cycle of the “The World Outside” calms down I want to begin the process of releasing my next album under a different band name. I’m actually in my home studio now recording guitars, keyboards, and bass for about 8 to 9 songs of very fast, aggressive, but weirdly melodic stuff. I kinda call it “grinding prog” but maybe it’s more in league with Thrash these days. I don’t know but it’s very different than Cea Serin, but I like it quite a lot. I want to release that next year if I can afford it. I’ll have to get some guest musicians again this time around.

However, after all that, there are a few projects I’ve been really want to work on outside of music. I’ve published a couple of short stories back in-the-day and have several ideas to get back into writing full time.

Call me intrigued. Before we wrap things up, do you have any further thoughts you’d like to share here?

I would just like to thank you and so many others for giving me the opportunity to speak about the album and what we’ve been up to as a band. It’s always a pleasure to hear people enjoying the work you create and I hope you, as well as others, enjoy the albums of Cea Serin for years to come.

Band-Links: WEBSITE / BANDCAMP / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

The pleasure was all mine. Thank you very much for your time, and these detailed insights into your work. All the best for the release and what is yet to come.