Artist Information

Instrumentation

Andy Action - Bass

Kelcey Ayer - Guitar/Vocals

Matthew Frazier - Drums

Ryan Hahn - Vocals

Taylor Rice - Guitar/Vocals

Biography

CAVIL AT REST

Ryan Hahn and Taylor Rice, guitar/vocalists from Southern California, have only ever been in one band. They met in high school and started a group, something many restless teen boys do. Very few of such projects ever make it out of the garage, but four years, a few recordings, and a fair amount of lineup changes later, Hahn and Rice find themselves in the same band, honing the same project with different tools, sharing the same bloodline with different brothers: Kelcey Ayer (guitar/vocals), Andy Action (bass), and Matthew Frazier (drums). Only now when they play, people are listening. They are called Cavil at Rest.

"We have something special," says Hahn with conviction, nodding to the others. "We feel like brothers. This is where I need to be and where they need to be."

Cavil at Rest, a five-piece based out of South Orange County where the scope of art and culture typically extends to chain restaurants and dolphin paintings, is a bit of an independent rock anomaly. For starters, their sound is hard to peg.

"I mean, I did the hardcore thing, I've done the funk thing [specifically] in other bands," says Action. "This is different—we have so many different styles but you can always tell that it's Cavil."

With unexpected song structures, cross-genre instrumental arrangements, and nods to the past five decades—Cavil might channel the raw rock energy of a band like MC5 as naturally as the cool harmonics of Beach Boys or the eclectic freestyling of now-defunct At the Drive In—the sound of Cavil at Rest is one of mix-and-match influences and an overflowing bank of musical knowledge.

"We're all such fans of just music in general and what it is capable of doing," says Hahn. "As far as influences go, it's the Zombies, CSNY, Radiohead, Motown, jazz, you name it." Later, he adds, "I've always had respect for people who can write a great pop song. It's not something easily done."

Unlike many of their peers, the band doesn't expend words spouting angry anthems or mindless limericks. If anything their verses tend towards proud and provocative—but the guys balk at the idea of being preachy.

"We want the listener to do with the song what they will," says Hahn. "They can take it at face value and leave it at that. Or they can go deeper—the lyrics definitely hold up under scrutiny, and usually have another meaning if you take the time look at it another way. It's not meant to be cryptic—it's just supposed to get you to be introspective, to make you stop and think."

"We don't want [the music] to just be a sugar rush," adds Action. "We want people to say, 'I don't feel guilty for liking this. I think it's intelligent.'"

Another oddity the band is happy to share. "We tend to be really prolific, we're just constantly writing," says Hahn. "All of our songs are available online. We've just wanted people to download them for free; listen to them, give them to your friends, pass it on."

Perhaps it is their warm and fuzzy approach to musical outreach that has gained them such a loyal following in just a handful of years. Having not yet even entertained the idea of signing to a record label, the band has manned their own statewide tours, graced the stages of notable stages like the Whisky A Go-Go and the Knitting Factory, and shared bills with modern heroes like Jimmy Eat World and She Wants Revenge.

And at the show it isn't the audiences joined together crowd slamming and fist pumping so much as toe tapping and singing. "We're simply plotting world domination by way of catchy melodies and foot stomping," insists Hahn with a grin. "We play our songs and invite people to join us. Come join us. We have a lot of fun."

Perhaps most unique of all is that Cavil at Rest is ready to evolve, perhaps into a band that tours the world and sells millions of records and lives the dream—but they don't want it to come easy. "We want to earn it," declares Action. "We want to be working it. We need to prove our longevity."

How many SoCal bands can even spell longevity?

Hahn sighs. "Everyone thinks we're from Europe."

Discography

Cavil at Rest - EP

Apples to Oranges - EP

Highjacked at Sea - EP

Orion Way (2007)

Links

http://www.cavilatrest.com

2007 Summer Tour - Entry 3

posted August 9th at 12:59am

Well, we made it back safely and soundly with our heads on straight. In fact we've been back for nearly a week now and I realized that we've yet to update you on how the second half of our tour went! Sooooo much happened that I'll split it up into separate entries. So last time I posted we were on our way to Minnesota. We left Denver late afternoon and were planning to get to Omaha I think and sleep there. However, by 3 in the morning we called it quits somewhere else in Nebraska and pulled off at some random exit. In typical Matt fashion, he quickly became frustrated and fed up with trying to sleep inside the boiler room that is our van, he opted to set up his sleeping back outside on the grass. That soon switched to him sleeping on top of the van. He did alright for most of the night but got scared when all sorts of lights started coming on later in the morning and pounded on the windows to be let back in. I don't think any of us got much sleep that go round. We drove most of that day so that we could get to the Minneapolis/St.Paul area to stay at a friend's house. We drove past Prince's recording studio on the way, which isn't purple or phallic in any way surprisingly. So, my friend Steph's parents let us crash at their house which is this beautiful palace of a place on Lake Zumbra (for you locals). All the pictures you see of us wake boarding/tubing are from that stay. Matt once again demonstrated how he is great at just about every action sport there is by shredding sicky gnar on the wake board. We battled on two tubes trying to knock each other off until we were all too sore to move. The next day we had our show in St. Paul. We pulled up to the venue, which Budweiser seemed to sponsor every night, judging by the big banners out front. Also, it wasn't hard to tell that mostly metal/numetal bands played there - they even had a huge drum riser! Before the show started we and Dynamite Walls started a poker tournament with this gambling set that Andy bought for 5 bucks at a flea market in Wyoming. I think me and Alex DWalls were the first to lose out. To our surprise, the sound there was fantastic! We had a lot of fun moving around the big stage. We didn't play to many people that night (one very drunk old man kept shouting that he need WD40 but that he liked our music). Yet we made some great new friends that evening. David we're very glad we met you man! The next show was in Wisconsin. I was amazed at how vast the corn fields were on that drive out there. It was a relatively short drive compared to the hours we'd been putting in. It was pretty exciting going over the river to get into La Crosse. All the buildings looked pretty old (most said like 1885) so it had this cool vibe. The venue was on the third story so you had to carry your equipment up these steep flights of stairs. It was a pretty quiet town so while we set up Taylor took to the streets and started getting kids to come up and watch us right then and there. Thanks to his efforts and the friendly staff, we had a fun time. By this point both us and Dynamite Walls had really started to memorize each others' sets and could sing along which makes it a lot of fun. Afterwards, all of us went to Hooters because it was one of the few places still serving dinner. Kelcey tried to eat a bunch of Salteen crackers in a minute or something and couldn't do it. I thought he'd be able to do it because I always give him my leftovers. We had a rediculous night in La Crosse jumping from bar to bar and meeting all sorts of characters including one girl who dragged us all into this one bar where a band was playing "The Weight". Andy lost his wallet and ended up getting Alan's ID taken away when he tried to use it to get into another place where the bouncer's didn't like the way we looked. We started driving to Illinois that night, but not before Kelcey drove around the block shouting "Get 'er done!" at the top of his lungs to all the people milling about outside the bars. We grabbed some powdered donuts and a big jug of water and hit the road. Within a couple hours we pulled over and slept in the van amongst some tall trees. Once again it was so hot that we slept very little. However, as we pulled up to the city of Chicago we all felt a new burst of energy and excitement. Ummmm, to be continued....