Cathedrals & Cars

Enjoy the EP, upon which this song is placed, as much as I have. I don’t think you can get it online, but you can stream it on soundcloud. Maybe give them a bell, encourage them to sell it on the net!

This song, Feathers, it reminds me of lifeful, lit-up windows, what they look like from outside, on the cold covered pavements. Good stuff, the weird thing is they’re from Bury St. Edmunds (in England) which is relatively near east Essex, where I live. This song, that might play, makes me think across the sea that washes into the estuaries and think about ‘the other side’, some North Viking land or something. With the trees. Those trees of the North, what did they do? They stood like giants with sad stories of great age and stern swaying days, bearing needles throughout the cold, not changing. One day from the cold sea, in cold air, in some month of summer maybe, there was towards the dark green mass on the hill side, a movement. Off in the distance, the distress of this small seabird looked little on backdrop of the thin heaving needle giants.


Yet, still, the movement was there. The seabird rose and fell, thawed slightly with watchful eyes, the seabird found home somewhere near one certain stern tree and, for the night, attempted a stop to his writhing in the cold air. Over the year, the bird was heartened by the noise of his surroundings; the bird found company in other birds who would also sing in the mornings. His spirits, his little feathers and his voice were severely tested by winter. In the far off distance, lights might have been seen, lights of some bustling northern settlement.

I appreciate this band for creating a beautiful music that knocks forward some really sweet sounding instruments (including solemn lyrics) whilst leaving open space to think, as a listener I feel like I can move around like some sort of seabird of the North. Really great.

George - A Pocket Full Of Seeds

I’ve harboured an effervescent love of acoustic and folk music since my early teens, however as I progressed through the inevitable years of emotional angst (which only I understood, obviously), and with the rise of several false hearted singer-songwriters, this love was regrettably sidelined. This said, when I come across a band that can stir those emotions of yesteryear with a sultry acoustic guitar, or humbly bare percussion, I am instantly absorbed. Cathedrals & Cars are thankfully, and fantastically, one of those bands.

After first meeting while on the same Music Technology course, Cathedrals & Cars operates as a trio based in Bury St. Edmunds. Having already appeared on BBC Suffolk Introducing, with whom the band recorded a session, Cathedrals & Cars recently released their debut EP entitled ‘Sky Lanterns’. While the release of the EP garnered the band a strong local following, it seems to have otherwise fallen under the radar of most blogs and online publications. However this is no slight on the band, rather it only highlights how early this trio is into their career and, as a result, the immense talent they have demonstrated in such a short period of time.

‘Leaving No Reminders’ stands as a beautiful yet melancholic tale of withdrawal, with Jack Stevens’ vocals tinged with a slight dose of The Smiths, and his lyrics embossed with a sense of Bombay Bicycle Club. However these comparisons are merely influences in a sound that has been consolidated into a blend of acoustic folk that is encapsulates a genuine sense of integrity, which can oscillate between intimate and heartbreaking, to a rejuvenating passion. Wise beyond their years, Cathedrals & Cars have reignited my effervescent love for acoustic music, and I for one cannot wait to hear more. - Generator

The Masons Arms in Bury St Edmunds is a difficult venue to play. As a band you have no physical platform. There is nothing to hide behind; you are completely exposed and laid bare. There are no lighting effects to hide you and the audience are practically sitting in your laps. There is booming conversation from the other bar; there are people serving drinks a stone’s throw away; there are people getting up and bustling about. As a performer you’re competing for attention with a LOT of background stuff.

Or at least, that’s how it should be; but tonight that wasn’t the case with Cathedrals and Cars. Tonight, once they started playing, everything…. just… stopped. People stopped their chat, mobile phones were put away, the barstaff all lined up to watch. There is one word to describe tonight’s performance, and it’s “mesmerising”. It’s like one of those moments in your life when your head is so busy and then everyone just shuts the hell up, and makes you look around. That’s what C&C do: They make you forget yourself.

Cathedrals and Cars are a three piece consisting of Jack Stevens (vocals/guitar/percussion), Will Prentice (guitar/vocals) and Jack Hubbard (piano/percussion). Stevens is a talented vocalist, one of the most honest, genuine talents out there. One thing I can’t stand in music is forced emotion where the singer has no connection with what they’re saying. Stevens’ delivery is magical. It’s contemporary, yet retro and one hundred per cent heartfelt. And guess what – it sounds like him! No affectations, no silly put-on accents, just him. I’ve never heard someone say the ‘F’ Word as Stevens does during Gold Teeth and make it sound so beautiful; he doesn’t use it for effect, it’s all for feeling.

But, let’s not forget, there are three people in this band. Stevens’ charisma is nothing without his wingmen. It would appear there are no egos in C&C which, they tell me, gives them a democratic song-writing process. Will Prentice is a perfect counterpart for Stevens, providing the best volume to Stevens’ pressure. And, for those of you who know your science, this is something akin to Boyle’s Law (yep, this band unwittingly tipped into physics).

Completing the triangle is Jack Hubbard on keys. And the triangle makes a very strong structure, as we all learnt that when we had to make bridges out of white straws at school (again with the physics, Erica - didn’t realise I’d learnt so much). The keys add just the right amount of dark to the light and just give that bit of extra power. It’s actually nice to hear the piano played as a percussive backing instrument for once, rather than how it’s usually played these days: By a limp-wristed woman on a John Lewis ad. (Maybe in your house, Erica – TV Philistine Ed.)

If I have one criticism – and it is a small one – it is that at times, Cathedrals and Cars seem to lack a little confidence. It could have been the venue, but at a couple of points they actually seemed slightly scared. That said, this does suggest a certain insecurity which, if honed, could all be part of the charm.

What you can really see with this band, though, is that they are in tune. No, not musically, you eejits, that’s a given (You say that, but have you ever heard Ian Brown singing live? – Nitpicking Baggy Ed), but in tune with each other. They are sensitive, honest and engaging. They don’t feel the need to put up fronts or put on, as my mother used to say, airs and graces. When they play, you feel like they want to pull you into their World. Go on, fall in: What do have to lose?*



Cathedrals and Cars’ EP Sky Lanterns and new single Feathers are available now.

Words: Erica Dupuy - B-Side Magazine