BandWagon Magazine - March 2023 - City of the Sun

Plasma Canvas Dusk

showcasing the band’s range through top-notch songwriting doused in a refined yet brutal punk rock attitude.

The album starts off with "Hymn," a delicate ballad about losing a loved one, but the delicacy is quickly shoved aside as if it’s been thrown into a circle pit. The record ebbs and flows while consistently maintaining catchy melodies, blistering intensity, and subjects that give the listeners a wide-open window into Ash’s very soul.

If you’ve kept up with the rock scene in Northern Colorado for the past several years, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Plasma Canvas. And, if you’ve happened to be fortunate enough, you’ve had the outfit rock you to your bones live on stage in one iteration or another.

Now, with their newly-born full-length debut "Dusk" out in the wild, the energy and sheer brilliance of Plasma Canvas have been unleashed upon the world in a big way.

Plasma Canvas is the brainchild of vocalist, guitarist, and chief songwriter Adrienne Rae Ash and according to Ash herself, ‘Dusk’ is nothing short of a culmination of her “life’s work.”

Released on February 17th, "Dusk" takes listeners on a journey through grief, hope, heartache, joy, and to quote Ash, “rigorous honesty,” all while

Recorded at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins, "Dusk" was not only a long time in the making, but the band was put to the test via a series of obstacles and, according to Ash, “suffered for this art.”

The album feels like a movie, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. Listeners see the film’s metaphorical main character see a light at the end of the tunnel with "Blistered World," experience a sweaty mosh with "Need," and the story comes to a roaring climax with the title track, a building magnum opus 10 years in the making that clocks in at over eight minutes.

With this latest album, it’s more than apparent that Plasma Canvas is a band that has had something burning inside, desperate to be released, and with "Dusk," it not only has, but something feels like this is only the beginning.

Shine On CITY OF THE SUN

Aims To Bring Its Instrumental Brilliance To The World

Zach Para, Avi Snow and John Pita, collectively known as City of the Sun, recorded the Segunda Alma EP at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the concert industry brought to its proverbial knees, there was little left to do but create. So, that’s what they did. Armed with a small arsenal of instruments and recording equipment, the New York City-based trio holed up in a Bushwick basement toiling away until they had eight solid songs they felt were album worthy. But they also emerged from that period with more knowledge about the recording process than they initially had.

“We didn’t have the ability to play live shows but were determined to learn how to record and produce ourselves more thoroughly while exploring a new style we had been listening to, which was a kind of organic house,” Para tells Bandwagon. “We recorded in my basement with subpar gear. We are no seasoned engineers, but we just experimented until we found a sound that worked and stuck with it. We didn’t overthink it but kept an open mind to where the music was transporting us.

“We referenced some Caribbean and South America rhythms and melodies. While stuck in a basement in Bushwick, we always had this vision of exploring more tropical lands.

Ultimately landing on an amalgamation of gyspy, jazz, rock, flamenco and indie rock, City of the Sun soon began to master its non-traditional world music flare. In 2013, they were invited to perform at a TED conference and their career began to take shape. After releasing their debut EP, Live At The Factory, in 2014, City of the Sun began selling out iconic NYC venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, Mercury Lounge and the Gramercy Theatre. By all intents and purposes, they were well on their way to accomplishing their goals.

As Pita explains, “Our goal was to play all over the world and have our music listened to by people on all continents.” Para adds, “We’ve always wanted to spread our music to as many people as possible, in all corners of the world. Whether it’s one of our YouTube videos or a live show, I’ve always wanted to have a global effect with our music.”

But they know there’s more to do. Pita continues, “We have [accomplished them] in many ways, but the goal post has definitely moved and we plan to keep reaching for it. While at the beginning of our journey in the group, playing all over the world was the a big dream. Now, our intention is to make new music that will reach more masses than ever before in the history of City of the Sun. This will inevitably bring us to new places and in front of even more people.”

Para agrees, saying, “We’ve definitely

Para, too, was influenced by his family. He explains, “I grew up with a full license to make music with whatever I could find. Whether it was working out a drum beat on the kitchen table before dinner or playing along to music on my dad’s congas, me banging around was always celebrated. At first we started mostly busking in the streets and I had to adapt all of my drumming knowledge to the cajon, which was a brand new instrument for me at the time. I was thrown into the music and immediately taken back to when I would make beats on my dad’s cabinets. Cajon and cabinets are basically the same thing [laughs]. That level of encouragement to be expressive, experimental and inventive has shaped how I have approached the band overall.”

And that approach has been working. In 2016, City of the Sun released their inaugural full-length album, to the sun and all the cities in between, with Chesky Records. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard jazz charts, giving them license to tour Europe. There’s a sense they won’t rest until everyone’s heard their music. After all, Pita defines success simply as “shows all over the world and recording songs that reach the masses,” while Para concludes, “Success is happiness, sustainability and empowerment sharing your art with the world.” City of the Sun is certainly off to an auspicious start.

SKIP THE STREAMING AND SEE REAL ENTERTAINMENT in Greeley.

Music lovers will find plenty of chances to tap their toes in Greeley, from Friday Fests to the Union Colony Civic Center lineup. Greeley has a mix of vibrant sounds. And local venues like the Moxi Theater have a full calendar of acts to get out and see. No matter your musical sensibilities, Greeley has every reason for you to keep tuning in throughout the summer and beyond.

DANU|MARCH 16 @ 7 P.M. Union Colony Civic Center

YESTERDAY & TODAY: THE INTERACTIVE BEATLES EXPERIENCE APRIL 21 | Union Colony Civic Center

SCAN THE CODE FOR GREELEY'S EVENTS.

You Can't Bullshit Metal Fans Soulfly's Max Cavalera

Yes, you will hear “Jumpdafuckup” when Soulfly plays at the Moxi Theater in downtown Greeley, but that’s the only resemblance between the 2000 band that recorded the hit metal album Primitive and the current one on tour 20 years later.

Bandleader Max Cavalera finds himself going back to his roots more and more as the years tick away.

“Little by little, my own tastes came through for Soulfly,” Calverra said in

an interview for BandWagon. “As I get older, you’d think I’d get more mellow. I should be listening to Pink Floyd or something. But I like the heavier and heavier stuff. When you get older, you play what you like. You play what you feel.”

Cavalera’s roots are about as heavy as a two-ton truck. He fronted Sepultura, one of the more brutal and influential thrash bands of the 80’s and 90’s (think Slayer, not Metallica) with his brother,

Igor, before straying into industrial metal and some hardcore punk. He continued that sound by starting Soulfly during the so-called nu metal era (though Cavalera prefers to think of it as groove metal with tribal influences). The band took off using that sound later championed by bands such as Limp Bizkit, but Cavalera quickly grew discontented.

“It was exciting, but that style went commercial and pop, and that wasn’t for me,” Cavalera said. “I’m an old-school

metalhead. I’m still pushing the boundaries. That’s always been interesting to me, the different things you can do in metal, but I have no interest in popularity, and that’s a testament of where I stand today in metal. I’ve achieved all my dreams. I’ve met my idols and played big shows, so now I don’t have visions of grandeur. I’d really rather make a record for the right fan. That’s the hardcore Max fan.”

Lately that’s meant hardcore thrash and death metal, just like his time in Sepultura. He’s proud and thankful for getting the chance to play all styles of metal as well as the music from Soulfly’s early successes. He doesn’t shy away from it now, although he may have at one point. For many years he didn’t play “Jumpdafuckup” live.

He plans to release Soulfly’s 12th record before this summer, and he will play two new songs off the record at the live show. He calls the forthcoming record “a really cool free spirit” because of the way the songs don’t follow basic rules. A couple, he said, don’t have a chorus, and the producer demanded they record all the songs live.

“You don’t rely on Pro Tools,” he said. “You just play your ass off. That’s how records were done in the '80s. I wanted that element.”

He plans to revisit those '80s by touring with his brother Igor after Soulfly’s tour wraps up. He and Igor will likely play Sepultura’s classic material such as “Arise” and “Beneath The Remains.” He also will continue at some point to play with Cavalera Conspiracy, another band he started with Igor, and Killer Be Killed. For him, it’s all metal, and when he writes songs for all those bands, they all have one goal.

“Riffs are my church,” he said. “That’s my paradise. I will spend hours riffing on the guitar and just chugging on the guitar. I call it Chug Life. When you finally find a killer riff, man, it’s like you’ve won the lottery.

“You can’t bullshit metal fans. They see right through you if you aren’t approaching it with passion. You have to come from the heart, from a pure place. I still write with that intention. I never let the young Max in me spoil. I never lost that fire.”

“It’s fun and it feels right, and it’s cool to hear those songs,” Cavalera said. “The fans, they kinda want to hear it. It doesn’t matter that it came from that era. The song itself stands on its own.”