City of Ships
Interview with Eric Jernigan
Words: Tony Cheslock
Photos: Michael Spadoni

Appearing:
July 12, 2007
The 8bit, Miami

July 13, 2007
Crowbar, Ybor City

July 14, 2007
BackBooth, Orlando

The groove of hardcore music has been a sleeping giant as of late, mostly portrayed by lackluster acts, kicking dead horses off in the margins of music culture. Every now and again, some party of young minds come together to create a fresh sound from an otherwise dreary landscape.  City of Ships from Pensacola (soon to be Richmond, Virginia) blissfully churn forth a heavy laden brew of groovy hardcore that will totally fuck up your circadian rhythms.

REAX:  Where did the name 'City of Ships' come from?
EricJernigan:  Eric Soelzer (drums) was enrolled in a college poetry course and studied some of Walt Whitman's work around the time we formed the band. The poem “City of Ships” got him stoked, so he brought it to our attention and we all dug into it and really liked the powerful imagery and the tone Whitman sets. We never entertained the notion of using it as a band name until it came to me in a dream, or perhaps it was more of a hallucination. Either way, I envisioned the three of us traveling through time to the nineteenth century to find Whitman sitting on the banks of the East River, plagued by writer's block and searching for inspiration. Really the whole story isn't quite as Bill & Ted as it sounds, as our journey involved no telephone booths and we were only fortunate enough to visit one historical figure. Anyway, as the vision continued, we played our album for him through a phonograph and he got so amped he penned the classic work right then and there. After that it was like, "How can we go with anything else?"

REAX:  Many people in the Florida music scene are just starting to discover City of Ships. How long has the band been around?
EJ:  I guess we solidified the line-up during the fall of 2005. Soelzer and I had been working on some songs, but the whole thing seemed kind of hopeless because we were at a loss for additional members. My brother was one of the best and most creative players in the area, but because of his young age at the time we were leery of getting him involved. In the end we made the right decision, because things really didn't come together until we drafted Andrew into the band.

REAX:  COS just got off an east coast tour. How did that go?
EJ:  The prevailing themes of the trip were camaraderie and good times. We played a lot of new places and even got caught in a few snowstorms, which of course was a nice change for three dudes who only see frost when we open the freezer to cook a pizza. All in all it was a blast and we can't wait to do it again.

REAX:  I heard about COS's sonic onslaught before I ever heard you play.  When I saw you open for Riddle of Steel, my jaw dropped at the powerful tones resounding from the stage. Is the amplitude of your sound a conscious decision, or is that just the way things come together?
EJ:  Thanks for your description. I'm glad to know we're having that kind of effect. It's no secret among serious players that loud tube amps typically produce the best tones, and that truth becomes more apparent when they're cranked. When we first got going we agreed that if we expected people to take us seriously it was key for us to bring the A-game as far as our equipment was concerned. We set to work saving money and accruing a bit of credit card debt in order to make that happen. We're in the clear now and have our sights set on getting more and better gear in the near future.

REAX:  What are some major influences that come to mind, regarding the band's sound? I hear a lot of Cave In coming through, personally.
EJ:  I read somewhere that a band naming its influences is tantamount to admitting who they rip off. We get the Cave In comparison every now and then, among a hundred other bands who are heavy and use delay, but I think more than any single band we kind of tend to draw from entire movements in music. There are certain genres the three of us tend to get off on more than others, and it's probably pretty easy to pinpoint those while listening to our music, but we've always prided ourselves on being able to throw as many curve balls as we can in order to avoid being pigeonholed. That said, we're huge fans of all things stoner, psychedelic, metal, and emotional.

REAX:  Are there any ultimate visions for the band, or are you guys just going to take things as they come?
EJ:  That kind of goes both ways, really. The nature of what we do kind of forces us to take things as they come, but we're all on the same page in that we want this band to be the driving force behind our lives and will continue to make every effort to see that through.

REAX:  What's the next thing on the horizon for City of Ships?
EJ:  By the time this goes to press we'll have relocated the band to Richmond, so that's the first and most exciting prospect on our to-do list.  Summer will see us taking off on a month long east coast/midwest jaunt, and we're planning a full US tour for early fall. In the meantime we're going to finish writing the songs for our full-length that we hope to record this winter. We just wanna play as much as we can, man.

REAX:  Does the band ever do any corporate-style, team building exercises, such as dressing up in sumo outfits and doing battle?
EJ:  The closest we've come to any sort of team building exercise that I can think of was a particular morning on tour when I woke up and couldn't find Andrew or Soelzer anywhere. Upon opening our trailer door, I found them cuddling on top of our 8x10 cabinets. I'm still not really sure of the back-story there, but it's probably best left a mystery.

http://www.cityofships.com/