Shepherds of Cassini Newsletter Interview

Shepherds Of Cassini are a post-metal/progressive-rock band from Auckland. The band combine progressive rock with post rock/metal influences, along with psychedelic, atmospheric sound experimentation. Their sound consists of complex, dynamic compositions, heavy middle-eastern riffs, aggressive tribal rhythms with touches of emotive, gentle passages.

Their self titled, debut album will be released in August 2013. They answered the following questions for muzic.net.nz:

What is the one thing you want NZ to know about Shepherds of Cassini?

Everybody we have known, even if for a short moment in time, has contributed to allowing the universe make this band happen.

How would you describe the Shepherds of Cassini’s music in one sentence?

Progressive rock with a post-metal, psychedelic twist.

What has been your most memorable show to date?

We were invited to play the 3am slot at Chronophonium 2013 in Tangihua Lodge. That show was amazing.

What can we expect to see from Shepherds of Cassini over the next year?

We will be releasing an album this month (August 2013) so we expect to play more gigs this year to promote it, and we’d love to do a tour at some point in the not too distant future so hopefully we can make that happen. We’re also working on new material, so we’re also hoping there’ll be a new album at some point. It’s difficult since one of us (Felix) lives in Wellington, and we’ve all got day (and night) jobs, so it’s a pretty complex time/logistics organisation task.

Tell us about Shepherds of Cassini’s next release.

It’s our first album. It’s pretty much 90% of all the material we’ve written together since we formed in early 2012. The sound ranges from heavy, gentle, psychedelic, haunting, soothing, dark and atmospheric. It is essentially a prog rock album, and it really is an ‘album’ as opposed a collection of songs. It’s 60mins worth of music divided into 5 tracks that fade into each other. Mostly instrumental, we use vocals sparingly, and as a result they come across more like an effect that’s used here and there, rather than a central element to focus on.

We recorded it at Depot Sound in Devonport with our engineer Dave Rhodes, and it was mastered by Chris Chetland at Kog Studio in Titirangi. The artwork was done by our friend and very talented/awesome graphic designer, Chris Lewis.

What inspired you to start the Shepherds of Cassini?

Vitesh and Omar’s previous band Pilgrim’s Pyre was coming to an end, and they (Omar and Vitesh) wanted to form a new band and carry on playing music. Vitesh met Felix through mutual friends, and met Brendan through The Rock Club at Auckland university. A jam was lined up and it went from there.