I mean c'mon, is this a real band, or is it another Shakespearian collaboration? Well, if you've seen the band live, then you know by now that these guys are for real. Have you ever successfully tried to follow one of their songs? I can almost do it but there's always that one bastard riff in every song that I can't get! And obviously you're here to learn more about the band, so I'll stop rambling now and give you some meat about the Brooklyn quintet...
It is 1992, Brooklyn, New York. In a rehearsal studio, Eric Mathews, Chris Puma, Carley Coma, Kenneth Schalk and original bassist Matt Holt come together week after week to dictate the beginnings of what they understand to be music. All five of them were seriously focused on changing the face of heavy music. Inspired from all directions, Candiria was ready to hit the laboratory and experiment with a new musical formula. The center point or foundation, of course, was the consistent element of DANCEABLE MUSIC. From that, the song was to be like a beautifully written novel-an introduction leading to a well defined, in-depth and expansively informative body that brings you smoothly and excitingly through the conclusion and off to the back cover for the "about the author." It would take many years of pain staking labor and commitment to pull this off.
Candiria was growing musically, and had the impetus to move forward but faced a few hurdles... One of them being the issue of a bass player. Candiria had 2 bass players after Matt left in the spring of 1992. It was winter 1994 and the band just watched their 3rd bassist leave and decided to go on without one. They had been playing around the city for the past year and gave out about 300 or 400 copies of their Subliminal. demo to fans and bands as well as sending it off to various record companies, rock venues and management and booking agencies . The band had too much momentum to start looking for a fourth bass player. The first album, Surrealistic Madness was originally warranted to be a demo also, but the band had generated a good enough buzz at that point to interest Too Damn Hype records in releasing their music. The hard work and unique vision was beginning to get recognized.
The second album Beyond Reasonable Doubt was created with the same line-up, and on this album, the bass lines were executed by Eric, and Ken. Still no bass player. Candiria continued to play live shows, but the low end was missing and it just wasn't right..........yet.
The Candiria line-up was forced to make change when Chris Puma became impatient with the bass situation, and for some unknown personal reasons, left the band. Candiria had to let him go.
Candiria then recruited friend John Lamacchia, who was in a band called Dead Air. Since Dead Air was calling it quits, and happened to rehearse in the same studio as Candiria, they asked John to join, and he did. The bass player in Dead Air, Michael MacIvor, had already left the band to play with NYHC pioneers Merauder. MacIvor was honored to play with Merauder at first, but as time passed wanted to go in a more open-ended direction. He was always a fan of Candiria, and when they asked him to join, he couldn't refuse. The five members have now fortified, and remain a constant entity since 1998.
Candiria has four albums to date (discography), each in their own respect are different, yet all contain elements of fusion, metal, ambience, jazz, rap, and urban madness. The sound produced by these cats is one that sincerely stands alone, by itself. Defiant in nature, they break common threads that unify the common 4/4 tempo of many bands today. A major focus for Candiria is the off-beat practice of syncopation. Simply put, take some salt in one hand, and pepper in the other. Bring both your hands together and shake it around....now here's where music and salt part ways. Throw the mixture on the table. Physically, the pepper and salt will mix , forming a ---pepper and salt mix. But musically, after mixing the pepper and salt, the two will miraculously end up where they started.....salt on one side, pepper on the other! (did I confuse you?)
Candiria has played with many notable artists in the music world such as: Biohazard, Hatebreed, Clutch, Gwar, The Misfits, Ill Nino, Orange 9mm, Vision Of Disorder, E-town Concrete, Madball, Dillinger Escape Plan, Skarhead, God Forbid, Machine Head, Cannibal Corpse, Sepultura, Earth Crisis, Neurosis, Isis, Pro-Pain, also bands on Beast Feast 2001, Yokohama Arena, Japan--with Shadow's Fall, Kittie, Static-X, Morbid Angel, Soilent Green, Slayer, Pantera and others just to name a few! Candiria is just the remedy we need in this world so full of pre-packaged aggression. To be unique in a market bonded by threads of anti-this, and anti-that, and "My life sucks" type songs, is truly something to savor. It almost seems that metal along with all Rock sub-genres combined, has found a complacent bowl of fruit to eat from. The inability to evolve musically, will be the self-destruction of what modern music is today. Candiria will continue to evolve, bringing new and exciting music to its listeners and is something I'll always look forward to, now that I've found FUCKING CANDIRIA!!!
