Interview with The Cavs: ‘Some of our best ideas have come from half an idea from someone’

Manchester-based indie rock band The Cavs are gearing up to release their next single ‘Music To My Madness’.

They comprise: Elliot Craven (lead vocals), James McCauley (rhythm guitar), Michael Carney (bass), Chris Terry (lead guitar) and Arthur Townson (drums). I ask them how they know each other: ‘We love this question, it’s no fairytale,’ Terry deadpans. ‘There are all these random connections between us. For example, I met James on a night out and was desperately asking people to be in the band (laughs). Mikey worked at restaurants with me. We got Arthur through a mutual friend of ours and Elliot knew James.’ Elliott jumps in: We’re cobbled together. It came from the rock gods – and Chris being pissed enough to have the confidence to ask people to join the band!’

Their name is a reference to both the Vauxhall Cavalier car and to the word ‘cavalier’: ‘Coming up with a band name is the worst chore,’ Craven said. ‘Chris was reading the book ‘How Not To Run A Club’ by Peter Hook and he said to run it like a cavalier.‘ Terry nods: ‘Yeah, I read that and thought “We’ll have that”. We were called The Cavaliers to begin with but there was another band called The Kavaliers, so we shortened it.’ Craven nods: ‘It’s punchier now.’

Their last single ‘Man In The Suit’ takes a gentle dig at whoever you want the man in the suit to be, whether it’s a politician, a banker or just someone you work with: ‘I wrote the lyrics, I’d pieced it together for years,’ Terry said. ‘I’d had the riff before I moved from Burnley to Manchester but it had no drums to it. It was one of the longest in the pipeline but it’s our most energetic song.’ I say that I like that they’ve kept the ‘man in the suit’ deliberately vague so that he could be anyone and they nod: ‘That’s it,’ Terry said. ‘My man in the suit might be different to your man in a suit. It can be whoever you want.’ Craven agrees: ‘You could have made it preachy – about Boris Johnson or someone else,’ he said, looking at Terry. ‘I like that it’s intentionally vague.’

‘My Les Paul, it’s a 1959 reissue, it’s the best thing I’ll ever own’

The track kicks off with a distorted wailing on the guitar that sounds like a call to arms and I ask Terry what pedal he’s using to get the crunchy, warm overdrive sound. ‘It’s a Boss Blues Driver with a Vox AC30 amp,’ he said. ‘Our producer helped us find the magic. I’m playing my Les Paul, it’s a 1959 reissue, it’s the best thing I’ll ever own.’ I tell them that a friend recently bought me an amazing guitar book ‘1001 Guitars You Need To Play Before You Die’ by Terry Burrows and that I’m going to look up his guitar after our chat. ‘Ooooh, I’d read that,’ Craven said enthusiastically. Terry laughs: ‘If it’s not in there, you’ve got 1002 guitars to play before you die,’ he quipped.

‘Man In The Suit’ is in B minor, with a B power chord leading it, with a run down of B, A, G and F#, all power chords for Terry for the verse in between him playing the riff: ‘The “When the walls fall down and we stare through the dust” part is G, A and B then building back up on F#, G and A back into the riff,’ he said. ‘The middle 8 before that big riff build up is D, E, A and B, finishing with the F#, G and A bit straight into the instrumental build up.’

As the chorus goes: ‘When the walls fall down and we stare through the dust and you see from where we’re standing that there’s them and there’s us but I know with everything that we do, we’ll be living and be breathing for the Man in The Suit.’

Their artwork for the single depicts a man in an elegant suit sitting in an old brick building with a paper bag over his head, thereby heightening the sense that he could be anyone. ‘Debbie Ellis took that photo,’ Craven said. ‘She was friends with Oasis in the Supersonic documentary about them. We found an abandoned mill full of pigeon excrement (laughs). The lad in the photo is Kaiden, the singer in Scuttlers (a local rock band). We got him to put a good suit on and put a bag on his head, haha!’ Terry interjects: ‘He’s the most elegant man in a suit. We asked him ‘cos we knew he’d have some great outfits to choose from. He was really into it, he wasn’t afraid to get down on the floor with the pigeon poo! It was important that whoever we picked couldn’t be recognised, to tie into the song.’

Incredibly, Townson came up with the drum part that pulls the whole song along on the spot: ‘I came through an audition and Chris asked me if I could make up a drum part to the song and it just came out,’ he said.

‘A couple are experimental, it’s different to what we’re used to doing’

Next up is their single ‘Music To My Madness’ for which a release date has yet to be set: ‘We’re sat on some good stuff,’ Craven said. ‘It’s punchy on the rhythm, a couple are experimental, it’s different to what we’re used to doing. We’ve thrown a synth onto that.’ Terry nods: ‘We’ve started experimenting with recording technique as well. So it might sound like a guitar but with a different angle,’ he said. ‘We might break a guitar part into three sections that all sound very different. Arthur is very electronic when he’s not on the drums (laughs), he put a synth part on it and I knew it was going to be a great song. I love Kasabian and this is the closest one we have to them.’

Songwriting takes many forms in the band, with Craven and Terry both co-writing and coming up with tracks independently: ‘Every song is formulated differently,’ Craven said. ‘It’s hard to get in the right head space for writing, it has to be good.’ A lot of their best ideas come together serendipitously, according to Terry: ‘Some of our best ideas have come from half an idea from someone,’ he said. Craven agrees: ‘One of our newer songs – it’s not released yet – it’s rocky bluesy, it’s my fave. I had the riff and then I played it in the band room. It came together really fast, I wrote the lyrics in two seconds and it hasn’t changed since.’ Townson adds: ‘Everyone contributes to the songwriting. James and I, on a Friday night, we’ll drink and eat pizza and jam together.’

Another single, ‘Round The Town I Was Born’ (2020), has a slight Wild West feel to it and I ask if it’s about Manchester. ‘I love how people interpret our songs,’ Terry said. ‘I wrote this one. It’s about Burnley but it could be any town. Burnley is one of the best places in the world – well, you might not think that if you don’t live near Burnley (laughs). You have all these connotations, people in a town, reasons why you don’t always think it’s a great place. Collectively, all the things in the song are things and people I’ve seen growing up and I pieced them all together. There’s a line in it “A little bit of whisky and quite a lot coke”. It’s not what you’re thinking! I remember a man asking for the drink at the bar but he was taking too long to get it.’ Craven laughs: ‘Were you walking around with that manky notebook?’ He tells me: ‘He’s always got a manky notebook with him!’ Terry is laughing: ‘I’ve got one but it’s just for show, there’s nothing in it,’ he tells me.

For Craven, ‘Round The Town I Was Born’ ‘feels like the most personal song of ours’: ‘It feels like Chris is telling a very specific story,’ he said. As the track goes: ‘I’m wide awake until I know that the world is asleep. My head’s spinning ‘cos I know that you’ll try to keep me dreaming even though you know that they all die fast. And while I’m lost in the future, you’re hooked on the past.’

‘I would have loved to ask to play with him but couldn’t even say “hello”!’

One of Craven’s biggest musical influences is Manchester band Elbow and we chat for a while about how brilliant their frontman Guy Garvey is: ‘I love ‘Six Words’ off the newest album (Flying dream 1, 2021) and ‘Fugitive Motel’ (2003),’ Craven said. ‘I met him once,’ he said excitedly. ‘We were all out in town, I was in Night and Day (a music venue in Manchester) and James rang me and said did I know that Guy Garvey was in Night and Day and I said he couldn’t be there ‘cos I was there and there’s no way he would be where I was. But then I saw him! I’ve never been starstruck before but my knees were knocking. I went up to him and asked if I could have a photo and he said he was happy to do a photo but could I just wait until he’d finished his conversation?! So I stood there, waiting, sweating and coughing (laughs). I would have loved to ask to play with him but couldn’t even say “hello”!’

Townson cites different musical influences: ‘I love Hippo Campus (an American indie rock band from Minnesota) and Gorillaz, they’re my favourite band, although I really like The Strokes. I’m more into guitar rock since joining the band.’ Craven jumps in: ‘Mikey listens to youth music, he listens to *insert current music*, haha! James just listens to whatever’s on the radio. I was at Glastonbury once with a lad who listens to Grimes he took me to see Kano (a London rapper). He had a brass band playing with him, it was amazing. Sometimes what you like can surprise you, can’t it?’

Formed in late 2019, The Cavs made their debut at Verve Bar, Leeds. A succession of hometown gigs followed at venues including Brickworks, Old Pint Pot and AATMA. They pride themselves on their ability to electrify a crowd with hard riffs and energetic performances whilst also being able to dictate the pace and slow it down with emotionally driven songs.

Their dream line up would be brilliantly eclectic: ‘Us top, can’t say no to Elbow,’ Craven said. ‘And for my dead one, David Bowie. When I think of music growing up, I have David Bowie from my dad and Take That from my mum (laughs). You could call the night ElBowie!’ Terry has other ideas: ‘Kasabian have to be in my line up. I’ve been watching a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan videos recently, I’d like him as well. In this one video, he snaps a string when he’s playing a solo – think it’s in ‘Look At Little Sister’. He styles it out (laughs) and they swap the guitar out mid-song, it’s so seamless, it’s amazing! (They send me the clip afterwards and it’s brilliant.) He’s the reason I want more Strats than you could ever need.’ Townson is mulling who to pick: ‘It’d probably be Fleetwood Mac and Gorillaz,’ he said. ‘I love everything about Fleetwood Mac, they’re chilled.’ Craven nods: ‘It’s the harmonies,’ he said. Terry jumps in: ‘Is Stevie Nicks available for a support slot in the autumn?,’ he quips.

Unsurprisingly, they’ve had some hilarious moments as a band: ‘When we played our first gig outside Manchester – in Leeds – it went really well and we got really pissed,’ Craven laughed. ‘It was just elation, wasn’t it? Afterwards, we had to move all our stuff into our Airbnb round the corner, so we’re steaming in the van with our gear. I took a guitar case to the face. It was a happy moment!’