Exploring the Sound: Cerebellion

Cerebellion is a four-member metal band that includes a diverse mixture of music. Band members include lead singer Joe Arnold and his brother John, Marc Buttung on bass and drummer Jimmy Schultz. The Orange County natives formed Cerebellion with the goal of creating a unique musical experience for listeners that’s anything but common. In two years, Cerebellion has toured, won awards and produced their first album, Inalienable. Patch had the chance to chat with Joe Arnold and learn about the band’s musical goals. Check out what he has to say, below.

Gilroy Patch: How would you describe your style of music? Is there a dominant theme?

Joe Arnold: We write about what we’re into, and it’s pretty broad so it’s easier not to label ourselves as one specific sub-genre of metal. As for a dominant theme, we write about things going on in the world and the social climate. We tend to take an introspective approach to things.

Patch: So, as to not limit yourself to one sub-genre, you typically classify your music as metal?

Arnold: We say metal because that’s the sound that’s obvious and consistent in most of our songs and we love metal. But, we’re also just huge fans of music and really enjoy keeping our musical minds open.

Patch: I read that the tracks Undeniable and Inalienable have a Latin sound. Why did you decide to throw some Latin flavor into the mix?

Arnold: We weren’t the first to merge those worlds. For us, John and I have loved Flamenco and Latin jazz for many years, and we’ve always been of the mind of throwing in music we love into the pot and stirring it up. We’re that band that just thinks, ‘Why not? Let’s try it.’ We all like a lot of different styles besides metal and we’re too free-spirited musically to have the ‘sense’ to not try something. John and I also have Latin roots on our mother’s side, but it wasn’t about that as much as it was about just really loving Flamenco music.

Patch: You said that Cerebellion’s unique approach to writing music is something of an anomaly these days. Care to explain?

Arnold: I just rarely hear anyone in the heavy music realm that approaches writing so broadly, with the arsenal of different sounds and styles we bring into the song-writing process. It’s not to say that other bands don’t appreciate and/or play different styles. I just rarely hear them bring those different influences. Musicians seem very compartmentalized that way. We like the idea of throwing different influences into the same fold and working it out to create a broad and diverse experience.

Patch: You were quoted saying, 'The more specific a genre label is, the more rules there are in regards to song-writing.' Do you see rules as constraints?

Arnold: I don’t like the fact that trends and big labels prescribe these ‘unwritten rules’ that we’re supposed to all follow. These trends or ‘rules’ take shape and dominate whole scenes. I thought the whole ‘metal-core’ thing was going to die about six or seven years ago, but it’s got legs and now there are a million bands that sound almost exactly the same, and I don’t even see the point in differentiating between some of them. We also don’t like the gang mentality that can come with scenes and trends. We grew up on metal and we love metal, but don’t tell me how to be metal—that’s the sentiment for us. We’ve always had a blatant disregard for trends and rules. We never set out to be followers. It’s been important in our lives to be open-minded and think for ourselves even inside of our own group.

Patch: Cerebellion has been together for two years, and the four of you were in a band called Project1 before that. How does Cerebellion differ from your former band?

Arnold: Project1 was also of the mind of combining really heavy music and melody, but Cerebellion really pushed those gates wide open, with definitely more of a melodic approach. Cerebellion really dares to go where a lot of heavy bands won’t. I think a song like Still Burning is a great example of that. We kind of dared to have these extremes from the very heavy stuff like Breach of Security and Not the Final Destination all the way to the beautiful instrumental, classical guitar pieces on the album like In Memory and This Won’t Die. Then, there are the in-between songs like Undeniable, Just Under the Surface, and Embrace the Imperfection that are heavy, but extremely melodic. But, the major difference is the vocals. The Project1 vox were really heavy and my vocals with Cerebellion are heavy and gritty yet melodic, and at times clean and melodic.

Patch: You, John, Marc and Jimmy have been performing together for seven years. What would you say are the strengths of each band member?

Arnold: John’s the passion and leadership. He’s also our ‘quality control’ and has great management skills. He brings the furious riffs and memorable guitar leads. Marc is the on-task guy who keeps our tangents in check, and he’s a very melodic and skilled bassist who always has riffs ready to go. Jimmy’s a beast! He’s a nice, mellow dude but he’s an insane drummer—right in the pocket and murders his drums. He’s always up for a good laugh and some ‘heavy metal breakfast’ at 1:30 a.m. after the show. He has a pretty steady flow of ideas, which challenges us to think outside the box. I try to stay current on the music marketing front, and bring ideas to the table. All of us are very hard working and determined.

Patch: You just released your first album, Inalienable, in May of 2010 after working on it for over a year. You seem really adamant about having Inalienable referred to as an album, and not ‘a collection of songs.’ What’s the difference?

Arnold: An ‘album’ to us is a unique experience that travels through different contexts within it. It should take you on a musical journey. To us, it’s not just 10 or 12 songs that sound pretty much the same and have equal shots at being radio singles, but are songs that create something of a dramatic arc and have dynamics throughout. It’s tough to do this tastefully because at the end of the day, there needs to be that common thread through all the songs that makes the band sound like itself, but I believe we accomplished that.

Patch: Why did you choose to call your album Inalienable?

Arnold: Some members of the band were dealing with personal loss in their lives, and the many of the world’s average people were having their lives destroyed due to the financial crisis at the same time. It felt like things that people had built in their lives were being taking away from them with ease. Inalienable means something that cannot be taken away, so that’s what we placed our focus on. It helped us through our personal losses and I think the non-physical, inalienable things that humans offer, like music, art, ideas, and science, will help humanity emerge from the global crisis.

Patch: Have you had any big achievements as a band?

Arnold: We had the number one hard rock video and the number one metal hit song on MTV's OurStage and we were voted among the best metal newcomers of 2010 by Metal Underground. We also made the 10 requests on 107.1FM in Pittsburg alongside KoRn, Avenged Sevenfold, Mastodon and others for a month or so.

Patch: How did you guys feel when you heard you were voted number one and were among the 10 requests?

Arnold: We knew we had created an awesome album and were very proud of the work and the uniqueness of it, but it’s definitely reaffirming to receive accolades. It’s encouraging to see that it has the ability to cut through all of the other stuff out there. It reaffirms what we already thought about our music: That it has the potential to connect with people on a deep level, the way it connects with us.

Patch: How was touring in 2011?

Arnold: We really spread our wings outside of our Orange County locale in 2011. We were able to expand into several new territories and counties, returning to play some of them two and three times. We closed the year with a packed House of Blues show in our hometown Anaheim. The response was great everywhere and our goal is to up the ante in 2012 and triple the amount of shows we did in 2011, while stringing together some tours in the Northwest and Midwest.

Patch: Do you have a message for your fans?

Arnold: To our fans, we’d like to say thank you to everyone out there who has continually supported Cerebellion. To new listeners, keep your mind open and like what you like.