Kevin From City Of Caterpillar Discusses The Group’s Long-Awaited Return

City of Caterpillar, a Richmond, Virginia-area group who often come up in discussions of bands who laid down the tracks to which screamo fans and musicians would most frequently return across the decades following their initial emergence, are back. Mystic Sisters, a brand new, full-length album from the group is out now from Relapse Records, with the band — comprised of members with long histories in music, extending outside of this group since their 2002 debut album — back on the touring circuit as well.

Getting the Band Back Together

“None of us really saw this coming,” bassist/ vocalist Kevin Longendyke explains. “We formed back then to just get out and play shows and try to tour a bit. Unfortunately things ended after a few tours and we all moved on to other projects. Twenty-some years later we decided to get back together for a few reunion shows which snowballed into a world tour. After that world tour which was a total hoot, we loosely talked about doing another album. After Jeff and Brandon moved back to Richmond, things started to move along with new tunes and here we are. We started writing Mystic Sisters in its early stages around 2019.”

Longendyke is joined in City of Caterpillar by guitarist/ vocalist Brandon Evans, guitarist Jeff Kane, and drummer Ryan Parrish, and the group’s process hinges on a rather immediate attention to the songwriting, reflected by the emotional rawness of what results. “Mainly I think it’s a very natural process,” Longendyke shares. “Some tunes on the new record came fast and didn’t get too dramatic while others were more fun to build up with different parts. All in all we don’t talk about it too much while writing and we just like to let it fly.”

The music combines some of the expressive frigidity of post-rock, as it’s known, with the hoarse, tear-at-the-walls fury of screamo (or skramz, which I prefer because it’s a funnier word). Genre terms are limited in their usefulness — there is no guidebook outlining exactly what means what, and many rightly point this out — but that starts to depict what’s unfolding here. Sitting alone in a pile of rubble as waves crash into the scene with such fury that you wonder if the water itself has a grudge — that’s the sort of thing Mystic Sisters suggests across its runtime, although it doesn’t end there.

Performing live, City of Caterpillar reflect this urgent energy. It doesn’t seem particularly disorienting or inaccessible — the passion grabs people. “So, while starting the writing process Brandon and Jeff were sending guitar parts/ideas in loop forms to each other and everything kind of built from that,” Longendyke explains. “So I wouldn’t say it came from an emotional place but more so the natural way that those guys write music. Very cinematic, over under sideways down.”

Connecting with Those Listening In

Mystic Sisters feels timeless — and that word is used enough it’s worth exploring exactly what’s leading the charge.

It’s as though time has somehow fallen away or become irrelevant. To get a little dramatic — and who doesn’t like going all in when the music allows for such a thing, the heaving rhythms the group throws at its listeners in a compelling cacophony suggest that whatever you used to know about the progression of the timeline, the ostensibly orderly nature of our ventures through life, and — getting more specific — the process of diving within, into the vat of oblivion inside the human psyche: it’s all upended. Everything has been lifted from its moorings with a resounding jolt, and what previously lingered, festering in a connection with age, is gone. The music is confrontational, but it also proves expansive, as though showing some kind of otherwise secret hideaways beneath the latticework of the familiar, and the allure makes you want to break through. 

City of Caterpillar stay grounded. “For us we always have tried to embrace a scene,” Longendyke shares. “We’ve stayed pretty close with friends from back then that have gone on to start labels, venues, record stores and are still working with some of those folks to better create art/music. Without them we wouldn’t be doing this still, I think.”

The group also appreciates their connections with fans. “It’s inspiring to see the evolution of technology and creativity, filtered through the unique approaches and interpretations of punk and metal bands in the world right now,” Longendyke adds. “Breaking down precedents and boundaries established decades ago, but staying true to the foundations and ethics and fundamentals of where it all spawned from. I’d say there have been similar evolutions from outside musical realms and scenes, sneaking their ways in here and there. This is especially true in our personal musical growth, evolutions outside of the band. I think we are entirely lucky to have music fans that still care to hear what we’ve come up with after all these years and we can’t wait to continue on with them. That’s inspiring to us.”

Assembling the Pieces of Mystic Sisters

It’s majestic in the sense of unpredictable flames shaking in furious fervor against a darkened sky. The songs are all sweeping — even when they’re more compact structure-wise, you get the sense because of the sound’s thickness and the drama of the rhythms that it’s more like a brief cut of something that extends well beyond the track. It points outward from itself, seemingly exploding in all directions — and sometimes focusing in a series of shattering impacts, like on “Decider.” It’s desperation, unease, and the ragged, religiously intense drive towards understanding. A musical scream at the sky, or a musical slam into the ground — whatever your perspective, both work.

“No, not really,” Longendyke says when asked if City of Caterpillar dealt with online pressures around the direction of the new music. “When we initially got back together to play the reunion shows, we had so much fun and we went right back to the start. I think that first and foremost we wanted the new album to reflect on how we’ve grown in 20 years but at the same time it all came very natural and anything that the four of us do is gonna sound like us. We recorded the first album in two days with whatever equipment we could find and that’s what we ended up with. With Mystic Sisters I think we just had more time to write and focus on the songwriting.”

Although City of Caterpillar are several years into their return, Longendyke recalls that returning to the band rather smoothly unfolded. “Yeah, pretty easy for all of us,” he says of coming back. “We had all been playing and touring in bands for the last 20 years and it all came pretty easy. It was exciting breaking down the old tunes to relearn. Having to watch old YouTube videos even to fine tune the right notes! As far as the band relationships, it was like we never stopped playing together. Pretty wild!” 

“We love to experiment to keep things exciting and sauced up,” he adds. “As a genre in whole, punk should be whatever you want, I guess.”

The ambiance the group provide in their tracks makes the more intense moments feel increasingly furious, as though you really see — to a greater extent than otherwise — the origin point for the disjointed stagger across certain musical segments. The quieter pieces aren’t so much a break, even if they provide that, as they just extend everything City of Caterpillar are doing elsewhere. Tonally, it all flows. It’s the leveling understanding of an expansive perspective. 

Listen to Mystic Sisters below!