“It means a whole bunch I think. It’s our first show back and it’s humble to be listed with a lot of bands that we really admire and are friends with and stuff like that. So to be asked to play along with the bands is amazing, and really to help and support in our tiny little way which is rocking up and playing music which we do anyway *laughs*, but to support Oxfam and The Refugee Council, it’s awesome. It’s a real cool humbling thing and to be asked to do it is just a really cool thing I think”
From Bio description: Stories from the inner city, mixing elements of alternative indie, pop-rock and 90s emo. CERES drag inspiration from the rivers, roads and relationships that colour their town, failing loves and dragging months.
We chatted to Tom Lanyon of Ceres ahead of their appearance at the Australia Day fundraiser at the Reverence Hotel in Melbourne and he filled us in on the event as well as the band and even down to how you pronounce their name…
OK, let’s get this out of the way first, how do you pronounce the band’s name?
*laughs* It’s pronounced ‘Series’ like a TV series, well to be honest it could be any way you want it to really, we don’t really mind, we get like Ce-res and Cerees, and all these sorts of things, but we say Series, yeah…
Let’s start with the basics; for those that aren’t aware of you, can you please give us the abridged version of the Ceres story, how you all came to be and the decision on the name of the band?
I met Rhys, Rhys is our guitar player and he was a friend of a friend and we saw each other around the traps or at parties as such and we’d kind of get drunk together and he’d always hassle me to start a band as he knew I played guitar, and I always used to say yes to him to his face but I was thinking hell no… He’s a good looking man, so he seduced me to this weird practise space that he had and we just started jamming from there. I went overseas and that’s how we got the name Ceres, as I was in LA and out the back of LA there’s a town called Ceres, spelt like c e r e s and everyone was talking about it to me and I don’t know why but the name just stuck and I got back to Melbourne and Rhys said we needed a name and Ceres it was I guess. Then through GY we used to go to shows all the time, just friends of friends through GY who plays bass, we met at a party, I was drunk, Rhys was drunk, GY was drunk and he said yeah sure, took one look at Rhys and said oh yeah he’s a good looking guy, I’ll play in a band with that guy. Then he knew Frank who drums through a few bands they were in like friends bands and stuff, and he got on board and that’s kind of that.
And how long ago was that?
That’s a good question, I think it must’ve been like maybe two years ago, it took us a while to get together and jam, we used to practise in Bakehouse studios over in Abbotsford, then I guess two years ago, yeah.
OK with that out of the way, you’re part of a pretty kick ass Australia Day weekend event at the Reverence Hotel in Melbourne with some pretty killer bands, what does playing at this event mean to you?
It means a whole bunch I think. It’s our first show back and it’s humble to be listed with a lot of bands that we really admire and are friends with and stuff like that. So to be asked to play along with the bands is amazing, and really to help and support in our tiny little way which is rocking up and playing music which we do anyway *laughs*, but to support Oxfam and The Refugee Council, it’s awesome. It’s a real cool humbling thing and to be asked to do it is just a really cool thing I think.
I hear it’s just a really great weekend, really laid back with great bands and great people…
Yeah, I’ve actually… could you believe never been, but I know it’s been a long running thing, so Tom and Anastasia and stuff, those guys putting it on I think I’ve only heard amazing things, I can’t wait to get there and have a crack at it. Then go back on Sunday and just relax and watch some great bands myself and just relax. It’s going to be a great couple of days. I get to play, get out of there, go back and get pissed I guess…
What can people expect from a typical Ceres show?
That’s a good question, I don’t know, I have this idea about our show being a real moody, cool thing and we kind of come out there and people take us seriously I guess, like an emotional ride, just one of those shows. I guess it’s us going out there and me telling a couple of shitty jokes, and we play music, we give 110% if you want to coin that clichéd phrase, and I am so unfit, so going out there I just scream my ass off and people are into it. It’s kind of an honest show, we don’t really fuck around with anything else, we try and say a few things and then cram as many songs in as we can and try and get people a bit sweaty and having a good time I guess, with wussy, sad, emo rock music *laughs* as good as a time they can have with that. Hopefully it’s heavier and a bit rawer and a bit more kind of affecting than we sound like on record anyway.
Now we’ve all been told that Melbourne is the place to be for music, what do you think it is about that city that draws it all in?
Good question… this is a long story, well a semi long story, a friend of mine from Sydney, and he was saying that he came down to Melbourne and I had my back up against the wall saying the good old Sydney vs Melbourne thing and he was talking about the scenes of Melbourne. The problem with Sydney is there’s the city and the beaches are so far away and then the mountains are so far away and you have to go a lot of places just travel to get there. When you get a scene down here and not even music it kind of just concentrates and becomes a bit stronger I guess and I don’t know why Melbourne for music is like that. The pubs? I don’t know, there are just great venues, it’s a good question. I think maybe it just is… I think things just become more about that one singular thing, I’m sitting on Vic St right now about to get some Vietnamese and I can’t wait, so it’s almost like that, we have our little burrows almost and It’s like that with the culture around here is a lot more concentrated maybe because there’s not a lot to do? I feel so lucky that we grew up in Melbourne and started a band and just to have it be… even talking to friends bands they moved down here from everywhere to play in bands in Melbourne and oh man, I’m so glad I have to drive five minutes to the pub.
Your newest track ‘Middle Names’ is a killer, for starters, what’s yours?
My middle name is Charles, so it’s not about my middle name thank fuck, but it’s a good strong English name that one…
Good, now talk us through the track and how it came about…
‘Middle Names’ was a song that maybe Rhys had sent me a guitar riff, it’s that kind of loopy guitar riff at the start of the verse, and I already had that chorus written and so as soon as he sent me that, it’s one of those weird things where Rhys will send me something and I’d have written something and we just jam it together and that’s the song I guess, so it was kind of a bitsy song like that. It came about from a few things, it’s kind of about six years ago and just where I grew up and the name middle names is this girl I used to see didn’t have a middle name, so there’s a lyric in there I’ll stare at the stage and call you by your middle name, which is kind of like I can’t do that because you don’t have one, so I don’t know what that means, but we all thought it was pretty cool, so that’s why it’s called Middle Names.
That’s deep…
*laughs* Exactly, I told you we were a moody band…
Well don’t start cutting yourself on stage please…
No, honestly at the fifty millionth time someone doesn’t laugh at my jokes I may have to…
Musically both recorded and tour wise, what else can we expect this year from the band?
The most we’ve ever done. We’ve got a record coming out on April 4th, it’s on Hobbledehoy records, the pre-orders are coming up soon for it, and ‘Middle Names’ is off that so that’s the first taste of it, and then a big tour after that. It’s a shitty excuse to say in Melbourne we can play so many shows, but we didn’t, we always feel the need to go play other states but we never, ever got there yet. I don’t know if any other band has been retarded enough to release a record without playing any other state, but we did. So from pretty much the whole of March and April on the weekends we go on tour, so we’re going to Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Tassie, WA and we’re so stoked, we can’t wait to get out there and show people what we’ve got.
As far as influences go, who would you sight as your main reasons for doing what you do?
*laughs* oh boy… ex-girlfriends? I don’t know… I guess musically I don’t know, I’ve been asked this a bunch of times and have the shittiest answers, do you remember Motorace? That ‘Five Star Laundry’ album came out well long ago when I was a kid, and it was just when I just got my guitar so I just tried to write songs that were like that. Then obviously listened to all punk and pop punk like Blink, so melting those influences together, then I can’t remember, I think I was in year nine or ten when that whole emo thing blew up, the good kind, before it got pretty shit, like Dashboard Confessional and bands like that, for a kid that couldn’t play guitar and never wanted to be in a band Dashboard just grabbed me when you see him up there singing about heartbreak. That stuff really resonated with me and I’m pretty sure it affected my song writing a little bit.
So 2014 has just begun, let’s predict the future. Finish this sentence, by the end of 2014, Ceres will…
By the end of 2014 Ceres will 100% have released a record that we are retarded proud of, it’s the best thing we’ve done by far and it’s the best thing that I’ve done personally in my life, so that’s going to be an amazing thought. Toured the country which is another amazing thought as we never thought we’d be able to do that with our shit, and probably have broken up when no one likes our band or music because they don’t think we’re that rad. Oh yeah, in 2014 Ceres will be looking for a new singer because Tom slit his wrists on stage because a joke went bad, that’s pretty morbid but anything can happen right? *laughs*
Essential Information
From: Melbourne, Australia
Sounds like: Rock
Band members: Tom Lanyon – Vocals, Rhys Vleugel – Guitar, Grant Young – Bass, Frank Morda – Drums
Current release: Middle Names (single)
Website: http://ceresband.bandcamp.com/album/luck
Deathproof PR and Bombshellzine presents…
Australia Day Weekend 2014
A Fundraiser At The Reverence Hotel, Melbourne
All proceeds donated to Oxfam and The Refugee Council
Saturday January 25
Luca Brasi (TAS), Damn Terran, Batpiss, Anchors, Outright, The Sinking Teeth, Stockades, Cavalcade, Ceres, Regrets, Old Love, Sunbather
Sunday January 26
Lincoln Le Fevre, Darren Gibson, Ribbons Patterns, Hoodlum Shouts (Acoustic), Grenadiers (SA), Initials, The Union Pacific, Have/Hold, Summerhill, Mightiest Of Guns, TNNL CNTS (Oz Rock Covers Set!)
Tickets and raffle tickets on-sale now via: inkandlead.bigcartel.com/
Weekend passes $30 / Day Passes $20
