Search

New Orleans metal band is shocking some, rocking more.

If you attend any date of this year’s Warped Tour, you’re going to have the chance to see New Orleans metal band Cane Hill. They’ve already toured the world with blessthefall and Stick To Your Guns, and with music videos that are causing a stir on the internet, they’re a perfect embodiment of Trent Reznor’s definition of rock n roll (via his 1997 interview with Rolling Stone): “It should piss your parents off, and it should offer some element of taboo.”

Here are 10 other things you should know about Cane Hill.

They’re Named After an Abandoned Asylum in the UK

Cane Hill recently toured the UK, but, sadly, did not get a chance to see the asylum they named their band after. “It’s been turned into a residential zoning area,” Cane Hill frontman Elijah Witt laments, “so there’s not really much more of an asylum left. They just tore it down to build houses.”

The Band Rose Up Through New Orleans’ Metal Scene

According to Witt, the city the band calls home has been a hotbed for metal over the years. “There was definitely something to grow up through,” he says of the city’s metal scene, “you had Down, Crowbar, and a few others that I can’t remember (off the top of my head).”

He adds that while metal was big in New Orleans in the '80s and '90s, it’s had its ups and downs since then. “The whole metalcore thing did really well for about five years, and out of nowhere it just completely disappeared into oblivion. It’s still really rocky.”

 

 

They Nave No Use For Your Religious Texts

In case you couldn’t tell from the band’s single, “(The New) Jesus,” they aren’t big fans of organized religion. “I think religion is shit and causes shitty things to happen,” Witt says, bluntly. “You have these books ... that are based off of a way of life that we no longer need to cater to. You don’t die from a fever, and you don’t live for 20 years max, so you don’t have to procreate all the time, so all the laws about sex are bullshit; all the laws on patriarchy are bullshit; all the laws about who you can and can’t do things with are bullshit. I think (religions) cause an overarching problem in society where you’re withheld freedoms because of them.”

Elijah Attended Liberty Christian Academy

Witt had his own, very unique, religious experience as a child when he attended Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Christian Academy in Virginia. “They taught this shit called ‘young earth creationism,’” he remembers, “(where they tell you) earth is 6,000 years old; homosexuality is caused by demons; dinosaur bones were put here by the devil to confuse you ... As an eight-year-old, or a ten-year-old, if you’re able to sit there and look at a fully grown man who is teaching this, and say, ‘This sounds like a fucking fairy tale,’ I think that’s a problem.”

 

 

Their Song “True Love” is All About “Having Sex in a Fun Way”

“The way I see it is everybody’s been raised to think that sex is taboo,” Witt explains. “You don’t have sex talks with your parents, and if you do they’re probably telling you not to do it. Religion’s made it to where sex is taboo. Sex education doesn’t exist. All you’re told is don’t do it, and if you do it something bad is gonna happen ... Mostly (the song is) about having sex, and having really really good, fun, weird, animalistic sex, just getting back to your nature about it instead of having all these overbearing ideologies about how sex should be.”

Don’t Call Them Shock Rock

Some have labeled Cane Hill “shock rock,” but Witt isn’t entirely sure about that classification. “It wouldn’t shock me,” he says, “but I think that’s kind of understood.”

Witt continued, noting, “Some people say that some of the shit was actually disgusting to them, but that’s fine. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it, and if you do get it, you do get it. It’s not meant to shock you, but if it does shock you, maybe the way you’re thinking needs a little shocking to it.”

Their Full Length Album, 'Smile,' Was Released on July 15

The follow up to their self-titled EP, Witt says Smile shows a tremendous amount of growth as a band. “It’s not written by a bunch of people fresh out of high school,” he explains, “lyrically, and musically, it’s just really better developed.”

 

 

Elijah Narrowly Escaped Hurricane Katrina

“I actually moved away about a month before Katrina happened.”

The Rest of the Band Members Weren’t so Lucky

“All the rest of the guys, they had shit happen to their houses. Devin (Clark), our drummer, he was in Mississippi at the time, and he remembers having to go get ice from a gas station, and watching people get shot at for ice.”

Elijah Once Passed Out at His Own Merch Table

It happened while the band was on tour with blessthefall and Stick To Your Guns, and it wasn’t completely his fault. “I think I was sick for three week’s straight,” he remembers, “so we went to Dick’s so I could get a jacket to say warm, but I also remembered that I had this big bottle promethazine, and I forgot that I had a show. I chugged it, because I was like, the more I drink, the better I’ll feel. I think I slept for six hours straight, then I had to wake up and play the show. I don’t know how to accurately describe to you what playing a show is like when you have more promethazine in your system than like food, or water, or life. I think that was probably the worst day on tour that I’ve ever had. That was rough. Then I had to sit at the merch table and try to sell merch. I fell asleep in my hood.”

15 47 13
Close

Press esc to close.
Close
Press esc to close.
Close

Connecting to your webcam.

You may be prompted by your browser for permission.