Editor’s Note: It was a brisk night in Minneapolis and CyHra just got done with playing a blistering opening set as they opened for European metal giants Sabaton and Kreator. What was most impressive about their set was a newfound focus that they had in their sound and in their direction as a full-fledged band. During their set, CyHra immediately wanted to dispel any sort of notion that they were a “side project”, but that they were a band that was to be taken seriously. Their live set proved that. We sat down at a nearby restaurant and it was more of a conversation between friends. Madness To Creation can’t wait to chat with them again someday. In the meantime, find CyHra at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/CyHraofficial
www.twitter.com/Cyhra_official
Madness To Creation: The fans would like to know how the tour with Sabaton and Kreator been going so far?
Jake(vocalist): The tour has been going really, really good. Both Sabaton and Kreator have been amazing to work with us, and they have taken such good care of us, we felt welcome from day one. It’s just been amazing, it’s been very familiar, we’ve been friends with them from years before, the tour is coming along great. It’s a big family, it’s been fantastic.
Euge(guitarist): The response from the audience has been beyond our expectations, we weren’t expecting a bunch of people to be watching us, but the places have been packed, I got goosebumps, it’s been really good.
Alex(drummer): We really appreciate the people coming out so early, we appreciate that, because you never know as the first band opening up 30 minutes after the doors open, but the houses are usually packed, we’re really happy about that.
Madness To Creation: What is one thing that Sabaton and Kreator have taught you since you’ve been out on tour?
Jake: They haven’t taught us shit because we’ve been doing this for so many years *laughs*, that’s nothing bad against Sabaton or Kreator in any way, but we’re all professional musicians, I don’t know if they could teach us anything about this right now, they absolutely show us if we weren’t already who we were, they would have shown us that it’s give and take, they have the way that if you’re nice to us, then they’re nice to them.
Euge: Exactly! You never know when you’re actually opening for the opener. Like Jake said, this is my third U.S. tour in a little bit over a year, a year and a half, but it’s been great.
Alex: I can just second that, it’s almost interesting to see how others are doing things, no matter how experienced you are, you do learn a little bit every day, as Jake said we’re all pretty established into what we’re doing, we all got tours under our belts, I have to say that I especially enjoy seeing Kreator so many times, they’ve been around for so long, and that’s just something really cool.
Madness To Creation: A fun question since we’re talking about Kreator, Kreator has a song called “Satan Is Real”, do you all believe in that idea of Satan?
Jake: We’re all atheists, so yes! *laughs*
Alex: I would actually have to sit down and talk with them because they actually talk about the state that the world is in, of course you look at how things actually are, and how far from a utopia that we are that we could be in, for us the idea of Satan is regular people, it’s when people are not standing up to others that are doing the bad things, that’s what Kreator actually means there.
Jake: As Alex just said, I don’t think they mean anything about religion at all, because they say if you believe in God, you have to believe in Satan, Satan was something that was invented so much further down the track, the thing is, I don’t believe in any f****** religion at all, I think it’s complete f****** bullshit. I understand people that seek safe place for people for something to believe in, but that’s only caused by because they’re afraid to die, and they need a reason for why they are here. I don’t think Kreator’s songs are about Satan or God or anything like that, it’s exactly what Alex said, the world is f***** up, and Satan is a metaphor in that sense.
Madness To Creation: We talked about utopia, and where would you rate America or the state of the world in terms of utopia?
Alex: That’s a really difficult question and that depends on who you ask. This is the big problem, it’s only utopia if you have money, then America is a fantastic place to live in, but it’s just not equal enough, to answer it shortly, I would say a 3 or a 4 because there are places that are still much worse in every sense, because a lot of things are not okay in the States, also Germany, no matter where you look, but over there, it’s actually a working democracy, but as a European, there’s a lot of stuff that could be fixed in the United States, health care, equality between the races, we see a lot of prejudice towards people, I would say a 3 or a 4, because I love the original American ideal, where democracy began, but it should be a democracy that we should look up to, but in the past 30 to 40 years, it went downhill, so I actually hope that we can see the United States and the rest of the Western world rise up again.
Jake: I don’t really like to talk about politics at all but what your President said a couple of days ago that “fight fire with fire”, that every teacher should wear a gun to protect themselves, for me it doesn’t make any f****** sense, it’s like so f****** stupid.
Madness To Creation: I suppose we should get back to the band stuff. What is a day in the life of CyHra on tour?
Jake: To answer this question, I must add Anthony, he’s our guitar tech. This is Anthony’s first tour, he’s an awesome dude, we call him MacGyver, but Anthony has never been on a real tour before, he was like, “hey guys, they want me to be on tour”, it’s that picture that you build up in your head, but I’m going to go on tour, there’s going to be boobies, there’s going to be alcohol, there’s going to be after parties.
Anthony(guitar tech): Going on this tour, it’s a big rock band, these guys are rockstars and we’re going to have a good time, but no, we’re up at 6 or 7 in the morning everyday, after we play shows, we’re in bed by 10:30 to 11 o’clock , there’s no alcohol on our wagon, there’s health food, there’s water, there’s apples, there’s vegetarian food, there’s green smoothies with kale and shit in our thing, everyone goes to sleep early, we wake up, and we have business conversations about what’s going on with the day, everyone is working, no one is hungover, there’s no panties everywhere, everyone wakes up and talks to their wives and their kids on FaceTime, everyone wakes up, everyone says hello, but they go on to chat with their families in the morning, that’s how this tour is!
Jake: And we also go to the gym! That rockstar dream, we were all doing that when we were 20, like Anthony said, it’s the most boring first tour ever! *laughs*, but these guys take care of the stage, we go up to do soundcheck, then we do the show, and it is what Anthony said.
Madness To Creation: Question for each of you, I give you one day off, what do you like to do on that day off?
Euge: On a day off, I worked then I was at the gym. I will talk to my wife, watch a couple of movies, just to take it easy and charge up the batteries. Like Jake said, if it was back then, I would be on the street drinking alcohol. *laughs* Been there done that!
Alex: It’s the same for me, I usually work on the off days, this is actually the first tour ever that I actually allowed myself to not open the emails on the off days, and just go sit down in a swimming pool instead and just relax.
Euge: Alex also watches “The Room” and sleeps! *laughs*
Alex: I will probably play four or five hours of drums at least, because that’s the one thing that I miss on the tour is to play more because you only get to play on the show, especially in a 30-minute show, it’s never enough, I just want to sit down and play for a few hours, and actually cook, I miss cooking, but we have a mid-sized bus, not a huge bus, so there isn’t a nice kitchen in there, so there’s no point to do this on this tour.
Madness To Creation: On October 20th, you all released “Letters To Myself”, what was the most satisfying moment in creating the album, with you all in previous bands, how did you guys bounce ideas off of each other?
Jake: The best thing about creating this album was that from my perspective, I created an album that I wanted to do, I had no one else hanging over me with ideas or demands or decisions, I had no fan base to live up to with “the fans expect this or they expect that”, I just wrote what came from my heart, same thing with Jesper, it was so revealing to “not give a shit”, that was the best thing with it.
Madness To Creation: Was there a lot of expectations for yourself?
Jake: There were no expectations. Jesper had heard that a lot of people were expecting it to be like the new “Colony” album(an In Flames album), but our side, we didn’t have any expectations, we just wanted to release something, we didn’t even know from the start if we were just going to be a project or if we were ever going to have a record deal, we just wrote to ourselves, then we actually created the best band ever. I’ve NEVER played with such competent musicians in my whole life, that I could call “my brothers” , because I could call each and every one of them if I have a problem, if there’s anything happening in my life, and they could call me, we’re so f****** tight, and I love them for that.
Euge: About the album, him and Jesper wrote amazing songs, and I was honored when they asked me to play on the album, and even with the amazing solos, thank you! *laughs*, some of it was improvised, but yeah! *laughs*
Madness To Creation: You said a lot of the guitar work was improvising or did you have a melody in mind?
Euge: Yes, for the “Karma” solo, I had that in my head and had it composed, but some of things were I would play like three different solos, but then Jesper would be like, “I like the beginning”, then I would have the final mix in my head, and Jesper would be like, “did you just play that”, and I would be like, “yes, but that was from a different mix”, then I would have to learn how to play it live! *laughs*, but some parts I would play it different, then other parts I would play some different things, I’ve never recorded myself, but it came out quite well!
Madness To Creation: If you had to make a song with a pop diva, who would it be?
Alex: I would in a heartbeat. Beyonce, I love her! I wouldn’t care what the song was about, I would just do that.
Euge: Probably Madonna.
Jake: If I could pick a guy, it would be Ed Sheeran.
Madness To Creation: You all released the video for “Heartrage”(I accidentally said “Nightrage”), can you all take us into that song and where people can request it?
Jake: It’s hard to request it to be honest, because I really don’t know how that works, all of a sudden if it just picks up.
Euge: The thing is, you never know when it’s going to pick up, writing a hit radio or hit single isn’t easy, if I could figure it out, I’d be rich, like Jake said earlier, you just write what comes from the heart, you can of course aim and have it be towards radio.
Madness To Creation: What’s the song about? I apologize for saying “Nightrage” earlier, my phone autocorrected it to that for some reason.
Jake: That’s okay. The original title to that song was “Heart Rape”, but for various reasons, we couldn’t use that name because especially in the States, even though it’s a messed up word, it has nothing to do with rape. The whole song is about someone or something completely ruining your heart and your feelings and what you love, when someone or something just takes your feet from the ground and takes them away from under you.
Madness To Creation: While we are conducting this interview, do you want to plug your radio show?
Jake: Absolutely! I have a radio show in Sweden called Pirate Rock, and we play metal, and it’s the biggest radio station in Gothenburg, we have 150,000 listeners a week, so that’s really good in a city of 500,000 citizens.
Madness To Creation: A message to the fans?
Jake: Thank you America for supporting us so freaking well on this tour, it’s just been amazing, we have nothing to expect when we come to the shows, and like I’ve seen so many bands, and I’ve been a headliner myself, and I’ve seen it where there’s been ten people in the audience, and when we played and opened we had a full house, but for us, everyone comes to see us as well, and when I raise my arm up in the air, they do the same, I mean we’re an opening act, you don’t have to do that, you don’t have to show respect for the opening act, I know that you bought your tickets for someone else, but the response that we’ve been getting so far has just been amazing, so thank you!
Special thanks to Amy and Mike from Atom Splitter for setting this up and CyHra has a show as an opening act for Sabaton and Kreatoron Sunday, March 11th at the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, then they have some European tour dates lined up. Check them out below!
Thursday, March 15th- Pustervik in Goteburg, Sweden (w/Engel)
Saturday, March 17th- Folkets Park in Huskvarna, Sweden (w/StormholD)
Sunday, June 3rd- Metalfest Open Air in Pilsen, Czech Republic
Wednesday, June 6th- Sweden Rock Festival in Solvesborg, Sweden
Saturday, July 7th- Sundsparlan in Helsingborg, Sweden (w/Hammerfall and Smash Into Pieces)
Friday, July 20th- John Smith Rock Festival in Laukaa, Finland
Friday, November 23rd- Club ZAL Ozhidaniya in Saint Petersburg, Russia
Saturday, November 24th- ZIL Arena in Moscow, Russia (w/New Disorder)
Friday, November 30th- Lokomotivet in Eskilstuna, Sweden
Saturday, December 1st- Klubben in Stockholm, Sweden
For tickets and further information on any of the shows listed above, click here!
Fans can check out Pirate Rock Radio out of Sweden here!
Fans can pick up a copy of “Letters To Myself” by CyHra on Amazon here!
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