Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
Cereus gets serious about its music
KNOXVILLE FOLK BAND CEREUS BRIGHT AT REVELRY ROOM
Cereus Bright was born out of a mutual love of playing music. Meeting on a porch in Knoxville, Tyler Anthony and Evan Ford connected over their shared passion for writing and performing meaningful melodic songs.
“We didn’t know what we were doing at the beginning,” says Anthony (acoustic guitar, vocals). “Evan and I wanted to play music and were ready to work hard. So we made a couple EPs and started traveling around the South playing for whoever would listen. We were learning as we went.”
They found kindred spirits in Luke Bowers ( drums), Matt Nelson ( bass) and Jake Smith (electric guitar). That trio of jazz performers complemented the raw energy of Anthony and Ford, and Cereus Bright became a five-piece.
“We knew right away that we wanted these guys in the band,” says Ford (mandolin, electric guitar, vocals). “Every song felt better with them playing; we could do more with the arrangements and sound. It made us even more excited to get out there and play.” So that’s what they did. In the next year, Cereus Bright played over 100 tour dates across the country, opening for acts like Sturgill Simpson, The Oh Hellos, Philip Philips and The Lone Bellow. They released videos racking up over 200,000 views and gained over a million plays.
In early 2015, the band decided to retreat to a cabin on a farm outside Knoxville. With Ford as producer and engineer, they recorded “Excuses” over the course of the year.
Ford recalls, “We decided to evaluate everything we had done in the past and see if it belonged in the future. It was a process of figuring out who we were as a band. What we ended up with is an album that’s more mature, sonically diverse and has more to say than anything we’ve put out. ”
Last Ju l y, Cereus released “Excuses,” and will play Revelry Room on May 12 as part of their tour in support of that album.
“We want people to hear this music the way we made it, which was together as a band in a room,” Ford says. “We think if we can introduce our fans to ‘Excuses’ in a way that they’ve never heard or seen before, they’re going to walk away loving it.
“We want to make honest music — songs about real life, which can be beautiful or messy or both. We want to connect with people, whether it’s in person or through our music, we want our music to mean something.”