Meet Cavern Company
Cavern Company overcame lineup changes, dark days for ‘Tension’ EP
The Oklahoma City-based trio shares the rocky road to its new “Tension” EP.
Tension tends to break things apart. Cavern Company felt that strain throughout a tumultuous twoyear stretch. Personal losses started piling up alongside their search for a new singer back in 2015.
Seemingly all at once, the Oklahoma City-based band’s former frontman exited the group while one member’s marriage was on the rocks and another had just lost his mother.
“Where does that leave us?” vocalist Zach Shomaker chants over and over again in their confessional ballad “Black Dress,” one of the band’s oldest but newly reworked songs. The question grounds the emotional EP “Tension.” It’s a touching pop and rock infused effort that’s had no shortage of trying inspiration.
“It’s been very tense through these couple of years,” Shomaker told The
Oklahoman. “That’s where the name comes from. The record was written during some really hard periods of our lives, both personally and with band life . ... We took the first year to see what would happen, and we rewrote a lot of songs. Year two was learning who we were and understanding the type of music we wanted to write.”
Guitarist Kolby Yarbrough and drummer Joshua Warren round out Cavern Company’s latest lineup, and the trio recorded “Tension” at Bixby’s Closet Studios with recording engineer Kendal Osborne. Along the way, members switched instruments, refocused their songwriting process and overcame discouraging creative hurdles.
“We might not have continued with it,” Warren said. “We loved music. We loved each other. We had a lot of faith in what we could do . ... We said, ‘Let’s give it time. Let’s let it breathe because we hadn’t even tried.’ “
Little by little, Cavern Company won small victories, including a successful Kickstarter campaign. They also reveled in seeing their ideas come to life again. Performing live helped boost their confidence, as well. All of this grew from a highly organized drive, Yarbrough said.
“Our writing process is extremely collaborative,” Yarbrough said. “There’s nothing about what we do that’s whimsically put together. Everything’s thought out. It’s put through a filter. Honestly, when Cavern Company hit the reset button, we had a blank slate . ... I think what’s been most fun for me is to see the hard work and the dedication result in an album in which we are proud of every single song.”
Practice makes perfect
The earliest rendition of Cavern Company started through mutual friends at Rogers State University in Claremore. The band practiced in Blanchard before everyone relocated to Oklahoma City.
“For our practice schedule, we wanted to practice together no less than three times a week,” Warren said. “To do that we had to be together . ... We want to be a household name in Oklahoma by the end of the year.”
After five years, the band wants to be touring nationally. The release of “Tension” on Saturday is Cavern Company’s mission statement, one that hopefully connects with an Okie audience and beyond.
“We want to grow with the fan base and grow with Oklahoma,” Warren said. “No matter where we go, Cavern Company is from Oklahoma. Oklahoma was good to them. They were good to Oklahoma. It sounds super cheesy, but we’ve grown to love it here.”
‘Dress’ up
If anything resonates with listeners, I’d bet on album highlight “Black Dress.”
Shomaker said after the track survived multiple revisions, and all three members eventually sat down together to write a majority of the recorded track’s lyrics in a single evening.
“The chorus is the blanket statement, where does that leave us?” Shomaker asked. “Our former frontman left, as well. It was about this time period, where does that leave us as a band? In Joshua’s life, where does that leave us? In mine? In retrospect, everything was a sunrise based on the hard work we put into this and being able to see it through.”
At the time, Warren’s pursuit of music caused a strain on his marriage.
“We wanted to talk about these things in a real and honest way,” Warren said. “We’re all three Christians, and this was a time in my life where I was very angry at God. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a Christian or even liked God.”
That struggle is documented in the track’s first verse, and the second verse deals with the passing of Shomaker’s mother. A sunrise punctuates the song with a sense of optimism. “We believe the end result, no matter how long it takes to get there, will be a sunrise and will be worth it,” Warren said. “That comes from an absolute sense of good and worthwhileness.”