CYHRA
Yes, they are comprised of a double dose of former IN FLAMES members as well as a heaping helping of former AMARANTHE and ANNIHILATOR and SHINING members. (Whew!! Did you follow all of that?)
But CYHRA, formed in 2016 by pals Jake E and Jesper Stromblad, are hoping fans will venture out and take a listen to see just what this new mix of musicians has produced. With bass player Peter Iwers, drummer Alex Landenburg, and guitarist Euge Valovirta rounding out the group’s pool of talent, CYHRA is all set to make their own mark in metal and show metalheads everywhere just how a ‘reignited passion’ for music is supposed to look and sound. Just how are they doing that one might wonder? Why, by dropping their debut album Letters to Myself on October 20, of course! So, check it out. Commit to trying new things instead of staying in a metal rut. You might find out it totally kicks ass….and then you will thank them for committing to trying out something new as well.
In the meantime, let’s find out a little more about this group and the arrival of their brand-spanking new album–their gift to us.
Thanks for taking a moment to answer a few questions. ‘Hope you don’t mind but I am just jumping right in and getting the obvious out of the way: How did you five come to decide to be a part of Cyhra?
It started out that me and Jesper, that has been friends for a long time had a cup of coffee together one Friday night. This was after we’ve been a part from each other for like 6 months or so. We started to talk about what we want to do what are musical careers.
I will still in amaranthe back then and Jesper had recently decided to not continue on with the resistance. I mention for Jesper. That I was thinking of doing a solo album. an album just for myself. Jesper said that that was exactly what he was going through in his own mind.
We started to discuss what kind of music that those solo albums were to include, and after awhile Jesper stood up pointing his fingers to my face, almost screaming at me. -This is something that we are supposed to do together let’s just write one album and not two!
The next Monday we started to write songs and after a couple of months we had a couple of songs lined up. I sent the demos to Alexander which instantly like them, well! he actually love them. Alex said that I really want to be a part of this and that was the point in Cyrus career where we decided to form a band and do this for real. Peter came in a little later and he was still in in Flames back then, but we decided that whatever happens with the band we will manage this having Peter into balance and Alex was also having his Luca turilli Rhapsody.Then it happened that Peter decided to leave in Flames for other reasons than Cyhra and Luca turilli got reunited with with Rhapsody of Fire.
While we are at it, go ahead and let our readers know about your debut live show as well..
Yeah we have our first live show ever in Helsinki October 27th at a place called Noustori.
We’re really looking forward for this show and I can’t wait to see the fans which are probably going to include both old amaranthe and in Flames fans. But hopefully as the album’s been out for 7 days at least some persons at the show will be in you fans that have heard the album and likes it. We are going to put all our efforts in doing this show memorable for the fans that are coming there, and it’s almost like a revenge for all of us to stand on the stage again. At the same time I’m so proud to share the stage with this awesome musician in my awesome friends.
Letters to Myself is being released via Spinefarm Records. How did this relationship come about?
I’ve been on universal records and spinefarm records for the past 7 years during my time in amaranthe. I have always had a really good relationship with the Personnel working on the labels and for me it was a no-brainer to show them Cyhra first before I went to any other label. I’m very happy that they like the music and that they believed in me both as a songwriter and in the fact that I’m starting a brand new band from scratch. Both spinefarm and Universal has the power to push the band and to take us where we wanted it to be.
Considering the likelihood that people will want to compare Cyhrato your former bands and sounds, what would you like to stress to listeners to be cognizant of before they test-drive Letters to Myself?
We will always be compared to our former careers probably forever, but Cyhra is a new band with new music but with members that happens to be famous for doing something else in their past carriers. We wrote this album for ourselves and of course we hope that the people that hear it will like it as much as we do! but I also hope that people that knows about our former bands won’t compare this to the Past because this is the future and this is what we’re doing now
Now that you are a group of five, will there be defined rolls in the future as far as who will write lyrics, music, etc? Or will it be entirely a group effort?
Me and Jesper wrote most of the material to letters to myself before the other band members was introduced. Of course inputs from the others are welcome I think that we see ourselves as the main songwriters without leaving others out of anything when it comes to ideas. And I know that the rest of the guys have songwriting skills themselves and right now we’re promoting this album when it comes to the next we have no idea who’s going to write what? When it comes to lyrics I am really hard on the fact that I’m the one singing it so it needs to feel right for me to deliver the words out to an audience.
If you don’t mind, please share with our readers the poignant inspiration behind Letters to Myself. Musically we were just wrote songs and we used all our former experiences when it comes to songwriting. It became a mixture of my ideas when it comes to Big courses, as well as Jesper is phenomenal guitar melodies. When it comes to the lyrics Me and Jesper sat down. We almost had therapy sessions with each other talking about how we felt and what we’ve been through throughout our lives. As everyone knows by this point just burst been struggling with addiction and he’s an open alcoholic. Even though he’s clean since years he’s still battling anxiety and other problems caused by that. I had big problems growing up with a lot of things that I don’t want to dig deeper into but talking to Jesper open up my mind to finally write about things that I’ve been hiding from myself for such a long time, so the inspiration for the album is obviously ourselves and our own lives.
What’s on deck after Helsinki?
Right now we’re working our asses off to find suitable tour. but we’ve also booked a lot of shows that will be official soon and the live wise it looks really promising for the future.
Thanks so much for giving us your time! Before you leave us, can you share the funniest bit of advice any of you have ever been given that actually worked? It can be anything. Don’t worry. We won’t judge….
Be true to yourself and never give up and be honest to everyone and everything around you! This is something thing that will always work and if you have a dream. Fight for it!b because if you fight for it enough it will become true.
Thank you for your time and I hope to see you soon cheers.
Christina Thompson/MHF Magazine
