Lincoln Parish on His Decision to Leave Cage the Elephant

Those who tuned in to

may have noticed the conspicuous absence of founding member and current Nashvillian Lincoln Parish. As it turns out, the 23-year-old guitarist recently made the decision to leave CTE in order to follow his passion for producing.

"It wasn't necessarily, like, a super-erratic decision or anything like that," Parish tells the Cream. "I got into producing other bands and artists about four years ago. And actually, even before the band got started — when I was like 14, 15 — I wanted to be a producer before anything else. And then [Cage the Elephant] obviously took off and did more than what any of us could have expected."

Parish goes on to explain that his last performance with Cage the Elephant was Nov. 2 at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion's Buzzfest in Houston, Texas, although he'd made the decision to leave the band about a month before that. "Production is where my heart is" at the moment, Parish says, and he hopes to "make an honest attempt" at making that his primary career focus.

"Everybody in [Cage the Elephant] has been super-supportive," Parish explains. "I think they hated to see me go. It was one of those things where they were also happy to see me doing what my passion is right now."

Parish runs Talk Box Rodeo in Woodbine, and in the past he's recorded bands including Cream faves Penicillin Baby and Western Medication. Any bands interested in recording at Talk Box Rodeo can reach out via talkboxrodeo[at]gmail[dot]com.