By Andrew Bansal
Raleigh, North Carolina’s longtime heavy metal purveyors Corrosion Of Conformity are ready to release their ninth full-length studio album, simply titled ‘IX’, via Candlelight Records on June 24th, continuing on with the rejuvenated three-piece ‘Animosity’ line up of Mike Dean on bass/vocals, Woody Weatherman on guitarand Reed Mullin on drums, which released the band’s comeback self-titled album in 2012 and toured extensively in support of it. Even as Mike Dean found himself occupied with other projects in the past couple of years, the trio managed to maintain their creative flow and have delivered yet another compelling slab of heaviness that’s quintessential COC but at the same time offers something new. A week ago, I spoke to Mike Dean to discuss the making of the album in detail, among other things. Enjoy the conversation below.
Mike, it’s great to have you again on Metal Assault. The new COC album is coming out very soon. Lately you’ve been busy with other projects, so first of all I wanted to ask you, how has that impacted the making of this album?
Well, I think it’s possible that it could have been a bad thing or a distraction, but it was kind of a good distraction because sometimes when you’re creating music, writing songs in the studio and things like that, there’s a lot of tangents you can get on, trying to make things perfect. I think breaking it up with some other work, going and playing with another band and making another recording can sort of give you time away from it. It gives you perspective on it that you wouldn’t have if you’re sitting right there with your face in the computer just laboring a plan. So in this case, the Teenage Time Killers thing that I worked on a little bit and the Vista Chino thing was a welcome distraction. It did make us (COC) have to hurry a little bit when all was said and done, but I think that was a good thing because I don’t like to spend too much time getting stagnant on one group of songs, you know.
That’s interesting. Despite that, you’ve been able to deliver the album within two years from the last one. So it didn’t delay the album in that sense.
Right, but we did have the ‘Megalodon’ EP and that’s sort of where this record came from. We discovered a studio here in Raleigh that had closed down and the room was pretty nice. We knew a guy with whom we were able to get together with just enough equipment to make a record and do it right. So ‘Megalodon’ was kind of the process of putting this place together that we work at, and the self-titled was really taking it one step further, and so was ‘IX’. We’re getting really comfortable working in here. It’s a special space.
I was listening to the album, and as compared to the self-titled effort I would say it’s overall doomier and may be slower? Would you agree with that and is that the general direction you’ve moved in on this album?
I don’t think that’s the general direction but there’s definitely some heavier aspects on this one. It’s more 70s doom, but I think both albums are really all over the map. There’s actually some pretty uptempo songs. Like the song ‘On Your Way’, it’s got a 70s kind of vibe, it’s heavy, it’s very Sabbath but it’s also very uptempo. I think a lot of the stuff on this record is heavy and has a doom sort of element and the good ol’ Black Sabbath vibe, but there’s not a lot of totally slow material. There’s only a few slow parts on the whole recording and it’s a good blend of tempos. But I sort of know what you mean, in that it’s a darker and heavier record. The self-titled has some chugging metal kind of stuff and the idea with that was to get the really frenetic, ‘plectrum on the strings’ type of guitar sound where you really can hear it. I think our producer John Custer was really obsessed with that. When we got out to California to record that album, we didn’t have Woody’s actual concert guitar rig and we had to sort of look around for an amplifier. We ended up just going for a very articulate sound but still have it be heavy, and I think it was a very percussive kind of sound, very clear for the most part, and we were happy with it. But this new album, and perhaps also ‘Megalodon’ reflect more of what we bring to the table live. We used the gear that we use on stage, and as far as recording the drums we made it a point of starting from an almost documentarian approach, like what does this drum kit as a whole sound like in the room, as opposed to how can we record each drum and be able to control each drum and make them clear to build this abstract thing where you can hear each element. We were focussing more on the forest rather than the individual trees in this respect, and I think it sort of contributed to a heavier sound that gave you the impression of a doomier album from your point of view. It’s just heavier, and there’s a lot more of the room in every guitar track, on every drum track. It’s just really focussing on how the room is interacting with this heavy rock band and how it can make it heavier.
You were saying that the album is more of a representation of your live sound. Would you say you’re closer to that on this album than most or all of the previous albums?
For sure, absolutely. And not necessarily live in the sense of using the production tricks that you have to use live when you’re trying to get across a rock band in a room that doesn’t sound that good and you run it through a PA and have to do things to make it heard. This album is ‘live’ in the respect of what the identity of this band is when playing together in a room, and what our gear sounds like in a room. That’s all. Live in the sense of documenting it, starting with that and may be working on that a little bit, augmenting that and making it sound like a respectable album but not really creating an artificial perfection that’s going to stand the test of time. There’s people complaining that the production is too raw or lo-fi or this or that, and I understand why they have that impression but it actually took a lot of time trying to do it right and make it natural.
The previous album was done by the three-piece lineup which was the first time you did that in a while, but this new album is the same setup as well. Have you felt more comfortable working in this environment?
Yeah, absolutely! The format of this trio is fun. You can get away with more, you can play more notes, there’s more space and when you go for something or play something crazy, it comes across because there’s space. At the same time if what you’re doing is not happening, there’s really nowhere to hide (laughs). It’s really obvious. So it’s a blessing and a curse, but I enjoy it. I enjoy working with two guitarists as well. I enjoyed working with Pepper and we did some cool stuff. The only thing I miss in the trio is that live you can’t do the guitar harmonies and you can’t do the Thin Lizzy type of thing at all. As a result, you don’t want to do too much of it as overdubs on the album because you’re going to miss it live. So the trio setup kind of dictates that we have simpler arrangements in our music and to some extent it dictates everything we do, but I kind of like the challenge of working in that.
Do you think you’ll keep going with this setup for the time being at least?
It’s hard to say! When I was talking to Pepper about doing something, it’s been difficult to schedule. I think we’re going to do it at some point. I don’t know when that will happen exactly, and whenever we do, I don’t know that it will go on indefinitely. It could be that we make a record with Pepper and then go back to doing the three-piece stuff or it could be in-and-out. It could be a changeable situation. The door is definitely open for whatever happens. We enjoy working in this format and we still have a lot to say as a trio, but we’re open to other scenarios as well. So we’ll see what lands in our lap! (laughs)
Awesome, man. Recently you did a lot of touring in Europe and you played shows even before this album was done and you didn’t have anything brand new to promote. But from what I hear, the interest for your shows was still great. To have that kind of interest these days for your type of music must be heartening. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, but I don’t know, I think we’re a hard sell, because we really dabble in a lot of different styles at once. We kind of have our own style which is to take elements that we like from different eras and styles and make them our own by combining them in interesting ways. Our whole work ethic and our whole ethos is that we don’t want to be put in a box and we’re really not very excited about how music has become so compartmentalized within different strict genres and sub-genres. I think it has become really restrictive, specially in the last few years, and people are so eager to just try on an identity just off the shelf, like ‘Oh, I’m into blackened death metal’, and when you present something to them that doesn’t reinforce what they already want to feel and want to see, they complain and denounce it. To us it’s all just really music, man. We’re not at all interested in categories. There’s a lot of narrow thinking around that. So we’re kind of a hard sell because they don’t know how to categorize us. There’s some people that identify with the early part of the band, the hardcore/crossover or whatever, and those people come and see that it’s not a 100 per cent that. Then there’s people that just want to see Pepper and they’re like ‘Pepper’s not there’. There’s people that are into ‘Blind’ and they think the rest of the music isn’t like that. A lot of people don’t know how to process it, man. It’s outside of the artificial barriers that they place on music. But we’re having fun kind of fighting that and I think there’s a lot of people that feel the same way who’re into it. The positive and negative thing about COC is we don’t want to be put in those boxes or categories, you know.
Exactly, I feel the same way. I wish the categorization could disappear and bands like yours can play with other bands that don’t sound similar but would be fun to see together with COC!
Yeah, it is kind of funny when I read some of the negative reviews from people who are part of that orthodox, conformist type of mentality. There’s not many but I read them all, and when I see them from people who’re kind of narrow-minded, it’s actually a great affirmation of everything that we do. It’s like, “Yeah! ‘Death Metal News’ does not like our record. That’s awesome!” Because if they did, I’d be concerned, you know (laughs).
It kind of puts your band’s name into perspective.
Right, and I don’t mean to say that you have to like our record and that if you don’t like it you don’t know anything about music, but a lot of times when people are describing something they don’t like, they’re actually telling us more about themselves than what they think they’re talking about. Just like me telling you about all these people I don’t like, you know (laughs).
Absolutely. So, the album comes out on June 24th and after that you have a whole tour planned, I’m sure. When can we expect COC here on the West Coast?
I wish I could announce it right now but we’ll do something out West in August. I wish I could also announce the lineup but we’re trying to narrow down something really awesome that I’m waiting to hear about. We’re putting together a package. We’re starting in Australia in July, then we’ll be doing the West Coast in North America in August and on and on, but that’s pretty much the beginning of it. California, British Columbia, Washington state, Texas, Colorado, and all of that will be in August.
That’s great to hear because it’s been a while. Last time you played here was when you opened for Danzig early last year.
I think so, yeah! Right on, that was a good time, man. Danzig is kind of a character but he still sounds good, I think. You hear stuff about Glen when he’s not having a good day and he kind of acts like a demanding celebrity. People write about that and diss him for it but he’s always so sweet to COC and so kind to us, it’s crazy. He’s always been cool to us.
I’m sure you’ll tour with him again then?
Totally! (laughs)
Corrosion Of Conformity links:
COC.com
facebook.com/CorrosionOfConformity
twitter.com/COCcabal