 |
|
Cutting material, the amount of studio equipment available to hand has increased throughout the years for Corrosion Of Conformity. “Over time, it kind of did change for us,” Mike confirms. “At first, we had the bare minimum type of equipment to go and have Eye For An Eye recorded for us. Actually, as a result of us not being happy with Eye For An Eye, those same people gave us one side of Animosity for free to redeem themselves. They had stuff that could bankrupt you, stuff that could bankrupt your whole financial life – they were too expensive for individuals to acquire at that time. People who had that studio sound, they were really trying to live their dreams, and so they put what resources they had into it.
“To get the minimum stuff to record on tape at that point was expensive, but then we kind of got into a situation where moving on and being on Sony, we had recording advances. We didn’t know if we were gonna hang around on that label and meet the type of insane sales expectations they would’ve had at that time, but we knew that we wanted to make musical statements. We used the resources we got to record at Electric Lady and Criteria, places that were the most amazing examples of analogue recording studios. Then around the time of America’s Volume Dealer (October 2000), we decided that we wanted to work at home without spending a lot of somebody else’s money, and being worried about it. We made a record on the ProTools system, which was alright, but it was lacking a little bit.
“Ever since then, it’s been about trying to work on the computer, but to get that sound of the analogue situation, and to make something that sounds like a classic record. More, we’re drifting back towards trying to acquire some of the same appliances that we had on the first records. We’ve got a mixing console that we actually mixed the music on instead of a computer, and we have 1970s and 1980s compressors, and things like that – things that we’ve dredged up to insert into that mixing console, just to get the true impact of the records that inspired us when we were kids. We’re not saying that it’s impossible to do all of that on the computer. Somebody can, but to us, just the work-flow and the methodology of turning knobs and hitting circuits like that is so much easier to do in terms of getting the sound that we want. It’s amazing, so yeah. It’s a bottomless pit of investment if you’re not careful, but we’re just trying to invest the bare minimum of what we need to do it, and we’re almost there.”
Much of the bass work prevalent on IX “is really off the cuff,” the frontman submits. “You asked me before about playing in a three-piece band as opposed to a quartet, having two guitars. Sometimes the role has to be supportive. Where it used to be supportive and stay out of the way, and just super-low, I feel that now there needs to be more of a present, kind of low mid-range to it to fill out that part of the structure – almost like a second guitar. I feel like sonically it has to be a little more distorted than it would if I was in a quartet, and just hang around a little more. It’s just a mixture of the usual Geezer Butler-inspired stuff (Black Sabbath) with a little Jack Bruce inspiration (Cream), Billy Cox (Band Of Gypsys), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Cliff Burton (Metallica) – things like that. I can’t play like any of those dudes; I can only play like me.
“There’s a little bit of calculated, clever ‘I’m gonna play a deliberate harmony here or there,’ but for the most part, it’s like ‘I’m just gonna run around until I find something cool.’ It’s all pretty easy here, in this format. I might do things over again; I might do a few more tracks just to get something right, just because it is so upfront. I think with the whole record, with the bass, I guess you’re talking more about approach, and I keep talking about sonics. With the whole record though, we enjoyed the whole experience of our self-titled and we’re proud of that record, but we came away from it wanting the next record to reflect more of what our identity is in a live setting. Like to actually use our own amps and cabinets at battle volume. I put mikes in front of that in a way that would capture what the band is about live, so yeah, that was kind of the approach – a loud cabinet and not much messing around with other stuff, and the same with Woody’s cabinets. Just trying to make it like being there.”
Prior to being committed to tape, none of the compositions on IX had been performed live. “The live approach to these particular songs is kind of still to be determined, with the exception of the two or three songs that we’ve played live now after the record,” Mike discloses. “So yeah, we wanted it to be real and be in there, but I would say that there was some stuff that I was going for and barely did, stuff that might not be something that I can pull off live just like that. It’s certainly possible, but yeah.
“We did try to keep it honest and just go for it, but doing it again, doing it again, and doing it again live, and then having the opportunity to do it again. Basically though, that element of these songs in particular was just coming together. If it’s on the tape, that’s the first time that I did it right (laughs). But yeah, generally, that’s the idea. It is a recording though, a studio album, so if it’s not right then you do it again and again (laughs). Obviously, the difficult parts were the parts you’d spend the most time doing again and again and again.”
|
|
IX was produced by John Custer one again, whose Corrosion Of Conformity production tally amounts to seven full-lengths in all, the only exceptions being the opening brace of Eye For An Eye and Animosity. “I don’t really have any recollection of meeting John Custer early on,” the musician confesses. “The first time I became really aware of him, I had quit the band. I didn’t really have great expectations for Corrosion Of Conformity at the time, because Corrosion Of Conformity hadn’t come out with anything for a couple of years. I just didn’t know what they were gonna do, but all of a sudden I heard a record called Blind (November 1991). It was tremendous, and it was just super-musical. I was like ‘Woah. This is amazing. How could this be?’ I saw the name John Custer on it, on the back of the cassette or whatever it was.
“Flash forward about 18 months, and Phil (Swisher, bass) had quit because they had kicked Karl (Agell, vocals) out. Suddenly they’re asking me to play bass, and they were actually looking for a singer. They gave up on that idea, and so we were going to proceed as four people and get Pepper to sing. We convinced him that we thought that ‘Vote With A Bullet’ (on Blind) was a great song, and that if he could do that with one great song, then he could do it for an album, etcetera, etcetera. Then I met John Custer, going into the studio to put some bass on the tracks for Deliverance. I think at that time, it was a major label thing. Maybe the stakes were higher, but it seemed like at that time, he had a fairly specific vision that he shared with Pepper in particular. There was room for creativity, but they had specific ideas in mind.
“I think over time, he’s kind of evolved with us to be accepting of happy accidents, and actually be looking for them. Working with him, I feel like he makes fewer suggestions. He sits there and listens a lot, but when he does come up with suggestions, it’s usually spot on. I also think for us, we like having him around. We have space to do all of our creativity, but he’s just kind of there with quality control. It’s good to have a set of excellent ears there with a perspective slightly outside of the group of people. He can tell somebody that something’s not right necessarily. but without it seeming personal and interfering with the band relationship as much. He just has that slightly outside of it perspective, and it’s useful. We’ve basically used him for every situation since then, although the role has evolved a little bit. It’s only a good thing; I think we might do it again.”
The title IX equates to the digit nine in Roman numerals, of course. “It’s Roman numerals, man. They’ve got good impact; they look timeless, like they should be carved in a great piece of stone or something,” Mike enthuses. “The visual impact was good. Graphically it looks cool, carved across the front, and it’s the ninth full-length studio record in all of these years. We experimented with other titles – in terms of taking the title of another song, or something like that – but I think we wanted it to be about the music, and not get on some big… And not try to force some type of broader concept on the group of songs. They seemed to hang together pretty well, but there wasn’t any unifying theme, and we didn’t wanna force anything. We actually did try a couple of other ideas, but I just liked the visual impact of it. It kind of visually reminds me of Vol. 4, which is my favourite Sabbath record as well. That’s IV (laughs), but whatever.”
A music video is due to be issued for the track ‘On Your Way’. “I’m waiting to see how that’s shaping out now,” the four-stringer imparts. “I’m trying to not be anxious (laughs). I’m not a big fan of music videos, but the guy that’s helping us out with it, it seems like he might have a chance of making a good one. He just shot a video for Down sort of live in their practice space (‘We Knew Him Well’, from May 2014’s Down IV – Part II). He’s a nice dude. He likes Stanley Kubrick a lot, so we’ll see what he comes up with. But yeah, we did our little performance bit here in North Carolina. The director’s name is J. M. Stelly, and you can see his work on the most recent Down video, but yeah, he’s doing the conceptual stuff today (June 30th). Hopefully, I’ll have something to look at for the song ‘On Your Way’. I probably gave him way too many detailed ideas to the point where it probably is oppressive for him (laughs). We’ll see what he comes up with under those terrible conditions.”
In developments unrelated to Corrosion Of Conformity, meanwhile, solo albums have curtailed any short-term ambitions for Vista Chino. “Basically, we were all excited about the chemistry and the shows that we played – Bruno (Fevery, guitars), Brant (Bjork, drums) and I, in particular – but John (Garcia, vocals) had had it in his mind for a very long time to do a solo record,” Mike laments. “It was time for him to do that, so we were a little broad-sided by that, but we respected that it was something he’s wanted to do for a long time. He’s off doing that, and Brant has of course retooled his solo game in response. He’s got Bubba DuPree who played in Hater with Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden, and he was actually a guitarist in my favourite Washington, DC hardcore band when I was a kid – Void. Yeah, he’s got Bubba on guitar and Dave Dinsmore playing bass, who’s the younger brother of Clifford Dinsmore from BL’AST! He’s got this heavy band now, and they’re actually gonna go on tour with us, so those guys both have their solo thing tooled up.
|
|
“I would say that Vista Chino is on hiatus, but it’s certainly possible that in 12-18 months they might come around, and realise that they have an option on their contract. I think that you can expect to see another Vista Chino album start coming together at that point. If I’m invited, then I’ll be an enthusiastic participant. It’s something I would love to do, but that far into the future, it’s hard to say what those guys will do. Yeah though, I would love to do that, because I feel like we were just starting to click and communicate and improvise as a band, especially the rhythm section. We were a little disappointed at the way things went, but that was sort of eased a little bit by the fact that I got the feeling that John’s made a really killer record (John Garcia, August 2014) – the musical collaboration with Robbie Krieger from The Doors (‘Her Bullets Energy’), and things like that. It’s not for nothing that we’re ceasing operations at the moment. I guess it’s to be determined, to give you a short answer.”
Kyuss alumni Nick Oliveri occupied bass for the majority of tracks on debut Vista Chino outing Peace, while as has been mentioned, Mike performed bass duties for live dates in support of that very effort. For those reasons, the status of the bass position within Vista Chino is unclear to outside observers. “It’s nebulous, I suppose,” he offers. “No, Nick just had a situation where he couldn’t travel. He did actually quit the band, so they basically needed somebody else to come in. They got Billy Cordell to actually play some shows with them, but about the time they were recording, they were actually experiencing that lawsuit situation. To Billy, that just created a lot of anxiety. I mean, it created a lot of anxiety for all of them, but he just started to find it not to be a positive situation. He didn’t want to deal with all of that uncertainty, and so he split. Then they got Nick back to play some songs, but then Nick had a situation where he couldn’t travel to play. They called me in to play some spur of the moment shows, and learn a bunch of material. I ended up playing on one song on the record.
“It’s pretty nebulous, but Nick’s got his other things going on. It’s possible they might get Nick; he’s awesome, and everybody loves Nick. Whether I’m involved I think is irrelevant, because what’s most relevant to me is the chemistry between John and Brant and Bruno. I think I can plug in there pretty well, hang with them, and especially improvise with them, and stuff like that. Nick is awesome though, and another Kyuss member doesn’t hurt the cause at all. Whatever they’d like to do – whatever’s right at the time of getting together a second Vista Chino record – is fine with me. I’m happy to participate, but who’s playing bass is fairly irrelevant.”
The existence of musical project Teenage Time Killer surfaced during May 2013, the involvement of the Corrosion Of Conformity singer being touted in publications. “That’s primarily Reed’s thing,” he stresses. “I feel like my role in it got over-emphasised, simply by being asked to stand next to Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God vocalist) in a photograph. Basically, that was something that Reed started doing with this guy John Lousteau, who was one of the engineers on the self-titled. He works at Studio 606, which is Dave Grohl’s studio. I think their idea was to do something like a Probot-type project, which was a few years ago when Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters / Nirvana) basically composed some songs along with Bubba Dupree, who’s playing in Brant’s band right now. They would put some original songs together, and try to get their favourite, largely unheralded metal and hardcore vocalists to sing on them. They ended up getting Lee Dorrian (Cathedral / ex-Napalm Death), and Mike Dean, and King Diamond (Mercyful Fate), and Wino (Scott Weinrich, Saint Vitus / The Obsessed), and various people like that – Eric Wagner (Blackfinger / ex-Trouble) – to sing on these songs, and kind of put it all together, and make this super-collaboration.
“I think that John and Reed were thinking maybe a step bigger and a step more complex, because they recorded some songs together. The bassist for the band was mostly Mick Murphy, from this band called My Ruin out of Los Angeles. The guitar player, he’s from Tennessee, and John Lousteau is from Tennesee – he moved out to California – as is Nick Raskulinecz, who used to be an engineer at Sound City. He’s now a producer; he produced the last two Rush records (June 2012’s Clockwork Angels and May 2007’s Snakes & Arrows). They’re this group of people who moved from Tennessee to Los Angeles. They kind of got together with Reed and created these songs, and then they started getting people to sing on them, including Randy Blythe, Jello Biafra (ex-Dead Kennedys), Max Cavalera (Soulfly / ex-Sepultura), and on and on.
|
|
“Then they got Pete Stahl from Goatsnake; he used to be in Wool, and he used to be in Scream with Dave Grohl. Greg Anderson from Sunn O))) put some guitar on it. Pretty soon, you have this cast of characters – we’re talking about a number of people. I played bass on a song, I tracked vocals on a couple of songs, and recorded Woody Weatherman playing guitar on it. Basically, I’m somewhat conversing on what it is, but my involvement has been exaggerated (laughs). Last time I checked though, I did have a bass guitar track on a song, and I tracked Woody’s guitar.”
When Teenage Time Killer’s full-length debut will be issued exactly is uncertain. “I wish I did, man,” Mike apologises. “Let’s get it together. It’s gonna happen. There are responsible adult business people involved, so it’ll happen (laughs). I don’t know exactly when.”
Similarly assembled project Probot – which the rhythmist referenced – issued its lone self-titled opus in February 2004, Mike having lent vocals to the track ‘Access Babylon’. “I remember hearing about it, and then I remember getting a FedEx package with a very small two-inch reel tape,” he recalls. “I took that down to a studio, put it on, and thought that the song kind of reminded me of Bad Brains meets Void. I thought I would just try something with a lot of syllables, reminiscent of Bad Brains. About 15 minutes later I had a song, made a safety copy, went to the UPS drop-off, and sent him the tape back. Then I got a check for $2,000 (laughs). It’s kind of like how you wish the music business was, ordinarily. As far as that record, I’m pretty partial to the Eric Wagner and Lee Dorrian tracks (‘My Tortured Soul’ and ‘Ice Cold Man’, respectively).”
IX was released on June 30th, 2014 in Europe and subsequently on July 1st in North America, all via Candlelight Records.
Interview published in July 2014.
