Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 955 - Bobby Landgraf (Corrosion of Conformity) Talks New Album "Good Man - Baad Man"

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 955 - Bobby Landgraf (Corrosion of Conformity) Talks New Album "Good Man - Baad Man" · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  That's the beauty of this one is because it's not like any single
• 0:03
  COC record in its entirety. It's like a best of if you will.
• 0:07
  You know all the flavors from different records coming coming
• 0:18
  Well dude, well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk
• 0:20
  to me for Ghost Cult today. How you doing?
• 0:22
  Glad to. Be here.
• 0:23
  I'm so good, man. I'm so excited about this new
• 0:26
  record. I just love talking about it,
• 0:27
  dude. You know what?
• 0:28
  So that's good because we're going, we're going to be talking
• 0:31
  a lot about it because I do have some.
• 0:34
  Let me see. I have some stuff I wanted to
• 0:35
  bring up actually, before we get started.
• 0:37
  Was that. So congratulations First off on
• 0:40
  the album because right on. It's monstrous.
• 0:43
  Like, you know, and I've been a CSC fan since, you know, the 80s
• 0:46
  when sure, the punk band, you know, and seeing all the
• 0:49
  different incarnations of the band and like, just the kind of
• 0:53
  diverse changes and, you know, avenues that they've taken.
• 0:57
  It would have been really easy, I think, for Pepper and the rest
• 1:00
  to do Deliverance 20 times. But like every album sounds like
• 1:06
  a new road. This one seems pretty, pretty
• 1:08
  different. Like, I mean, we got not only do
• 1:10
  I have a double album, we've got some loose concept going on, you
• 1:14
  know, from side to side. But then it also, you know, it
• 1:18
  kind of channels in some of that aggression.
• 1:20
  So for you to kind of step into that.
• 1:22
  Tell me a little more about that.
• 1:24
  But it's my honor to be a part of it and to be asked to do it,
• 1:28
  first of all. And I'm coming in with Mike
• 1:31
  Dean's blessing as well. So that's, you know, it's a big
• 1:34
  deal for me. Big shoes to fill.
• 1:35
  But as far as writing this material, man, it's it's been
• 1:40
  called like a conglomeration of old records.
• 1:43
  You know, you say deliverance. Well, there's a couple on here
• 1:46
  that could have been on deliverance volume dealer
• 1:49
  happens to be my favorite record.
• 1:50
  There's a couple on here that could have come off volume
• 1:52
  dealer arms of God's a great record, you know, with standing
• 1:56
  on it and couple of these could have been from that record.
• 1:59
  But you know, I guess what I'm trying to say is that's the
• 2:02
  beauty of this one is because it's not like any single COC
• 2:05
  record in its entirety. It's like a a best of if you
• 2:08
  will. You know all the flavors from
• 2:10
  different records coming coming together into one.
• 2:13
  See, and to me, that's how, you know, if I'm going to have, you
• 2:16
  know, any of the bands that I love, like I, I like to be
• 2:19
  challenged not only just as, like, I don't just like the
• 2:22
  bands to be challenged, but I want to be challenged, you know,
• 2:25
  as as a listener and as a fan. Yeah.
• 2:28
  And, you know, I mean, there's no problem for me with like, you
• 2:30
  know, hearing an ACDC album because I know what it's going
• 2:33
  to be, you know, Or like, when, you know, you know, when the
• 2:36
  Ramones were going to put out a new album, I knew what it was
• 2:38
  going to be. There was always the side of me
• 2:40
  that I was like, oh come on man, surprise me.
• 2:43
  Surprise me with something. Yeah, right.
• 2:45
  And this album did that for me, which I was like, you know, like
• 2:48
  I would think I was a little taken back, which in a great
• 2:51
  way. I'm so bad to hear that because
• 2:53
  I was too, man. And, and I hope everybody that
• 2:55
  hears it is as well. And I hope everybody that
• 2:57
  listens to it puts on headphones and takes the time because
• 3:01
  there's so much going on sonically.
• 3:03
  You don't get it the first pass, maybe it's the second, but you
• 3:06
  know, by the 3rd and 4th time you start listening to this
• 3:08
  record, you start, you like, oh, that's what that is.
• 3:11
  And there's so much going on that and that's the beauty of
• 3:14
  it. It's, you know, it's a good
• 3:16
  headphone laying on the ground. Record to have man.
• 3:19
  You know, I was actually gonna bring that up because the first
• 3:21
  time I listened to it, I listened to it on the computer,
• 3:23
  you know, and I have, like, studio monitors to a musician.
• 3:27
  I record that. The sound is good, right?
• 3:29
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:29
  But man, you know, and I don't even have the hard copy yet.
• 3:32
  I just have the, you know, the streaming copy.
• 3:35
  But man, when I streamed it to my my receiver and put some nice
• 3:39
  headphones, Oh my God dude, ear candy.
• 3:42
  Yeah, man. You don't get that a lot and
• 3:45
  metal releases too much anymore and so.
• 3:48
  At all, I'd say. Yeah.
• 3:50
  And to me, that's kind of that's kind of going back to the, the
• 3:53
  aiming for like the analog. Absolutely right.
• 3:57
  Yeah, I. Mean because you had to have
• 3:59
  that kind of you had to have those kinds of layers back then
• 4:02
  to create that kind of a Sonic yes experience.
• 4:05
  Absolutely. And with Warren Riker and
• 4:07
  Pepper, you know, Woody and Cahoots, when it was being
• 4:11
  mixed, it's like, yeah, oh, what about this?
• 4:13
  What about that? And they, they put it all in
• 4:16
  there, man. Oh, they did, yeah.
• 4:18
  I mean, because again, like one of the things I just absolutely
• 4:21
  loved was just the the Sonic sound of it, you know?
• 4:24
  And I think another thing too is this, this style of music can
• 4:27
  get muddy and it can get kind of thick, you know, which is great.
• 4:31
  But there was like just this right amount of high end to that
• 4:35
  sound on this one where it didn't sound so overly thick and
• 4:39
  compressed. OK, good answer.
• 4:42
  Oh, OK, so I. Right.
• 4:44
  I mean, it's a lot of information, you know, to to be
• 4:48
  putting through that stylus on the needle, right?
• 4:51
  There's a lot going on. And boy, they figured out how to
• 4:54
  squeeze it all in there, man. You know, but it's, I mean, from
• 4:57
  your perspective though, is, is this kind of becoming a new,
• 5:01
  it's like a new old way of doing it?
• 5:04
  Because I feel like for a long time, especially once we got
• 5:07
  into the digital age, there was a loss of concern for that.
• 5:10
  People were listening to it on earbuds or on like, you know,
• 5:13
  they're a little crappy. Yeah, my crappy iPhone.
• 5:17
  You know, headphones or whatever.
• 5:18
  Tops iPhones, you know, that's just, you know, certainly wasn't
• 5:23
  mixed for that, although with the the beauty of of of how it
• 5:28
  was mastered and everything, it really does jump off the phone,
• 5:32
  but you're still ripping yourself off if you don't get
• 5:34
  yourself some phones or, you know, some decent monitors, good
• 5:37
  car stereo, you know, let that shit RIP, man feel that shit
• 5:41
  absolutely. I mean, you know, because, I
• 5:43
  mean, we're pretty much from the same generation and oh sure, you
• 5:46
  know, and remembering what it was like to hear music that way
• 5:50
  and that we all kind of fell into that, you know, I mean, we
• 5:52
  grew along with the technology. I mean, dude, I had an eye.
• 5:55
  I mean, I had the, the, what was it, the iPod and like the little
• 6:00
  crappy bud speakers. But at the same time I was like,
• 6:02
  how amazing is this? You know, and then and then you
• 6:06
  kind of lose like sight of like what it used to sound like until
• 6:10
  I bought a turntable again for the first time in decades and
• 6:14
  hold my records out of storage. And you know, I'm listening to
• 6:17
  Live After Death and I'm going, that's what it used to sound
• 6:22
  like. So now I'm hearing bands doing
• 6:24
  that again. Another thing we used to do that
• 6:27
  I don't think it's done enough is listening to the whole damn
• 6:30
  side and taking it in. Then you flip it, then you take
• 6:34
  in that side. And with the beauty of this
• 6:36
  record, you got two of them. So you got four chances to just
• 6:39
  start and just kick back and let those go and and they were put
• 6:43
  in order so you could enjoy it that way, you know?
• 6:46
  So yeah, we're very old school and and we're able to make a
• 6:48
  product that's very old school in the best way, you know, not
• 6:52
  like, oh, you know, not in any technique thing, but but just
• 6:55
  the idea behind it, you know, the songs that were put in the
• 6:58
  order that they're in what we did production wise to make
• 7:03
  these songs happen. And yeah, man, so much going on.
• 7:06
  That's that's what I mean by you get it like the fourth time you
• 7:09
  hear it, you're like, oh, OK, that's what that is and that's
• 7:11
  what this is. Because I always thought that a
• 7:13
  great sounding record, not like, or a great record kind of always
• 7:17
  went a little bit beyond as far as like what the, you know, what
• 7:19
  the writing or what the, you know, what the songs were.
• 7:22
  Because, you know, a great record was one that, you know,
• 7:24
  at least for me, that I could listen to two or three times.
• 7:27
  And every time I listen, I go, oh, I didn't catch that before.
• 7:31
  But when that production is that way, it also makes it easier to
• 7:35
  hone in on the lyrics and hone in on the music, you know,
• 7:38
  because it's all kind of coming together.
• 7:41
  Yeah, man. Have you noticed that yourself
• 7:43
  as a listener when listening to some bands that are putting out,
• 7:47
  let's say, doing the vinyl thing nowadays and everything and
• 7:49
  revisiting that old school of you?
• 7:52
  Know I haven't. You know what?
• 7:54
  I don't have a big turntable and a bunch of records anymore.
• 7:58
  I know that's the, the new way and I'd love that it's coming
• 8:01
  back, but, you know, I really need to give me a turntable and,
• 8:06
  and revisit this life I used to have.
• 8:08
  You know, I'm definitely, it's my, my music's in my computer
• 8:12
  and my phone, you know what I mean?
• 8:14
  But that's just I, I'm on the road so much that, that that's
• 8:17
  where I'd get my music, you know?
• 8:19
  But no, it's, it's really proud and and happy to be a child of
• 8:23
  the 70s bringing back that idea, you know?
• 8:26
  It's so funny because like what we were just talking about was
• 8:29
  that, you know, we grew up with that.
• 8:30
  So we remember what the high fidelity, you know, the, the,
• 8:34
  you know, the hum of the receiver when you would turn it
• 8:36
  on and things like that. And then we migrated into, you
• 8:39
  know, the tech technology and the, you know, the space era, I
• 8:43
  always call it, of music. Yeah.
• 8:45
  It's almost kind of like, for guys like us, it's like a
• 8:46
  midlife crisis now. Like we're like, Oh my God, I
• 8:49
  want to buy out all the albums that I gave away.
• 8:52
  Absolutely. You know, I've spent most of my
• 8:54
  I feel like I've spent most of the decade rebuying shit that I.
• 8:57
  There you go man, and and rightly so, because we can.
• 9:01
  And what a beautiful thing. It absolutely is.
• 9:04
  So you pretty much were like holed up with Stanton Moore for
• 9:08
  like what, 2 weeks I guess? Yeah, during the writing of it,
• 9:11
  yeah, we had a two different times that we all got together
• 9:14
  as a group. One the first time, well,
• 9:16
  everything was written with Pepper and Woody wrote
• 9:20
  everything and then sent me the tracks to put bass on.
• 9:24
  So we were, you know, home studioing it at first, but then
• 9:28
  the most beautiful thing was Pepper got us all together at
• 9:31
  his studio with our producer and we lived there, stayed in the
• 9:35
  house, stayed in the same headspace and and we're in each
• 9:39
  other's faces for about two weeks.
• 9:41
  And that's when we wrote everything.
• 9:42
  So everything we did was recorded, even though, you know,
• 9:45
  we were joking around maybe and here and there.
• 9:47
  But look what we got. We got a couple of these things
• 9:49
  on the record came right off the floor when we were in there.
• 9:52
  It was an amazing time because I've never had the opportunity
• 9:57
  lately to spend the time with the band, with the producer in
• 10:01
  the room. Let's try this, let's stay,
• 10:04
  let's lose this, let's try this and maybe lose this.
• 10:07
  And it was a wonderful experience, man.
• 10:09
  It was badass. I couldn't have asked for
• 10:10
  anything better. And then when it came, the third
• 10:12
  time we got together was to cut the bass and drums, and that was
• 10:16
  at a wonderful studio in Lafayette.
• 10:19
  And there was nobody around us again.
• 10:21
  We were living there in each other's, just us in the
• 10:24
  building. So you wake up the next day, you
• 10:26
  got a cup of coffee in your hand, you're walking over the
• 10:29
  cables and the rigs and you're like, Oh yeah, let's do that one
• 10:32
  again, you know, And just that made it for the most awesome
• 10:35
  experience that I've ever had. Having the time with everybody
• 10:40
  in each other's face, looking at each other, writing stuff and
• 10:43
  then bringing stuff right off the cuff, right off the floor
• 10:46
  happened a few times. And those are big moments.
• 10:49
  There's something to be said too, I guess, about writing like
• 10:51
  on the spot versus coming in and going probably one guy come in
• 10:55
  and go, hey, here's 25 songs, burn them.
• 10:57
  You know, because I always felt like that when it when an artist
• 11:01
  does that, that you're kind of losing part of that connection
• 11:04
  with your other, you know, your other cohorts in your band.
• 11:07
  And so in a situation like this where Pepper and Woody were
• 11:10
  doing the writing, like was it ever kind of it, was it ever a
• 11:14
  little complex for you to kind of feel like you could integrate
• 11:17
  into that? Or did you?
• 11:18
  Was it a very natural thing where they kind of just said
• 11:20
  jump in and do your thing? That's exactly what happened.
• 11:23
  Now, as far as the 23 songs that you know the they wrote and
• 11:26
  hair, everybody learned them. Sure, we did that over the
• 11:29
  computers at the home studios. So I went in knowing the meat
• 11:33
  and potatoes, but once you're there playing them and once
• 11:37
  you're in the midst of it and the producers there and Pepper's
• 11:40
  coming up with vocal ideas and changes, just like, oh, OK,
• 11:43
  let's take this here, let's put this here, scrap that one thing,
• 11:46
  let's just change it. We need, we need a new part.
• 11:48
  Bobby, what do you, what do you got?
• 11:49
  Or something like that. And so yes, the the meat and
• 11:52
  potatoes were there, but we were able to mix the plates up and
• 11:55
  serve them up, you know, with our individual flavours.
• 11:59
  Absolutely. That's a very southern way of
• 12:01
  saying that. Serve me up on a plate.
• 12:03
  Serve it up, potatoes. Stop that shit up with a biscuit
• 12:06
  bro. Oh good Lord, man, speaking up
• 12:08
  'cause I know we were just talking about.
• 12:10
  So I, I was born and raised in New Orleans.
• 12:11
  I grew up in, oh, right. And, you know, actually grew up
• 12:15
  seeing Pepper in Graveyard Rodeo at the PFW hall down the road
• 12:19
  from my grandmother's house. You.
• 12:21
  You've been seeing it for a long time then, man.
• 12:24
  Those were the good old. But, you know, but the reason I
• 12:26
  was going into that was that because there's something about
• 12:28
  New Orleans that kind of bleeds into the the creative psyche of
• 12:32
  a musician, regardless of the genre.
• 12:34
  Sure. And I, I, I mean, I've been a
• 12:37
  Galactic fan for, God, 20 something years.
• 12:40
  And so when I first heard, you know, Stanton was working with
• 12:43
  CSC back at, you know, a while ago, I was like, yeah, I was
• 12:46
  like Stan Moore playing metal. I mean, like, I, I mean, I kinda
• 12:50
  can get it. But then right when I heard it
• 12:53
  then it was kind of like, oh, it was kind of like when you first
• 12:56
  hear Bill Ward for the, you know what I mean?
• 12:57
  You're like, oh, it's a jazz drummer with swing with some
• 13:00
  flair to it playing heavy music. There you go, man.
• 13:03
  And as a rhythm section, what I noticed too, which I is it
• 13:07
  standing like you're kind of playing behind the beat when it
• 13:10
  comes to stand, which is not a real, that's not a very common
• 13:13
  thing in metal music. So like, was that an adjustment
• 13:17
  for you or was that kind of like a welcomed, you know?
• 13:21
  Oh, it was very welcomed, but it was also an adjustment for me.
• 13:25
  You know, I once I started realizing that after a few
• 13:28
  takes, I'm like, OK, because my vantage point is Stanton and I
• 13:31
  are staring at each other. We got each other's eyes, you
• 13:34
  know, while we cut everything. And so we really got into each
• 13:38
  other's heads and each other's psyche, like whatever you want
• 13:42
  to call it, because yeah, that's, that's the glue.
• 13:45
  The bass is the instrument that talks to the guitars and the
• 13:48
  drums and it translates them right.
• 13:50
  So. So I'm the I'm the one bringing
• 13:53
  bringing everybody together, you know, in the center of it it
• 13:56
  all. So sticking to Stanton, the best
• 13:59
  I could is exactly what I did. And and and a lot of times, no,
• 14:02
  it I'm not behind him, I'm like right with him.
• 14:04
  But to get the real groovy sop it up with a biscuit shit, yeah,
• 14:09
  you got to be behind him. And some of the slower ballad
• 14:12
  stuff is is exactly that. So I I definitely learned a lot
• 14:19
  and and stood up real tall playing with Stan.
• 14:21
  No, no, no doubt about it. And I did, like you said, I love
• 14:24
  that that that kind of brings in that Southern thing, you know,
• 14:27
  because I feel like being sundered in general.
• 14:29
  You live behind the beach. Yeah, I'll say that.
• 14:33
  And and I can also my experience with with writing stuff with
• 14:36
  down on the down record. I did.
• 14:39
  I mean, you got Jimmy and Peps and you know, so OK, this is how
• 14:43
  you stay behind. So I learned a lot of many years
• 14:45
  ago about how to how to write that way, and I love it.
• 14:49
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they also move very slow
• 14:51
  from New Orleans, man. Like we take our time.
• 14:54
  Yeah, sure, man. Like after almost 30 years it
• 14:57
  still drives my wife crazy. She's like why?
• 15:00
  Why do you take so long to do everything?
• 15:02
  Yeah. It's kind of moving through, you
• 15:04
  know? Take my time, babe.
• 15:06
  I love that. But so as far as the the
• 15:08
  tracking goes on the album, like we like I said, we kind of
• 15:11
  talked about already that there's kind of like this loose
• 15:13
  concept like but you know, from side to side, which is super
• 15:17
  unusual. Usually it's either a full
• 15:19
  concept, the album or not at all, but this one is like it's
• 15:21
  almost like 4 different chapters.
• 15:24
  Sure. What is like going forward with
• 15:26
  the tour and everything? Like, is there a concern about
• 15:29
  losing that kind of presentation of the songs, knowing that
• 15:33
  you're going to have to split it up with other songs?
• 15:36
  And if so, like would there ever be plans you think to do
• 15:39
  something like, you know, perform a whole side or
• 15:42
  something every now and then to kind of lock it in?
• 15:44
  It's it's been brought up and it's very exciting to think
• 15:47
  about. Absolutely is I, I wouldn't put
• 15:50
  that out of out of the conversation at all.
• 15:53
  But certainly for these, for this touring we have to do, we
• 15:57
  got to bring in so many of the other songs.
• 15:59
  There's so many songs, Coc songs that people love and they really
• 16:03
  want to hear and I'm sure they want to hear some new songs, but
• 16:06
  man, they got their favourites right and if we don't play
• 16:08
  those, Oh my God, what are they going to do?
• 16:11
  You know what I mean? So it the toughest thing, which
• 16:14
  is a good problem to have, is that there are so many good
• 16:17
  songs. What do you put on a set list?
• 16:19
  Yeah, I was. I was just going to say that I
• 16:21
  was like, you know, there's worse problems to have, you
• 16:23
  know, because you can either be scratching for songs or you can
• 16:26
  go like, oh, you know, I mean, I've even seen some really cool,
• 16:29
  cool metal bands kind of take the Deadhead route where they
• 16:32
  would like that. They might even do a different
• 16:33
  set every night sometimes to get their songs in.
• 16:36
  You know we. Can do that.
• 16:37
  We we have that option. Yeah, yeah, we definitely have
• 16:40
  that option. And and certainly some cities
• 16:42
  may call for a certain song that that goes over really well with
• 16:45
  them. And Pepper and Woody got a good
• 16:46
  sense for that for all the work that they've done in the years
• 16:49
  that they've done in all these cities.
• 16:50
  Like, for instance, South America had its own kind of
• 16:53
  setlist because of the songs that go go over best down there,
• 16:57
  you know? Yeah, so you're also a guitar
• 16:59
  player, you know, we were talking about that earlier.
• 17:01
  And so, you know, you've everything from down to Honky to
• 17:05
  Godzilla Motor Company, all right?
• 17:07
  It's a pretty diverse little, you know, from band to band to
• 17:10
  band kind of thing, especially changing the dynamics like So
• 17:13
  what kind of challenges came with being the bassist in Coc
• 17:18
  now? I mean, and you know what I
• 17:19
  mean? I mean the challenge as far As
• 17:20
  for you. Absolute challenge as a lead
• 17:24
  guitar player, you don't think like a bass player all the time,
• 17:28
  but I think I always have. I think, I think bass has always
• 17:31
  been in my psyche. And my story is that once COVID
• 17:35
  hit, I got serious about bass. I picked it up and I just, we
• 17:40
  had all the time in the world, right?
• 17:42
  So I learned all my favorite funk songs, all my favorite
• 17:46
  groovy songs, all these tunes I've always wanted to, you know,
• 17:50
  get get right on bass. The Geezer Butler side of
• 17:53
  Sabbath, not just Tony Iommi side, which are two different
• 17:56
  planets, man. And and that's a great example
• 17:59
  to bring up when it came to Coc, because I played the guitar COC,
• 18:04
  like I played Woody's parts actually with Pepper one time we
• 18:07
  did a show of, of a handful of songs.
• 18:10
  So when Pepper goes, you got this right?
• 18:11
  I was like, Oh yeah. I didn't think twice about it
• 18:14
  until I got home. And for the first time, I
• 18:16
  plugged in a bass to rehearse the CFC material and I realized,
• 18:21
  oh shit, I just, I had to put the bass down and, and re listen
• 18:24
  again because Mike Dean is an absolute monster.
• 18:27
  And what he's doing is, is on the other side of what Pepper
• 18:31
  and Woody you're doing, which makes it happen.
• 18:33
  Once I got my head right, I had no problems with it, But I just,
• 18:37
  I did have to take a step back, you know, get my fingers in
• 18:39
  tune. You know, part of the blessing I
• 18:41
  got from Mike Dean is like, you know, Bobby, he's, he's going to
• 18:44
  be fine, man. He plays with his fingers.
• 18:46
  He's on the right path. I'm like, that's great.
• 18:48
  You know, once I once I started feeling that and really started
• 18:52
  feeling the songs with my fingers like Mike Dean, but you
• 18:55
  know, then I started really getting it.
• 18:58
  So all that to be said is that when I when they hit record and
• 19:01
  I'm standing next to Stanton and we're doing Coc stuff.
• 19:04
  Sure, I got Mike Dean in the in the back of my head, but I mean,
• 19:08
  I'm approaching it like me, I'm approaching it like, you know,
• 19:10
  what would what would dusty Hill do?
• 19:13
  You know, what would geezer do? What would Mike do?
• 19:15
  And, and I think between those three dudes running back and
• 19:18
  forth around my head, I think I, I was able to get, get out of my
• 19:22
  fingers what I had in my head, you know, and it certainly
• 19:25
  worked with Pep and Woody and they were all about it.
• 19:28
  And our, our producer loved what I was doing.
• 19:30
  Stanton was like, that's great. Works fine.
• 19:32
  Once I get the OK from them fellas, it's I'm, I'm off and
• 19:35
  running. Yeah.
• 19:36
  So it was great. And, and the discipline I got
• 19:39
  from working with Stanton was big for me too.
• 19:43
  You know, does this song need me to me need for me to be behind
• 19:47
  him for that really fat groove thing?
• 19:50
  Or are we going pap, pap, pap, pap, pap, pap?
• 19:52
  Are we, you know, charging forward and running into the
• 19:55
  crowd? You know, that's a different,
• 19:57
  you know, thing. And, and, you know, once, boy,
• 19:59
  once pep and Woody start down picking and I'm like following.
• 20:03
  And I was like, OK, here we go. This is this is this kind of
• 20:05
  song. And man, I got to say I, I, I
• 20:08
  went through the whole gambit of, of material and bass playing
• 20:11
  on this record. I I'd, I, if I'm honest, hardest
• 20:15
  and the most heartfelt stuff. Where were the ballads were you
• 20:19
  know, you, you, you, you bring in the drama and you're keeping
• 20:22
  the I don't know. The best word I could bring is,
• 20:24
  is is drama deepness to it. You know, you're not just
• 20:27
  rocking out like, hey, this is cool.
• 20:29
  You know, it's like, oh, no, no, no, no, stand up tall.
• 20:31
  Because this is a serious number that needs every note,
• 20:35
  everything you do to be just spot on.
• 20:38
  And that's tough. And that's tough on a on a
• 20:40
  ballot on base, because you can't kind of half step any note
• 20:45
  or, or pluck it any different, you know, so I enjoyed the hell
• 20:50
  out of it. I, I like being put into the
• 20:52
  corner and fight my way out of it.
• 20:54
  You know, I've always been that kind of guy.
• 20:55
  So, so when it comes to bass playing, I, I had that
• 20:59
  mentality. So I took it on with love, man.
• 21:01
  I really enjoyed every bit of. It see, and that's the thing.
• 21:04
  It's one of the things I loved again listening to the album was
• 21:07
  that I feel like when you're a fan of a band anytime,
• 21:09
  especially if you're a musician or you're just a music dork in
• 21:13
  general, one of the things you're going to listen to is you
• 21:16
  go, OK, are they as good? Are they doing it as good?
• 21:19
  Are they doing it like the person that they've kind of
• 21:22
  stepped in for? But with this album, what I
• 21:24
  loved about is that exactly what you said, you actually answered
• 21:27
  this question already, was that you kind of walked in with the
• 21:31
  mentality of understanding the base and understanding the fact
• 21:35
  that you you didn't or you couldn't go into it and be Mike
• 21:40
  Dean. But that you could go into it
• 21:41
  with an aspect of understanding what he accomplished, what he
• 21:44
  played, and what he might even do.
• 21:47
  But doing it the way that you do it right, without having to be
• 21:51
  like, oh, I hope I can sound like Mike doing this or
• 21:54
  whatever. Sure, sure.
• 21:55
  I went through the sounding like Mike phase, which I do every
• 21:58
  time I rehearse the set. You know, it's like, OK, these
• 22:01
  are these are classic bass lines that he that, you know, he wrote
• 22:05
  for these songs and I'm on him. You know, that's just part of
• 22:08
  what that is. So the record, the new record
• 22:11
  bring brought, it was a gift to have that extra added bonus for
• 22:15
  me. It's like, OK, now I've learned
• 22:17
  all these songs I need to to play like Mike Dean and be as
• 22:21
  Mike Dean as I can be with all respect, because those are
• 22:24
  classic bass lines. You don't make up your own stuff
• 22:27
  when you play those songs. But here I was literally making
• 22:32
  up my own stuff, writing, writing this stuff.
• 22:34
  And it, it, it, I came away from the writing session feeling the
• 22:39
  best. I, I went into the writing
• 22:40
  session. You know, I can say it now, but
• 22:43
  I, I don't know, I was, I was nervous.
• 22:45
  I was like, man, I, I got to pull this off, man, I can't be
• 22:49
  half stepping. I can't be wasting anybody's
• 22:51
  time. Like I got to be, got to get
• 22:53
  real and I got to get real fast. And having the songs sent around
• 22:58
  from Pepper Studio when him and Woody wrote everything was
• 23:01
  really helpful. I got, you know, like I said, I
• 23:03
  got the chops and the changes and the notes that write.
• 23:06
  But now how to apply bass to their guitar chopping which
• 23:11
  everybody was happy with it, man.
• 23:13
  So I'm happy with it. You know, I gave it hell and it
• 23:15
  and they were, they were glad. Well, the performances in
• 23:18
  general, like I said again to go back, I was just so blown away
• 23:22
  by what I was hearing because it went against what I was
• 23:25
  expecting. And I love that element of kind
• 23:28
  of surprise, you know, And I think, and as someone like me,
• 23:31
  who who expects sometimes who, who prefers a surprise, I expect
• 23:36
  the same. And when I don't get it, I go oh
• 23:39
  fuck. Yeah, OK.
• 23:40
  You caught me off guard. You know.
• 23:43
  What I mean and I love that. OK, I'm glad you know the trick
• 23:46
  about the bass. Something else I learned over
• 23:48
  the last few years is especially doing a record is, you know, you
• 23:52
  don't hear the bass player until he stops or there's a wrong
• 23:56
  note, you know what I mean? So by staying very visible and
• 24:01
  invisible at the same time, you're doing right.
• 24:03
  You know, it's, it's, it's, it's a bass thing.
• 24:06
  Not a lot of people understand that.
• 24:07
  But man, that's the difference in a guitar player or a bass
• 24:10
  player. I always, even for the most
• 24:13
  simple bass player, like the simpler of bass players, I was
• 24:17
  like, dude, you drop Ian Hill out of a mix, dude, and it's
• 24:20
  gonna be a hot mass dude, hot mess.
• 24:22
  Add him back in and you realize that you know, it's definitely a
• 24:26
  less is more. Yeah, man, there you go.
• 24:29
  There's a strength behind that. And by the way, I love that we
• 24:32
  talked about Stan, but I was like, someone needs to ask Stan
• 24:35
  finally, like, what challenge? What was a challenge for him to
• 24:38
  play with you? Sure.
• 24:39
  Yeah, Yeah, right. I can't imagine being a jazz
• 24:42
  player and being like oh shit OK, like I got to change my
• 24:45
  whole way and now of. You know, but he he did and he
• 24:47
  didn't. He brought his jazz chops to the
• 24:50
  Coc stuff, man, there was no moment ever with that Stanton.
• 24:54
  It was like, I don't know. I, I won't say he wasn't
• 24:56
  challenged. I, I'm sure he, I know he was.
• 24:59
  But just, he's so natural, man, just like, I don't know, maybe
• 25:03
  this works and it's the most perfect thing you've ever heard,
• 25:05
  you know, because he's so brilliant and, and he, he is
• 25:09
  that guy. Yeah.
• 25:10
  Man, so another unique thing from at least for me to hear
• 25:13
  about you was that, you know, you come from like the behind
• 25:16
  the scenes crew world of the Oh sure, the music industry.
• 25:20
  And so being more so out on the front line now, like, you know,
• 25:26
  on the stage in front of the monitors instead of behind them.
• 25:29
  Does having that connection, does that, does that aspect of
• 25:32
  it give you a little heightened sense of patience or something
• 25:36
  like when shit goes awry or whatever or like, or does it
• 25:39
  make you be like, oh shit, here, hold my guitar.
• 25:41
  I'm going to fix this myself, you know.
• 25:43
  You know what it is? Honestly, when I met way back in
• 25:49
  the day in the 90s, my band Honky was playing out a lot.
• 25:52
  And we'd be going through New Orleans.
• 25:53
  And so I knew I, I, Pepper and, and, and Jimmy would be out at
• 25:57
  our Honky shows. And, you know, Pepper would
• 26:00
  putting us up sometimes, you know, like, hey, you guys need
• 26:02
  us a place and all that. So a relationship thing we've
• 26:05
  had. Wait, I, I, I meant I hang on,
• 26:08
  I, I, I lost track of the question.
• 26:10
  I wanted to bring that up because ask me again, please.
• 26:14
  Well, you, I got the question right now.
• 26:16
  So you carry on if you want because I feel like you were,
• 26:18
  you had a give me that. Question of consciousness.
• 26:20
  I lost my stream of consciousness.
• 26:21
  OK, so basically it was like, you know, coming from behind the
• 26:24
  scenes of. Being yeah from behind yeah
• 26:26
  exactly. So I, I'm bringing up that
• 26:27
  because I've, I've came into this whole thing as, as a
• 26:30
  player. So first of all, I'm a player.
• 26:32
  I'm most comfortable with an instrument in my hand on deck.
• 26:35
  I'm fine if things can go wrong. I, I'm rarely affected by it.
• 26:40
  I, I, yeah, sure, maybe I could fix it, put the guitar down and
• 26:42
  fix it myself and all like that. But it's a lot more nerve
• 26:46
  wracking to be bass tacking for Pantera on a Metallica donut at
• 26:53
  an NFL stadium. I mean, that's, that's you know,
• 26:56
  yeah. So I've been through the ringer
• 26:58
  with a lot of all, you know, that kind of thing.
• 27:01
  But no, my, my first that what, what got me on deck was being a
• 27:04
  player. And when I wasn't on tour, I
• 27:07
  would get gigs like guitar tacking front of house, you
• 27:11
  know, to do monitors or whatever.
• 27:13
  I, I, my career has always been surrounded by the deck.
• 27:16
  But you know, at, at a show, what, whatever I end up doing,
• 27:19
  preferably playing the instrument.
• 27:20
  But if I'm not, you know, I'll, I'll take a couple months that I
• 27:23
  got off touring to, you know, tune up somebody elses guitars.
• 27:27
  And and I've done a lot of that kind of work over the years, but
• 27:29
  I just can't seem to get myself off of the deck or out of the
• 27:32
  bus, You know that. That's just me, yeah.
• 27:35
  Well, so kind of like what we were just talking about, like I
• 27:37
  guess the like, for instance, like we were just what I was the
• 27:40
  same was like when something does kind of go wrong, how hard
• 27:43
  is it for you sometimes to relinquish the control of being
• 27:45
  the the behind the deck guy and then being the player instead of
• 27:49
  like I said, like instead of going like, oh man, just just
• 27:52
  let me go out, let me fix this, man.
• 27:54
  I got you know what I mean? Like.
• 27:55
  Yeah, OK. We have a great tech, Reed
• 27:59
  Raley, he's out with us. We call him R2.
• 28:01
  And basically he's got so much guitar business to handle that
• 28:04
  he's got Pepper and Woody, you know, he's taking care of them.
• 28:07
  My bass rig, I, I set it up so it's really easy.
• 28:11
  It's, it's, there's nothing really complicated.
• 28:13
  So my rig is up and down really quick.
• 28:16
  It's, it's really simple. So I don't really rely on
• 28:20
  anybody. I I really do my own work.
• 28:22
  I got a inky case behind my rig with my bases in it and I got my
• 28:26
  base changes. So perhaps it's, it's my years
• 28:29
  of tacking that makes me so self-sufficient.
• 28:31
  But when I'm up there, I just handle my own, you know?
• 28:34
  Yeah. And that's I, I, you know, the
• 28:36
  ADHD and me is like, you know, like I feel like, I feel like
• 28:40
  God, you know, I would do this differently.
• 28:42
  But at the same time, I would also assume that some from your
• 28:45
  perspective, you might be like, oh, maybe they maybe someone did
• 28:48
  something different. They're like, oh, I wouldn't
• 28:49
  have thought about tweaking a sound a certain way to make it,
• 28:52
  you know, generate that way. I learned quite a bit of, in the
• 28:57
  last three years of checking for Rex Brown, he had the option and
• 29:03
  tried all kinds of different gear and pedals and, and, you
• 29:06
  know, plumbing choices and things like that.
• 29:09
  That man, I learned a lot in those three years of what really
• 29:13
  is efficient and what's bullshit.
• 29:15
  And so when it came time to put my rig together, I definitely
• 29:18
  modeled it off of Rex's rig and what I learned working with him.
• 29:22
  And so, yeah, I've, I'm really confident with my rig and I got
• 29:27
  2 Ike amps, clean power, 1000 watts each.
• 29:31
  And they fit into a, a Pelican that just, I can lift it up
• 29:35
  myself, pop it on top of one of the eight 10s.
• 29:38
  I got another 8:10 on the other side of the deck behind Woody.
• 29:41
  I I put a cable out there, pedal board in front of me.
• 29:44
  Boom. It's just, it's, it's up and
• 29:46
  running in a minute, you know, and I, and it's also taken down
• 29:50
  in a minute. It's really easy.
• 29:51
  Yeah, yeah, I designed it that way so it could be that simple
• 29:55
  and I didn't want to be carrying two SVT heads and trying to lift
• 30:00
  them, you know what I mean? So something I also definitely
• 30:06
  am glad about is that Base Gear has really gotten as good as
• 30:11
  it's ever been, and I'd say over the last few years too.
• 30:16
  So great companies. I use the Origin effects and
• 30:19
  man, that's all I really need. I've got some little flavour
• 30:22
  things going on, but not a lot, man.
• 30:24
  Just it's all about tone, you know, and clean power and I got
• 30:29
  a great DI signal going to my front of house guy and I got
• 30:33
  beautiful tone behind me. Pepper and Woody love it and so
• 30:37
  it's great and like I said, I got 2000 watts behind me and I
• 30:40
  could pick it up by myself. So that's a big deal, man.
• 30:43
  Look, you made a good point about that, about how like the,
• 30:45
  the the technology and the gear has grown so much over the
• 30:49
  years. Like I had a metal band in like
• 30:51
  92.9 from 92 to 94 and I had a crate cabinet that had like 215
• 30:57
  yeah, JBLS in it and like the head.
• 31:00
  And even then I remember going, man, this just it sounds
• 31:03
  affordable. OK, Like, yeah, it doesn't.
• 31:06
  And then I started playing music again years later with with
• 31:09
  another bass player who was using one of those small mark
• 31:12
  bass amps. Yeah, I was like, Jesus Christ,
• 31:15
  right. Like like you carried that in,
• 31:17
  like like in your hand and it sounded massive, you know, So
• 31:22
  like I so these new, this new, like the new equipment like that
• 31:25
  you're using. Amazing.
• 31:27
  Can't even imagine. Yeah, yeah.
• 31:29
  And I'm not one to bring out Quad Cortex and, and and put it
• 31:32
  into my speakers. I, I, but that's not me.
• 31:34
  It, it, it works for so many other people, but it's, I don't
• 31:37
  think it's ACOC thing either. These fellas like to have tube
• 31:40
  heads and work their pedals, you know what I mean?
• 31:43
  And but for me, I keep it easy, you know, I got a wah and I got
• 31:47
  a filter pedal for Senor Olympio.
• 31:49
  But you know, that's it, man. You know, got some compression
• 31:53
  and gain. That's it.
• 31:54
  Keep it simple, man. Yeah, I think that's, you know,
• 31:57
  you know, good music when kept simple stays good as opposed to
• 32:01
  sounding so overly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:05
  It's, it's it's my fingers, man. I got to keep the foundation
• 32:08
  there. I'm not there for the science
• 32:09
  fiction. Oh, I like that line dude,
• 32:11
  that's good. That's real.
• 32:12
  That's real. That's where the bass is
• 32:14
  supposed to be. Yeah, man.
• 32:16
  Well, so I guess to wind things up, like, you know, we're only
• 32:20
  into March of, yeah, 2026 going into April.
• 32:23
  Like what are you looking forward to?
• 32:24
  What's coming up for you guys? Like what are you most
• 32:26
  anticipating for the year moving forward with CS?
• 32:29
  I like all of these dates, man. I'm, I'm glad to be on tour, I'm
• 32:34
  glad to be working and I'm very proud to be representing this
• 32:37
  record. So every day is just going to be
• 32:39
  a great day, man. We love what we do.
• 32:42
  We know who we are when we lean forward and we really give it up
• 32:46
  every show. We leave it all on deck, you
• 32:48
  know, And I'm proud to be a part of a, a band that does that, you
• 32:52
  know, nobody phones it in. No, nobody half asses anything
• 32:55
  in Coc and never has, you know. So it's a, it's keeping up a
• 33:00
  tradition. So you know what I mean?
• 33:02
  So yeah, yeah, I'm very proud to be a part of it.
• 33:04
  All to hear you so excited and moving for, you know, to go out
• 33:07
  with the band. Like, as a fan, yeah, that's
• 33:10
  exciting to me. And you hear someone who's so
• 33:13
  excited about going out with their band and putting on shows,
• 33:17
  it just makes you wanna go now. I wanna go now.
• 33:20
  Come on, I do. Too.
• 33:21
  I meet you there. Yeah.
• 33:24
  Put me on the list of catering. We'll be good.
• 33:25
  Come on, we. Got this.
• 33:28
  But yeah, you guys do have a really extensive torque.
• 33:31
  Yeah, we're ready for it too, man.
• 33:34
  Yeah, US, Europe, back to the US, back to Europe.
• 33:37
  Yeah, we're going to have a good year.
• 33:38
  So you guys are going to do a couple of US swings or you just
• 33:41
  going to get into this one? OK, OK.
• 33:43
  Yeah, this first one will get us a nice circle around the US and
• 33:46
  then then Europe for the summer festivals.
• 33:49
  Then after that come back to do like a West Coast swing and then
• 33:53
  back to Europe again. So and still more is getting
• 33:56
  booked. So we're taking it all, man.
• 33:58
  We have a new record. You got to, you got to work it.
• 34:00
  You're not expecting it to do good and without our help.
• 34:03
  Fuck, man, That's what we do. That's why we do it.
• 34:06
  Oh, man, good, good God and bad man, what a great.
• 34:10
  What a great record, man. You should be super proud of it.
• 34:13
  I know it's a fan. I'm proud of it because there's
• 34:15
  nothing better than when you can boast a new record.
• 34:17
  Yeah, man, you love. Dude, I'm a fan, right?
• 34:20
  I just get to be in the band now.
• 34:23
  What a great outlook, man. And again, I think, you know,
• 34:26
  again, not to stick stay too long with you.
• 34:28
  But like, that shows in the performance of the album, you
• 34:31
  know, like you've, yeah, New Blood always kind of seems to
• 34:35
  kind of get in there and open things up.
• 34:37
  And I feel like it's very, very noticeable, man.
• 34:39
  And you've been great. The band did great.
• 34:42
  The album's fantastic. And.
• 34:44
  Right. On.
• 34:45
  Time, man, I can't wish you nothing but best of luck on the
• 34:47
  road and. Y'all be safe and.
• 34:50
  Just keep it going man. Yeah, man, we'll see you all out
• 34:52
  there. All the love y'all.
• 34:54
  You too, man. Well, thanks for taking the time
• 34:56
  to do this I. Appreciate on Don, much love to
• 34:58
  you brother. See you out there.