Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 825 - Thad Collis (Cosmic Reaper) on New Album Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 825 - Thad Collis (Cosmic Reaper) on New Album Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  With our first LP, we always joked that we were able to get
• 0:03
  it done because we were all out of work because of the pandemic,
• 0:06
  so we had time to sit down and really knock it out.
• 0:09
  With this record. We all have careers outside of
• 0:11
  the band as well, and like a couple of us have kids and so it
• 0:15
  was really hard to lock in and get it done.
• 0:18
  So it was kind of gradually written over the course of two
• 0:21
  years, which honestly gave us more time to kind of sit on
• 0:24
  things and be like, is this what we want?
• 0:26
  Do we want to change this? It gave us a lot more time to
• 0:28
  let it evolve and it felt a lot more organic.
• 0:38
  What's up everybody, it is your boy Kifi of ghostcoldman.com and
• 0:43
  I am super excited to be joined by Fad of Cosmic Reaper.
• 0:47
  How are you doing? Doing well?
• 0:48
  How about yourself? I am so good today and I am so
• 0:52
  excited to talk to you about the brand new record coming out on
• 0:55
  one of my favorite labels. We're going to talk a bit about
• 0:58
  this. Heavy Psych Sounds is the label
• 1:00
  and it's Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned, coming next month as
• 1:04
  we record this over the summer. And first and foremost, how the
• 1:08
  hell you doing? We live in chaotic, crazy times
• 1:11
  and I feel like my only refuge is music right now.
• 1:14
  Yeah, yeah, it sounds definitely tough, but you know, trying to
• 1:17
  make the best of it, like everybody, I guess.
• 1:19
  Right on. I took my spectacles off because
• 1:21
  I forgot I had them on all over the map Today you're getting
• 1:25
  you're getting wild and crazy TV.
• 1:27
  I did take my meds. I don't know what's going on.
• 1:29
  Yeah. So the band's been around for
• 1:30
  quite a bit. This is our first time meeting.
• 1:32
  So I know you have kind of a new ish multinational lineup, but
• 1:37
  take us back to the beginning of the band.
• 1:39
  You know, how did you get into music?
• 1:41
  How did this band originally form?
• 1:44
  You know, I think the Carolinas are are a deep well of great
• 1:48
  heavy music, but I don't know that I don't know too many bins
• 1:51
  specifically from the Charlotte area.
• 1:53
  Right, yeah, there. There's always been a pretty
• 1:56
  decent heavy, heavy music scene around Charlotte and I, I got
• 2:00
  really into it as a teenager and everything.
• 2:02
  But growing up, like music's always been a part of my family
• 2:07
  on my father's side. I grew up on a lot of like old
• 2:09
  mountain gospel, folk, Appalachian kind of music, you
• 2:13
  know, And I, and I've played that kind of music before.
• 2:15
  So I've, I've experienced quite a variety of of music, but I've
• 2:20
  always gravitated back towards some form of heavy music and
• 2:24
  doom metal especially just really captivated me, you know,
• 2:28
  so, but as far as the band, we started as just some friends
• 2:33
  playing riffs in a living room and you know, 2 guitars and
• 2:37
  bass. We hadn't figured out vocals or
• 2:38
  drums yet. And eventually we got a drummer.
• 2:43
  We actually found our drummer from a Craigslist ad Jeremy we
• 2:47
  putting out on Craigslist and he happened to find it.
• 2:49
  He had just moved here from Colorado, and he was in the
• 2:51
  great Redneck Hope, which is an excellent band if you've never
• 2:54
  heard them. Yeah.
• 2:55
  And the other guitarist was Dylan, and I helped form the
• 2:57
  band, help us define our sound and everything.
• 3:00
  Yeah. And after Dylan left us, we
• 3:02
  brought in Peter, who is from London, and he's been playing
• 3:05
  with us for a little over a year now.
• 3:07
  It's been great. I don't.
• 3:08
  Does Peter live down there with you guys or is he doing a
• 3:10
  multinational cross the pond thing?
• 3:12
  Oh, no, he lives in the area. Yeah, he moved to the USA couple
• 3:16
  years ago. That's.
• 3:16
  Good, especially considering how hard it's going to be in the
• 3:19
  future for touring and bands to, you know, exchange
• 3:22
  internationally from Europe in the UK to US.
• 3:25
  That's a relief, actually. Yeah.
• 3:27
  What a killer. You know, first of all, the band
• 3:29
  is fantastic. I'm a huge Stoner doom fan.
• 3:32
  I know people see me all the time in my Slayer shirts, but
• 3:35
  like, Sleep is one of my favorite bands of all time and a
• 3:38
  bunch of other bands. I know Epson Williams of
• 3:42
  Monolord mixed your record and I'm a huge Monolord and Epson
• 3:45
  fan in general. Yeah, which is a hell of a thing
• 3:49
  to have him do. He's doing tremendous stuff
• 3:51
  overseas in production and engineering and mixing and
• 3:55
  stuff. So that's super cool.
• 3:56
  I think that explains like, you know, it's like love the raw
• 4:00
  beauty of the songs, but that's the production is killer.
• 4:03
  And obviously also credit to your producer in the recording
• 4:06
  and and y'all as well. Thanks.
• 4:08
  Yeah, yeah, Evan was a pleasure to work with for sure.
• 4:11
  Yeah, such a great dude. Just has been yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:15
  Oh, yes, of course. Such a stellar, such a stellar
• 4:17
  dude, you know, phenomenal. And yeah, man, what a what a
• 4:21
  killer record. Did you know you were always
• 4:23
  going to sing in the band or you just kind of fell into it
• 4:25
  because you have a killer voice too?
• 4:27
  Oh, thank you. I forgot to mention that part.
• 4:29
  Yeah, I kind of just fell into it because we were looking for a
• 4:32
  vocalist for a while and we couldn't find the right fit.
• 4:36
  And eventually I was like, well fuck it, I'll just try it and it
• 4:40
  worked out. Right on.
• 4:41
  Well, you managed to carve out a a little niche there because I
• 4:46
  think you got a great voice and it fits the music beautifully.
• 4:48
  And you know, it's very, you know, we're all kind of
• 4:51
  descendants of of Sabbath. And I have Ozzy on the mind,
• 4:54
  obviously, because he just passed away.
• 4:55
  But like, you know, there's as much as I love the genre and I
• 4:59
  never get tired of it, there's not a tremendous amount of
• 5:03
  differentiation in the bands or the singers.
• 5:06
  So I like that you guys are just trying different things.
• 5:08
  Like it's clearly fits the genre, but you have your own
• 5:11
  sound, you do things your way vocally you know could be
• 5:14
  inspired by the greats who are some of the the bands you looked
• 5:17
  up to and singers you looked up to coming up before you, you
• 5:21
  know form the band. Well, I think the fact that I've
• 5:25
  always like such a variety of music help because like,
• 5:28
  obviously within this genre there are tons of influences.
• 5:32
  Like we're all big fans of Electric Wizard and, you know,
• 5:35
  obvious ones like that. And of course Black Sabbath,
• 5:37
  like I consider Sabbath the greatest band of all time.
• 5:40
  But you know, I, I grew up listening to a lot of 90s music,
• 5:43
  a lot of grunge. I was obsessed with Nirvana and
• 5:46
  Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. And I think there's a little bit
• 5:49
  of that kind of cheeky angst in my lyrics and stuff and just
• 5:53
  general approach and we try not to take our too seriously, which
• 5:58
  I think helps as well. Right on.
• 5:59
  I thought. I think actually there's a very
• 6:02
  unintentional bit of sludge in Allison Chains and definitely On
• 6:06
  Purpose and Soundgarden, and I definitely can hear that in the
• 6:09
  songwriting from y'all. So, you know, props there
• 6:13
  because, you know, those are huge bands for me.
• 6:15
  Also, we're probably around the same age.
• 6:17
  I'm probably a little older, but like, yeah, those are such
• 6:19
  cornerstone bands. And I remember when Nirvana hit,
• 6:22
  even before Nevermind, and you know, how could it not captivate
• 6:25
  everybody, right? Like it was just one of those
• 6:27
  things that people don't understand.
• 6:29
  Like, I always push back on like that Nirvana was purely a punk
• 6:33
  band or that punk, suddenly you got a resurgence because of
• 6:37
  Nirvana. The labels thought so.
• 6:38
  The industry thought so, but not fans.
• 6:40
  I think people appreciated Nirvana's punk leanings and
• 6:44
  roots, but I thought they were much more, you know, much more
• 6:46
  heavy rock band than just, you know, the year punk broke
• 6:49
  because Nirvana opened for, you know, Sonic Youth on the Bleach
• 6:53
  tour. I don't think so.
• 6:55
  But like, you know, there's a documentary that says so, you
• 6:59
  know, journalists and doc, you know, we're weird people.
• 7:01
  We need, we have little pea brains and we need everything
• 7:03
  spoon fed to us with a little like a sampler spoon from
• 7:06
  baskin-robbins. Like the little like, here you
• 7:08
  go. You know, we need to get told
• 7:11
  what to say sometimes. That's our whole business,
• 7:13
  unfortunately. But yeah, man, that's super
• 7:16
  cool. All of that kind of makes sense.
• 7:18
  And then there's just, again, incredible.
• 7:20
  Not just the songwriting, but I love the guitar work.
• 7:23
  I think a lot of bands don't pull off the 2 guitar thing
• 7:26
  correctly. Like, yes, it's super heavy to
• 7:28
  have two, you know, killer crushing guitars.
• 7:31
  But I like layers and I like counterpoint and I like
• 7:34
  different guitar parts. And I think you split the guitar
• 7:37
  work up, as far as I can tell, pretty nicely, yeah.
• 7:40
  We like to use utilize harmonies a lot, but tastefully and not
• 7:44
  overdone, you know? Yeah, that's important.
• 7:46
  And you don't, you know, I think for some of the slower tracks,
• 7:49
  you don't want to be super busy, right?
• 7:51
  Like you don't want to complicate it.
• 7:53
  If you've got a good thing, don't break it.
• 7:55
  If it's if it ain't broke, don't break it, right.
• 7:56
  Like that's the number one, the number one thing here.
• 7:59
  And yeah, man, such a good record and such a good.
• 8:02
  I feel like Stoner doom and psychedelic rock, especially the
• 8:05
  heavy psych sounds brand of bands is such a summertime
• 8:09
  music. I don't know, it could just be
• 8:10
  my impression or the stuff I listen to the most beside the I
• 8:13
  know winter is like the obvious prevailing mood for heavy bands
• 8:18
  and you know all black metal band friends like in the in the
• 8:21
  forest and shit but like. Dark and cold.
• 8:24
  Dark and cold and and grim and bleak and and nihilistic.
• 8:28
  But I feel like there's a, you know, maybe it's because I
• 8:30
  listen to Too much Sun or Goat Snake or I feel like there's a
• 8:35
  hopefulness and a goodness in Stoner doom and doom metal that
• 8:39
  just kind of lifts me up. I don't know, it could just be
• 8:41
  me. I like heavy riffs and I like, I
• 8:43
  like slow songs and heavy riffs that I can just nod to, you
• 8:47
  know, is there is this for this record?
• 8:49
  You know, obviously, like now with Peter in the band, you
• 8:53
  know, did, did was there anything particularly driving
• 8:56
  this this process to to get to this record as opposed to, you
• 9:00
  know, I know we just came from like the worst part of the
• 9:01
  world, the pandemic and everything else.
• 9:04
  And the band started before that and got on your feet before
• 9:07
  that. But like, yeah, like, you know,
• 9:09
  what was driving you the last few years to get to this point,
• 9:11
  this record? Well, umm, with our first LP, we
• 9:14
  always joked it, I guess it's just partially joking.
• 9:17
  I guess it's really true that we were able to get it done because
• 9:20
  we were all out of work because of the pandemic.
• 9:23
  So we had time to sit down and really knock it out with this
• 9:26
  record, you know, because we we all have careers outside of the
• 9:28
  band as well. And like, a couple of us have
• 9:31
  kids. And so it was really hard to to
• 9:33
  lock in and get it done. So it was kind of gradually
• 9:37
  written over the course of two years, which honestly gave us
• 9:40
  more time to kind of sit on things and be like, is this what
• 9:43
  we want? Do we want to change this?
• 9:44
  It gave us a lot more time to let it evolve.
• 9:47
  And it felt a lot more organic. Not that the previous record
• 9:51
  wasn't organic. I guess it was just a different
• 9:54
  approach. And it wasn't anything that like
• 9:56
  a conscious choice that we made. That's just the way it happened.
• 9:59
  But yeah, I guess as far as what drove this one, we just want to
• 10:02
  get more music out there, honestly.
• 10:03
  Right on. Once again, heavy Psych sounds.
• 10:06
  I can't tell. I have countless right?
• 10:07
  I'm a big vinyl guy and have a vinyl podcast on top of this
• 10:10
  interview series and everything else I do with Ghost Cold.
• 10:13
  I'm he's such a huge fan of the label.
• 10:15
  I managed to attend the heavy Psych sounds best when they had
• 10:18
  one here in San Francisco and it's such a cool label and they
• 10:22
  were really ahead of the curve on the resurgence of vinyl.
• 10:26
  And they do such a beautiful job on packaging in your album
• 10:29
  artwork, which is what I'm really getting at here is very
• 10:32
  striking with the red and the white almost reminds me of like
• 10:35
  SOS Semaphore, right? It's definitely catches you.
• 10:40
  So I'm very excited to see this packaging in this record because
• 10:44
  they really emphasize like they make music for music lovers, not
• 10:48
  just this genre that they favor, but just like they know that
• 10:52
  their fans are people who are collectors and music lovers.
• 10:55
  Yeah, and Speaking of the album art, I want to give a shout out
• 10:57
  to Nona Lemon, who is the photographer of the cover image.
• 11:02
  Her work is incredible if you've never seen it.
• 11:04
  And of course, Paul at Bronco Studio, who kind of put the rest
• 11:08
  of the album art together, did an excellent job.
• 11:10
  We're really happy with it. We were.
• 11:11
  We're definitely going with simple eye-catching, striking,
• 11:15
  you know, color scheme and everything.
• 11:17
  So we just everything would just be red for this record,
• 11:21
  everything is just red. Right on.
• 11:23
  Well, you know, it's the way to get.
• 11:26
  It's the color of alerts, so it's eye-catching again.
• 11:30
  Like that's the main thing. I have so many of their records
• 11:33
  and they do such a real cool job on the variance and the vinyls
• 11:36
  and cassettes, even for those of us out here that have cassettes.
• 11:40
  Did you, did you collect vinyl as a kid or a younger you?
• 11:45
  I I never thought vinyl was going to come back to the level
• 11:48
  it has. And I'm, you know, I know that a
• 11:49
  lot of people just collect them to support bands and they don't
• 11:52
  play them. I play them.
• 11:53
  I love my records like like, like they're like my friends,
• 11:57
  but like, because I have no life outside of music basically.
• 12:00
  And my girlfriend. But yeah.
• 12:02
  Did you ever think vinyl was going to come back and that you
• 12:04
  were going to get to have records out on vinyl?
• 12:06
  I'd hoped that one day I would have music out on vinyl.
• 12:08
  I, I started collecting, I guess probably around 2012, somewhere
• 12:13
  around there. I'd really have vinyl.
• 12:15
  Growing up. My grandparents did.
• 12:16
  And I always thought it was really cool, you know, but I had
• 12:19
  no idea it was going to make like a comeback.
• 12:20
  And I had no idea that that there was something special
• 12:23
  about it, you know, like there's something different about
• 12:26
  listening to music on vinyl. It, it, the way the music
• 12:29
  translates through the speakers. You just, it's like you
• 12:32
  differently. You can, it's almost like you
• 12:33
  can pick out the individual instruments in the mix easier or
• 12:37
  something. I don't know.
• 12:37
  There's just something special about it.
• 12:39
  It really is. I especially I will say like
• 12:42
  there was a period of time where the mastering for vinyl wasn't
• 12:45
  quite there and the record labels rushing to get vinyl
• 12:49
  done, meaning, you know, like a for classic records, maybe the
• 12:53
  mastering wasn't specifically done with vinyl in mind.
• 12:56
  So you had your records from the loudness era of the early 2000s
• 13:00
  that don't sound great on vinyl unless they're remastered and
• 13:04
  remixed for vinyl. I am seeing kind of like a like
• 13:07
  a not a trend, but I am seeing like with all these reissues
• 13:10
  coming up for 20 years and 25 year old albums that they're
• 13:13
  getting better because the first batch that I got a few years ago
• 13:17
  we're not good sounding. I was like, why is this selling?
• 13:20
  It sounds like the CD. This is bad because they didn't
• 13:24
  think that this needed to, you know, they need the extra step
• 13:27
  of getting it redone and it's costly.
• 13:28
  Let's face it, it's not cheap to make vinyl.
• 13:31
  It's not cheap for DIY underground bands to do things
• 13:34
  even on a label as cool as heavy sight sounds.
• 13:36
  And they, you know, I get, again, I give them credit that
• 13:38
  they've really built their footprint.
• 13:40
  The festival has helped with that.
• 13:42
  I'm such a fan, you know, interviewed the label boss for
• 13:46
  my podcast, such a, you know, just a wonderful crew of people,
• 13:49
  everybody that works with them, PR to everybody.
• 13:52
  So just I'm so stoked that you got to put your your band out on
• 13:56
  this label and really cool and. Been a pleasure for sure.
• 14:00
  Right, right. I know you said you guys are,
• 14:02
  you know, also have other, you know, obviously full time jobs
• 14:04
  and families. I know you got a few shows
• 14:06
  coming up, record release, show. Is full touring kind of out of
• 14:11
  the question or is it something you maybe you can do in spots if
• 14:13
  something opens up for you? So far we've only managed to do
• 14:17
  like little short tours. I would like to do longer tour
• 14:22
  and we're we're talking about that now.
• 14:24
  But right now we have like a week long run lined up at the
• 14:30
  end of this month and we're just hitting Louisville, KY,
• 14:34
  Lexington, KY, Lynchburg, VA and then we're coming back home to
• 14:39
  Charlotte. We're doing the third annual
• 14:41
  seismic Summerfest at the world famous milestone club.
• 14:44
  That's an event that's it was put together by our bassist
• 14:49
  Garrett and it's it's a lot of fun.
• 14:50
  It's just all day of heavy bands being loud and sweaty.
• 14:55
  And it's also Steve from Desert Doom is involved with it, which
• 14:59
  is cool. Great guy, really, really good
• 15:02
  to work with. And then after that show, we
• 15:03
  have one more date in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 15:06
  And then the following weekend we're playing Hopscotch Festival
• 15:10
  in Raleigh, NC, so. That's super sick.
• 15:13
  I will be on the lookout for that festival that your basis
• 15:18
  puts on because we do a lot of, you know, we help promote a lot
• 15:20
  of festivals and, and tours and stuff with our, our output of
• 15:24
  content and everything else. And no content's a gross word,
• 15:27
  but that's super cool. One good thing I enjoyed about
• 15:30
  Charlotte is just in the middle of everywhere in terms of
• 15:33
  driving. You can drive anywhere from
• 15:34
  there. I spent a lot more time in
• 15:37
  Raleigh than Charlotte, but I do Charlotte is a fine city.
• 15:40
  I nearly moved down South when I lived in New York.
• 15:42
  I live in California now and it is just a fantastic place to
• 15:47
  live. I'm also addicted to barbecue,
• 15:49
  which would be a problem if I live down there because I'm
• 15:51
  trying to lose weight, right? What's what's the good BBQ spot
• 15:58
  I should go to when I ever, if I ever and when I get back down to
• 16:01
  Charlotte? I don't really know actually
• 16:04
  don't eat meat so I'm not the right person to.
• 16:07
  Ask what's a good vegan and vegetarian spot to go to if I
• 16:10
  ever come back to Charlotte with my vegetarian friends.
• 16:13
  Well, one of my favorite restaurants in town, probably my
• 16:16
  favorite, is Lang Van. It's a Vietnamese restaurant.
• 16:18
  It's the best. Like every time I go there feels
• 16:21
  like I'm going to grandma's house.
• 16:22
  It's just you feel at home, they take care of you and it's
• 16:25
  delicious food and I would recommend it to anybody.
• 16:27
  Amazing. I ate a lot of Vietnamese food
• 16:29
  when I lived in Boston, which has a huge Vietnamese community
• 16:32
  and I love me some FA, so can't go wrong.
• 16:35
  Great. It's like comfort food.
• 16:36
  Actually, you're right. It's like the soup version of
• 16:39
  Mac and cheese. It just makes you feel all good.
• 16:42
  Warm and cozy. That's it.
• 16:43
  Thanks for humoring me on that. I definitely offended somebody
• 16:47
  with like I was, I compared a cannibalism to eating ribs and
• 16:50
  you were like, I don't know what that's about.
• 16:52
  I'm a vegetarian and you're gross.
• 16:54
  And I was like, I'm sorry, I'm trying to be funny.
• 16:56
  I'm sorry. Marginally entertaining.
• 16:59
  Yeah, being in me, being in North Carolina, I can't expect
• 17:02
  you to not ask me about barbecues.
• 17:04
  So it's fair question. Fair enough.
• 17:06
  Hey, if you read geezer Butlers book, which is fantastic and you
• 17:10
  said you're like me, a huge Sabbath.
• 17:12
  Not he talked about how hard he was vegetarian in the 70s and he
• 17:16
  was like, you don't know how hard it was.
• 17:18
  These guys are eating steaks and I'm having like a bad potato and
• 17:22
  peanuts and beans and that's all I lived on for like 6 months at
• 17:25
  a time till I can go home. And I was like, that's wild.
• 17:29
  Because you know, obviously, like different cuisines and
• 17:32
  especially different diets were not easy to accommodate back
• 17:36
  then 50 years ago. But you know, obviously he's a
• 17:38
  lot happier now. That's why he looks so good.
• 17:40
  He's the he's the guy that that's why he looks so well.
• 17:45
  You know, retirement suited him. Just for the last question,
• 17:48
  you've been awesome, man. I really appreciate you.
• 17:50
  And again, I'm so stoked for this new record.
• 17:52
  But I like to end these with a wild card question.
• 17:55
  So hopefully this one will not throw you or stump you.
• 17:57
  But what's the last good book you read?
• 18:00
  Last good book I read. You know, I think it's been
• 18:03
  about a year since I actually sat down and read a book, but I,
• 18:06
  I finally read Devil in the White City, which is a good book
• 18:10
  if you're familiar. I've always been fascinated with
• 18:12
  the story of HH Holmes and like the World's Fair and everything.
• 18:16
  And they've been talking about making that into a movie for
• 18:18
  years or a show or something. And I don't think it's ever
• 18:20
  going to happen at this point, but.
• 18:22
  It'd be cool if I don't know if you're familiar with Bryan
• 18:25
  Fuller. He did the Hannibal TV series
• 18:28
  which I thought was going to get banned after the first episode
• 18:30
  because it was so wild and over to the top.
• 18:33
  And I think he would be the guy, or maybe Fincher if they were
• 18:36
  going to bring back some kind of Minehunter in a different era.
• 18:40
  Oh God, Hunter, don't get me started.
• 18:41
  I'm yeah. Oh, it was so good.
• 18:43
  And I'm a big John Douglas nerd, so I love the L any, you know,
• 18:47
  sounds of the Lambs and mine hunter and stuff like that.
• 18:50
  It's just a bummer that the schedule didn't work out for
• 18:52
  them to keep making it. But awesome, man.
• 18:54
  That's a good one. HH Holmes, what a good
• 18:56
  reference. It's always a good time for a
• 18:58
  serial killer call out fad. You rule.
• 19:01
  Thank you so much for hanging out with us today.
• 19:03
  And man, best of luck with the new album from Cosmic Reaper.
• 19:07
  Thanks. Thanks for having me.