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The Physics Of Metal With HOWSIE From COFFIN CAROUSEL · HEAVY Music Interviews

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Speaker 1: One of its. How's he I'm in the band Coffin Carousel.
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Speaker 1: I'm the main vocalist, guitarist, songwriter band boss guy, and yeah,
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Speaker 1: we just dropped our album, a fifth studio album, Quantum
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Speaker 1: Chainsaw Part three six nine. So yeah, I'm definitely excited
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Speaker 1: for this one because it's I'm back in my back
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Speaker 1: of my roots, back with back with the metal metal
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Speaker 1: cap on, and just yeah, we had a lot of
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Speaker 1: fun in.
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Speaker 2: Making it so fantastic. How's you Thanks for joining us today?
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Speaker 1: Brother? Yeah, good, always be back as you say.
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Speaker 2: Coffin Carousel released your fifth album, Quantum Chainsaw Part three
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Speaker 2: six nine, back on September twenty sixth, So she's been
0:45
Speaker 2: out a few weeks ago, a few weeks now, So
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Speaker 2: what's the only reception?
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Speaker 1: Like, Yeah, look, it's I've had a lot of friends
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Speaker 1: reach out and just say I look at loving the news.
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Speaker 1: Sound like that The feedback I'm getting personally as people
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Speaker 1: enjoying the heavier direction, which it was always a progressed.
1:01
Speaker 1: It was always progressing that way, like the first album
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Speaker 1: was in the horror punk world, but every album since
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Speaker 1: it's got heavy and heavier, and this one I was like,
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Speaker 1: it's just time to go full metal retard and just
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Speaker 1: have some fun. So yeah, but people were digging that.
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Speaker 1: I think some people haven't got into it as much
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Speaker 1: as the other albums, but they're playing more from the
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Speaker 1: older fan base. But then some fans have reached out
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Speaker 1: and said it took them a few listens, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: they're really enjoying it. So I just think it's breaking
1:27
Speaker 1: down the stigma of what people may have seen a
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Speaker 1: few years ago. That's just a complete hit the reset button.
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Speaker 1: That's a new band in a sense, same band, but
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Speaker 1: complete different sound.
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Speaker 2: And you mentioned they have a direction a little bit,
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Speaker 2: so can you dive into that a bit deeper for
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Speaker 2: us and tell us why you went.
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Speaker 1: So, I guess in my journey as a musician, I
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Speaker 1: began playing death metal bands, and you know, when you're
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Speaker 1: early twenties, you just love the aggression love. I always
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Speaker 1: love the technicality with the guitar playing and just the
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Speaker 1: riffs and getting just the most ugliest, crazy Sanati guitar
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Speaker 1: ramp that you could. So I've always loved death metal
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Speaker 1: in general, and yes, so I guess over the journey,
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Speaker 1: I wanted to explore more other elements with Coffin Carousel Originally,
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Speaker 1: the band I was in before Coffin Carousel, Hatchet Down,
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Speaker 1: was a horror metal band, and again it was all
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Speaker 1: danating guitars, just really ugly sounds. So I had a
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Speaker 1: little bit of a hangover from Hatchet Dawn coming in
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Speaker 1: the Coffin Carousel, more in the aesthetics, but the sound
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Speaker 1: I wanted to recreate and try different things. But as
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Speaker 1: over time, I've just found myself going back to what
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Speaker 1: I just always loved. It was all the subgenres of
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Speaker 1: death metal, and I was always into Swedish death metal
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Speaker 1: because I loved the chainsaw guitar sounds. And years ago
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Speaker 1: I saw Grave at the Corner Hotel. I think it
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Speaker 1: was like two thousand and eight. It was gone back
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Speaker 1: a while, but ever since I saw that show, it
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Speaker 1: was just like holy shit, what like I saw knew
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Speaker 1: a little bit about the chainsaw guitar sound, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: I just just I got to talk to the guys
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Speaker 1: after the show and I just was like, explain this
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Speaker 1: sound to me. I just want to know more. So, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I've always dipped in and out of that genre, but
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Speaker 1: just again going back to those guitar sounds and just
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Speaker 1: really trying to explore how ugly you can make a
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Speaker 1: guitar sound and using the technique of HM two pedals
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Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing, and you know tuning.
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Speaker 1: We tuned the guitars down a little bit lower again
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Speaker 1: for this album, so it just naturally gives it that
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Speaker 1: like huge presence in the in the mix of an album.
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Speaker 1: So that's pretty much in a nutshell. Just I just
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Speaker 1: I just I sort of just got back more and
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Speaker 1: more into that the older stuff I used to listen to,
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Speaker 1: and yeah, like pulling up bands like at the Gates
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Speaker 1: in termed Graves and Massive. I've been a massive fan
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Speaker 1: of Grave for years, and the bands like Gorelord and
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Speaker 1: then Negrophasia, which are more in the horror metal genres,
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Speaker 1: like they really sort of like for Freddy Ablow, the guitarist,
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Speaker 1: I just chat to him on MySpace, but he was
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Speaker 1: obviously he grew up in that Swedish death metal scene
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Speaker 1: and part of the Gallard sound was just chainsaw guitars.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, I just back to her. I saw it
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Speaker 1: almost began twenty years ago.
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Speaker 2: So now I'm not glad you mentioned that you had
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Speaker 2: to ask them about the HMG change saw guitar tones
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Speaker 2: and explained it, because now it's you're trying to explain
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Speaker 2: it to me. What the hell is a HMG change?
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Speaker 2: Saw a guitar tone cool well.
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Speaker 1: At that show back and I think two thousand and eight,
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Speaker 1: like a friend Marita was doing the mixing. Everyone in
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Speaker 1: the Alburn Metals seen as Marita, she's she's a champion.
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Speaker 1: But I actually before I got the chance to speak
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Speaker 1: to the banner, I pulled her aside at the mixing downs,
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Speaker 1: was like, how the heck did you get that sound?
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Speaker 1: Because she goes, it's a frequency thing, you know, I
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Speaker 1: think shit at the times she says between seven hundred
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Speaker 1: and six hundred hertz and the guitar frequencies really but anyway,
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Speaker 1: traditionally the Swedish death metal sound came from the bis
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Speaker 1: h M two pedal, which wasn't a big massive hit
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Speaker 1: at the time from what I guess historically, but certain
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Speaker 1: bands in Europe and that we're using them early nineties
5:13
Speaker 1: mid nineties. But they I guess guitarists in the medal
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Speaker 1: that max out all the settings naturally because you just
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Speaker 1: want an aggress his sound. But they were doing that
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Speaker 1: with this pedal, but running it through different heads at
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Speaker 1: the time, and they just had this unique sort of
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Speaker 1: like the way, the easiest way to describe it, h
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Speaker 1: and two pedal makes your guitar ramp sound like ten
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Speaker 1: marshals perfect. Yeah, Like it just made carrying King on
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Speaker 1: stage with his marshal stacks behind him or plugged in
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Speaker 1: and just blasting it. It just makes the sound more
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Speaker 1: aggressive and it cuts in frequencies. It just it sounds
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Speaker 1: like a chainsaw when you're doing the riffing, like fast picking,
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Speaker 1: and it's like that chainsaw sound, so like it. It
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Speaker 1: was very underground sort of. Yeah. Even when I discovered
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Speaker 1: it listening to a lot albums and you know, Grave
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Speaker 1: albums back in the day, I knew about it. I
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Speaker 1: enjoyed it, but as a musician guitarist, I was in
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Speaker 1: a different things sound wise. But I just happened to
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Speaker 1: go back. I bought one again off Reverb and just
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Speaker 1: an old Japanese one, and I plugged it in. I
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Speaker 1: was like, I've got to check this out, and you know,
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Speaker 1: I spent some time and I understand what this thing
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Speaker 1: was that I remember back in the day, and I
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Speaker 1: was just like, wow, there's something in this and it
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Speaker 1: just it just stood up a lot of old memories
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Speaker 1: and yeah, inspired this new album, but I think I
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Speaker 1: want to keep it. It's going to stay. That's not
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Speaker 1: one off, like, yeah, it's going to stay. I'm set.
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Speaker 1: I'm like, no, it's back.
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Speaker 2: I'm glad you explained that, because the only other time
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Speaker 2: I've heard the term chainsaw used in reference to music
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Speaker 2: was a band called Jackal, and they actually used a
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Speaker 2: real chainsaw. I'm listening to you, I can't even a
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Speaker 2: chainsaw going off there, Like, what the hell is he
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Speaker 2: on about?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, there's always been intros to like death metal bands
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Speaker 1: that had the chainsaw stay out like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and.
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Speaker 2: As you played a solo on the on the Chainsaw,
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Speaker 2: Oh wow. Yeah, I try and find the lenk of it. Sentity,
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Speaker 2: it's amazing.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but there's there's there's I love to check it out.
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Speaker 1: I always like like that sort of stuff. But you know,
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Speaker 1: if for anyone not familiar with it, that there's there's
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Speaker 1: YouTube videos you can just just pop in chains or
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Speaker 1: guitar sounds, and I think all of England is made
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Speaker 1: of some really good sort of breakdown videos explaining the
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Speaker 1: pedals and the sounds and what the bands are doing.
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Speaker 1: Back in Europe in those days. But yeah, it's it's
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Speaker 1: it's it's fun. It's for me, like I'm in my forties.
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Speaker 1: You know, I'm not trying to change the world with
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Speaker 1: my music, but it's just enjoying this the subgenres and
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Speaker 1: just putting out something that's I feel like, awesome. I'm
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Speaker 1: proud of that one.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, cool, I said you believe. For around the
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Speaker 2: same time as the album dropped, your release a single,
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Speaker 2: purest Gold. So is that a good sight of representation
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Speaker 2: of the whole thing or is that just stretching a surface.
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Speaker 1: It was just that one track. I guess when you
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Speaker 1: make a music video, it gets sort of like, okay,
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Speaker 1: something I naturally look for that song that is the
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Speaker 1: new sort of album sound, but it has all the
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Speaker 1: different elements to it, and for a first time listener,
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Speaker 1: I always personally think of what's the first time listener
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Speaker 1: going to enjoy about the band. It's not the heaviest
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Speaker 1: track on the album, but it was probably the most
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Speaker 1: dynamic and probably yeah, different sons, different audio cues and
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Speaker 1: different sounds going on that you know, you could really
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Speaker 1: play on with film. So it was just a track
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Speaker 1: that stood out. I was like y'all think for a
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Speaker 1: first time listener people would enjoy it. Again, trying to
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Speaker 1: get old old fans to sort of into the new sound.
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Speaker 1: It was a bit of a soft entry into it.
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Speaker 1: But there's heavier tracks on the album and we may
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Speaker 1: do another one eventually, but with this, I guess going
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Speaker 1: back to those old memories, I didn't want to time
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Speaker 1: day stamp it for now. I like that we did
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Speaker 1: the VHS framing made it look real nineties sort of things.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't. It's not supposed to look modern, you know,
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Speaker 1: for all the new Wisbang toys that bands years. It
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Speaker 1: was just have some fun, real, be real. Yeah. I
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Speaker 1: was born in the early eighties. I grew up and
9:23
Speaker 1: listening to music in the nineties. To just the VHS experience, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I don't know people still enjoy that. I don't know,
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Speaker 1: but it just made sense. We're working with Garis, the director,
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Speaker 1: had some ideas, and he was into it because, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I'm sick of doing these super high quality looking things
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Speaker 1: that people watch on their phones. Anyway, I was like, well,
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Speaker 1: let's just have fun. Let's just let's just pull off
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Speaker 1: all these rules that bands think they got to follow
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Speaker 1: to be seen and heard it's just just put something
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Speaker 1: out of fun represent that sound in the album experience,
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Speaker 1: and yeah, so Papirious God was just it was Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it was just attracted. I thought old old fans could
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Speaker 1: enjoy bridging it in this new sound, and our first
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Speaker 1: time listener would go, ka, I can sort of see
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Speaker 1: what's going on with the vocals, the guitars and the drums,
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Speaker 1: and yeah.
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Speaker 2: Cool, now what we got you explaining yourself? Mate, explain
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Speaker 2: the album title Quantum Chainsaw Part three six nine? What
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Speaker 2: about hell?
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Speaker 1: Yeah? So originally I had the Quantum Chainsaws title. I
10:27
Speaker 1: was like that solid it represents what's going on lyrically musically.
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Speaker 1: And then so I'm a bit of a quantum physics
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Speaker 1: sort of nerd. Look, you know, different things like that.
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Speaker 1: All this new a little bit of new age stuff.
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Speaker 1: But then so it's a bit of an homage also,
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Speaker 1: like my favorite gorel Old album was called Zombie Suicide
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Speaker 1: Part six sixty six, so it was a bit of
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Speaker 1: a homage tribute to Freddie Ablou, and I just I
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Speaker 1: changed it. Didn't use copy of the idea, but I
11:00
Speaker 1: just took the part three six's nine. So if you're
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Speaker 1: I think it was Nikola Tesla the inventor, not the
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Speaker 1: car maker. He kind of he left this theory and
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Speaker 1: after he passed it, all the answers to the universe
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Speaker 1: are in the sequence in the numbers of three, six
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Speaker 1: and nine. So if you're into numerology and different the
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Speaker 1: number number math masks and things like that, you can
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Speaker 1: you find these trends with three six and nine and
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Speaker 1: as and obviously the quantum Chains I was like just
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Speaker 1: a bit of a horror horror title, just like horror
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Speaker 1: happening in the quantum field. It's not so much on
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Speaker 1: your doorstep like Texas Chains or Massacre. It's like, I
11:46
Speaker 1: don't know, a bit sci fi and maybe two. But
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Speaker 1: it was a horror title with a bit of an
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Speaker 1: image and just some nerdy stuff I'm into.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, we spoke about the heavier direction on this album,
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Speaker 2: and it seems every album release and seeing Coffin Carrsel
12:02
Speaker 2: get progressively heavier. So how heavier are you going to
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Speaker 2: continue to go? Like? Is this about the limits?
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Speaker 1: Now?
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Speaker 2: Do you more?
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Speaker 1: It's pretty much where I've wanted to get it to.
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Speaker 1: Like any artist, you put your album out, you've had
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Speaker 1: some more listens to it, talk to some fans and
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Speaker 1: some friends. I have some more ideas for another album
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Speaker 1: or not another release, to go a little bit heavier,
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Speaker 1: but I think I think it's where it's where I'm
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Speaker 1: that's where I'm comfortable performing, and also yeah, just writing,
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Speaker 1: I think it's it's pretty much at like I don't
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Speaker 1: want to go full tech brutal metal, Like I still
12:42
Speaker 1: like the big choruses, just like the aggressive roofs, but
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Speaker 1: I'm loving back tuning back lower again, So I think
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Speaker 1: that I'm definitely going to keep that, if anything, be
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Speaker 1: more of a mixed, mixed, dynamic thing, maybe bringing the
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Speaker 1: harsher vocals bit more forward again, and definitely keep it
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Speaker 1: chainsaw guitar sound. So yeah, Like, I think, if anything,
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Speaker 1: you can expect a bit more of an evolved where
13:07
Speaker 1: it's at now, but I think I'm pretty happy where
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Speaker 1: I've got it to. After ten years of your ten
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Speaker 1: twelve hoars, I.
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Speaker 2: Think they despite whether you're doing the horror punk stuff
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Speaker 2: or the heaviest stuff, there's one consistent thing with your music,
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Speaker 2: and that's it's the moody atmospherics and almost cinematic undertones.
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Speaker 2: Like how hard to create that and insert it into
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Speaker 2: your music it doesn't, it wouldn't be easy with it
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Speaker 2: that that part.
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Speaker 1: Comes naturally for me. I think it's just been just experience.
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Speaker 1: I've been doing different bands over the years. It's just
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Speaker 1: I like to I like to. I guess with Coffin
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Speaker 1: Carousel and horror punk lends itself to that genre originally,
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Speaker 1: Like when I started the band, like, everything's got to
13:52
Speaker 1: got a theateratric element to it. So I like things.
13:57
Speaker 1: I like things been in experienced, So without going yeah,
14:02
Speaker 1: we're a gore horror band, like here's all the imagery
14:05
Speaker 1: or crazy shit going on. Like sonically, I like to
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Speaker 1: take the listener on a bit of a journey and
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Speaker 1: some Yeah, there's a lot of there's always a lot
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Speaker 1: of things in the background. If you're a headphones guy
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Speaker 1: or girl or human. If you've got the headphones on,
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Speaker 1: there's going to be lots of stuff that you won't
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Speaker 1: pick up through like crank and three ystereo go home system.
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Speaker 1: But it's just creating an experience. I like that element
14:29
Speaker 1: to production, the song music production and songwriting. Yeah, but
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Speaker 1: that part comes out naturally. I don't force it. Usually
14:37
Speaker 1: as I'm working on songs, developing the tracks, building up
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Speaker 1: all the instruments. You just might hear little things and go, ah,
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Speaker 1: that part needs a little bit of this, or I'm
14:47
Speaker 1: going to add some little strings thinth things in this
14:50
Speaker 1: part because it really acts sents to the chord progression.
14:53
Speaker 1: Or so it's just just building on what's already there.
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Speaker 1: It's just adding in some candy for the that the
15:00
Speaker 1: listener experience. Yeah, very nice.
15:03
Speaker 2: And you've got an album launch show coming up on
15:05
Speaker 2: October twenty four at Revolver band Room, So tell us
15:09
Speaker 2: more about that.
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Speaker 1: Where people get tickets, Yeah, tickets are on wash Tics.
15:13
Speaker 1: I've got links all over the socials and we've still
15:16
Speaker 1: got a website, so if you go to the show's
15:18
Speaker 1: section on the website, the link sitting there. So the
15:22
Speaker 1: Revolver traditionally hasn't been playing much metal these days. And
15:27
Speaker 1: when I grew up in my first band, we were
15:29
Speaker 1: playing Revolver. Every Wednesday night was the metal night. So
15:34
Speaker 1: it's like a DJ weekend sort of after hours club.
15:38
Speaker 1: It's just it's open full time on weekends, but Wednesday
15:41
Speaker 1: nights were always the metal night. So I guess I
15:44
Speaker 1: cut my seat. I cut my teeth in Melburn metal
15:47
Speaker 1: scene doing a Revolver but then, like as other venues
15:52
Speaker 1: and the scene sort of grew over the decades, Revolvers
15:57
Speaker 1: stopped putting on metal shows, and it was yeah, I
16:01
Speaker 1: just I spoke to a friend who we wanted the
16:03
Speaker 1: book the show, and he goes, actually, I can get
16:06
Speaker 1: Revolver for you if you want that date, and I
16:08
Speaker 1: was just like, awesome, that's like going back to old school.
16:12
Speaker 1: But it's a really good venue. Like the stage is
16:14
Speaker 1: real high up, and it's the stage is kind of
16:17
Speaker 1: open in the room, so it doesn't matter if you're
16:19
Speaker 1: on the side or the center, Like you get a
16:22
Speaker 1: really good view of the band, and the sound spreads
16:24
Speaker 1: well in that room, and it's just a real cozy
16:27
Speaker 1: type room. Always looks good, always sounds good. And it's
16:33
Speaker 1: location wise, it's around public transport so and it's closer
16:38
Speaker 1: to the sort of I'm in the southeast of Melbourne,
16:41
Speaker 1: so a lot of my friends and yeah, people I
16:44
Speaker 1: speak to regularly, it's like easy for them to go to. So, yeah,
16:50
Speaker 1: we're going to add some extra visuals to this show
16:52
Speaker 1: and try a few new things too. It won't be
16:55
Speaker 1: just us rocking on stage. It won't be any crazy
16:59
Speaker 1: go go dances. Guess burl Asque like performances with tried
17:04
Speaker 1: within the past, but there's gonna be the band rocking out,
17:06
Speaker 1: but just more visually, more of a showcase sort of thing.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, rights, all right, I don't see. Well, thanks for
17:13
Speaker 2: your time, Rose, be the pleasure speaking with you. The
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Speaker 2: album Patch and Chainsaw Part three six nine is out
17:18
Speaker 2: now and I really really enjoyed it, bro. I thought
17:20
Speaker 2: it was a fantastic album.
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Speaker 1: So if you haven't heard it yet, it's for the
17:24
Speaker 1: metal scene. This one like horror punk fans may hear
17:29
Speaker 1: some things that they like, but it's that we're we're
17:31
Speaker 1: closed the door on the horror punk stuff and we're
17:33
Speaker 1: just like cool, We're a metal band and this is
17:35
Speaker 1: this is where we're heading.
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Speaker 2: So