Confessor
Confessor is a band very
dedicated to its music and this is obvious in the works they deliver! Their
compositions are filled with quality and they are really complex. After
all I don't think it's the easiest task to mix techno-thrash with doom
metal. Aren't I right? Check the interview out and make sure you'll listen
to this kick ass band!!!!
1. Let’s take it from the start. What ever
made you disband after releasing that Confessor EP? I know that such special
bands like you are doomed to be a privilege of the few but was that the
reason?
First I want to thank Behind the Veil for
letting me do this interview!!! So on to your question, after The Gods
of Grind tour we were suppose to start on another record but Earache decided
not to release one. I guess we were a bit worn out with them and were a
bit discouraged. So I left and formed a band named Drench and Cary, Steve
and Brian went on to form Fly Machine.
2. What have you been doing all those years?
Did you have the chance to play any music apart from Confessor material?
Did the fans show any interest about the band during that time?
As I said before, I left and formed a band
named Drench and Cary, Steve and Brian went on to form Fly Machine.
I also went to college and got my Bachelor of Science degree in Textile
Design. The other guys did the "normal life" but they all kept jamming.
I was not singing for years, until we reformed, except on small studio
projects for some people that is. We would always hear things hear and
there about how people wished we had done another album etc… But we never
thought it would really happen.
3. The album “Condemned” has always been a
topic of controversy between metalheads trying to categorize you. The area
between techno-thrash and doom was the place you were moving. Have you
ever heard a characterization that would be satisfying to you? How you
call it? I think that the Trouble guitar sound and some slow ideas is your
doom face and the rest of it the technical metal one.
I don't think we are really doom metal. I
think we sort of cover a wide range of styles. At times we have a Trouble
like feel, at times now I think we have an Alice in Chains type feel, at
time we have a Nasty Savage feel. We certainly don't fall into a category,
I don't think. I guess a label is just an easy way to tell someone who
hasn't heard a band sort of what they think the band sounds like and then
that person should simply decide whether they like it or not.
4. Your vocals were also something to talk
about. I’ve read praising but also really bad opinions about your voice.
I think that they are an essential element of the Confessor identity but
never really figured out what the fuss was all about. Do you think that
high-pitch vocals will always be hard to digest?
Well probably. I guess the older stuff is
hard to take but the new material is right in the mainstream. There is
no reason that the vocals these days would not be palatable.
5. After Ivan’s passing away, what gave you
the strength to re-unite Confessor? And what made you re-unite? Did you
talk about it before Ivan’s death?
Well Ivan’s passing certainly brought us back
together. We did a reunion/benefit show for his wife to help with the medical
costs. Then we just felt like it was the right thing for us to do
and we got back together.
6. Can you tell us a bit about the new guitarist
Shawn McCoy since the rest of the line-up is intact? For example about
how did you find him, if he was aware of Confessor music and so on.
He was in another Raleigh band and he came
on over and fit right in. He is a great lead guitarist and adds a
great deal to the sound and writing process of Confessor. He comes
up with wonderful weird harmonies and in my opinion has some great lead
work on the newer material.
7. To the music now. How did you manage to
maintain your character in such a loyal form to your past? Many bands that
re-unite tend to incorporate many modern elements but you seem to just
don’t care.
It’s not that we don’t care it’s just that’s
what we enjoy playing and that’s what we are going to play. There is no
reason for us to change what we love to write to try to please the masses.
We are back because we enjoy it, not to sign on to the “Nu Metal” bandwagon.
We might not hit the success level as some of those but we are ok with
that because changing Confessor would never make us happy.
8. I believe that this work of yours is the
doomiest you've ever made. I think that the songs “Sour times” and “Blueprint
soul” are pure doom and simply amazing! Do you agree? Was there some specific
push you received towards that direction?
Well, we have been getting that reaction pretty
much across the board. I guess you could say two things about these
initial "doomier" songs, 1. We sort of went back to the very early Confessor
days when we wrote more Sabbathy type riffs and we enjoy doing some of
that. 2. You could say we were just getting warmed back up.
Ok, there will be a mixture of the more straight forward stuff, (maybe
that will widen our appeal to more people) and the very technical stuff
(to keep in the Confessor style and appeal to those math meatlheads). But
TRUST me, some of the songs that you have not heard, are WAY fucked up
and you will think Condemned was a walk in the park in comparison. I will
however keep the vocals melodic as they are now and not really high as
they used to be. Each song has a hook and the newer ones do too.
9. The song “Hibernation” sounds exactly like
your old techno-doom days and is really heavy. Was it done on purpose to
show that you are still what you used to?
Well as I stated in the previous question,
there is MORE of that to come on the album. We enjoy the slower stuff to,
so we throw in a bit of both. Just wait for the album; you will hear some
pretty crazy shit!!!
10. I have always been a big fan of Steve Shelton’s
playing and I am glad to see that he is still in shape. Is he a drums instructor
or something? Also do you agree that the drums sounded a bit funny on “Condemned”
from the production angle?
Steve is not an instructor. I agree he certainly
could be. As far as the production on “Condemned”. That is a sore subject!!!
None of us were happy with it. That’s another reason we want to release
another album to sort of make up for the production on that. The
NEW EP was recorded with legendary producer Dick Hodgin (Corrosion of Conformity,
Hootie and the Blowfish etc…) and mixed by Grammy Nominated Engineer Ian
Schreier. The full length album will use the two same folks. They
are really great.
11. You mainly sing lower than you used to.
Was this done on purpose or did the songs not require high-pitched vocals?
Is that also a sign of maturity?
It's funny with the old vocals because I used
to get ragged on about them so often it's nice to have some compliments
these days. It's not that I couldn’t sing as I do now, back then, it's
just that was my thing I guess. I love singing and I think you can really
hear that in the work I have done on the new material. If you listen with
head phones you really can hear all of the different layers and harmonies
and things going on with the vocals. I think the vocals are now very polished
and professional.
12. Lyrics seem to be doomy as well! Sometimes
suffocating and sometimes just dark and depressing. What can you tell us
about them?
I think there is a mixture of things going
on in our lyrics. Some of the lyrics are personal but some are also written
about how others might be feeling. I do try to deal mainly with emotional
thing. You won't find any politics in our songs and only very occasionally
are there any religious references. There are plenty of other bands that
cover those areas. We set a mood for Confessor back then and we have carried
that mood and message over into today's material.
13. Did you ever consider just how bizarre
it is to combine doom which is a simple genre in structure with technical
(thrash) metal? How do you conceive this combination? Technical music with
sentiment maybe?
We never really think about that. We just
write and what comes out is it. Usually Brian and Shawn come up with a
riff and it will either stay fairly straight forward or Steve will take
it and twist it all up. That’s how the material becomes complex,
when Steve starts to fuck with it.
14. I’ve seen a video of you performing live
and I was astonished by the energy you had! Are you still so passionate
on stage? What should one expect from a Confessor live? How are your gigs
in North Carolina?
Yes we are still like that live. Confessor
is MUCH heavier live than on the CD you have to hear and see us live to
really appreciate the true heaviness of it. We still do shows in Raleigh
occasionally, but we are looking into doing some festivals this summer
in Europe. Keep an eye on the website for further information: http://www.confessorband.com
15. Do you have any plans, musical and in life
that you want to follow? What do Confessor want the future to hold for
the band?
Well, that's hard. You know, it really comes
down to what we enjoy playing. We don't write songs thinking they will
sell or not. We write them to please ourselves and the people we know will
appreciate them. That's not to say we don't think about song structure
and how the song will flow, because we do. But we are not writing a song
thinking, "Oh we have to keep this under 4 minutes for the radio or something".
I don't see us as a doom metal band or math metal band. I just see
Confessor as a metal band that enjoys what they do and hope that others
will do the same. We just want to put out another album and show people
what we are all about!!!
16. Thank you! Is there anything you’d like
to add and I didn’t ask?
I would just like to say to those who know
Confessor, thank you for your support and welcoming us back into the scene.
We hope you like the new material and we are sure you will be pleased with
the other material that will be on the album. And to those of you who are
not familiar with Confessor we invite you to check out our website, www.confessorband.com
and download one of the songs from the EP and hopefully you will decide
to order the entire CD from the site. You know, we just want to let everyone
know that Confessor is back!!!!!
George "Volt"
Tassis
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