Cog release new single ‘Altered States’, touring WA in May

1 May 2018 The Rockpit

Sydney progressive rock trio Cog are set to release their second single this year. Following the release of The Middle, they’re back with a track that will blow you away, Altered States.

Recently, whilst Cog were working on The Middle they stumbled upon this track that they’d written and recorded during the Sharing Space period. And it sounded pretty cool. They remember playing it live a few times but it didn’t make the album cut. After hearing it again they thought it was a song worth releasing. Even if it’s a little late. So now that it’s been remixed and given the Forrester Seville treatment they present it you. Cog. Altered States.

The band formed in 1998 by former schoolmates Flynn Gower (vocals, guitar) and Lucius Borich (drums), who had previously played together in The Hanging Tree, a late-’90s stoner rock band. Shortly after forming and writing some initial material, the two incorporated Luke Gower, the brother of Flynn, to play bass. Now a trio, Cog proceeded to establish themselves as a popular gig attraction in Sydney and the surrounding state of New South Wales, and following the release of a 2000 demo recording, Pseudo, they were soon signed by the independent label Little Samurai, resulting in a few EP releases: Just Visiting, Pt. 1 (2002), Just Visiting, Pt. 2 (2002), and Open Up (2003).

The band was then signed by former Universal Music Australia managing director Paul Krige’s independent label, Difrnt Music, and in turn went to California to work with Sylvia Massy, who had produced Tool’s Undertow (1993) and who also had a close affiliation with producer Rick Rubin, working as an engineer with him on albums such as System of a Down’s 1998 self-titled debut. Cog’s resulting full-length album debut, The New Normal (2005), became an Australian rock sensation, debuting in the Top 20 of the albums chart and hitting number one on the Australian Independent Recordings (AIR) chart and was voted number 50 Australian Album of All Time; moreover, the album spawned the popular radio single Run, which reached the Top Five of the AIR singles chart.

Cog recorded their follow-up album, Sharing Space (2008), with Massy once again, and the album proved even more successful than its predecessor, reaching number two on the Australian albums chart and spawning the Top 50 hit What If.