US heavy rockers Corrosion Of Conformity return with a massive new album titled “No Cross No Crown” which picks up where 2005’s “In The Arms Of God” left off, bringing back one of the band’s key members in Pepper Keenan who has injected a powerful and sonically booming sound back into their music. We talk to bass player and founding member Mike Dean to discuss the news songs and more.
Andrew: Last time we talked you were about to get ready to come down to Australia for a tour so how did those run of shows go?
Mike: It went pretty well! It went very well but it was a surprise because the only shows in Australia that we had done were bigger shows like opening for Pantera or playing with Vista Chino where we were doing Soundwave where you fly to every show so I just presumed that’s what was going on. So we got to the Gold Coast and we played the show and we were all jetlagged and I said to the tour manager, ‘Ok so what time are we going to the airport?’ and it was like, ‘Oh no we’re not going to the airport, we’re just going to drive to Sydney’. I’m like, ‘Oh that’s a long drive!’ But it was awesome, we got to see not the whole of the country but a good bit of it. Driving out of Melbourne all the way to Adelaide and seeing the land and all that.
Andrew: Sure it’s a great way to see the country. Is that something you prefer to do, drive from city to city or do you like to get on a flight and get there straight away?
Mike: So much so that our producer John Custer doesn’t particularly like to fly and I’m the same way so much so that when we mixed this record that’s coming out, he and I drove something like 2700 miles from Raleigh, North Carolina to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to bring the tunes out to Mike Fraser who mixed the album and who also mixed “Wiseblood” many years ago. Yeah I’m over flying, over the experience [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well you have the new album coming out pretty soon, “No Cross No Crown”. We had a review of the album and absolutely loved this thing, it kind of has an “In The Arms Of God” feel to it.
Mike: Yeah it’s kind of aggressive like “In The Arms Of God” that we created.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and it also has a lot of nods to some of the earlier stuff like “Wiseblood” and “Deliverance” as well which is very cool. And with Pepper back in the band too, how was this whole process with the album then?
Mike: We just put ourselves in a situation where the songs could largely write themselves. I mean we all shared ideas, I know Pepper (Keenan, guitars/vocals) had a lot of stuff but when it came down to it we would get Pepper or Woody (Weatherman, guitars) on the major riff and we would just get that person playing and sort of arrange the song by committee. Play it through and make suggestions and the first time we got it right it was on tape and we would go about layering on top of that and we didn’t use any headphones so we had kind of a free type of feel but we were able to make it sound pretty heavy. So it was interesting, we didn’t really have full songs that we rehearsed together very much, we just sort of built them and then we all had to learn our parts and experiment a lot. Time went by really fast and it was kind of a whirlwind and fortunately when we were done we had something good which the odds of that happening are 50/50.
Andrew: Well it sounds fantastic and the album title has an interesting backstory. I’ve read up on it through other interviews you have done and stuff but some of our readers may not know the backstory to it, can you tell us where the title came from and how it became the catalyst for the whole album?
Mike: Well apparently this was written into one of the stone glass panels in this church that’s turned into a performance parlour in Coventry, UK where we played a show. We saw that and thought, ‘Yeah that sounds like an album title really and we should come up with a collection of songs loosely on that theme’. I think it sounds kind of like a non-conformist title, “No Cross No Crown” so seemed like a good starting point. We had perhaps a record title long before we had anything else to do with the record.
Andrew: Has that happened before or is this the first time where you took an idea and ran with it?
Mike: No first time for sure. I think with “Deliverance” the last song to be recorded was the Deliverance song [laughs]. The band was feeling like things pretty much sucked before “Deliverance” came out because they parted ways with Karl Agell (ex-vocals) who sang on songs on “Blind” and also the bass player Phil Swisher who was having a little dispute and it was kind of with Karl. So they had this record started and it was sounding amazing and had a record deal and suddenly it was stalled with the singer who didn’t have any ideas for the songs so they parted ways with him and it looked like it was all going to be for nothing and then I got a call to go play bass and we looked at some of the material and sort of talked Pepper into singing. Then we went into the studio and recorded his vocals and then it really felt like we had delivered, the last moment we could have chosen the title for the album! I think in general it has been kind of last minute affairs but this one was definitely the cart before the horse for sure.
Andrew: Speaking of Pepper, what is it like to have him back in the band like this? It’s the first album for Corrosion Of Conformity that he’s been on in so many years so what was it like working with him again? Was it just like the good old days so to speak?
Mike: Yeah I think better than the good old days. I think collaboratively things really ramped up around “In The Arms Of God” as far as being just the fluidity of it and the quality I feel has come fast and not looking over your shoulder like what anybody would think about but just doing stuff off the cuff. I think that this is sort of a continuation of that, it’s got that creative thrust with some new elements in there of course. We’ve got Reed Mullin also back in, he didn’t play on “In The Arms Of God” so that’s another bonus for sure.
Andrew: The album has a lot of interludes as well through out that kind of gives a Black Sabbath feel.
Mike: Yeah I mean “Master Of Reality” is the ultimate album for those interlude pieces that set up the rock songs or whatever which that idea isn’t lost on us at all [laughs].
Andrew: Yeah and you’ve done that stuff before on past albums but was it intentional to go for that feel or was it just a natural progression in adding those elements in there?
Mike: To me it’s necessary as some of these other songs are so punishing and they can sort of overwhelm you so it’s good to hit the reset with a quieter piece or a less than heavy piece before you get slapped up the side of the head again. And it generally sets it up well with a good segueway but someday we might get tired of it!
Andrew: You must be pretty keen to be hitting the road and playing these songs live because these songs do seem like it would go well in a live situation.
Mike: Yeah we have the problem of having too many songs but we’re starting off with 3 from the new record, “The Luddite”, “Cast The First Stone” and “Wolf Named Crow” which are the ones we have worked into a semi- competent live rendition and start there.
Andrew: And it looks like you are hitting the road in the US with Black Label Society who are another great band as well.
Mike: Yeah and I’ve never seen them play before.
Andrew: Oh right so you’ve never done a tour or anything with them before?
Mike: No never seen them play.
Andrew: Well that should be a great tour! But I know it’s been a few years since you’ve been to Australia so on that subject, is there any chance you may be returning to Australia at all?
Mike: We would have to! I’m insisting on it so at what point that is I don’t know yet but that’s pretty high on everyone’s priority. I know Soundwave kind of fell off there but if there’s any sort of big replacement for that, especially before September as that would be the prime time but possibly sooner than that.
Andrew: Yeah we’ll have you any time at all. Congratulations on this killer album, we love it down here in Australia so thanks for your time and we will hopefully see you in the future for a tour in Australia some time.
Mike: Yeah hope so, thank you very much.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
supporting Black Label Society
w/ EyeHateGod and Red Fang
12/27: Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
12/29: Sioux City, IA @ Anthem at Hard Rock Hotel &Casino
12/30: Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
12/31: Sauget, IL @ Pop’s Nightclub
1/02: Omaha, NE @ Sokol Auditorium
1/03: Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
1/04: Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
1/05: Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
1/07: Clifton Park, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall
1/08: Montreal, QC @ M Telus
1/09: Toronto, ON @ Rebel
1/10: Grand Rapids, MI @ 20 Monroe Live
1/12: Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
1/13: Dallas, TX @ Bomb Factory
1/14: Austin, TX @ Emo’s
1/15: Houston, TX @ House of Blues
1/17: New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
1/18: Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
1/19: Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
1/20: Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage
1/26: St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
1/27: Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
1/28: Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
1/29: Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
1/31: New York, NY @ PlayStation Theater
2/01: Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
2/02: Portland, ME @ Aura
2/03: Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
2/05: Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
2/06: Akron, OH @ The Goodyear Theater at East End
2/07: Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
2/08: Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom Club Stage
2/09: St. Paul, MN @ Myth Live
2/11: Saskatoon, SK @ O’Brians Event Centre
2/12: Edmonton, AB @ The Ranch Roadhouse
2/14: Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
2/16: Grande Prairie, AB @ Bowes Event Center at Revolution Place
2/17: Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
2/19: Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
2/20: Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
2/21: Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
2/23: Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
2/24: Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
2/25: Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
2/27: Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
