Known also for his work with Down, Pepper Keenan is a tremendous guitar player who seems to pull off some of the juiciest riffs and guitar tones known to mankind. His return to Corrosion Of Conformity a couple of years ago was much heralded and the result was in their latest album “No Cross No Crown” which might be considered one of their best, certainly their heaviest yet. As a long time fan of COC and of Pepper himself, the chance to talk to one of the greats in the heavy music business is what you would call a no-brainer. The band are heading to Australia in February so we chatted about the upcoming shows but we also get into a little history with the evolution of the band, their early hardcore days and more.
Pepper: How ya doin’ mate!
Andrew: Haha doing very well! How’s things at your end?
Pepper: It’s going pretty good!
Andrew: Awesome man we are very excited to see you coming to Australia, in particular with you in the band as well. So how’s things feeling with you guys at the moment?
Pepper: Yeah we’re all good man, we’ve been zig zagging all over the place, finally getting down to you guys. We’ve been talking about it for years and finally somebody pulled the trigger for us and got us going so we’re stoked.
Andrew: I know the band were here 5 years ago without you but when was the last time you were here with COC?
Pepper: Ah man we were opening for Pantera, years ago!
Andrew: Wow! Well there’s so much to choose from as far as setlists and I know this is a stock standard kind of question but I’m very curious as to what we are expecting from you guys on this tour?
Pepper: Oh we’re working on it now man, we’re finally just getting our setlist together trying to figure out what to do. It’s pretty in-depth and we’ve been doing all kinds of different songs, I mean we’ve got so many damn songs nowadays so we’ve been stressing out but we haven’t been to Australia in such a long time, we kind of want to get back to where we left off at. It will be surprising.
Andrew: I would imagine with all the different albums you’ve got over the years it must be a difficult process then.
Pepper: It is, it’s a bit of a process for everybody to agree on what songs we do. We know which ones work and we’ve been stretching out and doing some we’ve never done before and it’s been cool. We’ve been doing this in some places we’ve been to 4 or 5 times so do we do that in Australia or do we stick with the stunners? So we’re going to play it by ear.
Andrew: I think no matter what you guys do everyone is going to be right into it. It’s certainly an amazing time for the band right now, a couple of years ago you released “No Cross No Crown” which in my very humble opinion was one of the best COC albums you guys ever put out. Given some time now, are you guys pretty happy with how that album turned out?
Pepper: Yeah, absolutely man. I told some other people, we don’t put those things out very often, we don’t take it lightly but we do put a lot of time and effort into it and just trying to create an album, not just 10 songs in the same key. There’s probably 45 different guitar tones on that damn record, we kinda go overboard on that sometimes [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well it sounds like the natural follow up to “In The Arms Of God”, a lot of people say that and I guess because it was such a long time between those two albums it’s kind of hard to see where that’s coming from but I suppose from your end it probably is right?
Pepper: Yeah and I mean not to mention I thought when we finished doing “In The Arms of God”, I was straight up, that’s as good as I can do it bro! That was at the top of my game and I was happy with that and then to do another album I was like, man that was where we left off at so I was even more nervous to even try and attempt it. But we did and we got our attitudes together and everything lined up and time was an extension of it I guess but it was pounding to say the least.
Andrew: I noticed as well in the years leading up to “In The Arms Of God” and with the latest one that you guys kind of got heavier and heavier as the years went on. Was that a natural progression or did you guys want to go in that direction?
Pepper: Kind of both, you know? I don’t know if you remember back in the day when Deep Purple put out “Fireball” and then they came back with “Machine Head”, “Machine Head was just a slammer. That’s kind of what I was thinking what we had done with “America’s Volume Dealer” and now enough with the song writing shit, let’s get back in the trenches. Both things are cool to me, both things mean a lot to me but yeah it’s just where we are at and then on “In The Arms Of God” we had this dude Stanton Moore playing drums who was a jazz drummer from New Orleans but he just lit it up in a whole different way, was a whole different ball game drum wise so it turned into a lot more brutal thing. But yeah that’s kind of where our heads at, just a good balance of everything.
Andrew: Yeah absolutely. Well just taking a trip back down memory lane a little bit, remember when “Blind” came out in 1991 that was an album that kind of took a bit of a left turn as well. Do you remember the reasons behind a lot of that music direction at the time?
Pepper: On “Blind” yeah, I had just joined the band and we didn’t have jobs and we played 8 hours a day. Just 18-19 years old just playing guitar until your hands fell off and just going at it. We had met John Custer, the guy that produced that record, he’s done every record with us since. So the first time we worked with him and we were just going apeshit, kid in a candy store you know?
Andrew: Was there anything inspiring that musical direction because it was a far left turn – it was a great turn obviously but it was such a different one at the time for you guys as well. Was there anything in particular that made you decide you wanted to go do that kind of thing?
Pepper: I mean the hardcore scene was kind of stale and COC had been a big changer in that stuff and the whole idea of being hardcore and doing it yourself and all that kind of shit was to not do what everybody else was doing and there were a lot of bands in the hardcore world that were just going in circles and I was like, ‘That’s not very punk rock!’ Chasing somebody else so was like, ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here’. we just went into Sabbath mode and fucking whatever [laughs], and just got out of there. Bands like the Cro-mags and that, they had that shit, it was like, ‘You got it boss. Take it, we’re out of here’.
Andrew: Obviously you hear a lot of Black Sabbath and that type of stuff in your music but for you personally how did this all start for you? How did you get to guitar playing?
Pepper: Oh man I was just one of those kids, my dad played music when I was younger and then pretty much in a nutshell a buddy of mine got into a motorcycle accident when I was 15, he was 17, he died in a motorcycle accident and I went and snuck into his house after the funeral and took his guitar and started playing it.
Andrew: And that was it, there was no turning back from there.
Pepper: Yeah just started getting into guitar, a buddy of mine gave me an Amp, I started learning Ramones songs and shit like that!
Andrew: So did you first start listening to a lot of punk stuff and all that or were you listening to a lot of classic rock at the time?
Pepper: No I was a big punk rock kid in New Orleans, Ramones and shit like that and then that started turning into Sabbath and Skynyrd and Allman Brothers and the world just got bigger and bigger.
Andrew: Yeah and it’s been interesting to see the musical landscapes that have been happening over the years. Do you have any particular thoughts on where music is today compared to what it was 20 or 30 years ago?
Pepper: I think it’s just broader now, I mean the kids can listen to anything. Back then you had to know somebody who had a Mercyful Fate cassette, there was no internet so now you can just Google it and find anything you want. Some of the kids have just broadened their horizons, you know.
Andrew: Is there anyone in particular at the moment that’s tickling your fancy, anything of interest at the moment?
Pepper: Oh man there’s so much crazy shit, I listen to a lot of indigenous stuff from around the Mississippi, Louisiana-Mississippi blues shit. There’s some young guys out there that are kicking ass, there’s a band out there called the Planchettes that are fucking great. I keep my ear on the streets for the most part but there’s a lot of information down here in New Orleans that’s for sure.
Andrew: Yeah I would imagine so. I’ve never been down there but I always hear that the music scene is so fantastic down there as it always has been for a long time now.
Pepper: Oh yeah it’s pretty impressive, but in a lo-fi kind of way.
Andrew: Well before you head down to Australia in February, do you have any last words or messages for the Aussie fans?
Pepper: We’re super psyched to get there, we’ve been trying for a long time and finally everything lined up and we’re heading down. We’re super excited and can’t wait to play music and hang out and drink beers with you guys. I personally have been following you guys with this disaster going on there now and it rings a lot of bells in my head being just being from New Orleans and Katrina and all that kind of stuff, even though it’s a totally different kind of thing I understand the urgency for help sometimes in things like that. I was telling the promoter if there’s anything I can do to help I would be more than happy to because I’m not good at sitting around in situations like that after going through Katrina. So I wish you guys the best and hopefully it will all work out for the better when we get down there.
Andrew: Thank you very much for coming down to Australia especially at this time of what’s going on as well. Hopefully what you guys do will take some minds off it for a couple of hours where we can all enjoy ourselves so looking forward to it.
Pepper: Absolutely, let’s do it!
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY
Australian and NZ February 2020 Tour Dates
Tuesday 4th February – AUCKLAND, Galatos
Wednesday 5th February – ADELAIDE, Lion Arts
Thursday 6th February – PERTH, Amplifier
Friday 7th February – MELBOURNE, Max Watts
Saturday 8th February – BRISBANE, Crowbar
Wednesday 12th February – SYDNEY, Crowbar
TICKETS ON SALE NOW VIA:
https://silverbacktouring.com.au/corrosion-of-conformity-2020/
