‘Feel This’ the new album by Crobot just may be their crowning glory to date. It’s a collection of songs of such quality that would make any fans of Soundgarden or Sabbath’s heart sing! But it’s also so much more, with a wonderful and suitably huge sound and lyrics that peel back the layers of the onion it’s both headbanging perfection and a rather satisfying treatise on 2022. We caught up with Brandon to dig deeper and explore the new record and the series of bad luck that has curtailed the impact of their last two releases.
Mark: Hi Brandon thank you for talking to the Rockpit today. It’s always a good time when there’s a new Crobot album out.
Brandon: Thank you Mark, how are you?
Mark: Good thank you, how’s things in the Crobot camp?
Brandon: We’re doing great.
Mark: You’ve been doing well since last I saw you like which would have been at Rocklahoma!
Brandon: Oh wow the old tornado Fest! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) That’s the one! I’ve loved Crobot since I first heard ‘Something Supernatural’ which was my first experience of the band but I quickly backtracked after that and have loved everything since. You’re one of those rarer bands that can’t put a foot wrong to my ears and if I’m honest I think the new record has to be my favourite of the four!
Brandon: Thank you.
Mark: Everything seemed to be perfectly aligned for the band until Covid hit but it’s not the first time the band’s plans have been disrupted?
Brandon: Yeah we seem to have found ourselves in the same conundrum we have had with the last few record cycles – when we released ‘Fat City’ the label went under like six months into the record cycle and we got tossed onto Razor and Tie who really didn’t have any funds for us or any plan whatsoever, so that album was cut short. And then of course “Motherbrain’ gets cut short with Covid. (Laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Brandon: So we’re hoping to get a year and a half out of this one at least!
Mark: Let’s hope so, though I do hear that Monkey Pox is on the way!
Brandon: You never know right what Black Swan is going to rear its ugly head. (Laughs)
Mark: Let’s hope you get a clear run with this one. Now as a long term fan I know how I would describe your music but how do you describe it to someone who, god forbid, hasn’t heard you before?
Brandon: If anyone ever asks I tell them that we’re somewhere between Soundgarden and Black Sabbath. And usually you mention those two names and you get a good feel for whether people are going to like us or not! (Laughs)
Mark: That’s a relief! I must admit when I listened to ‘Electrified’ first time I was thinking this is like a modern day ‘Neon Knights’ – real foot to the floor stuff. The album as a whole is wonderfully diverse – I love the stomp of tracks like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Set you Free’ almost lulls you into feeling we’re going to get a lighter number until the crunch comes! It’s an album for Rock fans. I love Soundgarden and later Sabbath and I can really see those as a starting point here, but just a starting point.
Brandon: It’s funny that you say that as that’s exactly how we wanted to approach this record. We wanted it to be the history of Rock and Roll as we see it, through our filter and we wanted to pay homage to teh greats and al of our influences and idols whilst still having fun in the same breath. I loved the idea of making a record that was like the encyclopedia as we see it! From AC/DC to Clutch and Soundgarden and everything in between.
Mark: You’re right there is some AC/DC in there too, I got a touch of that on ‘Living in the Streets’
Brandon: Yeah, that’s the one.
Mark: It’s always great to find a band like Crobot who ‘gets it’, they know there history and I love the encyclopedia metaphor and I think you’ve hot the nail on the head. My album of the year so far.
Brandon: Thank you.
Mark: I can’t pick a favourite track and to me that is the sign of a great album. There are a couple of tracks I’d love to dig a bit deeper into. ‘Dizzy’ is a great song, about a certain type of relationship – where did the idea for that one come from?
Brandon: ‘Dizzy’ was I believe one of the first songs we wrote for the new record. I must have been as I find myself quite often stumbling on random thesises, and I saw this thing that caught my eye about the resetting of the equilibrium, and the thought process of when you’re in freefall. When you’re in freefall you body just does this thing and maintains it’s equilibrium and your body and your mind kind of trick you into thinking that you’re not moving at all. So that’s where the basis of the concept came from – we were in this whirlwind, but we were in this whirlwind for so long that it almost seems normal.
Mark: (laughs)
Brandon: So its a little bit of complacency in the chaos if you will and I think that subliminally I’m sure Covid found its way to work its way into the lyric. It wasn’t supposed to be on the nose, but I guess it could be if you connect those dots.
Mark: I think possibly my current favourites are ‘Better Time’ a real in your face rocker and ‘Without Wings’ which just blossoms into something you don’t expect. But today it was the real back to teh basics of ‘Living on the Streets’ – it’s like a song out of time that takes you back to the early 80’s and shows a wonderful appreciation of what’s come before. How did that one surface?
Brandon: I remember I flew into Austin Texas where Bishop and Dan live. When were were able to travel again we’d find pockets of time when we could all get together whether it was writing or filming a music video, and I think at the time were were even auditioning bass players, and Dan, Bishop and I were in the room, and it’s not very often we e get the chance to, but I started… the way I met Bishop was as a bass player and he asked me to join his cover band, so I love playing the bass but really don’t get the opportunity to really jam in teh room with the guys. This was one of the rare opportunities and Bishop had this riff which was the ‘Living on the Streets’ riff, and we can’t remember which AC/DC riff he was ripping off which is a good thing, but it was probably ‘Beatin’ Around The Bush’ or ‘Riff Raff’ or another of those iconic songs and we just thought man wouldn’t it be great just to write a really riffy AC/DC type song – we don’t usually do the power chord thing – we don’t usually do the gang vocal thing either but somehow it just all worked out in the same song. And I remember that one started out in the room just jamming the three of us – so I think that’s why it has that real old school Rock and Roll mentality, because that’s exactly where it started.
Mark: I think that’s part of the joy of a Crobot song for me – you can pick out sounds and influences buy now four albums in I’m starting to hear people say “That’s a Crobot song” that identity and sound is there. It’s great when a band you’ve enjoyed listening to for so long just keeps getting better.
Brandon: Thank you for that. They talk about the ten thousand hour mastery rule – if you do something for that long you’ll probably get better at it! I think we’ve done 20,000 now! So hopefully we’re better at it! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Brandon: We do put in a lot of effort and we came into this record with probably a hundred songs.
Mark: Oh wow!
Brandon: We did have plenty of down-time to do stuff so that allowed us to come into the record with plenty of songs, but then we try to do that every time around. I think for ‘Motherbrain’ we had between 50 and 75 songs for that one too. We’ve been doing this for a long time! (laughs) And we do it a lot and we don’t stop – you know.
Mark: It sounds like you made best use of your ‘pandemic time’?
Brandon: It was really easy for us to change gears and concentrate on writing this great body of work because we had so much more time to spend on the songs and a lot less distractions if you will, because we are a live band at the end of the day and we do tour a lot – and the touring schedule sometimes doesn’t lend itself to a lot of down time to write.
Mark: Sadly I have only seen you the once live and that was on the big Festival stage at Rocklahoma, I took a band over from Australia to play on one of the smaller stages and told then that you were a band they had to see, and they all ended up buying Crobot T-shirts!
Brandon: (laughs) That’s amazing!
Mark: You definitely got the Australian stamp of approval! One of the things I always love to ask people is where it all started for them. When did they realises that music would be such a big part of their lives? How did it start for you Brandon?
Brandon: Well it’s been in my blood so I can’t take full responsibility for the curse! (laughs) I have uncles that played guitar, I have one uncle that still owns a music shop and teaches lessons. But ironically that’s not where I started, or how I started. I had a friend who started playing guitar when I was young and I thought it seemed pretty cool so I wanted to take it up too. So we started playing guitar together and learning AC/DC songs, and I was playing in bars when I was 15, and the cops came and said I was too young to be playing! (laughs) So I went through the trials and tribulations and paid the dues, and here we are 11 years into Crobot’s career still making music, still turning out albums, and still showing up to places where people care enough about us to come see us live. But I think the eureka moment for me was in my Pop-Punk days of my late teenage years the first tour I ever went on – I was in a band called The Ground-breaking Ceremony, and we were travelling around in a van and we went as far as Eastern Texas from Central Pennsylvania, so it was a pretty good tour.
Mark: That’s a big drive.
Brandon: It was especially on a first tour, 18 years old and we didn’t have guarantees, we showed up to a place I’ll never forget it because we recorded ‘Motherbrain’ in Atlanta, and we played this place in Atlanta called Swayze’s, and it was still there two, three years ago. And I thought “Oh my God, this is the place” and I remembered the eureka moment – being outside Swayze’s in Atlanta Georgia and we made $5.00!
Mark: (laughs)
Brandon: We had like one person show up to the show! We made five dollars and there were five or six of us and this was our eating money – our money to split! And I just remember thinking to myself “Man if this is the worst that it can get, I’m still OK with it!”
Mark: (Laughs) That is a great story!
Brandon: I was having the time of my life. We were literally getting baths in creeks, we were sleeping on top of the van. I remember sleeping on top of the van in South Carolina and a young female Police Officer approached me and said “Listen you can’t be doing that, you can’t be sleeping on top of the van here we have laws against that.” So cool, calm and collected I asked her out to eat for breakfast! She said no! But just to peer into the perspective that we were having so much fun, and we had not a cent to our names. And that was the moment I knew if this was the worst it could get and you could still enjoy life, and even have the time of your life, this was absolutely what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Mark: I think Rock and Roll was made for you mate, and seeing you onstage all those years ago it’s clear. I just hope you get the chance to come see us down-under one day!
Brandon: We’ve been trying to will that into being now for years, but something always gets in the way. Hopefully the landing slip is clear now and we’ll make our way over; but we’ve been pounding on doors to try and get over there for a long time. We actually thought t was going to happen maybe half a year ago but then the world was still in turmoil. But we will find a way! It’s in our future handbook for the next couple of years to make it to Australia for sure.
Mark: That’s great news! Now to dig a little deeper – If you could have been a ‘Fly on the wall’ for the creation of any album in the history of Rock and Roll just to see how the magic happened in the studio – what would you love to have seen being created? What intrigues you?
Brandon: Wow, I’ve got three that come to mind right away and I’m going to say ‘no’ to the first two and go with the third. My first thought was Volume 4 Black Sabbath but I think there’s way too much known about that and way too many drugs going on to actually enjoy it at the time. (laughs) Maybe not though maybe that would have made it more entertaining.
Mark: (laughs)
Brandon: So that’s one I’m going to have to pass on because of the extra-curricular activities! I want to say The Beatles White Album just to be in the room and watch those minds just creatively work in a studio environment, but that might be a little out-dated to be as relative as maybe ‘Superunknown’ by Soundgarden I think that may be the one because it’s so crazy, melodic and odd and has so many original things going on, on that record. There are a number of songs on that record wish I wrote! (laughs) So that might be the one for me! Just to be a fly on the wall for that and see Chris Cornell lay down those performances! That would be worth the ticket price!
Mark: Absolutely, I do love Badmotorfinger’ but I do think ‘Superunknown’ is when they came into their absolute own! At the time they were peerless. You are sounding wonderful on the new album too and I think Jay has done a great job with the production.
Brandon: Yeah, we were very excited to work with Jay. We had tried to make things work schedule-wise on ‘Motherbrain’ but it didn’t come to fruition so when everything opened back up we thought we’d try again, but of course everything opened back up everywhere so everyone was beating his door down at the same time! So we were thankful to be able to nail him down when we did and we got in there, we did 16 tracks in 21 days and took the 22nd day off! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Brandon: So we worked really hard on this record and Jay’s work ethic really let us do that and helped so much in creating this record. He was definitely a conduit in the process, he just let us be ourselves and made everything sound the best that it could. We all showed up ready to work and we ready to have so much time to work on these songs. And I think it shows – we worked really hard, really long hours and we got a lot done.
Mark: It certainly sounds great. Are there any plans for the other tracks that you cut?
Brandon: We’ll find a way! We’re a big fan of the Deluxe edition so knock on wood we get a full album cycle on this one and we can circle back and do a deluxe edition of the record and release those four extra tracks in some way, shape or form! And to us those songs were very album oriented so to us the vibe of a record is very important to us, just as much as the sequencing and the order of the record: so the tracks that don’t make it aren’t necessarily not good enough, it’s just that maybe they don’t fit the vibe. But we won’t let them sit on the shelf forever. They’re definitely songs we want to see the light of day at some point.
Mark: And related to the album vibe the wonderful thing for old guys like me is that we get vinyl again!
Brandon: Yeah, we’re huge lovers of vinyl again – and our collections speak for themselves! We will always think of an album as an album! We will always go back to the vinyl – that’s just how we think of it. That’s why ‘Without Wings’ is a bit out on the sequencing because we had to make Side A finish with ‘Without Wings’!
Mark: Absolutely! (laughs)
Brandon: You know Mark! (Laughs) That thinking goes into the process for sure.
Mark: I was hoping you were going to say exactly that! That song is, as you well know, the perfect closer to Side A!
Brandon: (Laughs) Yeah!
Mark: I think our time is sadly drawing to a close now Brandon, I always love to ask this question when we first speak to someone in the 13 years of The Rockpit it’s always been our traditional closer! It’s really easy… What is the meaning of life?
Brandon: (laughs) 42!
Mark: (laughs) You join the other Hitchhikers!
Brandon: (Laughs)
Mark: Statistically I think that is around 15% of total answers.
Brandon: That’s special! Higher than I would have expected! It makes me feel very good.
Mark: And as a fan of Douglas Adams it’s always great to know there are so many knowledgeable American Citizens out there!
Brandon: (Laughs) I was raised on a heavy diet of English humour! Fawlty Towers, Benny Hill, Are you Being Served and of course Monty Python! I have my grandmother to thank for that. I think I do more well with British humour than anything! But Douglas Adams is my favourite author of all time.
Mark: I knew I liked you!
Brandon: (laughs)
Mark: Crobot is one of those very special bands that has so much to say, and each new release just gets better, but t see you live is another proposition entirely – when can we see you on the road next?
Brandon: We’re trying to nail the schedule down for the end of the summer for The States but there will be something in the late Summer and early Fall for The States and then later in the year we’re going to be headed overseas – England and Europe with Airbourne and Blues Pills – so we’re really excited about that one!
Mark: What a great line up! I love Blues Pills and what a singer – I think Ellen and your good self are right up there with my favourite vocalists at the moment and then the Great Aussie juggernaut Airbourne! What a tour!
Brandon: It will be fun.
Mark: Thank you so much for your time Brandon, It’s been great to talk I so hope you get a full cycle for this record – stay safe and catch you soon!
Brandon: Thanks Mark. See you soon.
BUT THE RECORD AND CHECK OUT TOUR DATES AT CROBOTBAND.COM