At the tail end of the 80’s it wasn’t all Arena Rock and Hair Metal (two labels I never liked at all) there were still innovators out there so for every Power Ballad and Party Rocker there was innovation. Bands like Jellyfish, Kings X, Living Colour and Extreme still had that free spirit and failed to fit an any box you tried to trap them under. Over the years Living Colour have produced some wonderful albums and we hear there is a new one on the way. Live they are simply incredible and they head Downunder again next month along with Extreme to make one of the best double-bills you will see! I caught up with Corey to find out all about what’s going down in Living Colour world!
Corey: Hello Mark!
Mark: Hey Corey, thank you for taking the time to check in with The Rockpit! It’s been a few years since we last had a chat – back in 2019 I think and now you’re coming back to see us again?
Corey: Yes Sir!
Mark: It’s also the 30th Anniversary of ‘Stain’ this year which was always one of my favorite Living Colour albums, I know you’ve played some shows in the U.S. that heavily feature that record are we getting that same set?
Corey: I think For Australia we’re going to bring a few things from everywhere, we’re going to play as much as we can of our whole catalogue. But that will include a lot of ‘Stain’ and ‘Shade’ and everything else that we have out there. But we’re not the kind of band that has one setlist and plays it every night, we play a different set every night.
Mark: That’s just what I was hoping to hear! I was just speaking to Nuno (of Extreme) who is pretty excited about you guys coming over with them. One of the things we talked about was that fact that neither of you guys were afraid to mix it up musically, whilst a lot of bands in the 80’s stuck pretty much to one particular genre. But Living Colour has it all from jazz, hip-hop, funk, thrash metal – it was all in the mix?
Corey: Well we have a lot of influences, like Extreme we come from musical towns – Boston has a booming music scene and we’re from New York City which obviously has a lot of things going on in it. So we took what we knew, and took what we heard and were influenced by to make our sound. And what was most important to us was that it ‘moved’ – that it had a beginning, a middle and an end. It had emotional elements, it had a story element, and that it gave rise to our abilities as musicians. That was always a challenge when you’re essentially making I guess ‘Pop Music’ – music that people are going to listen to. Some people want to hear music as a formula – you know: ‘Verse, chorus, bridge. Verse, chorus, out.’ We kinda of challenged that notion and let the song tell us where it goes. And I think Extreme does that as well which I think is very commendable. That’s why to me the Extreme and Living Colour tour is a match made in heaven really. Two phenomenal guitar players who approach the instrument very differently from each other, but have the same sort of experimental aspect to their playing, is so compelling. And a rhythm section that really knows what thy are doing and a pretty decent pair of singers if I do say so myself!
Mark: (laughs) Yeah two pretty decent singers there Corey!
Corey: Absolutely (laughs) So it’s a really interesting combination. This was the first week of the Tour for us and tonight is our fourth night and it’s already great.
Mark: Teah you kicked it all off in Huntingdon on the 6th…
Corey: Yeah we were in New Hampshire, then we went to Boston and then we went to Long Island in New York and now we’re playing in Reading Pennsylvania – so this is literally the fourth show of the tour and I would like to think that as this thing gets going there’s going to be some sort of cross-pollination and one of us comes out singing background or playing something with them or vice-versa and it becomes a sort of communal thing.
Mark: Now that would be fantastic to see! You play all the way to Seattle on 29th and then you have a huge break I think of about 2 or 3 days before you head on out to Australia!
Corey: Well yeah and in that two or three days we’ll be flying there! (laughs) That’s the thing it’s so far! Once we finish in Seattle we basically get on a plane and come your way! And then 17 hours later here we are!
Mark: And then you have a couple of Festivals and then a wonderful tour lined up in the U.K. and Europe which a lot of people are looking forward to. It’s busty times ahead! (laughs)
Corey: (laughs) Exactly and the presales for Europe have been incredible, more than I expected it to be and that’s always great.
Mark: I hear you’re working on new music as well?
Corey: Yes. we are working on new music, we’re in the midst of writing, we’re not recording just yet but we’re in the middle of workshopping a bunch of stuff to see what happens and what does and what doesn’t work and we’ll go from there.
Mark: Is that how you’ve always worked?
Corey: Pretty much. Initially we all got in a room and somebody came up with something or we all hit on a groove and that became a song. But with the advent of ‘life’ happening (laughs) we can do that a little less. So at this point what we do is a series of get togethers – I might get together with Doug or Will and Vernon get together and we’ll all come up with something. Then at some point when we are all in the same room together – we present our findings! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) That sounds like a great way of doing things.
Corey: It works for us, and if something comes out of that that’s what we deal with ad that’s how we go.
Mark: Still very organic, a nice melting pot of ideas. When I spoke to Nuno he said that with Extreme it’s a case of if it feels right and it’s quick it’s probably a good idea but if it takes a lot of time it’s probably cast aside. It needs that spontaneity. So you spend a lot of time working on ideas?
Corey: Well certain things have…. Take ‘Cult of Personality’ that was a song that we came up with and finished in a day, less than a day, less than 8 hours actually – we had the groove, we had the riff, we had everything – we put it together and there it was! It works. And then there were other songs that took a while longer but that we thought it was worth doing that and spending that time because the song was so compelling to us musically or thematically or it just had something that drew us in but that we weren’t actually getting it right and we had to work at it. And working on it really is an emotional journey. Its like what are the thigs that I’m not seeing that I need to see, or what are the things that I am seeing that everyone else isn’t seeing that I need to tell them about. It’s a conversation and if there’s a roadblock to teh conversation how do you get through or round or over it? You know? And that’s the journey of the song.
Mark: It’s about having that feeling and persevering and trusting instinct?
Corey: Exactly.
Mark: I loved the last album ‘Shade’.
Corey: Thank you.
Mark: On that album there were a number of covers and last time we spoke we talked about the Robert Johnson song you have on there. It’s not very often that you hear a cover that really captures the essence of a song without being a carbon copy but you really did on that track yet made it so fresh.
Corey: What we are really thinking about there is The Blues as a modern statement on the world. And that’s from our idea – how do you deal in the Blues idiom and yet still make it modern? Let’s face it all Rock music is a derivation of the Blues anyway.
Mark: Absolutely.
Corey: We really wanted to deconstruct that idea in other ways. Now that’s pretty obvious on the Robert Johnson tune. But to then go from that to Notorious B.I.G. ‘Who Shot Ya?’ which is really a Blues tune to me in how it’s approached and the storytelling of it all, and the social cachet that it carries as a song. And our songs like ‘Freedom of Expression’ – that’s a Blues tune and ‘Program’ is a Blues tune but it’s taking more moder themes of what’s going on in the word today and applying them to the rubric of The Blues.
Mark: I know what you mean it’s a wonderful mix to revisit those songs of teh past and have that concept running through. I completely get that. When you hit our shores are you the sort of band that will give us a teaser of what might be on the way with the new record? Are any of the ideas worked up enough to play live?
Corey: Maybe? But we won’t know till we get there ! We really are that spontaneous and we won’t know till we get there. Ok we have this groove, we have some lyrics, so we have some sort of songs, will we play it?…. Maybe! No we’ll not play it, or maybe “Fuck it let’s do it!’
Mark: (laughs)
Corey: It’s an ‘at the moment’ kind of thing.
Mark: I just can’t wait to see you play live again because the last couple of times that you’ve been over to Australia to see us have been great, the last show was amazing but there was also Soundwave before that.
Corey: That’s right Soundwave with Green Day, that was great.
Mark: You’ve also been involved in some side Projects that I love, we talked about one of those last time.
Corey: That was ‘Ultraphonix’ I loved that Project I’m just very upset that it didn’t get a chance to be heard. Nobody really got a hold of that except you, no one really championed that record.
Mark: I loved it.
Corey: I thought there were some good songs, some really good songs.
Mark: Man songs like ‘Heart Full of Rain’ and ‘Power Trip’ are killer!
Corey: Thank you.
Mark: Tell us about The Disciples of Verity?
Corey: That’s some friends of mine from the South New Jersey area, it was sort of a project I got pulled into – I got asked to help with a couple of songs, so I said sure, and somehow those 2 songs turned into 24!
Mark: (laughs)
Corey: (laughs) and we went from there! But I’m also doing another project with this guitar player called Mike Orlando. We’re tentatively calling it ‘Corey Glover’s Universe’ (laughs) It’s really, really cool – there’s a few things there in the Rock idiom. But at some point I’m also going to try to make an acoustic record and a straight Corey Glover record maybe? You never know!
Mark: That sounds fantastic, everyone is so creative at the moment and I’m not sure how much of that is us coming out of the pandemic?
Corey: I’m sure that’s what it was with me. We were basically stifled for almost two years. Stifled to the point that you were sat there in your home, in your woodshed just thinking and playing – and a bunch of music and a bunch of art came out of that which I’m very grateful for.
Mark: Equally it must be great to be back out there again playing live?
Corey: Yeah it’s a lot of fun. There’s so many bands out there again loving being able to do that again.
Mark: And it will be great to see you soon. Thank you so much for your time! Have a safe trip and get some sleep on the plane!
Corey: Thank you Mark, see you soon. See you in September!
Mark: We’ll be there!
Corey: (laughs)
Extra Melbourne show added on 4th September
