Corrosion Of Conformity "In the Arms of God" (Sanctuary)
By Brian Anderson
Monday. Jun 13, 1:49 AM
An interview with guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan.

Corrosion Of Conformity have stormed back onto the scene with the release of In the Arms of God, which shows a much heavier and angrier C.O.C. than we have seen or heard in a long time.

This is actually the second interview that I conducted with a member of the band. Bassist Mike Dean was nice enough to hang out with me for a little bit before the Anaheim, CA show with Motorhead. However, due to technical difficulties (or maybe just me hitting the delete button), that interview never made it past transcription. Sorry Mike! So, round two I spoke with guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, who was a bit gruff with a “just get to the point” approach. I called Pepper at home right at noon, the time that scheduled for the interview, but apparently he had no clue that I was going to call or what it was for. When I asked him if there might be a better time for me to call back, he answered in a very deep, I-just-woke-up Louisiana accent: “no, we are already on the phone: let’s just do it!” So here ya go!

It has been five years since the last studio release. When did you decide to get back together and do another album?

Ah shit man, I mean we never planned on not doing one, we just had a long train of thought, time wise, and then we started putting songs together about two years ago. Then there was all the Down crap. I moved to New Orleans and once everything settled in, we really concentrated on it with all the guys and everything.

(Pepper grew tire of the solitude of his seven-acre farm in North Carolina, so he sold it and moved to a 1,400-square foot house in uptown New Orleans)

Does Sanctuary Records put any pressure on the band to put out a new album every couple of years, or do you just go and say “hey we are ready to put out another one”?

No, it is pretty much whenever we are ready to do one.

This is the first studio release without Reed Mullin: did that effect the recording process in anyway?

No, I mean the product is what you hear. It is pretty much above and beyond anything that we’ve done in a long time.

(In the interview done with Mike Dean, he said that, without Reed, it was one less guy to butt heads with about song structure)

Reed left due to a back injury and inner turmoil within the band… have you spoken to him at all, or do you know how he is doing?

No, I haven‘t spoken to him in like five years, man.

(Mike said the Reed is doing a lot better and warned kids that if you play drums really hard and bang your head at the same time for years and years and years, you might get back problems too!)

The new album is called In the Arms of God. How did you come up with the title?

It is something that just kept reiterating through my head. You know, my life was kinda in disarray as so was the world. The last time we did a record was before 9-11, so a lot’s changed globally and internally. It’s just something that kept reiterating and seemed to make lyrical sense in lots of different ways. It’s just something that we kept using over and over and over.

(In regards to Keenan’s life being in disarray, he had a falling out with his childhood friend, Phil Anselmo, during the 12 months of touring with Down. The rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle had also put a major strain on him and his longtime girlfriend, eventually leading to the end of their relationship)

In the Arms of God has a different sound from your previous releases: was there anything in particular that was influencing the band while writing the album?

It is just where our heads were at. It is like I said, it is just different times. A lot has changed, so it just reflects the times that we are in when we make records.

Is that why each C.O.C album has a distinctively different sound from one aother?

It’s not anything that we do intentionally, like through managerial meetings or anything: it is just what we do!

Stanton Moore is the “guest drummer” on the album. How did he get involved?

He’s just a friend of mine and I’ve know him for a long time. He’s an outstanding drummer, so it just kind of fell into place. The way the process came about was very natural: jamming-wise it just kinda all fell (into place). I think we were kinda set up to do this.

Stanton’s not touring with you, so who’s doing the drumming on tour?

We’ve got a guy named Jason Patterson who’s touring with us. He’s from North Carolina (and is an) excellent drummer, but Stanton’s going to be coming out with us during October.

So what does C.O.C. have lined up for the summer tour?

We leave in about three weeks and will be headlining and bringing Crowbar, Alabama Thunderpussy, and Weedeater with us. On the West Coast we’ll have Fu Manchu. It’s just all of our favorite bands basically! It’s like 48 shows.

Woodroe said that you guys would be pulling out some old tunes, any idea what those might be?

Well you will see! (laughs) It will be cool, though. I think some of the older songs match up well with this album. So we are kind of heading in that route.

Thanks to Some Kind of Monster, everyone now knows that you tried out for Metallica. How did that come about?

That was an idea they had, ya know? They called me up, and you wouldn’t turn something like that down. It was cool, but if I would have gotten the gig I wouldn’t be Pepper anymore: I would be the bass player for Metallica, which is something I don’t think I could have dealt with! (laughs) So it all worked out good!

You don’t seem like the type of person who needs psychotherapy to record an album?

No… too much listening and not enough talking!

I’ve read in earlier interviews that you have not spoken to Phil Anselmo in a long time. Have you spoken to him yet?

No I haven’t.

So would you say that there won’t be another Down album?

I wouldn’t say that, but a lot of things changed between everybody and you know Darrell, shit, a lot of things just got erased. It’s just going to take awhile to put all the pieces back together. Phil’s got a lot to figure out in his life, and whatever, as do we all.

Do you have any other projects going right now, or is your full 100% concentration on C.O.C.?

Pretty much it is just the C.O.C. shit right now with a lot of things on the back burner. It is nothing I want to talk about, but they are coming!
www.coc.com
www.sanctuaryrecords.com

Click here to buy In the Arms of God on iTunes!

Click here to download the iTunes jukebox application for Macintosh or Windows!

Brian Anderson

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.