God Forbid "IV: Constitution of Treason" (Century Media)
By Eric Chon
Monday. Dec 19, 2:44 AM
An interview with guitarist Doc Coyle.

God Forbid exploded onto the scene with their 2003 release Gone Forever. Since then, these New Jersey natives haven’t missed a step, playing shows and converting fans across the country. But they went from walking to sprinting ahead with their latest album, IV: Constitution of Treason. Filled with dueling guitars, throat-ripping vocals, and a full, bombastic sound that is rarely heard today, the album puts God Forbid squarely into the limelight. Doc gave us a bit of his time and we chatted with him about recording in two studios, their apocalyptic vision of the future, and giving fans more for their money.

So, the new album. It’s pretty hefty. There’s a lot of stuff going on in it. This is kind of an open question, but what’s it about?

It’s pretty straightforward, actually. It’s a story that starts in the near future after our civilization has been ravaged by nuclear war, which is basically what the first act of our album encompasses. The second part begins with the rebuilding of society. As time goes on, it becomes more and more oppressive until one man emerges as a revolutionary. He is subsequently persecuted and killed for his ideals. In the third chapter, it’s over 1000 years later. Technology and much of the world has been rebuilt, but society has become more corrupt than ever and begins repeating the mistakes of the past. Essentially it’s a tale of trying to learn from one’s mistakes.

Who started the groundwork for this concept?

Amazingly enough, all the groundwork was laid in the lyrics. I mean, I didn’t even conceive most of the lyrics: that was Dallas (Coyle, the other guitar and Doc’s bro) and Byron (vocalist). They wrote most of the lyrics beforehand and this whole story emerged on its own. It happened kinda the opposite of most concept albums! (laughs)

It didn’t really come to us until we put the songs into this particular order, really. We all decided this was the best way for the songs to flow on the album and suddenly it all made sense! So, we constructed the story from there and it worked surprisingly well. Hopefully it gives people something to sink their teeth into more than, you know, that the album is heavy and it’s cool. (laughs)

Did you guys start writing on the road?

I guess we started putting riffs together on the road, but once we sat down and started writing I had a ton of stuff going through my head. I don’t even know how we ended up with so much material since we were on the road for almost a year straight. But the time between when we recorded Gone Forever to when it was released was fairly long.

During those six months, we had some time to sit down and work on new stuff. That let the creativity spark again. But, you know, now that we finished this album I want to lay back a bit and chill out for a bit. Hopefully it’ll come to me, but it’s usually on tours when I get inspired. Especially when you tour with cool bands. It inspires you to step up and deliver something even better than before.

Speaking of which, how is it touring with Meshuggah and The Haunted?

Touring with Meshuggah is definitely intimidating! (laughs) They’re so flawless in their sound and execution: really crushing on stage. They’re also probably the best musicians I’ve ever seen. They’re probably the best musicians we’ve ever toured with. Man, to sound so huge and to do it so effortlessly... we’re kinda like “holy shit!” and I’ve been a fan since ‘96. We worshipped Meshuggah.

But it’s the same thing with The Haunted, man. Our album Determination was The Haunted worship, you know? So it’s crazy we’re playing over them. It’s nuts man, but playing these gigs hopefully brings the level of our performance up because of them. When you play with good bands, it makes you want to work harder, play tighter, and give that much better of a show.

Was there a concerted effort to make this album huge? To try and really crush the listener?

I think it just kinda happened. We hit a certain standard in our music and you just have to keep going up or at least reach that standard. You certainly can’t drop below that or else you look really bad. But beyond that, we didn’t sit around and go “listen up guys, this is the album that’ll break us!” (laughs)

We just sat down and recorded it. The way I see it, you can’t always look at the whole picture. You have to buckle down and concentrate on the task at hand. Make those little parts the best they can be. And when you put it all together, that’s when you notice the difference.

One thing was that we had more time on this album than any of our previous ones: close to two months to do it. For something of this magnitude, the extra time was definitely needed. And I’m sure when we sit down to do our next album, we’ll have just as long if not more.

Have you guys always gone to different places to record and mix?

Usually, we record and mix our albums at the same place. All four of our full-length albums we’ve recorded at Trax East in New Jersey. This is the first time we split up our recording. We did bass, drums, and mix-down in New Jersey and then went to Florida with Jason Suecoff to do guitars and vocals.

On Gone Forever, we recorded everything in New Jersey and then shipped everything to Colin Richardson and he mixed them. We weren’t even there that time. This time we had so much stuff going on. You know, just a ton of things to do vocally and a bunch of fade-ins, keyboards, samples... so much digital stuff. It was so involved that we had to monitor every area of production to make sure our vision was complete.

Did you like that better, being there in person to oversee?

Well, last time I don’t think it would’ve mattered because it was pretty straightforward. There wasn’t really anything beyond guitars, drums, bass and vocals. And like we’re gonna tell fuckin’ Colin Richardson how to mix records! (laughs)

But we just had a lot more goin’ on with this album and, trust me, it’s much more stressful when you’re there. That’s some stressful shit and it’s not going quite as quick anymore, especially when you’re making sure the right tone is there and all that. At the end of the day, though, I think it worked out best this way. I definitely like the way our album sounds.

It’s good to have that level of control...

Well, especially with a guy like Eric Rachel (Trax East guy). If you’re going for a specific sound, he’s gonna do everything to get you there. He’s not a producer’s producer, you know? He’s not one of the guys who’s gonna be all “you gotta do this and do that!” It works a lot better when a band knows, going in, what they want.

Jason is a lot more creative. He’s always saying “try this and this.” And he’s always bringing in ideas and vocal patterns and guitar melodies. He even played guitar on three or four spots on the record, too.

I saw on the DVD and I didn’t think you guys were gonna use any of it.

On “Into the Wasteland,” he actually did the solo. It was a song that basically wasn’t done before we went into the studio. We had the whole first-half of the song, but none of the second. I had it in my head and we were doing drums and showing him what I was thinking and stuff. I was basically writing my guitar parts up until we tracked them and didn’t have time to come up with a solo. So I was like “yo, why don’t you just come up with that.”

He’s sick at that, man.

Oh, he’s ridiculous! He knows every facet of it and he’s just a pure shredder. A sick shredder. It’s good and bad being around a guitar guy because you get that influence, but it almost seemed like he just wanted to take the guitar away from me, you know? (laughs) I was like “yo muthafucka, I’m the guitarist! I’m gonna play it!” (laughs)

So it must’ve added to the stress by splitting everything up.

Yeah, guitars went out of tune because of the Florida weather and we were delayed for five days waiting for the drum tracks to get down there from Jersey. It was rough, man.

Are you happy with all that effort in the end?

It took me awhile to know how I felt about it because I’ve been around it for so long. I couldn’t even listen to by the end and I couldn’t tell if it was good anymore. I stayed away from it for a few weeks and when I came back, I dug it. I certainly think it’s the most listenable album we’ve made. It’s got a lot of different vibes and I think we pulled it off pretty well from a production standpoint as well as a songwriting standpoint. It’s certainly a lot more interesting than our last record.

It’s weird because once we were done, I started listening to our old albums and shit. We’ve changed so much from record to record, we don’t really stay the same. It’s interesting because I think a lot of bands that are popular don’t stray too far from what made them big. But sometimes you just gotta say “fuck it! Fuck the sound, fuck everything!” and just do some crazy shit to be different.

But that always gets you into trouble because you’ve got certain people that are all “well, you guys suck because you keep changing,” but there are also the people who say “well, you guys suck because you never change.” You can never please everyone.

And putting together this big concept together is pretty different than the usual practice of tossing on 10 or so songs and just running with it.

I think so too, and I like having it be a little special. You know, having there be a bit more to it than average. It’s always cool to listen to an album and look through the booklet and see all the effort that went in. Gives it a bit more meaning.

And I think you gotta give people a reason to buy. You gotta give them more for their money. That’s one of the reasons we included the DVD of our recording process. There are million records out there that people could be buying: you gotta give them a reason to pick yours.

Speaking of which, how did you guys come up with the cover?

Well, we used Travis because he worked on our other CD covers (Gone Forever, Better Days) and we really like how it turned out. I kinda had this idea and made a sketch of what I wanted. In my head, I had the Statue of Liberty dropping the torch: it wasn’t supposed to be breaking off. So some people seemed to misunderstand that we want to destroy America or something. It’s more a metaphor for America dropping the ball and giving up their freedoms and liberties. That our own fates aren’t in are hands anymore: we’ve given that up.

Some people are thinking “oh, that’s so anti-American!” and we’re not. They’re just taking it at face value and not seeing the meaning behind it.

Man, I feel really stupid then. I kinda thought it was a play on Planet of the Apes and the apocalypse that happens in it! (laughter all around) Do you think all this piracy is really hurting the bands?

I think overall it does. Some bands who sell 300,000 records might be gold now. But at the same time, a lot of bands really wouldn’t have that kind of exposure. Bands these days can get almost instant awareness through the internet. Whether or not they’ve even heard your music, the name’s out there.

But like every new technology, there are positives and negatives. It’s probably really good for a younger band that isn’t making that much money because it gives them exposure. And most likely it hurts the bigger bands who actually see a little cash. I think it might get worse as time goes, though, because you’re gonna get generations of kids who’re used to getting this shit for free. They’re not used to paying for it and then bands aren’t able to make a living and then we’re all in trouble.

So with this big tour and all, what do you do to relax? I saw everyone else watching Everybody Loves Raymond or something...

Everyone else gets to relax. Not me though! I got my guitars and e-mails and interviews! (laughs) I never get to let go as much as I would like to, but that’s okay. I like taking care of things and making sure it’s all good. Probably the only time I get to relax is right after the show where I can do... too much drinking and stuff. (laughs)

So are you the go-to guy in the band for interviews and stuff?

Yeah, pretty much. Since I’m involved with every aspect of the band I’m probably the most knowledgeable to do it. But also I want the band to well and, like my brother never wants to do interviews and shit. (laughs)

It’s gotta be different being in a band with your own brother. You guys must get sick of each other.

Oh we’re crazy, man. Fucking argue constantly. It’s fucking annoying! (laughs) Because he’s my older brother and talks to me like a jag-off. It’s hard. He just likes to push me around.

You’re bigger than him, man! Don’t take that shit.

No no no, can’t fight anymore. (laughs) Doesn’t work anymore! “I hurt my hand, I can’t play tomorrow. Shit!” (laughs) Bad things happen so we have to solve our problems as diplomatically as possible, you know.
www.godforbid.com
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Eric Chon

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