Interview with Jon Davis of Conan
by Metaloath
Conan (UK) has decisively built their fortress of doom metal. In just 2 years, they have laid out foundations of their stronghold: Horseback Battle Hammer (2010, Aurora Boralis), Conan vs Slomatics (2011, split w/Slomatics, Burning World Records) and the latest Monnos (2012, Burning World Records). The band now counts Jon Davis (guitars), Phil Coumbe (bass), and Paul O’Neill (drums), and they’re situated in the Liverpool-areas, UK.
The modus operandi of Conan range from the raw, muddy tremble of instruments tuned way low to the carefully constructed heavy tones and riffing while the lyrics paint the landscape of ancient warfare and grand moments in battle. They have stuck with Chris Fielding at Foel Studios (Electric Wizard, Primoridal, Cerebral Bore) as their producer, and he has nurtured the doomed souls of this trio to near-perfection in just three albums.
BY 2012, Conan is gaining serious momentum in the European metal scene. The reviews of Monnos (2012) is proving consistently positive, they have done their first set of show across Europe, and to top that off, Voivod themselves handpicked these guys to play at Roadburn festival. In Oslo, Conan was flown in as support act when Sleep brought their weedological European tour to town.
The concrete evidence of their sudden success is the fact that their merch stand on their last stages of European shows only offered t-shirts in XXL sizes. Other sizes and vinyls sold out long ago.
What makes this band interesting beyond the latest months of excitement?
Well, first of all, the doom genre is stirring again. This time with a slightly less rigid and apocalyptical flavour than sunn O))), OM, and bands like that. Conan indulges the heavy metal references to a greater extent, and even speeds up now and then enough to make your head bang properly – not the ‘narcoleptic nod’ that atmospheric doomers tend to aim at. The tone of their string tools is genuinely crafted and sounds great on the album – and it threatens to make you involuntarily soil your pants during live shows due to the massive wall of audio frequencies you’re being subjected to. The lush and punctuated drums create the momentum that steers this ship clear of the static trap that doom band too often fall into.
Further, Conan pays attention to the physical formats of music distribution, as the vinyl pressings are really appealing with truly fantastic artwork by Tony Roberts (Cathedral, Unearthly Trance, Graves at Sea). The gatefold pressings are the best argument I’ve seen for the vinyl format in a long time, and it generates that excitement that kids with their first Kiss album in their hands had way back then.
I got Jon Davis (guitars) on the phone to get some perspectives on the latest buzz created, importance of equipment, inspiration for their writing style, and some news on the next album.
Hi, and thanks for taking time for this interview, Jon. I saw the recent concert where you supported Sleep here in Oslo 2012.05.05, and it was really awesome. With Sleep as headliners and everything, it was a great evening!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. It was great fun, we really enjoyed it
2012 has been a busy year for Conan. There’s a new album out (Monnos, Burning World Records) you’ve got concert lined up across Europe, and that special invitation to play Roadburn as well.
Yeah, it’s been really busy, actually. We recorded the album in December 2011, and we already had some shows lined up in Europe. Norway was actually one of the shows that we had arranged. We were meant to play in Norway in late April, then Jonas Lie (INT NOTE: Betong/South of Heaven booking) asked if we would like to play with Sleep instead. We said of course! Then the rest of the show fell in place, and we had the whole tour completed.
The album was released in early April and we went on this European tour to support it. We had concert in Germany, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, and I think there was another show in Gothenburg before we went home. It was quite a long drive, and quite interesting, just driving and listening to music in the van and enjoying the journey. We had some really good shows, and played with great bands that we like and got along well with.
We have been very lucky to play with a band called Toner Low from Holland, they helped us out with some shows on the tour. So, by the end of the tour, the album had sold out.
That soon? That’s quite quick!
Burning World Record had some preorders, and the first pressing was 500 copies on vinyl. After two-three weeks it sold out. We got some copies for ourselves, but sold those out after four days on tour. It sold out quite quickly and it has taken us by surprise, it really has.
We just recorded the music that we like and enjoy listening to, and all of a sudden people like it and we’re being given the chance to play really cool shows.
Are you satisfied with the way Monnos turned out? Did you get the sound you were looking for?
Yes! It sounds exactly like we wanted it to sound. When we went into the studio, we didn’t have a set idea of how we wanted it to be produced. Chris Fielding, the producer that we used, has done all our releases and we trust him to make it sound like Conan.
We went into the studio with a loose idea of how we wanted it to be. We wanted it to sound heavy like Horseback Battle Hammer, but we also wanted it to be a bit clearer. Just like the tracks on the split with Slomatics as those tracks sounds very clear. We wanted something in between those two types of productions.
Yeah, the sound is a bit crispier.
I think we recorded Monnos in five days, then we sent it to mastering where James Poltkin helped a lot. It sounded great when we recorded it, but when we sent it to James and he did his magic, then we got this really ultra-heavy sound. I’m actually quite surprised how much of a difference it made, because he has really transformed into the correct sound, but really heavy and horrible and dirty at the same time.
We are all audio nerds in the band, so we’re really keen on getting the right guitar sound and the right tone of the bass. We quite particular on the equipment we use, and we have some equipment that is custom-made just for us. The some changes to the fuzz pedals that are made to our particular requirements and we use strings that most other bands don’t use. We’re quite hard to please in that respect.
Does it pay off to be that particular on the equipment?
Yeah, it definitely does. You got to try hard, you know. Any band can plug into a Marshal amp and get the Marshal sound, but if you try to be a bit different, you need to put in more imagination and creativity in your setup.
Before Conan started to get popular, I was and still am quite a fanatic when it comes to what guitar I use, what pedals, and what amplifier. I’m into collecting equipment, and that’s equipment that I actually use.
What’s your favourite guitar nowadays?
Right now, I own two guitars. My favourite right now is the one I used in Oslo, and it’s a guitar made by a Japanese company called El Maya, but from what I’ve learnt, the factory was hit by an earthquake in the 1980-ies. The guitar I got is an EM-1100 with a double pickup and an extra cut-away at the bottom end. It’s a 100% tonewoods, so it’s actually illegal to make guitars from that now, and it’s a set neck, so the sustain is really good on it.
I’ve used a ceramic magnet pickup that has a really high output. We use very low tunings and it’s important that we retain some clarity, so that it just doesn’t sound like a fart. With the pickup I’ve got, I can play at very low tuning and it still sounds clear at the same time.
I reckon this is critical in this genre of metal.
Yeah, it is. Of all the bands I listen to within this type of music, like Sleep, High on Fire, Slomatics, Fu Manchu, and bands that play fuzzed, dirty, heavy guitar type of music – they will all use good guitar amps, good fuzz pedals and distortion pedals. When you go to a concert and watch someone play and see their pedal board, you can always tell the ones who are into that stuff. They will have obscure pedals that people don’t know about, and they’ll have custom-made pedals that sound like no one else.
It’s important to get the same quality of the sound live. I’m quite critical of bands that you see live, and they don’t use proper equipment. In studio, they bother with equipment that makes them sound really good, but when you go to see them live and expecting the same experience, you will see them use poor quality equipment. That’s a shame.
Yeah, like they don’t follow through from the album to the live setting.
When we play live, we like to use exactly the same equipment and setup that we use in the studio. When we recorded Monnos, I used exactly the same amplifier and speakers that I use when I play live, even down to the fact how I stacked the speakers in the studio. It’s important to use good equipment. Otherwise I think you’re cheating people.
It’s like the opposite approach in the early phases of Swedish death metal, where everybody used this Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal. Tuning all knobs to eleven, then plug in and shred like maniacs. It’s the same sound on every album.
Yeah, the early Entombed sound! I bought one of those pedals myself. I think it was a Japanese version of the pedal, and its sound a bit better than later models. I bought one of the later models, and I didn’t like them to be honest. I tried it on my setup, and it wasn’t what I wanted.
Over to the band: Phil Coumbe, he’s a new member for the latest album, right?
Yeah, that’s correct. He’s our third bass player, we had a different bass player for each record so far. He has fitted right in, he’s actually a friend of David Perry who played bass on the split we did with Slomatics. He had to go to Denmark, and we decided that we didn’t want to record with one bass player and go on tour with another. We didn’t think that would be the right thing to do. David recommended Phil, and he came down to one of our practices. He learnt some songs, and just really fitted in right away. He’s a really good guy, a really nice person.
He has the heavy metal beard and long hair, and he headbangs, so he fills out you guys nicely (laughs)
Yeah, he’s really enthusiastic, and has the stage antics when we play live, so it’s good!
Besides other music, what inspire you guys to write songs and go on with the band?
Other than music? Well, Medieval warfare. Films about mythology. Escapism, I think, like imagine closing your eyes and take yourself to a place where you create your own story. Imagine hovering 40-50 feet in the air, gliding through the air and bury yourself in the throat of a warrior somewhere in a forest and fly away with that guys tongue in your mouth, that sort of stuff. That’s basically the thinking behind the song “Hawk as Weapon.”
Yeah, sort of a visual escapism thing.
You know, the film Clash of the Titans, the version filmed in the 1970-ies, the Kraken comes to kill some Princess, but some warrior comes in and saves her. The song “Satsumo” is an alternative ending to that film where she actually does get killed and what it might look like at the bottom of the ocean with all the dead bodies and sacrificed humans.
A lot of our stuff is taken from mythology and medieval warfare. Yeah, and certain computer-games, like The Golden Axe and Altered Beast. And there’s Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. Well, and smoking weed. I don’t do that so much now, but some of our songs come from that state when your mind wanders off quite a lot. We tend to write about things that most other bands would be a little bit unsure about. For example, we wrote a song about the film Krull, and we made it quite obvious that it was about that film, and the lyrics are quite simple.
I think that’s the most enjoyable way of writing songs. You can really do it without feeling self-conscious and you can pour your heart into it because it’s not about something personal. We don’t write about the real world. You will never hear a Conan song about politics. We will never write about falling in love as a teenager or any of that rubbish.
So, no songs about the Euro-crisis or the parliament in Greece?
No, definitely not! (laughs) You know, you could look at some of the themes that Sleep use; they make up their own stories. If you look at the song “Dopesmoker,” it’s about some nomadic tribe making a pilgrimage with a load of weed. They got another song called “Antarcticans Thawed,” and that’s about a race that does not exist. Just making up stuff.
Take some of the lyrics from the band High on Fire and the album Surrounded by Thieves. The lyrics from that album are just f**king mind blowing. Probably the best lyrics I have ever read on any album ever, anywhere. They are brilliant! High on Fire is a major inspiration for us.
Yeah, they’re really awesome!
If you look at the song “Invincible Throne” from the Monnos album, that was going to be name of the album, but we went for Monnos instead. “Invincible Throne” is taken from the line in the song “Nemesis” by High on Fire. So, we’re inspired by other bands as well in a lyrical way.
What I really like about the vinyl that you have put out so far is the gatefold format with the cool artwork. It certainly fits into the picture you drawing up here with aesthetics from medieval warfare and mythology.
Yeah, definitely. We like to have an image on our mind when we’re writing this music. We also like to have a certain image when we play live. Obviously, the lyrics will paint the picture of themselves, but we approached Tony Roberts when we made Horseback Battle Hammer and we created the artwork that went on that album. He got inspired to do that by our music and our lyrics, and we saw the artwork he made, we got inspired to write the music and lyrics on the split with Slomatics. He then got inspired to work with the artwork for that, and we looked at that, it helped us to write lyrics and music for Monnos.
Its like this symbiosis, we feed off each other. We were really lucky to get in touch with Tony Roberts because he understands exactly what we’re after, and all the album artwork he has made for us has been perfect! We will be working with Tony on our next album as well.
2012 has started off in an amazing pace for you guys. Do you have any goals left for the coming year?
Well, we released Monnos in april, and we have several shows lined up in England already. We aim to play some more festivals in England and in Europe. In September, we’re playing in Tilburg, Holland, at the Incubate Festival, and in October we are going to tour Ireland together with Slomatics. In December, we are going on a short tour in Finland.
There are some other festivals as well, but I won’t name them because they might think we are trying to get a spot on it. We hope that we will get there, but if they think we are worthy, I’m sure they’ll get in touch (laughs)!
Beyond that, we hope to get some larger support slots with bigger bands. We have been very lucky to headline quite a lot of shows, and that nice and we’re grateful for that. What we like is to get some more shows like where we played with Sleep, where we are not headlining and opening up for these bands. I’d like us to play more of such shows, we all agree on that.
We’d like to play more support shows for big bands because its important for us to show respect to the fact that there are many bands out there that is more successful and more popular.
One other important thing for 2012 is that we have started working on the new album.
New album? Already?
Yeah, because we got quite a lot of ideas flying around. Monnos itself has inspired us to write lyrics and music in a certain way. We don’t want to waste our time, if you know what I mean. Now that we got some ideas, we want to try to work on them. We’re not going to record them until we’re ready, so we are not in any rush or so. We are not going to rush into the studio, but we’re going to write slowly.
What kind of music can we expect for the next album?
Well, I would say something heavier than Monnos, because we are getting better now, better using our instruments, better using the aspects of our music. We are starting to understand how to use our writing style, and we’re learning what sound good and do not. We’re really inspired by the heaviness of Horseback Battle Hammer as that is a very black-sounding album. Comparing albums, Monnos is much more ‘catchier’.
Yeah, it comes off as far more accessible.
Yes, definitely, and that’s what we wanted. I think for the next album, Phil, Paul and myself have all agreed to make things slightly less accessible. On the Monnos album, some of the songs are quite short, so we are probably going to make songs that are longer. We got plenty of ideas and riffs that play during practice or on tour.
The new stuff is sounding very exiting. We have not booked any recording studio yet; we are going to wait until we got the outline of a certain amount of songs. I don’t think we’re going to write a long album, we don’t believe in that. Monnos is just around 40 minutes, and it’s just the right length. First of all, it can go on two sides of vinyl. And for us, it seems like the right amount of time. We just gonna play the songs until they seem done.
Trusting your instincts on that, right?
Yeah, that’s what we did on Horseback Battle Hammer and on Monnos. The songs are quite short and sharp, and that makes them easier to digest. If you listen to a 6 minute song, you’ll be happy to hear again in 20 minutes when the album is finished. We want people to listen to the songs often and familiar with them. For example when we play “Hawk as Weapon” and “Battle in the Swamp” live, people recognize them and respond. We want to write music that people can remember and relate to.
You guys are located in the Liverpool-area, UK. Any bands worth mentioning from your surrounding metal landscape?
From Liverpool, you should be checking out a band called Black Magician. They’ve just announced their first record on Shaman Recordings. There’s also another death metal/black metal band called Ninkharsag. And there’s Iron Witch, of course. If you look more across England, there are some very good bands worth checking out. Up in Edinburgh there is a band called Jackal Headed Guard of the Dead, and they’re an instrumental doom/ metal band. Absolutely brilliant! They’ve got the best riffs and great drums.
The one band that I urge to give a special mention to is Slomatics. They have inspired everything I’ve ever done musically since I’ve heard their album Flooding the Weir (2006). I then changed, musically. When I heard that album, I immediately knew that I all wanted was to tune my guitar low, use fuzz pedal, buy big amps and just play slow riffs. As soon as I heard that album, I just went ‘Wow!, this is the music I wanna play. I really felt at home in that music. I think they have a new album coming out soon. A really great band! I don’t think Conan would have existed if it weren’t for them.
It’s been great talking to you! Thanks for your time, and I look forward to hear from Conan in the time to come.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity to talk to you.
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