CAR BOMB
Explodes on Impact!
By: Erik Thomas
Arguably releasing the grand daddy of math-metal records in THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN’s Calculating Infinity, and then adding to that legacy with Canada’s THE END; is there really room on Relapse’s roster for yet another, techno-spazz slab of abrasive math core? You fucking bet. Especially when it’s as bowel pro-lapsing as CAR BOMB, one of Relapse’s newest signings, and a band ready to unleash their stunning debut Centralia upon a math-core weary public. Fear not though gallant metal fan, with Centralia, CAR BOMB have managed to mix the angular complexity of their peers and kicked it promptly in the balls, making it angrier, burlier and heavier. Jon Modell and Mike Dafferner from CAR BOMB answered a few of my journalistic inquires regarding the new record and residing on Relapse.
Resound: Give us the brief clichéd history of the band would you please?
Jon Modell: “Elliot and I were playing in this band SPOOGE (dys-function-ing between 1993 & 2001), a Zappa-esque fusion of more contemporary styles (i.e. death metal, funk, jazz, reggae, etc) while Greg and Mike were playing in the infamous post-hardcore band NECK (1994-2005). We would gig together from time to time and shared rehearsal space for several years in the mid-nineties (under a butcher shop...what a great place for metal!!). After SPOOGE broke up, I had begun to get some players together for a new project and when the guitar player left, I immediately thought of Greg. Once he was on board, Mike came over and was doing both the NECK and CAR BOMB. Elliot joined up with us after we had lost our previous drummer, and we’ve been going strong with this lineup ever since. The mixing of styles between the four of us has been a tremendous asset to the band. Elliot and I come from an older progressive metal type school (i.e. CONFESSOR, CYNIC, WATCHTOWER) mixed in with a bunch of Zappa and fusion jazz whereas Greg and Mike are pulling from a different set of influences (i.e. FAITH NO MORE, DEP, AUTECHRE, SHORA). Of course there are several bands that we all agree on (e.g. Mike Patton projects), but it’s the differences in backgrounds that have helped us to develop our sound.”
RESOUND: Why sign with Relapse? They have THE END and of course DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN already as far as math metal, or was being on a label with those bands a reason for signing with them?
Jon: “We know that Relapse has a solid track record of working with heavier and more unique sounding bands than some of its competition. Over the years they signed some of the heaviest and unique sounding metal bands. They have a great reputation and a wonderful staff. We thought they would be a good home for us based on all of that. We look forward to being label mates with ALL of the Relapse bands.”
RESOUND: Knowing you would be sharing a label with two spectacularly technical bands, was there a challenge to make Centralia as over the top as possible?
Jon: “Somewhat. The process of refining the ideas and recording them was a challenge. But we have an internal litmus test of what sounds good or not, and that’s not hard for us to identify. We knew what we wanted the record to sound like and what types of energies we wanted to come out of the speakers. So if we wrote something that mirrored that, we kept it. If not, we trashed it. We definitely set out to push the limits of what you can do with heavy music, but we’re not out to compete with anyone in particular (except for DEP, Liam is going down!).”
RESOUND: Despite sharing a similar sound with those two bands as well as some ION DISSONANCE, there is rather a lot of experimentation both vocally (“Pieces of You”, “Best Intentions”) and musically (“H5N1”, “Cellophane Stiletto”) within the already challenging music-is that an effort to separate your selves from the above bands and math metal as a whole?
Jon: “Mike is singing some interesting stuff that you may not hear on other math metal albums, as well as some traditional style stuff. He has a wide range of vocal abilities and it would be a waste to use just one of them over and over again. He’s one of those rare singers that can really do it all, and we all felt it would be silly to stifle him from trying as many ideas as he wanted. That’s pretty much the philosophy of the whole band. Everyone has lots of breathing room to do what they want. Yes, the parts are intricate and require precise timing and all that, but there is a certain sense of freedom to work outside of the box, so to speak. With all of that being said, there is no conscious effort to separate ourselves. Some people are going to lump us in with other bands and some will not. We’re just doing our thing.”
RESOUND: Why is this particular style of music is generally geared towards such oddball titles and themes (“M^6”, “Hypnotic Worm”, “Ceilo Drive”). You never hear math metal songs about gore, zombies or other metal clichés. Does the technicality of the music require less simple lyrics and themes?
Mike Dafferner: “Absolutely, if you are writing lyrics to music that sounds like a calculator orgy, then your lyrics are usually going to reflect that vibe. I think cliché metal themes are fucking retarded anyway. I always admire creativity in any form of music or lyrics. It makes me fucking crazy when I hear something that I have heard a million times before.”
RESOUND: Who produced Centralia? It sounds amazing-clear yet heavy as hell.
Jon: “We recorded the drums at our buddy Andrew Mittelmana’s studio, Sound Generation Studios, in NYC. Andrew and Elliot are good friends and Andrew has a great studio setup in NYC and is a hell of an engineer. Elliot tracked live in the studio over a weekend and decided to use a natural drum sound instead of triggers. The rest of the CD was recorded at my house with Greg at the helm. Doing it at my place allowed for us to take our time and make sure we recorded everything to our satisfaction. The motto of the recording was “No Regrets!!” We’ve all done our fair share of recording and have suffered disappointment. We really wanted to avoid that with Centralia. We borrowed every mic / amp / speaker / pedal we could get our hands on, and experimented until we got the sonic quality that we wanted. After all of the tracking was done, we ran basic mixes here and then finalized everything back at Sound Generation. We can’t forget to mention that Allan and Jesse over at West West Side Music did an incredible job mastering the disc. We gave them one instruction: make the speakers explode, and we’re pretty satisfied. We managed to stay on a very tight budget and we feel we got a lot more than what we
paid for.”
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