So tonight you are here at the 9:30 Club, what are your thoughts on the venue?
Reed Mullin: I love this venue; I have a great story about the last time I was here. I was doing a little side project at Dave Grohl’s studio called “Teenage Time Killers” Dave played on it, Corey, and Randy Blythe also played on it. But anyways so I was trying to finish that and Dave had let me record it at his studio in LA “606” so we were trying to work out stuff because the only way I could finish my album was in between what Foo Fighters were doing. Dave was doing that thing for Sound City no it was Sonic Highways. So Dave was doing this show at the (:30 Club it was going to be Trouble Funk, which is an old DC funk band. They’ve been around a long time and they play what’s called GO-GO. So I’m trying to finish my little side project thing which is an old school punk metal thing and the folks out there were like Dave’s working on this thing with the guys from The Badbrains and Peter from Scream which was one of his first bands singing Badbrains songs and then trouble funk are going to play cause it’s the guy from trouble funks birthday or something. I was really excited about Dave playing with the guys from Badbrains so I came up here under the guise that it was a birthday party for the guy in Trouble Funk and to see Dave and it ends up being fucking Foo Fighters show and that was the last time I was here. I wanted to see something that was like a small part of Dave Grohl’s life and my life of old punk rock stuff and all these other people were here to see Foo Fighters and I didn’t even know the Foo Fighters were playing. It was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen and all the bands sounded amazing. So that was the last time I was here.
So it’s been a long time since this lineup has toured, what’s it like to be back on the road with this lineup?
Pepper and I have been talking about doing this for a long time, and have wanted to do it for a long time we love the songs and we’ve wanted to play together again. You’ve heard it a million times, being in a band is like being married but you’re married to several people. Things get fucked up and we’ve been around a long time and things got fucked up with us and we we’ve gotten back together like a lot of that really love each other do. I don’t know if you know this but me and Woody Weatherman have known each other since 5th grade he actually taught me how to play drums. But anyway you know corrosion of conformity as a band started in ’82 and it was a rudimentary kind of punk rock band with a lot of influences from DC. So anyway when Pepper and I really started talking about doing something it was like we were going to get this shit happening for sure. So it took us a while because you know Pepper was with Down and they are an incredibly successful band and it was one of those things where we had to work around that. When it finally got to the point where it looked like we would both have time to work together, we were like fuck yeah let’s get this thing happening. We did this litmus test this year kind of like a barometer to see if folks would dig it. In march we did a little tour in Europe and the UK and people really, really liked it. So from that because it was so good and more than just some nostalgic thing. So we did it and the first rehearsal we did Pepper came up from New Orleans to jam with us for three or four days. The first day was terrible but it was mostly me being like “I’m not feeling it, I’m playing really bad” I think I was just being really self-conscious. Pepper was staying at my house just like he did when he first moved to Raleigh in 1989, so anyway on day two. Do you know the story of Pepper joining the band? So Pepper came out to try out to sing for us in 1989 when Simon Bob had left the band. He had tried out to sing for the band Faith No More but didn’t get the job and then he came out to sing for us. We had played with his band down in New Orleans called Graveyard Rodeo and they were a really good band but he wasn’t the singer he was the guitar player. So he comes up to sing for us and he was terrible. But he was suck a cool guy and such a great guitar player that we kept him on. Anyway the whole coming back part germinated from that early stage of us all being friend and all of us being into the whole thing and him really becoming the sound of COC. There’s been three big sounds of COC, there’s been the punk rock sound of COC, there’s been the “Blind” era, and there’s been the Pepper sound and that has been the big thing. So everybody wanted the Pepper thing to come back and I wanted it really bad. But Pepper was making a lot of money with Down, and having fun with Down. But the thing about Down that I believe, I don’t know if Pepper believes this is true but I think he will probably agree with me but that the Phil Anslemo show and the cool think about COC with Pepper singing is that that’s Peppers show. Pepper is writing the lyrics and he’s up there doing his thing where down is more like an all-star kind of thing with Phil out front. So we’ve always wanted to get that shit happening again. So finally he and I had been talking about it for a long time but it had to be where he had time and we had time and that’s what happened last year. So we were available to start booking shows and more importantly we were available to start speaking to labels about recording some new stuff.
Is there new material in the works? When can we expect to hear some new material?
Yeah I guess that because I’ve always been the hands on guy that has tried to make things happen I started talking to Monte Conner of Nuclear Blast records and a bunch of other different folks at labels and stuff. I was like hey man I think we are really going to do this again. Monte is one of the biggest COC fans there is in the whole world I’ve know him from road runner records a million years ago. It’s funny he said that “Deliverance” is not one of his favorite COC records but one of his favorite records period. So he was like I’m going to call you every two weeks to find out what’s going on with you guys and we’ll get this thing happening. I was like two weeks, I was like come on you have to give me a little more time, so I was like call me every month or two months. So it ended up our compromise was that he called me every month and emailed and texted me every month to see what was happening with COC and Pepper. It got to the point where finally this year we were able to say it’s totally a go, let’s make things happen. We were talking to other people about doing this project and we got offered more money from different people, but because Monte and his company were so fully stoked and those people really loved COC and not just the Pepper COC but the hard core COC. Because we’ve maintained thru our history we’ve been like our name Corrosion of Conformity much to the chagrin of many of our fans we’ve been three different bands. So anyway yeah he won because his folks at his company loved the band and they understand and comprehend the band. There’s something to be said for that and signing with these guys is I think is one of the best signing if not the best signings we’ve ever done because they understand the band and there’s so many people there that love the band. We felt they would go the extra measure for us and that’s why we signed with Nuclear Blast.
When do you think you might enter the studio?
You know were going to record with our producer John Custer. Pepper thinks he has a good studio in Louisiana so were probably going to go down there and record a little bit and see what it’s like. Mainly for my purposes of hearing the drum sounds down there because I’m good friends with Dave Grohl and I would kind of like to record my drum tracks at his studio. His studio 606 in Northridge California is meant for drums and a lot of people just go there for drums and they sound amazing. Since I’ve been a little kid and I put Dave’s first album “Dain Bramage” out in like 1984 on my label No Core. So I was the first one to put Dave Grohl on the map. But anyway you couldn’t get a sweeter guy than Dave, there’s a lot of haters out there and for the life of me I can’t understand it.
So you mentioned the European tour earlier in the year, are there any concerns with recent events and planning any other tours in Europe going forward?
It’s terrifying huh? Why that band it seemed so arbitrary it’s not like they were expressing political views. But were not scared at all of that stuff wed go back just like that. But at the same time I think it influences the whole infrastructure and the whole idea of going out there for fans too. I mean it’s the fans who got killed those are the folks who I think are more worried about it. Back in the old days we were just scared of skin heads beating us up or slashing our tires. It’s a little different when you have people shooting people.
So you’re song “Vote With A Bullet” seems to have as much meaning today as it did when it was first released, what are your thoughts on the current political situation?
Well that song was written around, it’s kind of funny. In North Carolina the politics or at least the politician who was in charge of North Carolina his name was Jesse Helms and to us he was very conservative, mean and very racist. Now when look back at him he just doesn’t seem that bad compared to what we have these days. But we were, especially myself I was really involved with the campaign against him. His opponent was Harvey Gantt and I was very involved in that campaign I worked every day to try to defeat Jesse Helms. The election was so rigged it was like a war it was so extreme. Pepper isn’t really a big political person, but I am and because he could see how extreme it was from my perspective he wrote the song. Because they got away with stealing the election we felt it was necessary to write the song, it was like our way of saying hey man you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. It’s one of our best songs I think and it showed Peppers writing prowess and it showed that he was a good singer and it elevated him to the point where he could then be the singer for “Deliverance”
You been in this business for a long time and you’ve seen people struggle with addiction do you have any thoughts on the passing of Scott Weiland?
I think a lot of people thought that it would have happened a long time ago. I didn’t really know Scott but I was really good friends with Layne Staley, and I’ve had my own problems with alcohol, you know I think a lot of us have. But you know you have housewives that get addicted to pain pills and stuff like that. So it’s not hard to understand but at the same time it’s tragic, especially in Layne’s case when you knew it was going to happen. I didn’t know Scott that well at all I had met him several times but I didn’t really know him. I knew Layne very well. Like I said I didn’t know Scott but I share a lot of the difficulties that he had before he passed so I understand and I still struggle with some of that stuff.
So what do the fans have to look forward to as far as tours for 2016?
Alright so 2016 we just got signed with Nuclear Blast records. I think it’s going to be a piecemeal kind of thing were going to work on writing songs, and then play a little. Because to me I think songs work out best when you write them but then you play them live in front of your fans. So that’s what we’re going to do, were going to get the songs written as well as we can, demo them, and then play them in these little tours were going to do. We’re going to do a tour in April I think so we will demo some of the tunes that we think are the best. We want to get all the songs together this year and we want to make sure the album is finished this year and the album comes out this year. I think we have the opportunity of making if not the second best album we’ve ever made but possibly the best album we’ve ever made. Pepper is singing better than he ever has and were having so much fun playing, tonight you are going to see how much fun we are having and you are going to see a new energy with all of us. It’s not nostalgia; it’s rejuvenation were just having so much fun.
