– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with COFFINWORM?

Greetings and thank you for the interview, Sergio! I’m just starting my day right now, drinking a cup of coffee and listening to a Killing Joke record. Things with Coffinworm are good. We just recently played a show with the mighty Atriarch and our friends Boddicker, which will be our last live show for awhile. Priorities have shifted to writing mode and the consensus was until the rest of the new full-length is written we’re not playing live. It’s a welcomed break, as we’re all sick of playing the same songs. Haha!

– First off, as you are a relatively new band, if you don’t mind I would like you to start sharing some history of the band for all those who may don’t know about you yet.

Sure, the band was started in the late summer/early fall of 2007. We began rehearsing the week after we all sat down over some beers to discuss the musical direction and by the second practice we had ‘High On The Reek…’ written. We played our first show with Unearthly Trance and Racebannon in February 2008, recorded the ‘Great Bringer of Night’ demo in winter of 2008, and secured a partnership with Profound Lore Records shortly afterwards to release a full-length. We spent the rest of 2009 playing some shows, tightening up our material, and writing a few more songs before entering Semaphore Recording Studio with Sanford Parker to record ‘When All Became None’. The original lineup was intact until summer of 2010 when then guitarist Tony McGuire left the band, I moved from playing drums to guitar, and our friend Josh (who also did the cover art for ‘When All Became None’) became our drummer. Since then we’ve released a split 7″ with Fistula on Hell Comes Home, which is the only recording so far of the new lineup. That song can be heard via our Bandcamp page (http://coffinworm.bandcamp.com).

 

– You have just released «Great Bringer of Night», containing the demo of the same name from 2009 and two unreleased versions of «Start Saving For Your Funeral» and «Spitting In Infinity’s Asshole». How did you come up with the idea of releasing this material in one single full-length album?

I guess it’s a nice way to let more fans get it, as it was only pressed in vinyl.

We had always wanted to see the demo released on vinyl and once the vinyl for ‘When All Became None’ had been sold out for quite awhile it seemed like the right time to pursue the demo’s release. The only physical format ‘Great Bringer of Night’ had was a handmade CD-R in screenprinted mini-LP style cardboard cases. There were less than 300 copies made, so it didn’t have a very wide release initially. Thankfully, Jonathan from The Flenser was enthusiastic about working with us on the project and did a killer job to present it in a quality package and get it out very quickly.

 

– As I said, it also contains unreleased tracks from demo recording sessions, and I personally think «Start Saving for your Funeral» is an amazing tune which depicts perfectly the band in all its magnificence. Why did you decide to give it this second chance? And do you have any other old unreleased songs?

Thank you! Well, both of the extra songs on the ‘GBON’ LP were re-recorded with Sanford Parker and released on the ‘When All Became None’ full-length. We felt that giving folks the complete demo recording session on vinyl was more of an incentive than just the 3 songs that originally composed ‘Great Bringer of Night’. No other songs from that era are unreleased.

 

– This version definitely has a better sound, thanks to a great mastering job by seasoned James Plotkin. Are you satisfied with this work? Has he obtained the sound you wanted to get?

Thank you, we think so too. James Plotkin did an incredible job on the mastering and I would love to use him again for future projects. It was a major difference to my ears and totally exceeded my expectations since we weren’t able to do any mixing tweaks before sending the files to him. I would highly recommend anyone to use him, as he does great work and his rates are quite affordable: http://www.plotkinworks.com/mastering/index.html

 

– For this release you have also renewed the cover artwork, being the new one darker than the «original». Does this mean COFFINWORM is now a darker band as well?

I don’t know about be a ‘darker band’ now…the updated cover art was partially out of necessity, but I think it conveys the musical content perfectly. The original packaging for the demo was raw, brown cardboard, which we weren’t able to reproduce for the vinyl jacket. It seemed best to have different artwork created and several of us have been admirers of Bryan Proteau’s artwork for awhile (http://clovenhoov.tumblr.com). He happened to be a friend of Jonathan’s and was enthusiastic to work with us, so it worked out perfectly.

 

– All this about this «Great Bringer of Night» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?

Death, doom, destruction.

 

– The original demo came out only 3 years ago but I think during these last years you’ve managed to progress and improve a lot but, how do you think has COFFINWORM evolved since then?

I would agree with you. I find the early songs to be something very special, personally. It was an exciting time for us and there was more of an ‘anything goes’ mentality during the writing process. We still don’t discriminate in that department when writing, but since then we’ve gone through a lineup change and honed in on our strengths as musicians and in writing music. The new material is better in my opinion and we sound more cohesive from an insider perspective.

 

– This makes me wonder if the songwriting process has changed since you were formed or if you use to use the same methods for all your releases.

No major changes to the songwriting process. We’ve written songs over a period of a year before, and we’ve banged out a song in one practice. Sometimes one of us comes to the practice room with a basic structure for a whole song, sometimes it’s just a riff. 90% of the time it’s still a collaborative process between all of us, though. I think we’ve just gotten better at cutting through bullshit when constructing songs and we have a better idea of the essence of what makes up our sound.

 

– Being this «Great Bringer of Night» an album containing old compositions, are you already working on a brand new album? Have you written anything?

We are working on a new full-length and have 4 songs done currently. 3 of those songs have been in our live set since late summer of this year. We have a few other songs in progress currently and a pile of riffs or parts to sort through over the winter. We’re itching to get back into the studio and do another record.

 

– And finally, what are your near-future plans?

No concrete plans other than finishing the songs for the new record and getting back into the studio. We have a few split releases we’re also planning for. Once the record is done, though, we should have more to speak of as far as live shows and such.

 

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

It’s been a pleasure, Sergio, and thank you for taking the time to do the interview and for your interest in Coffinworm. Hails and cheers to Queens of Steel and all supporters in Spain!

– Carl/Coffinworm

Website – http://coffinworm.net

Bandcamp – http://coffinworm.bandcamp.com

Facebook – http://facebook.com/coffinworm

Merchandise – http://coffinworm.bigcartel.com

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

 

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