Intervista Corrosion of Conformity (Pepper Keenan)

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Hi Pepper, how are you doing?

Doing great!
Been zigzagging around Europe and the UK for three weeks now, tonight’s our last show then we fly back to the States.

“No Cross No Crown” was released in January; the album contains 15 songs, which I think is the most you ever had on any record since you debut, “Eye for an Eye”. Where does all this creativity come from, is there anything in particular that inspired you?

We hadn’t done a record in a long time, for one thing, so we got in the studio and started doing it and the record started taking a life of its own; you just try to fill blanks in and make it a complete album, you try to make it an album front to back.
So, you write and try to make it cohesive, you know, use your imaginations and have fun with it.

This was also the first album in a while with you back in the band, and in even longer with the 4 of you together; how is it to be all back there in the studio?

It was fun, it’s kinda like riding a bicycle.
You get back in there, we had toured around for two years before we started doing a record, so we had our groove together, but once we got in there it was just…and working with John Custer, our producer that worked with for a long time, we had the gang back together and there was this being creative and having fun.

Did you feel the pressure of having to live up to the expectations of having this lineup back together?

Yes [laughs], but it was self-imposed pressure, you know, we didn’t want to bullshit anybody, we didn’t want to seem like a money-grab thing or something, we wanted to make a real record.
We knew that, and the last record I did with the guys was “In the Arms of God”, I thought that was a very strong record, so that’s kind of where we left from.

Did you write the music while you were touring, or did started working on it when you got to the studio?

No, just in the studio, we literally wrote…we kinda did it like a demo, but recording it well, we didn’t re-track the songs, we didn’t demo twice, as we wrote we were tracking it.
It was just more fun and spontaneous, you know, it doesn’t beat the songs up too much where it gets boring and flat footed.

How long did it take you to make the whole record, from the first moment you started working on new stuff to when it was completely finished?

Probably about 9 months, we were going back and forth, we do real serious writing sessions…it was a just a very creative writing process, you can hear it on the record, there are a lot of information there.
We did each song on its own and then we started over again, so the drum is different every time, all the guitars are different.

I saw you guys only once in Manchester two years ago, the surprise show you did just before Desertfest; I think it was very cool to have you in such a small, intimate venue, it had a very old school vibe.

Yeah, yeah, that was fun, we do them all the times when we can, we call them guerrilla gigs, we just put them on Facebook and whatever, people get there.
We were just warming up for Desertfest, but better than being in a rehearsal place, you know.

Do you prefer smaller, more intimate, venues or bigger ones like festivals?

I like the big stages, but we’ve done a couple of small shows now in between festivals and they are great.
Apples and oranges, you know.

Not long ago Phil Anselmo said a new Down album is in the works, how are your progresses with that?

We’re talking, we’re talking about trying to get everything organized and get back out there.
It’s too big of a machine not to continue with it, it’s just that everybody is so busy, we’re all in different directions.

Yeah, I saw Eyehategod a few days ago, they’re touring Europe now.

Where did you see them?

I was in Stockholm, but they are playing in Italy next week and I think I’ll go see them again there.

We just played together at Hellfest the other day, and Crowbar.
I hadn’t seen everybody together in a long time, so it was fun being all together at Hellfest.

It funny that this year Phil wasn’t there, because he plays there almost every year with one band or the other.
I know, I know.

Talking about that, I was supposed to see you guys there a couple of years ago, but the show was cancelled after Phil’s incident…

Yeah, I think we were supposed to play right before Black Sabbath.

How do you feel about that? Do you kind of understand the promoter’s point of view or do you disagree with their decision?

It had nothing to do with Down, you know…I quitted trying to figure this Rock N’ Roll shit out, if you try to figure it out you just end up being wrong, so…you know, we just do what we do.

Back to Corrosion Of Conformity, with over the thirty years of material at your disposal, is it hard for you to it a setlist together?

Some of these things are kinda weird, because the time you get to play is different every time.
We got some staple songs that we do, we try to add different songs here and there and sometimes you have to read the crowd a little bit, figure out what you’re gonna do, sometimes we change in the middle of the set while we’re playing; I’ll just jump into a different song and they’ll follow me.

Davide Sciaky