by Mark Kadzielawa

Corrosion of Conformity left a big mark on the hardcore world back in the mid 80s. The band formed back in 1982, and two years later released their debut "An Eye For An Eye." At that point the band consisted of Woodroe Weatherman on guitar, Reed Mullin on drums, Mike Dean on bass, and Eric Eycke on vocals. Eycke soon left the band, and Dean stepped into the spotlight as the new singer/bassist. Corrosion of Conformity (or C.O.C. for short) released their second album "Animosity" back in 1985. It was a defining moment for the band. "Animosity" was an instant favorite with the fans, and the musicians alike. At that point, everyone knew and respected the band, and their popular skull t-shirt design were everywhere.

Mike Dean left the band in 1987. He was replaced by Simon Bob Sinister on vocals, and Phil Swisher on bass. Throughout the years more personnel changes followed, and the band's direction gravitated towards Southern metal style. The last four releases ("Deliverance," " Wiseblood," "America's Volume Dealer", and "In The Arms Of God") were fronted by Pepper Keenan, who joined C.O.C. back in 1989 as the second guitar player. Mike Dean returned to C.O.C. as well, but only as a bass player.

In 2010, Corrosion of Conformity is back as the trio that brought you the groundbreaking "Animosity" album. Pepper Keenan is still a member of Corrosion of Conformity, but is not part of this reunion. The original trio is not only reviving the spirit of 1985, but moving forward with a new recording. The band just released a brand new 7 inch vinyl titled "Your Tomorrow," and is already playing new songs they've written for the upcoming record. Also, C.O.C. plans to document the current tour on a DVD, and work on having the "Animosity" album available again. Once those commitments are fulfilled Corrosion of Conformity hopes to go back to the four piece line up with Pepper Keenan, and continue on their path.

Bassist/vocalist, Mike Dean, reflects on how this reunion came to be, and clarifies the objectives for the recent band activities.

It's great to see the "Animosity" band back together, but there was never really clear explanation as to why this line up broke up in the 80s?
Mike Dean: I'm wondering about that too. I don't know really. I think we've had enough of living in a stinky van, sleeping by the side of the road, or sleeping in somebody's house. I think my patience for that kind of thing got a little bit short. In 1987 we've had a tour that was not booked very well, and we ended up cancelling it. I just kind of walked off without saying anything. And you know, I visited some friends in California. When I came back to North Carolina, they already got Phil Swisher (bass 1989-1993) to play bass, so I was like "whatever," I wasn't too upset about it.
During your time away from the band were you involved in any musical project?
Oh yeah, definitely. I briefly jammed with Greg Ginn from Black Flag. That didn't really click, he didn't really have a drummer or anything like that. He wasn't interested in playing songs, he just wanted to improvise. So, it was little hard for me to get into that. I played in a band with William DuVal from Neon Christ, a band from Atlanta. William is currently a singer for Alice In Chains, and I respect the job he is doing in that band. That's a tough role to take on. Eventually I ended up moving to San Francisco, and becoming a bike messenger. I threw myself into that for a while. I met a very nice girl from Philadelphia, and I moved there, and I was a bike messenger there too. I was living in Philadelphia when these guys asked me to come back, and play bass on "Deliverance."
25 years later Corrosion of Conformity is once again back as a three piece. Whose idea was it to revisit "Animosity"?
I don't know. It was just a wild idea. We were supposed to do some shows in Europe. The shows were supposed to be with Pepper (Keenan), and I'm referring to our most recent line up. We were pretty excited to do it. I thought "In The Arms Of God" was a very intense record, and I thought the only thing missing was Reed's drumming. So, we kind of got back together with him. I was jamming with him. And everyone was trying to jam with Reed again. It turned out Down (Pepper's other band) was booked on around the same time, so he couldn't do it. I just joked that we ought to do a three piece. I looked around, and nobody was laughing, so it must've been a good idea.
With the three piece line up playing together again it feels like you've completed a cycle.
Yeah, we kind of came back to it in some respects. We did come back to our previous format, and we're having some fun with it. We are writing some new songs. So, yeah, it feels like that.
This is probably the most stripped down version of C.O.C., but what makes it so special and unique?
I don't know, you have to ask the people who come to the shows. I think we have a good communication musically, and it's easier to be more agile just with one guitar. There is less possibility of a complete sonic train wreck.



When the first C.O.C. album (An Eye For An Eye) came out you were not the singer. Eric Eycke was the original vocalist, once he left when did you hear your calling to front the band?
It just seemed to be leading towards that. Eric was really good at working the crowds, he was definitely a presence, but sonically as a vocalist he wasn't really what we were looking for. We wanted something a little more interesting. I was writing a lot of the songs anyway, and the lyrics, so it came easy to me to step into that role.
Now that you play again as a three piece, I assume you concentrate on "Animosity" album in your live shows.
Yeah, we perform "Animosity" in its entirety, but then we play four new songs that we just wrote. We're putting a new record together, and we already have four songs written, so we play them. Also, we play a little bit off the "Technocracy" record.
Do you find yourself playing any of the material differently 25 years later?
Oh yeah, I mean we're not trying to change or erase how we may have developed or change as musicians. We're interpreting that material from where we are now, but it's not that different really.
How do you enjoy playing those songs again? I mean it's been a while since that material was even looked at.
We enjoy it a lot actually. This is very surprising to us because I'm not really the most nostalgic person, so I was kind of against the idea for a long time. Just based on the fact that it would be exploiting nostalgia or something like that. But I think we've made just fresh enough music that it's viable.
And speaking of leaving nostalgia behind, there is a new C.O.C. seven inch titled "Your Tomorrow" released very recently.
This felt very good to do. The idea was to do something new. We were gonna go out and do a lot of shows. There are a lot of bands that haven't been around for 20 years who might go out and play a set of their old material. I just thought that something would be missing if we didn't work on any new material. And that's where we're at now. We rehearsed in Woody's barn, he lives up in the mountains and has a farm. So, we were rehearsing in his barn, I brought my recording equipment right up there. I kind of recorded them just playing. I didn't say we were gonna record, or release a single. It was just like let's play a song and demo it. We worked on it, and got Southern Lord to release it. It's a seven inch vinyl on a 180 Gramm vinyl, or you can download it from I-Tunes.
You've mention repeatedly about the idea of a new album with the three piece album, are there any more details?
We're definitely working on an album. I think the fan reaction will be favorable to it because it has a lot of the same tempos that we are used to. It's still high energy level. The vocals might a little bit more melodic, but not excessively so. There are a lot of curve balls in there. It's pretty varied, but I think most people will like it.
The charm of "Animosity" was the incredible amount of anger that the record possessed, will the new material contrast that aspect?
Of course, I don't focus on it as much, but I think it comes out in the performance. We try to turn anger into a more productive type of energy. There is definitely high energy to it that people will be able to relate to.
Righteous Fool is a band you and Reed do on the side. What were the origins of that project?
I just kind of reconnected with Reed, and we started playing. We brought in Jason Browning on guitar. It really clicked, so we wrote a lot of songs. I think we should have a full length album released very soon. It's just a matter of documenting it.



There is also a talk about C.O.C. reconvening with Pepper Keenan, and doing another record as a four piece. Where are you at with that?
We're trying to figure out how to schedule that. He was really wrapped up with Down, so he didn't really have any time for us. Now, Down seems to be taking a break, so he wants to do a record with us, but I kind of already stated we're gonna do this three piece thing. We would look incapable of doing this, if we got back with him, and not do this.
In 25 years since "Animosity" came out people managed to get born, schooled, grow up, and possibly become new fans. What type of fans are you seeing when you play these shows?
There is some young kids surprisingly who are into hard-core a lot, and it pretty numerous. I don't know to what to attribute that, maybe Garage Band or Guitar Hero, but it's great to see kids into a band where someone plays an instrument rather than programming a drum machine. Nothing wrong with that, but you know.
Do you have any plans to re-release "Animosity" as a special edition? The record is probably not the easiest one to find nowadays.
We're trying to make that happen currently. Like we're playing good cop-bad cop with the label. I'm the bad cop, we'll see who the good cop is. We're trying to make that happen as we speak. I think what will probably happen we're gonna record our live set, and try to utilize that material, you know the same songs recorded 25 years later live, as a reason for them to re-release it.



Finally, were there any challenges in getting this off the ground?
Our guitar player lives about 200 miles away. So now we have to drive to the foothills of the Appalachians to visit him and stay for a couple of days. Sometimes that's a concern, but we're dealing with it.

Links:
http://www.coc.com