Prior to their performance on the Grooverider Stage at Ramblin’ Man Fair, Neil Simpson caught up with guitarist Chris Bishop and bassist Eddie Collins of CROBOT for a quick chat about the new album, and their recent time on the road.
New Sounds: You have announced that you have a new album coming out, and you’ve released two singles – can you tell our readers a bit about the singles?
Chris: ‘Keep Me Down’ was the song that we wrote that just sort of sat around for a little bit; we didn’t have a verse for it, and you know, for a long time we had it and it came together right around when we went to the studio. So it’s just a good opening track back, you know, sort of like “we’re still around”.
New Sounds: I love the video for it, it’s class.
Eddie: Yeah, that’s what happens when they’re like “here’s like 500 bucks, go make a video”
Chris: We were like “okay it’s gonna be really awkward, here we go.”
Eddie: We made the best of it.
New Sounds: That kind of video really suits your guys’ kinda music as well.
Chris: Yeah, it’s fun.
Eddie: It’s goofy.
New Sounds: Not taking anything too seriously!
Chris: No, and that’s important! Sometimes you see a band that takes themselves too seriously…it’s pretentious.
Eddie: And you see other bands, take a dick joke too far or something, but we’re kinda like right in the middle.
New Sounds: You guys always have really cool artwork for your albums – are you guys directly involved with the artwork?
Chris: Yeah I do it all……that’s why it’s so good! [Laughter]
New Sounds: Of Course! [Laughter]
Chris: I mean, there’s a lot of imagery that goes along with the kinda music that we are and I try not to go too hard into the art nouveau, Alphonse Mucha-esque stuff, but it’s awesome so it’s hard not to…I wanna just rip that shit off all the time, um, you know this one was more a throwback to that. Whereas with ‘Fat City’ we really wanted to go like a bright coloured propaganda sort of look, and you know, that was cool in its own right, it’s very psychedelic. I did all like coloured pencils, on a 30 x 33, big heavy-weight paper. It took me forever to do, cause like you’re fucking cramping up and you gotta saturate it really hard and I don’t work in coloured pencils that much, but this is just all done basically in pencil and on an IPad.
New Sounds: Nice one, it’s cool that you actually do it yourself!
Chirs: Yeah, for sure!
Eddie: It’s very dark artwork too…it’s like reminiscent of the album in a sense too. It’s dark but in an elegant way, you know, it’s like pretty girl, flowy hair, soft flowers, you know what I mean, but her head’s split open…with a jellyfish brain! It’s pretty cool.
New Sounds: Do you guys have a favourite track from the album?
Chris: Yeah, there’s a couple but “Alpha Dawg” I think is my favourite song on it.
Eddie: I like “Alpha Dawg” a lot, and I like “Blackout” a lot too.
New Sounds: I enjoyed “Drown” it’s a cool song – it’s heavy
Chris: Yeah, hopefully when people hear it, you know, I feel like there’s a little bit for everyone on it. It’s not all just like super funky riff-rock like we always do. There’s heavier tracks, there’s a little bit more mood, you know.
Eddie: Kinda layers, like an onion,
Chris: Like an onion…
Eddie: Makes you cry!
New Sounds: I like it! So you signed to Mascot Records last year, how did that come about?
Chris: Ron Burman has just always had contact with the band and wanted to sign the band for a while and, he stayed on us and that means a lot, you know. It’s someone who really wants to sign the band and not just because someone else wants to, and so we worked it out.
We’re excited for the release, let’s see what they do! Earn their keep, you know what I’m saying?!
Eddie: The fucking suits man, am I right?! [Laughter]
New Sounds: You toured with ‘The Damned Things’ earlier in the year, was it a good tour?
Chris: We played basketball with Andy, the drummer, and like-
Eddie: Sprained my ankle!
Chirs: -We’re all out of shape! He sprained his ankle, like, I couldn’t walk the next day, we were so tired, we did it for like an hour.
Eddie: We did it way longer…we played hard! Hard basketball!
Chris: Before the set too, the show suffered horribly, we were all tired you know.
Eddie: ‘Cause we were just like casually playing before that, and he walks by and he’s like “oh you guys playing a game?” and we’re like “yeah” and he’s like “I like games”, and we’re like “do you wanna play?” [laughter] So it was fun, all those guys are really funny and humble, and just really nice guys.
New Sounds: They seem like they were a really fun bunch of guys to tour with.
Chris: Oh yeah, and all the dudes from ‘He Is Legend’ – it was just really a great tour overall.
New Sounds: Who is the most fun band you guys have toured with?
Eddie: I don’t know like, when you come fresh off a tour, you know, you always think it’s that band. ‘He Is Legend’ was a blast, you know, those guys were a lot of fun just to hang out and party with but so were many bands, I mean, that’s part of the reason we tour with them because we know it’ll be a good fit and we’re like-minded, you know?
Chris: It’s not always about that – it’s about the music. Sometimes you get along well with people who are completely different, I don’t know man, usually on tour I’m just so tired, I just, I don’t hang about with anybody. [Laughter]
New Sounds: Sitting at the back of the bus like “no”.
Chris: Bus?? What’s that like? Back of the van! [Laughter]
New Sounds: You have a couple of other shows lined up haven’t you, looking forward to those?
Chris: Yeah we got a bunch of headline shows, and going to Europe with ‘Life of Agony’. A couple of festival dates too.
Eddie: Yeah, some festival stuff – Wacken and Alcatraz. Yeah, and some others, Into the Grave, is that what it’s called? It’s like a metal festival, strict metal, yeah, we don’t fit at all!
New Sounds: That’ll make it even better!
Eddie: Yeah, its going to be pretty fun!
New Sounds: A challenge, see what you do…
Chris: We chameleon ourselves very well too – we have some heavier songs that we can just play, so you know, it’s like the common denominator is like Sabbath, you know.
Eddie: Everyone’s usually cool with it.
New Sounds: Cool, well thank you very much and enjoy your show and the rest of the tour!
Chris: Yeah man – thank you, exciting!
Eddie: Appreciate it!
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