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 INTERVIEW - NORMA JEAN
Posted byBomber on Sunday, July 25 @ 12:59:45 CDT
Contributed by Bomber
Hot on the heels of the release of their new album 'Meridional' via Shock this month, Norma Jean took the time whilst touring around the US to chat with Deborah Konopnicki about the album, touring, and more. Read More to check it out. 'Meridional' is instores via now.
Hey,
Scottie. How are you going?
I’m going well, how are you?
Pretty good thanks! Cheers for taking
some time out to have a chat with me. I can imagine
that things are pretty busy over at camp Norma
Jean at the moment.
They are and no problem! You’re currently
on the Mayhem tour across the States at the moment.
How is that treating you?
Oh, It’s been amazing so far. We’re
about four shows deep and it’s just been
amazing. It’s been a great tour.
Any shows that have stood out for you
so far?
They’ve all been amazing. I guess the first
one just because it’s the first show! The
excitement of it all I guess, just starting the
tour and stuff. That was a great show in LA.
Your amazing album ‘Meridional’
is being released in various parts of the world
in the coming and past few days. How are you feeling
so close to it’s debut?
I’m really excited. We haven’t heard
anything about it [international feedback] but
we love the record and we’re really excited
about the new label. We’re excited for it
to be out finally.
Have you heard any reactions from fans
over there in the U.S?
Yeah, I mean it’s been getting great reviews.
We’ve so excited about all of the things
that we’ve been hearing back and even just
kids online talking about it and people that come
up and hang out with us. It’s all been really
positive so we’re really excited about that.
You’ve said that every song on
the record was given some pretty solid treatment
and if it wasn’t sonically at it’s
peak then it was back to the drawing board. Did
you find that process a bit exhausting?
I think that it probably made the writing process
a little bit more intense. We definitely tried
a different way of writing this time. We will
usually block off two or three months right before
the studio to write and just stay locked in our
practice space all day writing. This time we spread
it out about a little over a year. We had a couple
of songs early on and then we were able to continue
writing throughout the year and go back and really
look into every song and make sure that we loved
every part of it. Even some songs got scrapped
along the way, we felt like they weren’t
up to where we wanted them to be or we changed
as we went so that the songs where we were wanted
them to be.
You recruited Jeremy Griffith to expand
your sound on this record. How do you think that
he influenced your direction?
Yeah, it was really good going to him. We’ve
been with Ross for the past two records and we’ve
always gone out to the west coast for all of our
records. This time we recorded it in Atlanta at
home, where we’re from… or at least
most of us are. Jeremy was a great guy. Somebody
that we had just known from around home. It was
a different approach to go with somebody like
that as opposed to a big time producer kind of
thing. We wanted it to be raw with whoever we
recorded with. It was definitely a change, but
it was great. It was a lot less stressful working
in that way I guess.
It’s been said that the album pays
homage to your musical roots. Is that a statement
aimed at the band in general or the members as
individuals?
I think that we’re all influenced by different
bands and we all bring a lot to the writing process
so it’s across the board in that way as
far as songs go. Musically, I could be inspired
in one direction if I wrote guitar in a certain
way and singing and drumming wise it could be
completely different but still in the same song.
So, we kind of meshed all of these different things
together.
Are there still plans to release the
song “Kill More Presidents”?
Actually, yeah. I think that it’s going
to be released as a special something-or-rather.
I’m not sure exactly where it’s going,
but yeah. We definitely have plans to.
Are there any other b-sides that didn’t
make the cut for ‘Meridional’ that
might see the light of day?
Yeah, there was one more called “Distance
To Planets”, which is another b-side from
the recording. I’m not sure what’s
going to happen with it but it’s going to
be out eventually.
Do you currently have any favourite tracks
from ‘Meridional’?
I really love “Deathbed Atheist” and
“Anthem of the Angry Brides”. “Leaderless
and Self Enlisted” I love too.
Have you been playing many of the new
tracks live on the current tour?
Yeah, so far we’ve been playing “Anthem
of the Angry Brides” on this tour. It’s
been great. It’s kind of a fast paced punk-sounding
song with a breakdown at the end so I guess it
caters to fans being able to jump around and run
around and stuff. It’s been great so far.
Corey has said that the artwork really
refects the vibe of the album which has a very
dark undertone. Did you set out to create such
a moody sounding record?
I think that during the writing it was coming
across as sounding a lot more darker than normal.
I think one thing that we really wanted to focus
on as far as writing goes was instead of having
a super heavy song on one track and having more
of a melody driven song as the next track to kind
of mix all of that within each song on the record
and I think from that it just started coming out
a bit darker. Jeremy Griffith who produced it
definitely has a very dark tone with a lot of
the work that he does and he really keyed in on
that in the studio so we were excited about that
as well.
You held a contest a little while ago
to give fans the opportunity to win a piece of
equipment that you used during the recording of
the album. What made you decide to run that?
We just thought that it was a cool thing to do.
I guess if I just think of bands that I listen
to a bit or something like that, it would be something
that I would be really excited about. That’s
one thing that we thought would be a cool idea.
Just based on our love for bands that we’re
into and things like that.
As you mentioned earlier, at the end
of last year the band ended a relationship with
Solid State Records and signed to Razor and Tie.
What was your motivation behind this move?
We were just at the end of a deal. We signed to
Solid State around ten years ago. We were at the
end of our contract so it kind of just naturally
happened. We talked to a bunch of labels and a
bunch of people, checked out different options
and we even thought about putting it out ourselves
with no label. At the end of the day, Razor and
Tie from the start was just really amazing to
us and just really seemed personal and not just
some big corporation or someone just seeing how
much money they could make kind of thing. Ever
since the first talks they have been really great
to us so far so we’re really excited to
be with them.
Are there any plans to come back to Australia
with the new album?
Yes! I would love to. Right now there is no solid
plan at all, but we’re definitely open to
it and want to get back as soon as possible.
After this current Mayhem, tour what
are you plans?
I think we’re actually going to
be in England for a week or two and then were
going to do a headliner, most likely here in states
until he end of the year. We’ll hopefully
get out as much as we can next year as well.
Just finally, where does this album sit
in the scheme of Norma Jean? Is this ultimately
what you would categorise as your definitive sound?
I feel like it’s our most accomplished to
date, but I’m a little bias. I always love
every record and of course our newest one the
most. I think that we definitely pushed ourselves
on this one thought and it definitely went in
a different direction than any others have before.
We usually do change up some things on each record
but I really am proud of how this one came out.
Is there any specific message that ‘Meridional’
has behind it? Or is that something you want to
leave up to the listener to determine?
I think that we love the interpretation that one
person can take one thing from a song and another
can take something completely and totally different
even if it has nothing to do with what we were
writing about at the time. I love that. I love
that people can take from it what they feel and
then draw a stronger connection to it. There’s
definitely even songs that we have where we have
lyrics that I have written and Corey takes them
and then he has a whole different spin on them.
I just love that. The fact that it can be totally
open to interpretation.
Thanks, Scottie. Much appreciated. Hopefully
it’s not too long before the band can jet
back down here.
No Problem. Yeah, hopefully it’s not too
long. We love Australia.
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Meridional revisits
the abrasive and chaotic roots of classic
Norma Jean, while offering fans a dark
experimental side - the band stretching
out on moody, slow-burn jams. It's an
album that finds the band comfortable
in its legacy but progressive and bold
in its creativity. Meridional was recorded
in February 2010 at Glow in the Dark Studios
in Atlanta with producer Jeremy Griffith.
Vocalist Cory Brandan described Meridional,
"It's a heavy record, multifaceted
with epic sounding, experimental songs,
some fast, chaotic songs, and some melodic,
commanding interludes. Any track we didn't
think had reached its utmost sonic prowess
was given a second look, revised to be
as powerful as possible." The five-piece
metal band from Atlanta is Cory Brandan
(vocalist/guitar), Scottie Henry (guitar),
Jake Schultz (bass), Chris Day (guitar)
and Chris Raines (drums).
[Buy
Meridional Online Now Here]
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