CAR BOMB – Audible assault

CAR BOMB will have released their debut album Centralia via Relapse Records by the time you read this, and if you are a fan of Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah or just want to scare the shit out of your mother-in-law, you might want to check this out. Guitarist Greg Kubacki is the one answering the questions.

ET – Members from Car Bomb started out in Spooge and Neck, two bands that were sharing the same rehearsal space in New York. Why the need to form a new band?
CAR BOMB – For me I wanted to write more complex, brutal songs.  In Neck I really started to explore “math metal” stuff with songs like “Patterns” and “Old Teeth,” and wanted to focus on that.  I think everyone else feels the same way and just has a desire to take heavy music as far as it can go.

ET – Describe the musical direction you have taken with Car Bomb.
CAR BOMB – We all look at music from a different angle and it forms a car crash in the middle.  But the goal of the band is to write stuff we’ve never heard before without it sounding too “random.” We don’t think about counting, or time signatures, or chord progressions.  We focus on whatever feels right, sticks in our head, and gets us amped.  Do you remember when you first heard the fast riff in Metallica’s “Battery?”  If we don’t feel that excited about an idea, we don’t use it. 

ET – Are you satisfied with the way Centralia turned out?
CAR BOMB – For the most part.  A few tunes could have been developed a little further.  Plus it took way too long to write/record.  The next record will be done a lot faster.   

ET – Do you resent the label math-metal?
CAR BOMB – I don’t really pay attention to labels.  The only label that’s useful in music is the band’s name.   We all listen to a little of everything; electronic, metal,  jazz, rock & roll, folk, hard-core, hip-hip, classical, whatever…but there are only a handful of artists in each “label” worth listening to.  If someone asks if I like metal I say “no,” but if someone asks if I like Slayer I say “fuck yeah!”

ET – With math-metal there is a thin line between extreme and to extreme. Some will respond to Centralia by saying that you have crossed that line, burned the bridge and that your songs have no structure at all. What type of punishment do such people deserve?
CAR BOMB – Well, obviously they don’t understand such complex rhythm patterns as 1,2,3,4…and deserve castration…DOUBLE CASTRATION!!!  If you dive deeper, you’ll see that every idea behind a riff is really simple, and that there is a lot of variation on one idea.  “Cielo Drive” is one rhythmic idea, that’s it.   I don’t think we’ve burned any bridge…yet.

ET – Does everybody or anybody in the band have any musical education?
CAR BOMB – We all do to some degree.  We all play different instruments, taken some musical theory in school, private lessons here and there, etc.  But we write in a very non traditional way, and we don’t consider ourselves “players.”  Hand me a piece a sheet music and the only thing I could do with it is make a paper air plane.

ET – You seem to fit the Relapse profile pretty well. How is the cooperation working out for you?
CAR BOMB – So far it’s been great.  They’ve been doing a lot for us as far a promotion; like getting us on Sirius Satellite Radio and Headbanger’s Ball…which we could never do on our own.  They’re all chill and super easy to work with.  It’s that damn bean-head Liam from Dillinger Escape Plan who’s the troublemaker!!!

ET – Did you enjoy making the video for M^6 or was it sheer agony?
CAR BOMB – The process itself was cake.  The 2 actors in the video are really close friends of mine and we had other friends there as well.   Jeremy Jackson and his crew were chill, so it was pretty painless.  Plus we had no idea it was going to turn out so well (usually free videos don’t.)  The whole experience was a pleasant surprise. 

ET – Do you feel that the work with the video was worth it and will help raise awareness about the band?
CAR BOMB – We really didn’t do much.  It was one day of shooting for us…Jeremy Jackson had the fun part of editing it and synching it to the music.  Poor fella.  Yeah, I do think it will raise awareness.  It will immediately separate the believers from the non-believers.

ET – Are you obsessive compulsive?
CAR BOMB – Yes, and it’s frightening.  I’ll leave it at that.

ET – Is music a form of therapy for you?
CAR BOMB – I think writing is the most therapeutic part of music, especially when we revisit a great riff we forgot about.  We’ll jam, get tons some ideas going, record the best ideas and then put it on the shelf.  The best feeling is when you hear a riff/idea that you did a month ago and it hits you so good you want to smash something.  You think to yourself “wow, did we write that?  Sick!!!!” That makes you want to write more.

ET – Are you satisfied with the development of Car Bomb so far?
CAR BOMB – Yes, but we have a lot of goals.  I think Car Bomb is going to get pretty nuts really soon, but it will be more concentrated, and more structured…so it will hit 100 times harder.

ET – What does the future hold for the band?
CAR BOMB – Well with the release of “Centralia” we want to promote the record as much as possible by playing as much as possible.  The goal is to be on tour with Tool, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Mastodon this year. 

ET – What is the next step up the evolutionary ladder for Car Bomb?
CAR BOMB – If anything we’re trying to devolve.  Right now we write really slow b/c we’re very conscious; everything is calculated, reviewed, calculated, reviewed, etc…soon you’re stuck in this meticulous loop and you lose that initial fire.  I’m now fascinated with what I can write in 10 minutes, how fast I can get the ideas down and how fast I can move on to the next idea.   That involves forgetting a lot of learned processes and just going for it…. devolving into the subconscious.
Plus, I just started fucking around with Cycling74’s MAX, which is a computer program that you can control any type of midi data you want in any way.  I have all of these effect processors that I haven’t even touched, and MAX will control them all.  Plus I have a friend who uses LIVE to control plug-ins with a keyboard…so naturally I have to hook my pedals up to that too.  I can’t wait to see what type of fucked up noises I get when I let LIVE and MAX battle it out.

ET – Does anybody in the band have any side projects?
CAR BOMB – Mike has a solo project “NOUMENA” and still does some “NECK” stuff from time to time.  Elliot has is own electronic music that he working on religiously, which sounds like Autechre/ Squarepusher.  And I’m in an R&B group called “EXPLODER ONE.”

ET – There are many brutal bands signed to Relapse. Will you join in on an extensive tour of Europe in the near future?
CAR BOMB – YES!  Nothing set in stone right now, but it will happen.

ET – Last but not least: Why should anybody buy your album?
CAR BOMB – Because it sounds like a two story tank charging into a packed shopping mall.