title: Cog

date: 11 April 2005

source: Mixdown

writer: Golly!

Are you ready? Cog are just about to release their debut album, The New Normal, and it promises to be one of the biggest moments in Australina music history. Big words, I know, but I have heard the finished product and mine ears are opened.The album consists of huge, emotional journeys through varying states of consciousness; all brought to you via epic, mind-blowing music, which seems only to grow on you with each session you spend with it. Produced by the magical Sylvia Massy Shivy (Undertow-Tool, System of a Down, Tonight! Alright! - Spiderbait) in her converted theatre-studio in Weed, California, this akbum ios so crisp and big that it deserves to be heard on the absolute best speakers you can get your ears on. This one has just rocketed past some pretty mighty bands... Fuck, I'm going to stop before I stain myself

Cog are launching into a full national tour presented by Triple J and supported by Sydney group In The Grey and the absolute best from the west, Karnivool. The toru will take in regional areas as well as capitals so you should be able to catchg the show wherever you are. This is a tour not to be missed and an absolute essential purchase for you music collection. I was lucky enough to speak with bassist Luke Gower about the toru and the release of The New Normal

The album is here and it is sonically amazing. It wqas a bit of a tumultuous time getting it recorded, you must be pretty happy with how it has turned out.

It comes out April 12 and we are stoked. We're pretty lucky really to have the chance to do it as we have wanted to do it and we're all so stoked with how it turned out. It was an up-and-down six months or more previous to us recording; it was on the it was off the it was on and back off again. You gotta get used to that stuff when you're in a abnd, you know? It's not just the recording, it might be you yhave a gig in Czechoslovakia or whatever, it's on then they pull out and after a year or so of hearing and experiencing things like that, you learn not to get your hopes up. Until you are on that plane sipping bourbon and coke, until you're ont hat stage with your guitar... We were just fortunate enough that everything ahve come to fruition. At the end of the day we are stoked we got to record there, I think next time we would like to be able to stay for the whole mixing process; we had to leave to come home halfway through.

Were you able to give her a good idea of how you wanted it to sound knowing she was going into the mixing process without you?

I think she had a lot to go on from the demos that we had sent her previous to arriving. Sylvia didn't really toy with changing the arrangements or changing the sound. She had ideas for some songs, like My Enemy, she probably had more to do with that one that any of the othyer songs. She always came in after each day fo recording, even during the day too, and gave her overview of the recording as a whole. We pretty much knew what we wanted to do before we had even gotten there and the demos we had given here were pretty much exactly how we wanted everything so even though we weren't there for the mixing she had a fair bit to go on. Rich Veltrop who sat in with us for most of the tracking, was just exceptional and extremely patient, which is something that I think we really need. We are all pretty meticulous with our sound.

What is on the cards for your tour? are you doing the full, national run?

Yeah i think there is about eight or nine weeks worth of shows, not just the capitals, we'll be in and out of everywhere. After that leg, we will be going out again to play places that we didn't catch on the first time as well as playing a few of the same spots we did on the first lef. We're taking In the Grey and Karnivool on the full tour as support with us. I actually think that these are three of the best bands int he country that are just firing at the moment, Karnivool have just released their debut album and In the Grey are about to release their debut. We're all really excited, I think it's one of the strongest bills we've put togethere it will be an amazing show wherever you catch it.

your music, as amazing an beautiful as it is can be hard to digest the first time around, but tends to grow more with each listen. Would you agree?

It is going to be a very strange and exciting tour for us int hat way; the msuic isn't always immediately accessible to everyone and as you said, can be heard to digest first up, but is the kind that grows on you. None of us wants a song that just dies int he ares. If we have a songf that we are not all 100% happy with, we will just keep working on it until we are, or we will just not use that paricular part. Some songs take three monhs to write, some take three years. There are no B-sides with Cog

The New Normal is out now through Difrnt Music

Cog is on a national tour to support the release of the New Normal with In the Grey and Karnivool. Check News and Tours for details.