title: An Interview with COG

URL: http://www.ozmusicproject.net/magazine/interview.asp?int=128

date: unknown, probably late 2002

writer: Liz

It’s rare if Part 2 is as good as Part 1, and even rarer if Part 2 is better. Enter Cog- some very clever buggers indeed. An independent 3-piece from Sydney, Cog have achieved great things in a short amount of time, recently gaining huge audience and industry backing for their EP “Just Visiting Part 1”. Now they’re about to do it all again with “Just Visiting Part 2”, the second instalment of this well- thought out, energetic and dynamic series. I was recently lucky enough to speak to drummer, co-writer and movie buff Lucius Borich.

Liz: Where does the sample in the beginning of 'Just Visiting' come from? It sounds like it’s from a movie?

Lucius: In “Just Visiting” the song? That one’s from The Terminator. You might remember the bit where John Connor's dad comes down to get zapped through the worm holes or whatever. He comes down to earth and he ends up in that back lane in the nude, and he needs a pair of pants, so he steals them off a bum (both laughing). Me and my friends, when we were younger, used to just rewind that part and just laugh our heads off for ages, so I’m paying homage to those good old days.

Liz: That’s so cool! (both laughing). You guys use lots of movie samples don’t you?

Lucius: There’s a few in there, yeah

Liz: The one from '1984' in ‘1010011010’ (from ‘Just Visiting Part 1’) is great- ‘Tell me Winston….what are your true feelings toward Big Brother’….I love it

Lucius: Yeah, sometimes I feel like just playing the whole movie during a gig and then playing that song. It would be good to do that because I just love that movie, it’s such a big inspiration in so many ways. (The only other place I've heard it is) an early Shihad record, and they used almost the next part of that sentence, dialogue wise, and it was something like “if you want a picture of the future, imagine a human boot standing on a skull forever”. So yeah, there’s a few rippers on there.

Liz: It’s a pretty bleak little story isn’t it?

Lucius: Yeah, it is I suppose. George Orwell was way ahead of his time in terms of talking about politics and the way society’s set up and that sort of stuff. He did a marvellous job and it’s a movie that more people need to see, all forms of Art wise, from the way it was shot, to the script, to the actual love story in it as well. That love story was partly what the lyrics to that song from 'Just Visiting 1' were about- “I’m holding onto your eyes”. It's more or less the love story from two people who are trying to hang in there from the chaos, your know the chaotic environment that we live in. The truth of the eyes is what matters.

Liz: That’s awesome. Do you need clearance to use those samples?

Lucius: We’re not big enough to worry, so there’s no problem! (both laughing). We’re just a little band from Bondi, so it doesn’t matter, right?

Liz: No, you’ve gotta think big, you’ve gotta think big.

Lucius: Well we’ll see, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We’ll try and use it to our advantage (cheekily)

Liz: Why have you chosen to release two EPs rather than an album?

Lucius: There’s a couple of different reasons. The first one is that there’s a lot of music to digest, so we thought what better way than to give two instalments, and let people get a grasp on the whole thing. There’s also a big expectation for an album when you do one, and if you haven’t got the funds and the means to prop it up and put it out there in the marketplace and give it the best possible chance it can have, it can kind of die by the wayside. And then there’s your debut album kind of out the door. So there’s that senerio, and also it’s not recorded as well as we’d like it to be. We did it on an 8-track, which is the most primal way of doing it these days, but we did it because that’s how we were able to do it. The other reason (for the double release) is that we just like the conceptual idea of having 2 EPs out. I don’t think anyone’s done that before, so that was an interesting concept in itself.

Liz: When the band does get really big, and you’re looking at re-releases and that type of thing, do you want to still keep them separate, or would you like to sort of put them together?

Lucius: Um, I like you’re outlook! Really big sounds cool (laughs).

Liz: Yeah, but look, you guys are everywhere.

Lucius: That’s our own propaganda!

Liz: But shit, look at The Vines, they’ve shown how important being ‘known of’ is

Lucius: Yeah, you’ve got to be seen to be heard. There’s so much shit out there, you’ve got to make an impact somewhere. And if you can back your own propaganda up with a great live show, well that justifies the propaganda. I guess I’d probably like to do almost like you said- have the two CDs in like a one pack thing. That might give people the shits because they have to change the CDs over, that’s something for discussion, but we do feel like we want to put it together one day.

Liz: Were all the songs for the EPs written together? How did you decide what songs went of Part 1 and what songs went on Part 2?

Lucius: Yeah, it was all written together. I think we wanted to show two sides of the band. The first part, the first EP is a lot more angst-y, the feel and the beats are a lot more up, I’m just trying to find the word…

Liz: For me Part 1 was a bit heavier than Part 2

Lucius: Yeah, it’s heavier in a sonic way, in a ‘going for it’ kind of way. Put in parallel, I think the other one, ‘Part 2’, is just as heavy in emotionally. It’s a lot more striped back on the groove to show our dynamics and the different sides of us, so I suppose it was interesting to have ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’ almost completely different. Well maybe not different sounding, but different types of songs, so hopefully you’ll go ‘wow, they’re really stretching their songwriting, they really can write different music to the first one’.

Liz: It’s definitely unique. I really like the second one actually

Lucius: Yeah, everyone seems to be liking it so far, which it great. With the groove, you can grab it a bit more. It’s a bit more straight ahead than ‘Part 1’.

Liz: I really like how you thanked all the other bands you’ve played with one ‘Part 2’. That’s a huge list for a start, and you thank everyone from System of a Down right down to the smallest bands at the smallest gigs- why did you choose those people to thank?

Lucius: They’re just moments in time. The amount of work that bands do to produce something for people to come and see- the writing to rehearsing to recording to whatever- it takes a lot for a band to do that. And when you’re up on stage and you’ve finally got there and you’re putting on a show, it’s a moment that for one reason or another you remember for a long time. There are a lot of bands in there that we really respect and like as well, and it was like a together thing, we’re all there playing music for the good of the people and for the good of music, expressing in whatever form. So we just thought that it would be a nice gesture in a sense, you know.

Liz: Absolutely. So you’ve obviously played so much live, is there a live moment that stands out for you?

Lucius: Yeah, there’s a few. Definitely on a bigger scale the System of a Down show, that’s one that definitely is such a benchmark, being in that situation, on that scale. But then you’ve also got other little shows that you do, that are live in the room, and the band’s playing really well. There was one show that we did in Melbourne where we played ‘Bondi’, and the crowd was just singing along to the end bit of the song. And it was really weird because I’ve been playing for such a long time, and I’ve never had that happen, being able to hear the crowd singing over the live band. And we all kind of turned to each other and just went ‘can you hear that?!?’, because usually you’re just there playing with your eyes closed or whatever, and you look up and they’re singing the songs. That was just like a real big lift for me, it was a great moment. There’s a lot, you know, there are so many different ways, and little ways, that gigs stand out.

Liz: In Sydney, the Channel V thing was just huge. Channel V were saying that was like their biggest attendance for a local band ever at that point…

Lucius: Yeah, they were saying that, so that was flattering. And there were all ages there too, which was good.

Liz: Do you guys see all-ages gigs as important?

Lucius: Yeah, and we’re going to do more because that was so successful. Also, we’ve been getting all these emails from younger people too saying ‘can you please put on a show?’, and we’d love to do that, that’s not problems at all.

Liz: Just finally, someone’s said that you are a drummer that ‘people would sell their mothers for’. How do you react to something like that?

Lucius: (laughing)- I think that was someone in Melbourne. I don’t know.

Liz: You’re pretty freakish on stage, I have to say

Lucius: Yeah, well music makes me do that. It’s not that I’m trying to do that, it’s just that the music’s fuelling me. You know, I like to play with a lot of energy, and make it something visual as well. There’s nothing worse than just seeing a drummer sitting there- that’s as boring as batshit. So if you know you have people that have come down to see something live, then I’ll be alive, I’m going to give them everything I can of me. It could be more last performance ever, if you think of it like that, I might never play drums again, so I’ll fucking give it a good go. (laughs) I reckon if you’re going to give it a go, you give it your fucking best hey. Otherwise what’s the point?

Liz: It comes across to an audience too, it’s great.