Just before their excellent supporting slot for High On Fire at The Underworld in Camden, we sat down for a brief chat with vocalist/guitarist Job Davis from Conan chatting about everything from riffs to hangover cures to football...
R13: For our readers who may not be familiar with you guys, can you describe your style of music?
JD: Simple, easy to play. Really loud, we've got like a really no fuss ethic to our music, we don't really try too hard you know at being like excellent on guitar and whatnot, we just kind of go with it. But we like to use really good gear, and a riff that is comprised of one note played through awesome amps sounds much better than any fucking complicated riff you can hear through some complicated line six combo bollocks.
R13: Which do you guys prefer some of the smaller intimate gigs like this or the bigger shows at festivals, I seen you did Hellfest for example and got a huge crowd...
JD: Yep, to be honest with you we enjoy them both exactly the same. When we played Hellfest, the day before we played a show in Rennes which was on the way down and it was like 40 people, just playing for fuel money and we slept in the van overnight on Nantes and then we went on and played Hellfest. We were playing at Hellfest and I had to kind of remind myself a couple of songs in that we were there in front of all these people. So yeah I've got no preference, they're both amazing in their own way.
R13: Cool, and I can see that you're hitting up Australia soon as well, that must be pretty exciting?
JD: Oh yeah. I don't like flying so I'm a little nervous about that but yeah playing Australia is going to be well good. It's a place I've always wanted to go. My Grandfather, rest in peace, used to tell me about Australia all the time and he used to tell me about a beer there called Tooheys which I think you can still get over here, not sure whether it's been discontinued or what but I'm definitely going to raise a bottle of that to him when I get over there.
R13: That's nice man. Ok, Blood Eagle. It has received a huge positive response including ourselves, did it feel like when you were writing and recording it that you were on to something special?
JD: It felt a little bit more like, I think we had an idea it would be pretty cool, but no more so than when we wrote Horseback Battle Hammer or Monnos. We've got exactly the same vibe in the studio and we don't commit anything to tape until we're really happy with it and we've just got the same vibe which is as good as it can be at the moment so we'll see how it goes. I think maybe, when we started to get the first few reviews we thought 'hang on a minute' this is getting out a bit further than we thought it would and the responses have been amazing...
R13: Yeah definitely, I feel like when you listen to that album, from start to finish it feels even better, not that pulling a track here and there off of it isn't great too but just as a whole it feels like a real unit of an album...
JD: Oh yeah it's like going into the Giant's camp in Skyrim. It takes you a little while to kill them, but that feeling of start to finish, it's a journey. It's not a concept album in any way but we ourselves go through this kind of process of breaking everything down in stages and I think when you listen to it the whole way it does have a kind of feel which maybe isn't the same when you pick one song out to listen. And it was like that when we listened back to it as well, it feels like you've got to listen to the whole thing.
R13: What's your favourite track to play live off of the new album
JD: I've been really enjoying playing Gravity Chasm on this tour. Sometimes though I'll say Crown Of Talons and maybe Altar Of Grief just about shades it because it has got that slow bit at the beginning and it gets a bit Fu Manchu-ey at the end.
R13:How do you guys approach recording, do you guys go into the studio together and thrash it out or is it more methodical in bits and pieces?
JD: Oh we just go in there and record. Once we've got the songs to a level where we've practised them enough, generally speaking I'll rehearse them on my own and I'll build together ideas for riffs, maybe write some lyrics down. I'm usually writing lyrics down when I'm on a plane or just bored or whatever, I'll write themes and later on I'll read those back and come up with riffs that might sound cool alongside it. Eventually we'll practice them, get them into a song, rehearse it till it feels good enough then we'll go into the studio. It's at this point Chris will tell us why it's shit and he'll make us improve it.
R13: Cool. Are there any other bands on the Liverpool Metal Scene who you'd like to give a particular shout out to?
JD: Yeah, Coltsblood. They're good friends of ours, they're on Candlelight records. Their bass player/vocalist was our bass player originally, he helped us out at the beginning - he wasn't ever going to stay permanently, we knew he was going but the time he was here he helped us out a lot. But people should definitely check them out because they're awesome.
R13: Cool we'll check them out. You probably can tell but I've been doing this interview with an absolute rager of a hangover. What are Conan's hangover cures?
JD: Ooh my hangover cure? Normally I wank. Just because it releases endorphins or obviously if I'm at home I'll try and get my leg over with my wife, but in general some sort of ejaculatory release...
R13: 'Some sort of release'
JD: Haha yeah, I know there's only one type! But however it's brought about that tends to be a good one. Obviously a fried breakfast helps too, you've got to do it in the right order.
R13: Ok, one last question that's got to be asked, are you Red or Blue? Liverpool or Everton?
JD: Everton. I think we'll do quite well this season! But I don't go to the games so I don't go mad about it. A lot of people talk about football and they'll never go to a game. I used to go all through my youth so when people used to say to me anything I used to just say, 'Do you go to a game or not?', and if they've never been I tell them to fuck off. So now because I don't go to any, I don't really talk about it. But yeah if anyone is ever winding you up about football rivalry ask them if they go, if they don't they can't really argue - that's my philosophy!
R13: Fair enough! Thanks very much for taking the time to chat to us
JD No worries, thank you.