COG
Faced with the unenviable task of following up arguably one of the best Australian alternative rock albums of all time, Bondi three-piece Cog returned to the small town of Weed, California to record their sophomore album once again with producer Sylvia Massy [Tool, System Of A Down] at her Radio Star studios. Armed with an album's worth of material, the Cog collective set sail for the tiny logging town, unaware of what trouble lay ahead.
By Gav Britton
Things started off well, with the band enjoying a creative synergy with their environment, particularly the spiritual Mount Shasta which loomed over them as they set to work on the follow up to 'The New Normal'. In the space of three or four months, Cog had created another album's worth of material. The only problem then was choosing what to keep. In the end, it was time, or lack thereof, which made the decision for the band. "The long and the short of it is that we ran out of time," explains vocalist/guitarist Flynn Gower. "There were other songs we would have loved to develop and see through to completion, but we just didn't have the time to do it. We had to make some hard decisions."
Things got so tight toward the end that 10 minute album opener, and quite possibly the best track on the album, 'No Other Way' almost didn't make it onto 'Sharing Space'. "'No Other Way' was quite close to not making it on because we didn't finish that track in America," reveals Gower. "We did the best we could do and when the time ran out we packed our bags and came back home." The slightly dejected trio returned from their marathon mission exhausted. "We really needed to have a bit of time off to recover," says Gower. "We all had a break and then we organised a studio out west [Noisegate Studios, Castle Hill], finished the song, sent it off for mixing and we got there in the end."
While away, the band posted video diaries on their MySpace to keep fans up to date with the recording process. The first three videos are jovial and candid memoirs, showing the band in good spirits and enjoying the process and their surroundings. The fourth and final video diary captures an altogether different mood, and features an extremely tense phone conference between Flynn, Lucius Borich (drums), Sylvia Massy and Aloha Manager Steven Betts. Overblown budgets and technical problems meant the band had run out of time and would have to work for 37 days straight in order to meet their label and management's revised deadlines. "It was unbelievably stressful," admits Gower. "They [Cog's label and management] were trying to work to a timeline and were trying to put things in place with regard to the release of the album. But the album just kept getting pushed back and it reached a point where it was really starting to fuck them up. It was pretty difficult there towards the end - very difficult," reiterates Gower. Falling out with Massy over her label's handling of 'The New Normal's promotion in the US didn't help matters either. Cog's relationship with Massy soured so badly that the band rarely saw her for the last few months of recording, and were left to work with two of Massy's engineers on temperamental equipment in one of Radio Star's older studios.
"Just a general sense of relief mate," is Gower's response when asked how it feels to be at the end of this stressful, testing, but ultimately rewarding journey. "It was such an arduous process that covered such a long period of time that I think everyone is just stoked to finally see it hit the shelves." Cog fans share Gower's relief, having waited patiently for the album's release, taking each postponed released date like a kid who has just been told Christmas will be put on hold. But it was worth the wait, and when it rains, it pours. 'Sharing Space' is a veritable flood of everything we've come to know, love and expect from the talented three-piece. The 13 track, 72-minute journey sees the band in a different context, under a different light, exploring unusual structures and channelling honest, transparent emotions directly through layers of electronics, harmonies and myriad instruments. Each song sounds as if it was laboured over for an eternity - turned inside out and back again until it found its destined form. Gower admits it can be hard to step back and look at such dense works when you have spent so much time with them, and become so deeply involved. Knowing when to let go can be just as hard as coming up with the ideas in the first place. "You get lost in it, you really do," says Gower, "but that can actually be quite positive," he adds. "There is a certain type of music listener who loves that type of music - they want to get lost in it. The objectivity thing gets a bit weird, but all you can do is trust your instincts and keep trying to make the best decisions as you go along."
Despite battling through faulty equipment, hard drive crashes, financial hardship and a yearning to be at home with their loved ones, there is no denying Cog's time spent in Weed played an integral and ultimately positive role in making 'Sharing Space' the masterpiece it is. Without Flynn being away from his three-year-old daughter, there would be no 'Bird of Feather'. Had the band not felt the claustrophobia and pressures in the studio, 'Four Walls' would not exist. Even the album's title came from a saying the band used when interacting with the Weed locals. "It would have been completely different," admits Gower. "I guess that is why they call them records - because they are a record, almost like a time capsule that gives you insight into what was happening at that particular point in time." And how does it feel to finally be home with their families after spending the best part of a year on the other side of the world? "I can't even tell you. I can't even tell you," repeats Gower, lost for words, unable to hide the strain making the album put him under.
Gower is confident the band's fans will be happy with 'Sharing Space'. He denies feeling nervous about the album's release and the fans' reaction toward it, saying, "I'm not too worried about it, because I know we did our best". While, to these ears, 'Sharing Space' shows no evidence of the troubles that plagued its birth, it has to be asked if Gower feels the album would have turned out differently had the process gone more smoothly. "I don't think so - I hope not," is his response. "With the stuff that was fucking up around us, we knew if we dropped the ball the whole project would be in jeopardy, and we weren't prepared to let that happen. So we stayed tight and we stayed focused. Every day we'd go in and do the best we could," says a defiant Gower. "We walked away from it knowing we did the best we possibly could and we think it's reflected in the album."
Now they are home and rested, Cog is planning on doing what they do best - touring. In what is shaping up to be one of the best gigs of the year, New Zealand instrumentalists Jakob, chart-topping dubsters Kora and one of Melbourne's most promising acts, Sleep Parade, will be joining Cog for their national tour. Gower says the band will be treating fans to "about eight or nine tracks from the [new] album, one off 'JV1', one off 'JV2' and a few from 'The New Normal'."
Tickets to the shows will no doubt sell-out quickly, which is what Cog is depending on for the band's survival. "Unusual as it may sound; an album nowadays is pretty much just an advertisement for a tour or a series of tours," says Gower. "What we're trying to do with it is lure people to a live performance, because getting up on a stage and playing the songs live is what we're really about. And it's only going to head further in that direction. That's why live bands over the last five years have been the bands that have survived; because their bread and butter is the ticket sales. What we've seen in the last five years is live bands, particularly independent bands with good ethics, doing really well. With the decline in physical single sales we've seen a lot of manufactured artists, who depended on absolutely behemoth single sales to make their dough, just die in the arse; they're virtually gone. You don't see any boy bands anymore, because their big thing was to plough it all into a single and sell the single. But people don't buy it now, they download it, and they can't do it anymore when there is no album to back it up." With one of the best live shows in the country and another near-perfect album added to their repertoire, Cog are in no danger of "dying in the arse" any time soon.
'Sharing Space' is out now on Difrnt Music.
Sat May 17 at The Tivoli, Brisbane, Thurs May 22 at the Hotel Great Northern, Byron Bay, Fri 23 May at the Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast, Sat May 24 at the Powerhouse, Toowoomba and Sun May 25 at the Sands Tavern, Maroochydore. |
