Colour Revolt
Up Jumps the Devil
2008-04-11
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Legendary blues singer Robert Johnson lamented the Hellhounds on his trail. The Devil stole Skip James’ woman. And Charley Patton didn’t just sing the blues, he screamed and hollered it.
You wouldn’t think this would have much to do with Oxford, MS, band Colour Revolt, a group that bears absolutely no sonic resemblance to the Delta blues greats of the early 20th century. Bear in mind that the group originates from Mississippi, home of the Delta blues, and are signed to Oxford label Fat Possum, an imprint that got its start specializing in, what else, blues. The kicker is a haunted, devilish darkness that lurks within Colour Revolt’s songs, with lyrics such as, “If God is good, why can’t I be?” and, “There goes Adam with the Devil’s head/His body’s all naked and red.” Twelve-bar blues though they may not play, it’s not hard to imagine The Colour Revolt having a chance encounter at the crossroads with some devilish characters of their own.
Recorded with producer Clay Jones (Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello), Colour Revolt’s debut full-length Plunder, Beg and Curse takes a decidedly more intense and heavy course than their self-titled debut EP, mixing dream-like shoegazer textures with near-Melvins levels of burly distortion. Jimmy Cajoleas (guitar), Jesse Coppenbarger (vocals/guitar/keys), Len Clark (drums/vocals), Sean Kirkpatrick (guitar/vocals/keys) and Patrick Addison (bass) form a maelstrom of sound that at once invites the Devil and beats him back. Clark spoke to Synthesis from his front porch to discuss the dark and sludgy nature of the band’s music.
Did you have a central idea or theme that you wanted to convey, going into the record?
I don’t know about a specific concept. Initially, we start with music for the most part. Jess will sometimes bring something in, finished, lyrics and all, or he’ll have some very specific ideas. But most of the time we’ll be jamming, and we’re all pretty opinionated people. We all like similar music, but we have different ideas for where the music should go. We argue for six weeks about it and it all goes in a different direction.
We all grew up in the greater Jackson area, in Mississippi. We all knew each other. We were in bands together. So, we’re all coming from the same place, and have similar backgrounds. Also, being in the South, there are certain things that are hammered into you when you’re a kid. Moving away from home, all the freedom you get from thinking on your own, you find that certain things resonate with you and stay in your head. You could be talking about anything, but some things are going to come out one way or another.
Plunder, Beg and Curse is a much sludgier sounding record than the EP. Had you set out to make something so dense and heavy?
Sludgier? Interesting you say that. We’ve had a lot of feedback saying it’s too slick. I think it’s funny because this one was done live, and the EP wasn’t. The EP, if it sounds raw it’s because we did it with our friend Stephen in his basement. If there’s any slickness, it’s because there’s better equipment behind it. But sludginess? I don’t know. We didn’t set out in a specific direction. Once something’s done, we just move on. We were just trying to take what we thought was good about the old songs, and then removing the stuff that was bad. We didn’t set out to do anything that specific, but ‘sludgy’—I like that word.
There are also some dreamy, pretty parts to your music, alongside the heavier parts. How important is contrast to what you do?
I think contrast is really, really important. But it’s like that with any kind of art. If you make something heavy, but there’s nothing soft…if you don’t have something to compare it to, then it doesn’t sound heavy. There needs to be a context.
Though I wouldn’t necessarily say the album sounds ‘slick,’ it does sound very meticulous. How much time did you spend working on it?
Meticulous? That’s actually pretty flattering. We went into the studio in the beginning of September and we had the studio for two weeks, but we recorded all of the instruments for six or seven days. We started working on vocals there, but ended up finishing those up at Clay Jones’ house. That was kind of spread out, though, because the date just kept getting pushed back. Things just kept going wrong. But it gave us more time to sit back and relax.
How did you hook up with [producer] Clay Jones?
It was awesome. I love that dude. His mom was Jim and Jess’ creative writing teacher in high school. He liked the EP and started working with us. Clay’s in our circle of friends. We go to the bar together. It’s basically like if one of us was doing it, he’s someone everyone is close to. While being a friend, he was also an authority figure that could make executive decisions if he needed to.
You released the album digitally, two months before the actual street date—is this something you had been planning to do all along?
We kind of had an idea of doing it…just basically, once you start sending the CD out, you’re going to show up on some sort of internet something or other. So we decided to put it out to give people the legal option to support us, so we can at least benefit from it. I don’t know if people are going to buy this record. I’m hanging out on my porch right now, I don’t know what’s going on. We just hope that people that do want it will get it before it’s released. That would be bad for us. I don’t want to have to get a job.
You wouldn’t think this would have much to do with Oxford, MS, band Colour Revolt, a group that bears absolutely no sonic resemblance to the Delta blues greats of the early 20th century. Bear in mind that the group originates from Mississippi, home of the Delta blues, and are signed to Oxford label Fat Possum, an imprint that got its start specializing in, what else, blues. The kicker is a haunted, devilish darkness that lurks within Colour Revolt’s songs, with lyrics such as, “If God is good, why can’t I be?” and, “There goes Adam with the Devil’s head/His body’s all naked and red.” Twelve-bar blues though they may not play, it’s not hard to imagine The Colour Revolt having a chance encounter at the crossroads with some devilish characters of their own.
Recorded with producer Clay Jones (Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello), Colour Revolt’s debut full-length Plunder, Beg and Curse takes a decidedly more intense and heavy course than their self-titled debut EP, mixing dream-like shoegazer textures with near-Melvins levels of burly distortion. Jimmy Cajoleas (guitar), Jesse Coppenbarger (vocals/guitar/keys), Len Clark (drums/vocals), Sean Kirkpatrick (guitar/vocals/keys) and Patrick Addison (bass) form a maelstrom of sound that at once invites the Devil and beats him back. Clark spoke to Synthesis from his front porch to discuss the dark and sludgy nature of the band’s music.
Did you have a central idea or theme that you wanted to convey, going into the record?
I don’t know about a specific concept. Initially, we start with music for the most part. Jess will sometimes bring something in, finished, lyrics and all, or he’ll have some very specific ideas. But most of the time we’ll be jamming, and we’re all pretty opinionated people. We all like similar music, but we have different ideas for where the music should go. We argue for six weeks about it and it all goes in a different direction.
We all grew up in the greater Jackson area, in Mississippi. We all knew each other. We were in bands together. So, we’re all coming from the same place, and have similar backgrounds. Also, being in the South, there are certain things that are hammered into you when you’re a kid. Moving away from home, all the freedom you get from thinking on your own, you find that certain things resonate with you and stay in your head. You could be talking about anything, but some things are going to come out one way or another.
Plunder, Beg and Curse is a much sludgier sounding record than the EP. Had you set out to make something so dense and heavy?
Sludgier? Interesting you say that. We’ve had a lot of feedback saying it’s too slick. I think it’s funny because this one was done live, and the EP wasn’t. The EP, if it sounds raw it’s because we did it with our friend Stephen in his basement. If there’s any slickness, it’s because there’s better equipment behind it. But sludginess? I don’t know. We didn’t set out in a specific direction. Once something’s done, we just move on. We were just trying to take what we thought was good about the old songs, and then removing the stuff that was bad. We didn’t set out to do anything that specific, but ‘sludgy’—I like that word.
There are also some dreamy, pretty parts to your music, alongside the heavier parts. How important is contrast to what you do?
I think contrast is really, really important. But it’s like that with any kind of art. If you make something heavy, but there’s nothing soft…if you don’t have something to compare it to, then it doesn’t sound heavy. There needs to be a context.
Though I wouldn’t necessarily say the album sounds ‘slick,’ it does sound very meticulous. How much time did you spend working on it?
Meticulous? That’s actually pretty flattering. We went into the studio in the beginning of September and we had the studio for two weeks, but we recorded all of the instruments for six or seven days. We started working on vocals there, but ended up finishing those up at Clay Jones’ house. That was kind of spread out, though, because the date just kept getting pushed back. Things just kept going wrong. But it gave us more time to sit back and relax.
How did you hook up with [producer] Clay Jones?
It was awesome. I love that dude. His mom was Jim and Jess’ creative writing teacher in high school. He liked the EP and started working with us. Clay’s in our circle of friends. We go to the bar together. It’s basically like if one of us was doing it, he’s someone everyone is close to. While being a friend, he was also an authority figure that could make executive decisions if he needed to.
You released the album digitally, two months before the actual street date—is this something you had been planning to do all along?
We kind of had an idea of doing it…just basically, once you start sending the CD out, you’re going to show up on some sort of internet something or other. So we decided to put it out to give people the legal option to support us, so we can at least benefit from it. I don’t know if people are going to buy this record. I’m hanging out on my porch right now, I don’t know what’s going on. We just hope that people that do want it will get it before it’s released. That would be bad for us. I don’t want to have to get a job.
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