Coalesce

Diatribe: So, I understand Coalesce is working on several little projects right now, can you tell me a little about that?

Sean: Yeah, we are here and there.  It is really more of a reflection of our drive to hang out together, and be creative together again.  The fact that people know and somewhat care about Coalesce is probably the only reason it's even being released.  I think we would have been just as happy to make demos and put them out on the internet, and to friends, but, it's also very attractive to put together a visual package to go with it and add it onto our body of work, so we decided to do it that way.  It's been slow and go, but I think it's been worth the wait for sure.  There is nothing cooler than getting up early, going and hanging out with Ed, and then have Jes and the Nate’s come in and collaborate on a skeleton of an idea until it actually becomes something.  I enjoy the conversations we have in the studio about our families and life, and about the songs we are working on.  It's very much different doing Coalesce when we are no longer a part of the buzz, or feel pressure to impress fans, get big sales so tours are easier, etc.  It's all the good stuff about doing Coalesce with none of the bad stuff that ultimately destroyed us as a band and friends in the past.  I wouldn't change the way we are doing this for anything.

Diatribe: I read on the site about their being a DVD in the process. What all is that going to cover?

Sean: Well, we are rethinking that, and trying to figure out what to do just yet.  Including DVD footage on the 7" wasn't making much sense since the 7" is all new material.  It was weighing it down with the past, so now we are trying to figure out what is the most logical way of preparing this material for fans.  The only thing that comes to mind is a stand alone DVD and live cd.  We’ll see though.

Diatribe: How long has it been since you guys have played or recorded together?

Sean: Well, I think it was 2005, when that whole Hellfest garbage went down.  That was a seriously fun trip and solidified our opinions of what we are doing now.

Diatribe: I think I remember reading that during the recording of “Revolution in Just Listening”, they was a lot of strain between band members. Obviously that is all cleared up, but what made you guys decide to come back together to do this?

Sean: We are older, hopefully maturity comes with that, and I think it did with us.  We aren't overlooking anything "for the greater good of the band" like I may have done in the past.  We just buried all the hatchets, and then did the next logical thing.  Write again, but only it seems much different this time.  Like, where the writing is coming from.  It's a liberating feeling to not have something to prove.  I can't say I ever felt that way about coalesce in the past.  I'm a very competitive person.  Or at least I was.

Diatribe: Will James Dewees play any part of this upcoming project?

Sean: Not with the 7", but James has successfully completed rehab and seems to be doing well.  We are trying to work with him, but he's busy in the mainstream music market lately.  He's on tour with My Chemical Romance now.  He wants to work with us, and we want to work with him, but it didn't happen on the 7", so if we do anything ever again, I’m sure Dewees will be a part of it.  We’ll catch him the next time around I hope.

Diatribe: I'm glad to hear James is doing well, being a drummer; I always respected his work with Coalesce and enjoyed hearing him with Reggie and the Full Effect. I saw 'Reggie' about two years ago...and the music was much heavier than previous efforts. It was great. Interestingly enough, they opened for MCR, and stuck out like a sore thumb. I find it a weird fit him working with Gerard Way and Company. Obviously, I'm not really a fan of My Chemical Romance, but does it ever surprise you how the ebb and flow of punk rock popularity works and how it inevitably gets portrayed in the mainstream media?

Sean: See the thing is, if you knew James, it wouldn't be weird at all, or the guys in MCR.  James is just generally a funny guy, light hearted and into absolutely all types of music.  And the guys from MCR are all extremely nice fellows that slugged the scene for hundred dollar shows, and worked for their success.  They are into arena rock, big theatrics, and it fits where they are, it paid off.  I do wonder how Gerard feels about being 'super cute" and on the cover of teen beat type magazines and all.  I'm not brave enough to ask him.

Diatribe: I just realized I forgot to ask you the title of the 7", and what label it's coming out on. 

Sean: It's actually titled "Salt and Passage", and it's coming out on our own imprint and Second Nature combined.

Diatribe: Lyrically, is there a going theme with these new songs?

Sean: Well, yeah, if you know Coalesce, you know that I am pretty serious with lyric matter.  I’m not a fan of ironic lyrics for the only effect to have words to scream.  The topic is of transition of one from a self centered wretch, to that of a leader.  It’s a two parter, the second song feeds off the first.

 Diatribe: You have no idea how excited I am to hear it. At this point, is the album you’re working on a jumping off point to possible touring or is it just an isolated project that might give birth to a few shows? Is there a possibility of a completely reformed Coalesce?

Sean: I don’t' know, we are just keeping it open.  If we feel a drive to write again, and put something together, then we will.  If we can play some shows, then we will.  Like we are going to try to play some shows this august on the east coast, just because we can and it sounds like fun, and we get out of town for a week.  The main thing we've always done wrong with coalesce is try to end it in a neat package.  "This is it!  The last thing" it never works like that.  Sometimes I have something I want to say, sometimes Jes has something he wants to see come to live.  Putting that limitation that you won't do something yourself is like prison.  It's one thing if all the members hate each other and the medium, but we don't.  So it was always hard to say, "This is the last".  Then next summer Jes has a rad idea and we want to do it.  I know it looks foolish, and like we can't make up our minds, so that's why we just decided to keep it open.  If it happens, cool, if it doesn't, cool.  Hopefully the folks that this band has touched in some way or another want to come see us in front of fifty people when it does.  The notion of becoming a "working band" is out of the question though.  There is no reason to jeopardize our families and our real life careers to start over with a whole new set of fans, most of which were six and eight when we started this thing. Or signing with a new label and have them market us as nutty as say, Lifetime is, with the whole "check this hot new band some popular guy from some popular band just discovered!”  It’s insane, Lifetime deserve better than that…they are pioneers. But I guess that's just the way things are today, with everything so consumable. But,   we are happy to be active with what we are, and if the 30+ crowd gets it, then rad.

Diatribe: Well, speaking for myself...I'm 27 and have been listening to punk and hardcore since I was 14. Young buck that I am, I still find myself in the position of thirsting for older stuff like Coalesce. It harkens back to a time when people wrote and played inspirational music for actual fans for the sake of making music and friends, not chasing dollar bills and showing off your 'hip style'. I'm extremely excited about it, because while I have latched on to a lot of the newer hardcore acts...I'm just sick of the tight pants, eyeliner and MySpace haircuts. The scene has become watered down with dudes obsessed with their hair and constantly rewriting the same trite love songs that the last metalcore 'flavor of the week' did. What are your thoughts on the current state of affairs in hardcore? Feel free to name names and talk shit...because I would do it for days.

Sean: I honestly don't know man.  There was the whole haircore thing with 18 Visions, and then hardcore kinda went from being metal influenced to sleaze rock influenced, and then all those subcategories got all melded together, and I don't know the difference.  I guess you can tell when you hear or see one. Ed Gein comes to mind; they stood out to me when I heard them as something raw and new.  I've never been a huge hardcore music buyer though, so I really haven't followed the trends closely.  Unless you consider casually reading Alternative Press magazine.  

Diatribe: Speaking of Lifetime, I will be traveling to Cincinnati in a week to see them play with The Draft and I fully expect to be one of the older guys there. I remember when I first got into hardcore, I got hooked on that initial dose but I wanted to go back and discover the older stuff; the root of where it came from. Bands like Lifetime, Coalesce and Good Riddance got me primed to explore the roots of that music and thankfully gave me the chance for bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat to speak to me. Younger people seem oblivious to those kinds of bands anymore. Does it ever get to you that kids just don't seem to give a shit about that stuff these days? That they're perfectly content to just swallow what's easy to find, and what their peers are jamming down their throats?

Sean: I guess not really.  I have a seven year old, and a nine year old.  I’ve tried to get them into Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and the works.  They lean towards The Anniversary, Cursive, Tool, and of course Kelly Clarkson.  I guess if my dad tried to get me into hardcore I would have rejected it too, but I guess it all comes down to who it speaks to.  Lighter stuff speaks to some people, and heavier stuff speaks to others. 

Diatribe:  That’s still a pretty impressive list of bands for kids that young to be listening to. You obviously have some cool kids. What three albums should be mandatory for everyone to own and why?

Sean: Led Zeppelin I, It’s important to have a starting point.  You could argue that you can go back to blues, but as far as progressive rock goes, I would jump on here. The Mars Volta- “Deloused in the Comatarium”: I didn't really get excited about current music until I discovered this.  I think this is the only record I enjoy by them, but it pushed the limits, and told nonsense in an extremely moving way.  Sufjan Stevens-“Seven Swans”. I learned to appreciate the quiet with this record.  I love how it he’s a Christian artist that has no interest in being a Christian artist, but still finds the balls to write of Jesus in a unique, blunt, honest, and yet beautiful way.  I listen to this at least once a day, no joke. It's extremely moving on all fronts.

Diatribe: This is a question I’ve always wanted to ask you: I have been in near fist fights about what genre Coalesce falls under- metal or hardcore. What do you consider Coalesce to be?

Sean: I would say hardcore.  We are a hardcore band, we grew up in the hardcore scene, and played the hardcore scene as it was evolving and melding with the metal scene.  But some of the other guys might think different.  We always courted metal labels, only because we liked the freedom of being out of our element.  Back in 1994, the big labels as I remember it were Victory, and Equal Vision.  We didn't want a damn thing to do with either, so that's why we looked to be affiliated with metal labels.  Even though the music we played was definitely different than them, we related with say, Carcass more than say Integrity or someone.  But to answer in one (or two) words, Hard Core.

Diatribe:  Awesome, I feel vindicated now. What were and are some of the bands that influenced you?

Sean: Well, musically…the actual music side, I don't really know.  Jes loved a lot of metal, and hardcore, and other simply random things.  I always drew lyrical influence from Lisa Loeb, Maynard Keenan, and even Juliana Hatfield.  Maybe that's why it always sounded weird.  But there is no one band we were like "we want to sound like this, and be involved with this scene".  We always played with emo bands, it wasn't until later that we were embraced by fans on the east coast and started playing with bands like Converge and Cave In, that we really saw metallic hardcore bands.  I think more than anything, it would be a feeling that influenced us.  If a riff was weird and we like the way it moved in a 5/5, then that would influence us to write more like that.  Or events in our lives, but not really the sound or work of another band really.  We were kinda isolated in Kansas.

Diatribe: How do you describe Coalesces music to someone who's never heard it?

Sean: Ha-ha, actually, when I have to do this, it's to dudes that don't even know what hardcore is, so instead of trying to explain what hardcore is, I usually say "you know, like Pantera, but noisier and less metal, stars and bars, and pot leafs".

Diatribe: Yes! Ha-ha, great answer! I just saw on your blog site about you recently being on the People's Court...and got ripped off. It’s understandable if you don't want to go over the specifics of that stuff…having just been screwed, but can you tell me a little about the business that you run? I do a little bit of screen printing and am always interested in someone who can pull it off on a large scale.

Sean: Yeah, I actually started a screen print business in 1999.  We mostly do bands, but other business accounts too.  Shirts, posters, pins, etc.  Basically all the stuff you see on merch tables.  The Peoples Court was definitely fun!

Diatribe: Alright Sean, thanks for taking the time to do this with me. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the seven inch when it's finished. Anything you'd like to say in closing?

Sean: Just that I hope you come out and see us this August if you live on the east coast.  We are going to go out for two weeks and try to break as much equipment, and bro down with as many people as we can!

www.crashandbang.com