EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CAR BOMB’S JON MODELL AND ELLIOT HOFFMAN
New York’s own Car Bomb are one of those bands that completely defy simple labeling; their music combines elements of math, tech, grind, death, hardcore, punk, prog, sludge, jazz, and probably a million other subgenres. Clearly, these guys have no interest in conforming to current trends or aping what’s come before them; they’re here to knock down doors and bust open some heads.
Car Bomb are currently in the middle of writing their follow-up to last year’s Relapse debut, Centralia, which they hope to be able to release later this year. I recently had the chance to sit down with bassist Jon Modell and drummer Elliot Hoffman mere hours after they finished one such writing session to get a quick update on how it’s going. Read the full transcript after the jump.
So what’s going on with Car Bomb?
Jon: Writing the new record.
And how’s that coming?
Jon: It’s going really, really well. We started rehearsing in Brooklyn over at Elliot’s place and doing twice week now and the songs are just coming along.
What’s the writing process like in your band?
Jon: Mostly, we’ll come up with some idea, and a lot of the time, Greg [Kubacki, guitarist] will take that idea and run with it and put something together at home with a drum machine and then give that back to us, and then we critique it and move forward.
When you say “critique,” do you mean “argue?”
Jon: No no no, it’s more like “I really like that,” or “Let’s do something with that.” It’s “critique” in a positive way, not “critique” in a negative way.
Do you guys have a vision for each album going into it?
Elliot: It’s never really… Basically, we write hundreds of riffs and then we piece that together and then we pick apart each riff. It’s never a “themed” record. Because the vocals aren’t really written or arranged until the songs are pretty much done. So it’s not even written around any type of vocal structure or anything like that.
But even musically, is there…
Elliot: We just write the riffs and put ’em together. It’s not really… I dunno.
Jon: I mean, we do try to keep outdoing ourselves. Like “As crazy as the last album was, let’s try to make something even crazier” or “We didn’t do any of this on the last record, let’s try branch out into something different.”
So do you see a way that this album is shaping up?
Elliot: Yeah, so far it’s shaping up pretty damn good (laughs). We have three songs that are pretty much completely written…
Jon: …and like Elliot said, another hundred ideas that pretty much just need to be structured.
Do you know who’s gonna produce this one?
Jon: Right now we’re thinking about… we’re kicking around some ideas. The latest idea is that we’re gonna record all the instruments over at Elliot’s place and then have somebody else mix it. Like we were talking about maybe having Zeuss mix it. He doesn’t know yet, but… (laughs)
Now he’ll find out.
Jon: Now he’ll find out!
Elliot: Kicking [the idea] around.
Jon: Kicking it around, yeah. We’ll be able to save some money that way, by recording it ourselves and then spending the better part of the budget on having Zeuss or somebody mix it.
And you guys are still on Relapse, right?
Jon: We’ve been with them about a year.
Elliot: We’ve been with them about a year and a half, and they put out the last record [Centralia] a little over a year ago, so we’ve been trying to support that record and in the mean time agreeing to do another record, so we’re just trying to get the record done, put some shit out.
Jon: That’s right.
And you guys are from around here in New York, right?
Jon: Yeah.
Born and raised?
Elliot: Yep.
And how do you find the scene out here? ‘Cause we hear a lot of bands say that they hate playing New York…
Elliot: Yeah, the scene in New York sucks pretty much (laughs).
Jon: I mean, it’s not how it used to be. In the early 90s, it was amazing. And then…
Elliot: It depends on… y’know, if you’re at a certain level, it sucks, and then once you get above and beyond it… once you get above, y’know, 600 person venues on a good bill, then it can be really good. But, y’know, playing the small little shit holes… self-promotion is very difficult in New York because it’s so over-saturated or whatever. But it just depends who’s on the bill and where you can draw… if you can draw in Brooklyn, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can draw in Long Island, or Manhattan is very difficult to draw in…
Jon: But we’ve played some gigs… y’know, we played B.B. King’s, we played that Crumbsuckers reunion, and it was unbelievable. And we played with High on Fire about two or three weeks ago, we played Europa over in Brooklyn, and that was sold-out. So sometimes it’s really good and sometimes, like El says, it sucks. “Unpredictable.” How about that?
Any parting words?
Elliot: We’re trying to go Canada and the west coast this summer, and we’re trying to finish this fucking record.
Do you have any kind of timeline?
Jon: I’m hoping to start recording in the summer and then maybe get it out in the fall… but you know how these things work. It could take months…
Elliot: Right now, we’re just trying to get it finished.
-AR
