Pepper Keenan of Downrecently spoke toGuitar World about why the band have chosen to do EP’s instead of albums, how they came to hire their stage manager as a permanent member of the band and what it meant to lose Kirk Windestein.
Down have a pretty good perspective if you’re an artist wondering whether to venture to an album or EP next. Their next EP is due out on May 9! Check out the interview below.
When did you start working on the upcomingDown IVPart TwoEP?
We were touring a lot, and we did a bunch of killer shows in Europe and the band as a whole was very excited about where we were heading. And then we had some issues with Kirk [Windestein] and him wanting to focus more on Crowbarand that happens sometimes in bands, youd be a fool to deny it.
We were just going in separate directions, and thats okayI mean, we only wanted the best for Kirk, but Down wasnt going to waste one second, and he understood that. But I understood where Kirk was coming fromCrowbar is his baby.
So, during that period, me and Jimmy [Bower, drums] and Pat [Bruders, bass] were just in the jam room constantly, coming up with ideas and running them past Phil [Anselmo, vocals] to make sure that we were all on the same page. And then basically our ace in the hole became Pat.
He had been in Crowbar all these years, but he never really had a chance to write much of anything. And he started coming up with some amazing ideas, and that took some of the pressure off of us. We do it pretty old-schooljust beatin it out in the jam room.
What are some of the pros of doing four consecutive EPs?
Usually when you do a full length album, the record company throws it out there and maybe you get a couple of months out of itbut we wanted to do something that would stretch that out for a couple of years. Down likes to tour a lot, and doing the EPs will allow us more freedom to do that and get more music out to our fans more frequently.
Plus we have different types of songs in this band, and doing EPs will let us bring out some of those songs that didnt fit on an album before. Like the next EP will probably have more campfire-type, acousticy songs. Itll give us an opportunity to show a different side of Down without having to do another whole album, or take those few acoustic songs and jam them into full album. We just like the idea of splitting the material up into four EPs and making it work to our advantage.
From a songwriting perspective, what did it mean to lose Kirk Windstein?
I knew we were losing something, but I couldnt quite figure out what it was. I just knew that something was going to be gone. Im pretty prolific when it comes to riffs and songs, so it wasnt that much of a concernbut Kirk and I had been doing this together for 20 fucking years, so that aspect of it was gone.
How did your stage manager, Bobby Landgraf, come to be Kirks replacement in the band?
We were gonna go on a nationwide search for guitar players and all that, but sometimes that ends up biting you on the ass. The truth is were really not the easiest band to get along withwe kind of have our own language and way of doing thingsso we wanted someone we knew we could hang out with, and Bobby was right there. After we got him in the game, everything started rolling. It reinvigorated us to have some new blood in the band.
Were happy as clams right now. Everybodys heads are clearnobodys stumbling around, and were ready for the next couple of years for sure.
The new EP isnt a huge departure from the first one.
No, it isnt, but that was kind of the intention. I think its really gonna shift on the third and fourth EPs. The first one we just kinda ham-fisted it out, and the second one has a little more trickery going onthe riffs arent quite so simple and easily digestible, and at the end theres this little acoustic thing that I think is gonna fly into the third EP. Theres some really crafty guitar stuff happening on this EP that weve never ventured into before.
Your last recording with Corrosion of Conformity was 2005sIn the Arms of God. Are you open to reuniting with C.O.C.?
I talk to Woody [Weatherman, guitar] and Mike [Dean, bass] about it often, and its definitely on the radarbut those guys are fully capable of doing it as a three-piece on their own for now, and they have been for a while. Itll happen sooner or later, but only when I could give C.O.C. the utmost respect and attention that it deserves. But the truth is, doing both of those bands full-time is too much.
