Course of Empire 


Course of Empire was formed in 1988 in Dallas, Texas.  They worked
with producer David Castell on their first recording, the song "God's
Jig" for the Triple X compilation Dude You Rock!, and then their
self-titled debut on Carpe Diem Records.  The band signed with Zoo
Entertainment in 1992 who remastered and re-released their debut
album.  With the addition of a new drummer Michael Jerome, the band
has galvanized their live sound and recently came through San
Francisco with sold-out shows opening for Prong.  After missing our
set-up time for interview on two occasions due to their touring
schedule, vocalist Vaughn Stevenson called on time and ready to talk
about their new album which takes you on a dark tour of contemporary
society.  The band is on it's way to becoming bigger than the state
they come from. 

AMP: Where did you get your name? 

VS: "There's a painter by the name of Thomas Cole who was an
environmental painter who painted landscapes.  He was the founder of
the Hudson River school of painting.  He had a series of five
paintings called The Course of Empire that he did around 1830.  We
were really interested in his paintings and recently had a chance to
see them up close in a museum which was really great." 

AMP: Where did the idea for a two drum set-up come from?

VS: "Originally one of our drummers was into the Kodo drums from
Japan.  That was our inspiration to try two drums for some different
rhythms.  It also gives them a chance not to just be time keepers.
They can play their own part and be part ensemble too.  I like it
because of the energy, especially live, with two guys back there.
It's very tribal and we used to try to take it even a step further
with our earlier shows about three of four years ago.  We had these
big oil storage drums that we'd pass out to the audience and they'd
play along too.  It was really good at times and not good depending on
the crowd.  Once our shows started getting more crowded and the room
was completely packed people would start throwing them around like
beach balls instead of playing them.  It just got too wild and we were
afraid someone would eventually get hurt.  Several people did end up
having to go to the hospital so we stopped that from then on.  it was
fun while it lasted.  We're trying to think of a way to get back into
doing some of that, but we haven't figured out how yet."  

AMP: What is the biggest change in this album compared to the
first? 

VS: "On the first record we were still a pretty young band.  It was
make three years ago and it took us a long time to get to the second
one.  We were a bit naive and coming off trying to tell someone the
way things should be.  We realized between then and now that on this
record we're trying to figure out for ourselves the way it should be
for us.  It's more like on the first record that a couple of points on
the first record are laughable.  We tried different presentations and
some of them not musical.  We had this idea of recording ambient
tracks with every song thinking at least for ourselves that the
listener might feel it but maybe not hear it.  We learned a lot from
the first record.  On this record we're just trying to enjoy it a bit
more and definitely realize we're just trying to make sense out of our
own lives instead of trying to tell someone else the way it should be.
Another way to put it would be that on the first record we're laughing
at everyone else and on the second record we're laughing at
ourselves." 

AMP: Are all the tunes on Initiation new? 

VS: "A couple of the songs like 'Infested' and 'Gear' have been
around for a while.  'Infested' came out of some of those early shows
where we passed out the oil drums.  We'd have a long drum jam and
somehow it evolved into what you hear today.  Most of the other songs
are relatively new.  We wrote three or four of them right as we
started recording.  'White Vision Blowout' was a totally different
song in the beginning.  We just changed the song and kept the title.
It's one of my favorite tunes on the album.  'Breed' came together as
we were recording.  'Minions' is probably my favorite tune of all of
them.  That was totally new and was recorded live with the exception
of the drums which was done ahead of time.  The guitar player Mike and
I did our stuff live.  It almost didn't go on the record.  For me
personally it's my favorite but I can see how it wouldn't be for a lot
of people.  It was a little more than a year in the writing process.
Zoo had re-released our first record in '92 but we had released it
independently before that in Dallas.  We lost one of our drummers and
it took us a long time to replace him.  We took some time off after we
got signed to try and figure out just how it all works." 

AMP: Who writes the lyrics? 

VS: "I write about 95 percent of the lyrics.  I started writing
when I was 13 or 14.  A friend of mine wrote a song with me and then I
started just getting into writing on my own for my own benefit.  I've
books of things that I've written just for myself.  The way we do
things when we get together as a band we write musically together and
I pull from things that I've written to see if they match up well or
not." 

AMP: You used David Castell as your producer again. 

VS: "The reason we went back to David Castell was because he knows
us so well.  We thought he was a well-kept secret.  In my opinion he's
a world-class producer that nobody really knows about and he's already
worked with us since 1990.  He knew how difficult and slow we were to
work with.  He's just now starting to do work outside this area.  I
think over the next year or two he'll do really well for himself.
He's flying to Canada to work with Econoline Crush and he just did a
re-mix with Varga who's also from Canada.  He now has his own manager
who's getting him work outside this area." 

AMP: Talk about Track 24 a re-mix of "Infested." 

VS: "The 'Infested' remix at the end of the album was done by
Castell.  We were listening to some big bands and we're all into the
Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa stuff.  It was Castell's idea and he had
some of Krupa's CD's.  He put it together as a joke and we all liked
it so much we just left it.  In my mind it's a blessing and a curse at
the same time.  A lot of the airplay we've gotten across the country
that's the one that seems to have received the most plays.  We're
happy about it but it is a little misleading.  When you go into a town
and that's all they've heard from us they don't know what to think
when they see us.  We're really a hard rock band and it's not
representative of our playing even though we like it." 

AMP: What is your touring schedule like? 

VS: "We were just out for about six weeks with The Machines of
Loving Grace.  The first Prong show is in New York and we'll be out
with them for four and one half weeks.  We plan to stay on the road as
long as we can." 

AMP: Talk about getting signed to Zoo.

VS: "Kim Buie was working for Island and she came down to hear us.
Although she really liked us and wanted to sign us Island was being
bought out by Polygram and cutting back on acts.  Kim turned Anna
Loynes on to us and asked her down to Texas.  We owe a lot to Kim
Buie for getting us signed with Zoo through Anna." 

AMP: What has radio reception been like? 

VS: "We're a little surprized but very happy.  When we made the
record we didn't know if we'd get any airplay because of the nature of
radio today.  We thought we'd have to slug it out live and see what we
could do that way. It's definitely helped us in some cities and we're
getting some great response with our live shows.  We like the
agressiveness and harder music but it seemed like industrial and hard
metal was always so negative.  We wanted to be able to stand toe to
toe with some of those people with the same enthusiasm and
aggressiveness but not be so negative."