From Buddy Music magazine, April 1994
Course of Empire strikes back!
The dark side of the Force has an industrial pulse
by C. Michael Mayo
When a band like Course of Empire receives tons of attention, gets signed by
a label like Zoo Entertainment and then disappears for two years, shedding a
founding member in the process,
Drugs?
No.
Egos?
No.
Well this is Course of Empire, a formerly Gothic-tinged band with a rep for
intellectuallisms, but, again, no.
"We couldn't find a drummer we could work with," says guitarist Mike Graff,
spilling the beans.
"We finally talked Michael into joining us." Michael, as in Michael Jerome
from pop poppins, who says he's made the commitment to playing drums (along
with remaining drummer Chad Lovell) for Course of Empire. Jerome waves off
any controversy over playing with his new band.
"Everybody makes it out that it's up to me whether there's a pop poppins or
not," says Jerome. "pop poppins broke up in October," he says bluntly. "I
just want to play the drums, grab something to eat, go home and watch PBS."
Getting a new drummer doesn't seem to disturb the basic mixture of Course
of Empire, a band based on musical evolution and social awareness. The
band's name comes from a series of 19th century Thomas Cole industrial/
technology 'rise and fall' paintings. While their serious gothic rock
debut album was well done, with a new industrial/rock hybrid sound, singer
Vaughn Stevenson admits they are no longer prophets of doom.
"We were more internal on this album," says Stevenson. Kinda his way of
saying, I suppose, since we couldn't change the world, we'll change our-
selves. That change, however, he doesn't go into.
When asked about the feedback noise (titled: "Gate") used in the title track,
"Initiation," the band went into a long story about a night spent hanging
out in their practice studio hidden away somewhere in Dallas.
Evidently, the four members that were working on the album (Jerome joined
after the band finished Initiation) were watching Clive Barker's Hellraiser
and started playing around with the video equipment until a visual feedback
loop was created - possible inspiration for another song, "White Vision
Blowout." Stoner logic ensued and they proceeded to purposefully incorrectly
plug a microphone through various effects loops until they accidentally
created what Graff calls "a polar field of sound."
"The room was really quiet," Graff continues.
"All we did was move the mic around or breathe into it," Lovell adds quickly.
"Yeah," agrees Graff, "we recorded thirty minutes of this feedback loop of
nothing." The portion of the feedback loop that made the album's title track
comes off as jarring chaotic noise to the casual listener.
"Inside the chaos, random patterns and harmonies develop," continues Graff.
"Out of total silence - on our macro level, anyway - comes this infinite
amplification of the air moving around us. If we were down there on that
level, we could hear the thunder of atoms smashing against each other..."
With success staring them in the eye, Course of Empire just looks forward to
getting to play some of their new songs live.
Half of the songs, they say, were composed in the studio, or, as Graff says,
came from "an idea on paper."
"Some of the songs haven't been fully realized live," says bassist Paul Semrad.
Like most successful bands, Course of Empire has always put on dazzling and
entertaining live shows. As part of some past live shows, COE passed drums out
to audience members in order to throw some chaos into the musical arrangement.
"It got really wild," says Lovell, "especially in Little Rock."
"Yeah," chimes in Graff. "Once, we saw our fucking lawyer playing drums... At
another show the sound man jumped up on stage and whipped out a flute. Nobody
wanted to go home that night."
"The drum thing got out of hand when people started getting hurt," says Lovell.
"I think it was at the old Theatre Gallery that someone tossed up a drum,
almost dislodging a 2-ton air conditioning unit hanging above everyone." Still,
believes Lovell, passing out the drums was a success.
When asked about a different kind of success, they act confused. You know, fame
and money, I suggest.
"I bought an assault rifle," Lovell confesses.
Jerome lays it down straight: "If you're not successful, then you make a great
record and no one gets to hear it. But I guess that happens a lot."
"We made exactly the album we wanted to," says Graff.
Finally, digging and prodding to get past Stevenson's verbal dodges, the guys
start to explain a little of 1993, pretty much a lost year for COE. After a
quick comparison of notes on New World Order, Chaos theory, Illuminati history,
the Trilateral Commission, Mandelbrot sets, and everything talked about in the
movie Slacker, Course of Empire was ready to speak.
Lovell begins, "After Anthony (Headley) left, we had a lot of time on our hands
because we couldn't play live. When we started recording the new album, we just
turned inward on the four of us."
"We got our hands on (conspiracy) literature which kind of freaks you out when
you realize how much is true," says Graff.
When you take in too much conspiracy information, continues Stevenson, "You get
to where you're jumpy... paranoid."
"You start to spiral into yourself: total fear and panic," says Lovell, who
insisted that the last track on the album be number 23, a sly jab at both
Illuminati conspiracy buffs and bands that end their albums on such cleverly
numbered tracks as 69.
"It's exactly what happened to Fishbone's Kendall Jones," says Graff. Jones got
in over his head, Graff continues, until he quit his band and joined his father's
Seven Day Adventist Church as his escape.
And what is Course of Empire's escape?
PBS and positive thinking, Jerome might suggest.
"Being on the road again," Graff says. "We can't wait."
The Producer's view
David Castell has put the last ten years of his life into producing, engineering,
and mixing albums. Simply put, he's paid his dues. Local work with pop poppins,
Funland, and, of course, KDGE's Tales from the Edge has made him very popular
locally.
However, when Course of Empire chose him to work on their second album for Zoo
Entertainment - and we're talking they could have picked almost anyone short of
Brian Eno - not only did they give him a chance at the big time, they honestly
felt he was the best person for the job.
I'm of the opinion that they made a very good decision.
Not only is the production slick and crisp... not only is his Darwin Goodman mix
of "Infested" darn near better than the original... but his genius with the tools
of the trade is mystical.
To start off, before the CD even starts, there is a 6:45 minute song, "Running
Man," which he hid on the CD in a place reserved for CD-ROM information, making
it impossible to play on CD-ROM and some JVC models. To access it, you have to
search backwards on the first track until you hit (negative) -6.45.
Another secret effect that I swore I wouldn't divulge (but will hint at) is on
the song "Initiation." The feedback you hear is digitally recorded off an
8-track Tascam 238 recorded by members of Course of Empire themselves. However,
the feedback is actually called "Gate." "Initiation" is there, somewhere (inside,
between, wrapped around...) but you haven't heard it yet. If you really want to
know how to find the hymn beneath the noise, check out your amplifier for a 'mode'
button.
"Initiation," the first song recorded for the album, was recorded in a five-story
underground parking garage at Northwest Highway and Preston at 3 a.m. Castell
says the spot was picked for the incredible natural echo and reverb and by
setting the microphones 150 feet from the toms, he achieved a spectacular effect.
For mixing, especially on "Infested," for which he did the Darwin Goodman mix,
Castell used an Alesis D-4 for voltage to MIDI conversion. Then he separated
them and saved to hard drive for easy access.
Everything on the album was done with care because, as he said, "With something
as detailed as a Course album (especially with one drummer, Chad Lovell, filling
the role of two), you need the time and money to kick back and relax a little."
Luckily, this time he had it.
According to Lovell, Castell spent two and a half weeks setting up the drums to
get the exact sound from every piece in the set.
"While my complete trigger system for the drums didn't work," says Castell, "I
had luck with the five foot extension to the bass drum." Castell explains that
the deeper the sound, the longer the wave formation, and the harder it is to
capture the sound clearly at point blank range. So instead, he built a five foot
cylinder out of soundboard to capture the sound.
For you producers out there, Castell mixed with an Amek Einstein 48 channel
console with Supertrue Automation. For you non-producers, look forward to bigger
and better things for Castell - he's talked with the people for Rage Against the
Machine about doing their next album. Of course, he realizes, talk is just talk
and Castell seems extremely patient.
As for now "I'm waiting for something to pop," said Castell.
Photo caption: Dallas industrial/hard rockers have already toured with Prong and
Machines of Loving Grace: Course of Empire (Michael Jerome, Paul Semrad, Vaughn
Stevenson, Mike Graff, and Chad Lovell)
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