Band Interview – Coda (Metal 2 the Masses Essex 2019)

Alternative band, Coda, will play in Heat Two of Metal 2 the Masses Essex 2019. They face off against Killerkorp, Of Our Design, Seawolves and Herida on the 1st of February. The event takes place at The Soundhouse which is at The Bull, Colchester, CO3 3ES.

Each band will be giving their all to try to progress in the competition where the winner receives an amazing opportunity. A much coveted slot playing on the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock Festival, 2019. GBHBL are pleased to bring you a short interview with Coda to help introduce them to the metal masses.

Have a read, enjoy and make sure you get down to The Soundhouse on the 1st of February to give them some support.

1 – Why Coda? Where did the name come from?

Sam (Guitars and Vocals) – The name Coda came from the last studio album by Led Zeppelin called Coda. I am a big Zeppelin fan. Led Zeppelin 2 was the album that made me want to play guitar. Found it on vinyl in my loft when I was 13 and it blew me away, All the 4 members of that band were amazing. Wish Bonzo was still alive… This was on a crap record player with only one speaker because the other one had broke! haha!

Charlie (Bass) – I believe the name came as inspiration from Led Zeppelin, Sam coined it so I’ve just gone along with it. Never been fussed to make a name that I feel that “GeTs Me On A sPiRiTuAl LeVeL dUdE”. So, if everyone else is happy, I’m happy.

Thomas (Drums) – believe Sam came up with the name, I felt that it sounded quite retro allowing us to have a bit of fun with the logo.

2 – Tell us a little about Coda. How long have you been playing together? Who is in the band? Where are you from? How did you meet?

Sam – Coda has been a band for a while (1 and a half years) but late last year we really started to take it more seriously. Me (Sam) and the other 2 Tom Cleverdon (drums) and Charlie Dean
(Bass) all went to uni to study music. Charlie is in his last year at uni while me and tom have left. We are all from the Colchester area.

Charlie – I’m from Colchester, we all met at university and live locally. The other two did this thing where they graduated and left me to finish my final year all on my own, how selfish of them! With those two graduating they have a lot of time to write whereas I’m not able to contribute as much time as I would like to.

Thomas – We have been a band for about a year and a bit now. We met at the University of Essex, where our bassist Charlie Dean is in his final Year, Sam Crow and myself have already graduated. With uni it was so consuming so now we have much more time towrite and perform.

3 – What artists, metal or otherwise, have influenced you and your sound?

Sam – Coda’s inferences are bands like…

• Led Zeppelin (obviously…)
• Nirvana (Tom hates them! haha! love the In utero album recorded by Steve Albini who is in bands I like)
• Queen (Princes of the universe is an underrated track)
• The Melvins (look up live Amoeba 2008. Great show! I have a signed Melvins poster by Cyrille Rousseau and I have number 64 out of 65 made. He is an amazing artist so check him out 😉
• The White stripes (Slowly turning into you is a great track)
• Big Black (The album “songs about fucking” is great! Haha! Love the name too. Managed to get it on cassette recently)
• Shellac… of North America… (Love the track Wingwalker)
• Ty Segall (look up Ty Segall and the muggers performing on KEXP)
• Say Sue Me (Great band from South Korea. If I had to call it something I would call it Surf punk rock! Haha!)
• A band called Fantomas. crazy band and I really like the song (04/03/05 Sunday)

Charlie – Ah jeez. Coda has some crazy influences. Tom brings in his history of all things metal and, Sam jumps in with his crazy rock and fusion, and I just try and mix up everything I know from pop-punk to classical to fingerstyle. Personally, I’ve had a number of influences on different instruments so it’s hard to say, but with Coda I really try to tap in to influences from Joe Principe, Mark Hoppus and at a push Aston Barrett.

Thomas – My personal influences are Joey Jordison, he was a big idol for me when I started playing drums and I could only dream of playing as fast as him. However once I matured as a player, I realised that speed isn’t everything and once you get the technique it wasn’t so difficult. Neil Peart, as he is a drumming God and what he does with all the odd time signatures amazes me. Dan Searle of Architects, again I find how he uses odd time signatures really interesting, along with his use of double bass. It is something that I haven’t really heard in a lot of metal music as double bass is often used as blasts. The way he also uses space within the song is very creative and helps with the ambiance.

4 – With so many genres and sub genres around these days, what genre would you put yourself in?

Sam – I suspect it would be put into the alternative category. We’re not really metal but Tom in the band listens to a lot of that stuff.

Charlie – What genre are we? Oh God, urmmm. Rock? Alternative rock? Yeah, let’s go with that! We are alternative-rock. I think.

Thomas – I listen to a lot of metal and the heavier side of music within the band, but I would say we are more of a rock/alternative band. Because we are all influenced by different genres, it creates quite a nice and unique blend and sound.

5 – What will you bring to the Metal to the Masses heats? What can music lovers expect and how are you going to win their support on the night?

Sam – We wanna play and have fun. If they like us great, if they don’t then oh well… I am always interested to hear people’s opinions on our music.

Charlie – I think variety in all honesty. It’s no disrespect to the genre or any of my fellow musicians out there, but sometimes genres like metal and rock can sound similar back-to-back, we have always stopped and thought: “Right, what new textures and layers can we mess about with?”, “What kind of a structure could we do?”, “What imagery do we want this sound to represent?”, “Is this stale?” and “does it sound similar to what we’ve already done?” and honestly, I hope it shows. I think we can win the audiences support by being ourselves. We’re dry-humoured and level headed so I think not taking ourselves too seriously will go well for us!

Thomas – We might not be the heaviest band on the bill, but we play our hearts out and perform with so much energy. I try to incorporate some blast beats here and there for those blast beat lovers! We have quite catchy hooks and melody and each song is unique and stands out. Hopefully our energy on stage is replicated in the audience.

6 – Any horror fans in the band? What are some of your favourite horror movies or books?

Sam – Can’t say I’m a horror fan! Haha! Prefer action and sci-fi. Stuff like Blade Runner. Highly recommend listening to the soundtrack by Vangelis as its amazing.

Charlie – Not a huge horror fan. Not because I’m scared, but because I suffer from seriously messed up nightmares following them. I love being in the moment, the thrill. But afterwards it can take up to a fortnight to wake up without any muscle pain from moving about so much during the nightmares. It’s crap but has to happen to someone.

Thomas – Not really a horror fan, find it a bit too predictable at times. I found the Quiet Place an interesting film and concept. I really enjoy the horror game Dead Space, as it completely changed what to expect from a horror.

7 – How about games? What’s your console or game of choice?

Sam – Been playing a game called lost in vivo. Funny enough it’s a horror game! Haha! Really got into it though. Been watching let’s plays of silent hill too. Really want to get an oldPlaystation and play that.

Charlie – Always been a casual gamer. Xbox mostly because I never had a PC powerful enough for games. My games of choice have always been either Skyrim, Jet Set Radio Future or Gears of War.

Thomas – I do enjoy playing games more than watching films! I play either Xbox or Playstation, have both so I don’t miss out on exclusives! My game of choice has to be Fallout. I love how its open world and you can explore everything. I also love how when you replay the game, you come across new quests and places and I also love the soundtrack to the game, that music has really stood the test of time, I wonder if when they wrote the songs they imagined that it would be used in a game like this…

8 – Have you been to Bloodstock Festival before?

Sam – No

Charlie – Nah m9 – (0.5×2)

Thomas – No. I have been to Sonisphere and Download festival a lot and would love to go to Bloodstock for the first time, especially playing there on my first visit.

9 – Where can fans check out your music, merch and find out more about you?

Sam – We have Facebook, Instagram (Whatever that is… haha!), Website and merch is still to come but we are getting on with it 😉

Charlie – Idk, ask Sam and Tom. I got uni, work and a business to worry about.

Thomas – We have a Facebook Page, Instagram page and a website that we keep up to date with the latest tour/gig information and news with the band.

10 – Aside from hopefully playing Bloodstock Festival, what else do you have lined up for 2019? Any releases due or tours/gigs/festivals line up?

Sam – Hope to record soon which will most likely become an EP. I personally have an electronic project called Perfect Death which might see the light of day this year.

Charlie – We’re keeping an eye out on whatever events we can wrangle ourselves in to, we’ve seen a few and made some inquiries but nothing solidified just yet! Or ask Tom, he’s the events and  communications guru.

Thomas – We are hopefully going to release our first EP as a band. We have a few other gigs in Essex that are already booked and have a few more in the works that we can’t announce just yet…

GBHBL would like to thank Coda for taking the time to answer these questions and we wish them all the best in their heat at Metal 2 the Masses Essex. Find out more about Coda at their website, Facebook page and on Instagram. You can also check out their single, Little Black Shoes, here.

Importantly, get yourself down to the venue on the 1st of February and throw them some support.