Loincloth: Counting Down to Studio Time

As a musician in performing or occasionally performing bands, there are two things that really make all of the hard work and endless mental energy that go into writing our quirky brand of metal worthwhile. Two scenarios in which the payback is so immediately gratifying, and so close to tangible that you feel nearly removed from the hours and hours of arranging and rearranging riffs, and you can almost 'feel' what it's all about.  For yours truly, those two things are the reactions people have when they see you perform live and that precious moment in the studio when you finally get to hear all of the hard work played back through the studio monitors.  With that in mind I am pleased to announce something... Stop the presses, ladies and gentlemen, Loincloth have a date in the studio!

Loincloth was originally going to be a project that put out one album just to shake a few people up, and then disappear into the sunset.  But when Tannon and I started doing interviews and reading the reactions of people who were freaked out by what we had released we both knew we had to find a way to get Loincloth on stage.  We had some really great offers to play both here in the U.S. and abroad, and it was heartbreaking to have to tell people that we didn't actually 'exist' as a band.  Once we decided to try and find a bassist and a second guitarist, it took us awhile to be able to work up enough songs to play a good, solid set.  In that time the fickle nature of the music business had already begun to turn its gaze toward other bands.  We were able to travel some, and we had a blast playing with Sunn, High on Fire, Corrosion of Conformity, Dysrhythmia, Dead in the Dirt and many other bands across our fruited plains but we really wanted to be able to say once we're older that we 'did something'.  That meant that we'd have to release another album in order to get the kinds of unique travel opportunities that we could remember for a lifetime.  Plus, I do believe it to be true that the world would be a much better place with two Loincloth albums instead of just one.

In the middle of May, Loincloth will enter the studio with the same producer who rocked 'Iron Balls of Steel' with us.  Evil's principle studio wizard, Mr. Greg Elkins will guide us through the labyrinth of gizmos and whatchamacallits, and tell us countless times "Stop sucking so damned much and rock, for Satan's sake!" in his uphill struggle to create something interesting from take after take of our nonsense.  Greg was great to work with the first time around, and we really are excited to have a chance to build upon what we started with IBOS.   
This will be the first of what will be two, possibly three weekends of recording to finish our second album.  As was the case the first time around, we are still writing all of this material as we go.  'Tis the manner in which we roll.  We haven't even sifted through our leftovers yet, and there were quite a few things we were psyched about that just didn't get done in time to put on our first album.  I'm still tweaking some things, and probably will up until I click the sticks off for each track in the studio.  Fortunately I can apply what I learned from our last time working with Greg to expedite my own process.  Likewise, the next Confessor album will benefit greatly from my experiences in the studio recording Loincloth.  Every time gets a little easier and a lot more comfortable.  That means I'm that much more eager to hear what we've done with each project. Hopefully that will translate into something you guys will be able to get behind!  I'm looking to make up for some lost time, if you know what I mean.

I have to say, being the drummer for Confessor and Loincloth is pretty cool sometimes. Other paths would have led to other places, but none of those paths would have resulted in these two bands writing the weird things that we come up with.  Both bands are "boutique" in a sense, and the fact that we only pop up every once in a long while adds a little mystery for our fans.  I have been concentrating on being able to stay busy with one band while the other gears up to record and play out, and I have crossed my fingers that the timing would work out in such a way that one band could carry the momentum while the other writes.  Thus far, it seems to be working out that way.  So here's to a few really productive years that will bear the fruits of our hard work, a little planning and a lot of passionate devotion. Let the Era of Poundering begin! 



Editor's note: Just to be clear, this is NOT an April Fool's joke!