COLLAPSAR hail from laffayette louisiana and are a three peice,two of which were in one of my all time favorite bands(icepick revival). collapsar produce one hell of a sonic sound. if you ever hear of them playing live near you ,be sure to go check them out.
here's a little interview.
Interview by Dream Warrior
collapsar is a great name for a band, , who thought of it and what does it mean in relation to your music?
brett: I came up with the name. A collapsar is another
name for a galactically collapsed star, or a black
hole. The force and pull of a black hole is so strong
that not even light can escape, hence the name. I
kind of like to think the same about our music. It
kind of pulls the listener in and doesn't let go.
stephen: Brett actually thought of it. As far as the meaning behind it, i guess our music has sort of a deep space sci-fi element to it, but other than that we just liked the sound of it.
why no bass player? Do you think it puts any limits on your music or do you think it gives you more of a dynamic?
stephen: Having no bass player does put some constraints on our music. By all means we are not against bassists, and in fact, if a bad ass bassist wanted to jam we'd try him out. Good "free" bassists seem few and far between in our area. On the other hand, not having a bassist forces us to explore our options with guitar a little more, which can only lead to positive results. We still hold down alot of low end with our guitars anyway.
dave: when we started jamming, it was just the three of us, and we just never got too worried about it
brett: We are always asked this question. There really
isn't an answer. This is just how the band began and
we think it works pretty well with the sound we're
going for.
Louisiana has produced some of the great bands in the heavy music genre,,What does it mean to you to be a part of the louisiana metal scene?
brett: It is an honor to have played with such great bands
from LA such as Soilent Green, EyeHateGod, Hawg Jaw,
Suplecs, Spickle, Hostile Apostle, The Object at the
End of History, Ahab!, Moxie, Encompass and Stalemate,
just to name a few. We just like to rock!! It's just
a bonus that we are part of a great growing scene!!
dave: its great!! we have played with some of my favorite southern bands (suplecs, bongzilla, hawg jaw, kylesa, encompass and stalemate, spickle, ect...) and i feel flattered to share the same stage with them.
stephen: We love it. Most southern metal bands are more straight forward, usually sludgy or typical metal, not saying thats a bad thing. But lately alot of more experimental acts have been surfacing. Alot of younger kids are listening to dillinger or the fucking champs so they are starting off playing with a broader view of music. I predict louisiana's metal scene will have tons more to offer in the future as more kids are exposed to a wider variety of metal.
Do you have any tour plans for the near future?
stephen: Right now we are focusing on recording, but after we get that taken care of we definitely plan to head out on the road for a short tour. We've been talking about going up the east coast, so i think thats where we will be headed if all goes well.
Your music is very technical and has a lot of time changes,yet it flows beautifully unlike most technical bands.Tell us how you go about writing a song.
stephen: Alot of the songs get written at home on the couch in a real rough state, then they just get morphed over and over again in the jam room till everyone is happy. One thing i've noticed our song writing style changes about every two songs. You can definitely hear a progression in our material over the past 6 songs we've written, so our upcoming songs will probably sound a little different that the last two.
brett: Steve is the mad scientist of the group. He
usually writes most of the odd riffs that you hear,
but we all share a part in actually creating every
song. A song may start out a certain way and then end
up being changed completely, due to all of our input.
We spend a lot of time making sure that every song we
create really affects us in certain ways... and then
we unleash it on our listeners!! Plus, Steve and Dave
are both very talented musicians and writing music
with them just comes naturally!!
dave: we just come together with riffs and ideas and put them together like lego's. if it doesn't fit, just put on the side and save it for later
Top 10 musical influences?
brett: Rush, Melvins, King Crimson, Tool, all Mike Patton
projects, old Metallica, Dazzling Killmen, Nirvana,
Slayer, and Sonic Youth
dave: eighteen visions, black sabbath, the melvins, zeppelin, faith no more, slayer, metallica (first four albumns), misfits, van morrison, turmoil
stephen: For me, Dazzling Killmen, Dillinger Escape Plan, Keelhaul, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, lately i've even been jamming some trans am. A good mix of shit.
You're an amazing live band,,, which do you prefer , playing live or recording ?
brett: I think they are two seperate entities. Playing
live is an amazing experience, but going in to the
studio and capturing your sound is equally satisfying.
I prefer playing live, though
stephen: I like the live shows first and foremost, but recording is fun too. With recording you can pull off alot that cant be done live. It opens up alot of doors for experimentation.
dave: recording is fun, but nothing beats the feeling you get when you are on stage, cut loose for an hour, and just have fun
The music world is changing(some might say declining) rapidly, do you think things are getting better or worse as far as the quality of music that people/bands are making these days?
stephen: People who really dig music for "music" are few and far between if you ask me. Most like it for the image. Emo, punk, country, rap, its all the same shit when you think about it. Just selling an image to the weak minded so they buy the product. The radio is just a distribution channel to push a product, and the packaging is the image they sell. I swear there's no difference between "Nickelback" and the fucking robot circus bear's that perform at showbiz pizza. On the other hand, if you think about how many awesome bands have come in under the radar in the past decade, you can't deny that there is some progression taking place, you just have to dig to find it.
dave: i think mainstream music is going down hill (like always), but underground music gets better everyday! i hear about new bands all the time, and the music just keeps getting crazier and weirder (in a good way). i think its great to hear something different that is awesome. you know, put your own twist on great music
brett: I think there is good music and bad music, good
bands and bad ones. People listen to music for
different reasons and there is such a wide variety out
there that most people will never have the chance to
hear some of the great bands that don't get much
attention. To each his own!
Being an instrumental band,do you find it easier or more difficult to come up with original ideas for songs ?
stephen: Being instrumental is all about the freedom of musical experimentation. Our songs aren't confined by a vocal message. No confines, so ideas flow freely, and thats what music is about in my opinion.
brett: It has nothing to do with the fact that we are an
intsrumental band. We just write what we know and
love. Sometimes a song will come together in a couple
of days, sometimes it will take months, but the ideas
are always there.
I usually find more of a visual or an emotional result comes from the sound of a good instrumental band than most bands with a vocalist,,,,makes the listener think a little more than usual . did you ever consider getting a vocalist or was it the idea to be instrumental all the way from the beginning?
brett: Steve and I always wanted to do an instrumental
thing, even back in the Icepick days. In fact, that
really was the demise of Icepick Revival. We didn't
want to continue screaming at the top of our lungs.
We always felt that the music spoke for itself.
Ironically, Pankratz (bass player for Icepick) now
plays in an instrumental band named Moxie-- Bad ass!!
stephen: The idea behind being instrumental is the fact that the listener can form their own interpretation instead of having it handed to them. That's actually one of the most appealing aspect of being instrumental. We've never considered getting a vocalist, definitely instrumental from the get go.
dave: we started off this band saying we don't want vocals, we want to let the music speak for us. music can say alot with no vocals, you just have to let the music inside you
Thanks for the interview.,see you around G. peace out.
you contact COLLAPSAR at sensoryoverloadbj@yahoo.com
collapsar has a 3 song demo ..email them if you want a copy
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