Conan interview: "We have already started writing the follow-up to "Monnos""

Perhaps the most hopeful and promising name of the great doom-mother England, Conan, is one of the bands that do not leave much room for doubt. With two amazing albums that set new limits on what 'heavy' is and with their most recent essay, this year's "Monnos" that makes even now the speakers rattle, they are coming to Greece for the sole purpose to break heads and ears. On the occasion for this upcoming concert, we spoke with the mastermind of the band, Jon Davis (guitar, vocals), who warns: 'Bring earplugs'.

'Conan' is a name that promises a lot and delivers even more. Why did you choose the particular name for the band?
Hi, and thanks. At first the name was chosen because we had started writing songs that gave the image of simplicity. We were miles away from where we stand today, but the aim from the very beginning has been for us to write songs that were brutal, simple, heavy and engaging, some of the lyrics we wrote at that time dealt with sword and sorcery, epic battles etc. and the name Conan came to me one time when I was sat by my computer. I’ve always been into old Sci Fi / Sword and Sorcery films and the original Conan stories were, and still are, a huge source of inspiration.

Your devastating debut, "Horseback Battle Hammer", had received a positive critical acclaim and had made a huge impact in the underground. Had it been helpful for you all this acclaim or put you under pressure?
I think it has been both helpful and a source of pressure at the same time. Horseback Battle Hammer was a collection of songs that were written at a time when we were of no interest to anyone. Most of those tracks were written in 2006 / 2007 and so we were very surprised at the reaction to the album when it eventually came out. Of course, we liked the sound of it and that is why we decided to releases it, but it was never written to be released. This meant that as soon as people liked it they wanted to hear more music from us, which of course then leads to a demand for more material. We did of course do a split with Slomatics and then released the next album Monnos. Any pressure we feel comes from within as we don’t want to release anything that we don’t feel proud of, and this is the sort of pressure that bands should always feel.

"Monnos" is an interesting title. It reminds me of Monnos the Elder, a rare npc giant from the "World Of Warcraft" videogame series and that’s the only connection I can make. Is that from where you inspired the title or it has a completely different meaning?
You hit the nail right on the head! Initially we believed that we had actually invented the word and spelled it Monnossss. Monnossss was going to be the name of the final track (before we called it Invincible Throne). On the day we returned from the studio we checked and found Monnoss (the real meaning) on the internet so decided to keep it.

The production has been made by Chris Fielding and I have to admit that it’s a magnificent piece of work. I think "Monnos" sounds utterly heavy and in the same time seems more accessible than I could imagine. Was that an initiative that Chris took or you wanted it to sound that way, too?
Yeah I think it’s quite an accessible sounding album too, and I think that is a result of how cool the split with Slomatics sounded. My guitar tone is certainly different and that is something I constantly chop and change so I’m not surprised. Haha! Chris Fielding is a great person to work with, and we’ve been dealing with him for quite a long time. We get along great, which helps in the studio, and we always enjoy spending time in the studio. I think we’ll go for something slightly different on the new album though.

Vocals seem a bit 'catchier than in "Horseback Battle Hammer" and i like the way they contradict to the massive heaviness. Have you ever thought about making them more 'growly' like most of the sludge/doom bands out there?
The vocals are that way because we don’t really get the growly voice. Because we tune so low we decided that a higher pitched harmony would work better. Phil can do the lower harmonies quite well but to make the sound better, and to fill it out more, we prefer the higher harmonies as they add a lot more than a deep growl, or whatever it is. We’re not trying to invoke the wrath of Satan and were not pretending to be demon’s, we’re warriors proclaiming the oncoming of death and destruction from a top a misty mountain top.

"Golden Axe" is an interesting song. Sounds like an oasis in the middle of a desert of crushing riffs. It has those repetitive smooth drone guitar layers which bring to my mind the most recent Earth records. I’m guessing that Earth must be a huge influence to you, don’t they?
Yes, Earth are a huge influence actually. We don’t write much clean stuff at all, but when we do we like long drawn out single notes, lots of echo. I guess lots of bands use that sort of thing to build atmosphere but we figured it would work on the album as the rest of the tracks are so full on.

Who is writing the lyrics? What are they about?
Lyrics are written by me. I write my lyrics in quite a cryptic way I guess and not all of the songs are directly about one particular subject. I remember David Bowie used to write words down then cut them up and shake them around until he had stuff that looked cool. I kinda do that in some ways, but with a focus on sword and sorcery, fantasy, mythology, war, weapons etc. The song Hawk As Weapon was written while flying home from holiday and I translated my fear of crashing to the earth with an image of a hawk flying to an enemy on the ground... There surely can be no cooler way to kill someone than commanding a sky-born predator.

Do you think that as a power-trio you work better? Have you ever considered having a second guitar that could make things a little easier for you?
No not really, we think the three piece idea works fine so far. We were originally a two piece (just drums and guitar) but we branched out and got a bass player to fill out the live sound. We use so many cabs and amps that if we had another guitarist I would have to lend him some of my amps and speakers and I couldn’t have that, coz I’m a selfish bastard. Plus, we only have three seats in our tour van – Paul, Phil and I.

There is a topic, in the 2008 documentary "Such Hawks, Such Hounds", about what really 'Heavy' is. What is 'Heavy' for you?
Heavy in musical terms is music that puts you in an awesome mood, a feeling of utter euphoria brought about by smashing down a castle, with an axe. I think you must be referring to the famous scene with Matt Pike. Well to be honest, I can sum the word 'heavy' up no better than him. In fact we supported sleep in Oslo on May 5th and backstage we had some beers with the guys in Sleep. Matt and Jason and Al were speaking about our tuning and they then went on to say that they (Matt started it I think) thought we sounded like a herd of war elephants, ridden by warriors, swinging 20 foot long hammers.

I read somewhere that that you usually use dropped-F tuning. Is that true?
Yes, this is true. We started out in B or A, then thought 'fuck it, why not'!

You describe your music as 'caveman battle doom' which I find very suitable, because plain 'doom' is just too soft. Who came up with this term anyway?
Well I think we occupy a cave within the 'doom landscape' where you will find us hooded, plainly dressed and evasive. We’re not really into the 'fashionable' stuff you can find flying around nowadays. We’re three tubby guys, with nerdy interests, who just like playing music as heavy and as loud as possible. Well play riffs that sound shite to most people, but if we like them we don’t mind. The Caveman tag came from the guys who put on our first ever show back in 2007 and it stuck from there – I guess it sums up the simple, brutal and careless way in which we present ourselves.

Which bands would you point as your main influences?
I can name three from my perspective... Slomatics, High on Fire and pick any from Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Fudge Tunnel, Gonga.

To get back to "Monnos", Tony Roberts made a fantastic artwork once again. You have been working together since the very beginning. We have seen from his hands all of the epic things: Hammers, warriors, skulls, mythical creatures, etc. Have you ever considered doing something entirely different?
We love working with Tony, and his artwork has inspired all of our releases so far so we are not really bothered about using other people – we don’t want to break up a winning team. There might come a time when we decide to do something different in the future of course, but we dot feel that way currently. Tony is going to do the artwork on our next two releases already!

In 2012 you played to the most massive destructive festival, Roadburn Festival. How did you feel about that?
Roadburn was up there with the best shows we’ve done. We really enjoyed the whole occasion and hope we’ll get to play it again before we’re grey and old! From the first discussions with Walter and Jurgen, through to the applause you get after the set it was just fantastic. We were a little nervous setting up as the whole room stayed full after the previous band finished and had to set our gear up in front of a packed house - I couldn’t think straight... The show itself went great, with a couple of mistakes, but I still watch the video now and think it’s just amazing.

Any plans for the future? Is it too soon or have you already started to record new material?
Yes, we have quite a bit planned actually. We’re writing a follow up to Monnos currently, which we hope to record in June 2013. We have some stuff written and demoed already so we’ll start the new stuff soon too. We’ve got a two week European tour in the pipeline for Feb, some dates in Finland (and maybe Sweden and Norway) in March, we have  some shows lined up for the UK in April with Bongripper (not confirmed yet) and have some other stuff going on in May too.

Will I have to bring my earplugs for your forthcoming show here in Greece?
Yes, I would definitely recommend it. We never used to use them when we played live but we have almost 3000 watts of speakers, tube amplification and the world’s finest fuzz pedals so I think you'll need some sort of protection!

That’s it guys. Wish you the best because you deserve it. Doom on and stay heavy! The last words are yours.
Thanks very much, we're really looking forward to the show - can't wait to meet our friends in Athens.