Pretty stoked on this interview – John Cobbett from Hammers of Misfortune is underground metal legend, having played with Gwar, Ludicra, Vhol, Slough Feg, Amber Asylum and now leading Metal Blade’s progressive metallers Hammers of Misfortune – read this and learn something
* So you guys have been going for about what 15-16 years now? Can you give those who are new to the band a brief history of how the band came together and what everybody does?
The band started out as a solo project with just me. Eventually a real line up formed around it and we went under the name Unholy Cadaver for a while. We changed our name to Hammers of Misfortune and released our first album in 1999 or 2000, somewhere in there. Since then we’ve had many line up changes, too many to go into here. We have six full length albums to our name. Our current line up is:
Joe Hutton: vocals
Leila Abdul Rauf: guitar, vocals
Sigrid Sheie: organ, piano, vocals
John Cobbett (me) guitar
Paul Walker: bass
Will Carroll: drums
* What musical influences does Hammers of Misfortune have?
To name a few… Early Van Halen, Uli Roth era Scorpions, Yes’ first 3 albums, Metallica’s first 3 albums. Classical music and certain songs (“Windmills of Your Mind” is a good example. Certain songs have been very influential.) The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, the Beach Boys and the Beatles. I mean, I could go on and on… My favorite band is probably The Sweet.
* Growing up – what live show did you catch when you thought “this is what I want to do with the rest of my life”?
Yes. I saw the Obsessed open for the Bad Brains when I was 14 years old. You know when you’re that age, new neural pathways are being formed that will determine a lot for the rest of your life. Obviously this mind blowing experience permanently warped my young brain.
* Name a classic rock song you wish that you had written
“Kill the King” by Rainbow. Such a kick ass song. “Flying Alone” on the latest album is a bit of a tribute to that song.
“Sigrid and I moved to Montana, so we don’t even live in the Bay Area anymore.”
* Off the top of my head most of you guys are in other notable Bay Area bands (We have interviewed Leila Abdul-Rauf about Cardinal Wyrm and the ladies from Ludicra (Laurie and Christy) re: their new band Ails. I have also seen one of your other bands Slough Feg before , by chance in some bar in SF (down an alley way and thru some restaurant)how do you guys manage to find time to do Hammers of Misfortune and all your other bands?
Ha, I think i know which gig you are talking about. Can’t remember the name of that place…
It’s quite challenging, to be honest. Everybody is always busy. It’s especially hard now that a few of us have young children. Also, Sigrid and I moved to Montana, so we don’t even live in the Bay Area anymore. We manage to find a way. I end up doing a lot of the work by myself. I don’t ask people for their time until it’s absolutely necessary.
* You have worked with some really notable record labels (Profound Lore and Metal Blade) over the years with Hammers of Misfortune..do you have any preference with working with labels compared to going it the DIY route? What can they bring to the party that bands can’t do themselves these days?
Distribution, know-how and PR. A label knows how to put out records, deal with cover art, pressing plants etc. better than a band is going to. Distribution is still a big deal, especially with people buying vinyl again. And PR is huge. You could put out the best album ever recorded but no one will know a thing about it without PR. A label like Metal Blade has the PR game down way better than any band member could hope to. All this stuff is probably too much for band members to deal with. Unless they quit their job and just do band business full time.
* How does the songwriting process work with H.O.M? Does it all start with you or is it a group effort?
I do most of the songwriting by myself. We just don’t rehearse enough to collaborate heavily. Once we get together everybody has their chance to offer their 2¢ about the arrangements etc. I’ll work on a song for months sometimes before I feel it’s ready to bring to practice.
“I don’t think folks have the budget to hire producers these days, but I’d love to try it.”
* If I am not mistaken you also produce the bands albums too – how did that come about? Self taught or do you also produce other acts?
At some point I started getting really interested in recording. By the time Hammers and Ludicra started recording I just naturally fell into the role of producer. I would be there every minute of every session, making a lot of decisions. I guess it was an accident, done out of necessity. I’ve never produced other people’s bands, but I’ve thought about it. I don’t think folks have the budget to hire producers these days, but I’d love to try it.
* What’s the recording process like for you guys? Many bands I deal with these days prefer the digital / pro tools set up as opposed to the old school tube amps and 2″ tape days. You?
We’re more into the tube amps and 2” tape, for sure. However, we normally do a combination of analog and digital recording. The sound will hit tape before it enters pro tools. Most of the mixing is done in Pro Tools, but I’m less and less into plug ins and digital effects as time goes on. On our last album (Dead Revolution) we didn’t use any digital effects at all. All the reverb was off big 4×8 reverb plates, and the rest of the effects were stomp boxes and tape delay.
The way we record is standard enough. We play the songs through with the whole band, and then we overdub keys, guitars and vocals. We don’t use metronomes or tempo maps. Lately I’ve been doing some interesting things with re-amping.
* I know you guys have a big tour this summer – do you have favorite cities and towns to play?
I’m sorry to say we aren’t doing a tour this summer! We’d like to, but Joe is going to be a first time dad coming up here, and Sigrid and I have a 2 year old. We’d have to take a mobile day care unit with us! We’re a pretty obscure band at the end of the day, we don’t exactly pack large venues. We have pretty good shows in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Austin and New York. And San Francisco, of course. In other places we don’t seem to draw very many people. I don’t know if it’s just the terrible performance of our former booking agency or what. We haven’t had great luck with touring.
“There was the time we forgot to lock our trailer and all our stuff was falling out on the highway all the way from Des Moines to the Twin Cities.”
* Any classic tour stories from previous tours?
Well there was the time we forgot to lock our trailer and all our stuff was falling out on the highway all the way from Des Moines to the Twin Cities. We spent the next day retracing our steps and trying to find our shit. It was awful!
* You were in GWAR for awhile right? How did that come about? You must have some hilarious stories about Dave Brockie?
I knew Dave from the punk scene in Washington DC. We got along great because we both loved music and comics. I was only in Gwar for a few months. I never put on a costume or played live with them. Dave was a hilarious guy, definitely the kind of guy that just takes over the room when he walks in. One of the most charismatic people I’ve ever met.
“The stereotype of SF being full of weirdos was definitely true.”
* The Bay Area has been a prolific breeding ground for rock musicians since the 1960s? Why do you think that is?
It’s interesting because you could hardly have 2 more opposite scenes; the 60s Grateful Dead scene and the 80s Thrash scene with Metallica etc. There was also some amazing stuff from the Dead Kennedys to Neurosis and Sleep. There was just a lot of creative energy in music (not so much anymore, unfortunately). The Bay Area never became a big time center of the music business, like Seattle, LA or Brooklyn. I guess there was a lot of friendly competition, which just makes everyone work harder. And yes, the stereotype of SF being full of weirdos was definitely true.
“SF is the poster child for devastating gentrification”
* I spoke about this with other Bay Area musicians in recent interviews – are you very concerned about the rapid gentrification of the Bay Area? I know many musicians are thinking of making the move to LA simply because its cheaper
Yes, in fact, as I mentioned above, we have already left San Francisco. The City has changed so much, it’s not the place that I fell in love with all those years ago. It’s a great place to be rich, or homeless. It seems like this is happening in a lot of cities now, but SF is the poster child for devastating gentrification. All the real culture has been priced out.
* What can we expect from H.O.M. for the rest of 2017?
I hope to get started on album number 7 pretty soon. We’d love to play some festivals!
* Any final words?
Hails and thanks to you and everyone who reads this!