Cog - Taking the detour

“We didn’t really go into this wanting to create a ‘New Normal 2’ I suppose," Cog bassist Luke Gower states, describing some of the challenges on writing the follow-up to the bands 2005 debut LP, The New Normal.

"We wanted to create something a bit more fresh, a bit more different, but still holding the sound that we’ve kinda created. We’ve always tried to maintain our originality, and our own type of thing, I think the songs will definitely be different on this new album. The biggest challenge is probably trying to move forward in one aspect but regain some of the things that appear on the old album as well.”

Bondi based rockers Cog have toured relentlessly, since the release of their first EPs 'Just Visiting' (parts 1 and 2) in 2002, and were writing in between tours for The New Normal. However, the process for writing this new album has been quite the opposite, as Gower explains.

“This time we’ve stopped touring and dedicated the last four months just to writing songs, so that’s been really good. But it is easy to kinda fall into a trap of waking up and getting onto doing other things other than writing music, sometimes you just don’t want to, but sometimes you do. However, it has given us a better opportunity to write more songs. This time round we haven’t paid that much attention to detail as we normally do; we’re going to leave it a bit more open for our producer Sylvia (Massie), for her input.”

Before heading off on their first United States tour, Cog will be going on a short ‘Detour’ across Australia with Mammal and Sunk Loto throughout October.

“I’m really looking forward to playing with them for sure, it’s going be great. We know Ezekiel Ox from Mammal (ex Full Scale), and in the past we’ve tried lining up shows with Sunk Loto but didn’t work out for whatever reasons, but yeah, it should be a great opportunity for us to all play together,” Gower says.

“We’re definitely going to be pumping a few new songs on this tour, try and give them a bit of a road test, so to speak. So you know we’re all psyched to pump out some new tracks, give the fans a bit of a taste of things to come. I’m actually going be keeping a journal when we go on tour, so keep up on the website for the chronicles.”

Having been on the bill at enormous festivals like Big Day Out and Homebake, Cog are also impartial to the many small venues they have played at.

“I used to really love playing at the ‘Espy’ (Esplanade) when we were first going down to Melbourne, and the Forum is good. I really like the Annandale, it’s a bit small, I mean the stage is getting kinda small as the drum-kit grows, like its on steroids, but it’s just the vibe in there that I really enjoy, and we love the staff, and we get along really well with those guys”

When asked what he has been listening to lately, as surprising as it may sound, Gower maintains that he himself does not often listen to that much music.

“You know I just try and write my own. There has been some Kiwi bands that I’ve been into recently, more dubby kind of stuff, like Kora, they’re really great to watch, very unpredictable live, and that’s what I like about them. Like, our thing is kinda regimented; we do have our jam moments and what not in our set. I’ve been listening to a bit of Mastodon, and bands like that, who are on the heavy side I suppose, so other than that, I have just really been trying to create my own stuff.”

Other than touring and recording, the Cog boys do manage to keep themselves busy, and sometimes these commitments do get in the way of their work.

“Driving past the surf before we go to the studio, you can always end up doing a U-turn and going for a surf rather than writing a song, and that can be a bit of a worry sometimes. You know, we each got our own commitments, Flynn (Gower – Guitarist/Vocalist) has a daughter, and he has to look after her, Lucius (Borich – Drummer) plays with his dad a fair bit, and myself, I don’t mind a bit of fishing, so we all got our own kinda thing,” Gower states.

“But you know, you gotta do that once in a while to keep sane, you find yourself needing a break and giving your ears a bit of a break as well.”

Apart from their unique music, and blistering live shows, Cog also gains a lot of attention through the front-man, and older brother of Luke, Flynn Gower, who is known for his unique trademark ‘catfish’ like moustache. Luke describes his experience with facial hair.

“Hahaha... Yeah, I used to have 2 kinda spikes on my beard earlier on, the sides of my beard went red so I just thought id grow them and everything kinda got shaved but the spikes continued to grow. I’ve had a few different ones, had the ‘pilgrim’ for a while, which the kinda chin strap thing, that was in there for a while, but right now its just kinda overgrown, doing its own thing at the moment, kinda lost control.”

Cog addresses many political issues in their songs, as it is something the band obviously considers an important subject matter.

“We feel kinda strongly about that, it’s not so much we’re trying to shove it down people’s throats, its just making people more aware, you know. The stuff that they get fed all the time is not necessarily what really goes on and you gotta remember that people own newspapers and people own the media, so they are going want to have it in their best interests to fuckin’ report a certain way.”

“You know that’s just the way we feel, we’re just trying to, if anything, make people more aware that there are always two sides of the story. We’re not trying to change people into these lefties or anything like that.”

Gower recommends watching a couple of these thought provokers;

“We just watched this one called ‘Loose Change’, about this conspiracy theory based around the events of 9/11, and that’s a real eye opener. We’ve toured with one documentary, by John Pilger, called ‘Breaking the Silence’; that was about Afghanistan, and families and what kind of effects the war has had stuff like that, and that goes into the whole invasion of Iraq, and that kinda stuff, and that was a great documentary.”

“I think people have been fed a totally one-sided view on that, and this movie is amazing. It’s a good thing to look at anyway, for you to make up your own mind. They do point out some very interesting things that you can’t really look past. You can’t discredit them for that; they are just stating the facts really.”
I propose the idea of a festival for bands, like Cog, who bring awareness to political issues. Gower enthusiastically lists who he would like to see there.

“If I could get Rage Against The Machine back together, I’d like them to headline! Sinead O’Connor would be a good one too. I’d probably put Kora on, Salmonella Dub, and speaking of Kiwi bands, Shihad have got a few political numbers, so that would be good. I mean those guys are good on any bill, they are just fucken’ mind blowing live, its unbelievable!”

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