I recently caught up with Car Bomb while they are touring with Gojira throughout the UK and Europe, This is what they had to say…..
First half of the interview is with Greg and Mike the second half is with Elliot and Jonny.
Mike and Greg
How did you get into the Mathcore genre?
Greg: My friend Dave introduced me to a band called Helmet and weirdly he actually now plays in that band too.
Mike: As soon as I heard it, I knew that was the kind of music I wanted to play.
Who came up with the name Car Bomb? As its a very unusual name and I hope you don’t get any angry veterans messaging you guys haha.
G: me and Jonny were getting drunk one night and were listening to a band called Negative Land and its a track title of that album.
Who do you consider to be the best Mathcore band aside yourselves of-course?
M: Meshuggah are the godfather really and were around even before Dillinger. Although they are both excellent bands respectively. Meshuggah are way more complicated and refined. The thing I love about Mathcore is I love to learn to play other bands songs and these guys are great for that, sometimes it takes me fucking days to figure out how something goes.
Have you guys got a favourite guitar?
G: I destroyed my first and favourite guitar, it felt right at the time but afterwards I really regretted it haha.
How did you get Joe Duplantier to join you guys for your 3rd album?
M: We originally met him at a benefit gig, and at this point it was the biggest show we had ever played. We even flew out to Arizona just for that one gig!
G: Jonny met Joe one morning and they ended up close friends and since then we have all being getting closer and closer as we now all share a recording studio in New York.
What should I expect from tonight’s show?
M: Gojira are very technical and they put on a great show I think even people who aren’t into this music still appreciate the quality of what they do.
G: Yeah I guess we will have to wait and see every gig is different but were hoping for a big crowd.
Are you struggling with the Yorkshire accent?
G: 100%
M: It amazes me how many different accents there are within like a 2 hour fucking drive its fucking insane man, in America you have like 4/5 and that’s it here everyone seems to have there own slang like something out of Clockwork Orange it really is fucking crazy.
Now your touring with the mighty Gojira and share a recording studio have you learnt any French?
M: I did it in high-school for 5 years but cannot remember shit, I think just where is the book-store and I’m fat and I’m ugly haha.
G: I don’t know really anything either just little bits like mike.
What was your very first cassette?
G: The Monkey’s, they had a TV show on Nickelodeon
M: The Police and Michael Jackson but both of our first metal albums were Iron Maiden.
Favourite English band?
M: There’s so many fucking amazing bands that have come off this fucking god damn island I don’t know what it is but its crazy, I don’t have just one there are too many to pick from, we don’t have any really maybe The Doors or Nirvana but mostly they are English.
What do you guys do as your main jobs because your don’t do this full time yet right?
G: we are all mainly in IT basically and all have our own companies which gives us the means to tour as and when really.
M: Not for me I have to fucking work on the road, I have a Myfi so I work full time and then play on an evening so its a real grind for me, a good grind but at least I still have vacation time when I get back.
What’s next for Car Bomb?
G: We are currently in the process of writing a new album which is due out some time next year and other than that we really wanna hit some festivals as that’s a great way to get noticed by a lot of fans in one show.
What are you looking forward to most for the rest of the tour?
M: It has to be the gigs in Paris which is Gojira‘s home town so that should be a really wild gig and its teo nights at the ‘A l’olympia’ Paris. The whole of Europe should be really good but that will be great to see and play in-particular.
G: We really want to do some festivals as we haven’t done any yet and then more touring here in Europe and back home too.
How would you describe your good friends in Gojira?
M: Erm they’re great guys and well they are just fucking French in the best way possible, creative.
Jonny and Elliot
What was your guys first cassette?
Jonny: I had the Flashdance sound track, there’s some great songs on their!
Elliot: I think It was ACDC but honestly I cant remember. Probably something I got bought when I was 8.
What festivals would you love to play?
J: All of them, but probably Download, Hellfest and Glastonbury.
E: Its something we haven’t actually done so any would really be a good start and its definitely something we are looking into.
Have you discovered any new, young bands that you like or that you think have maybe taken some inspiration from you guys?
J: Frontera they have like a Car Bomb sound going on crazy guitar sounds.
E: There was a great band we played with up state called Bent Knee; they were really impressive you should check them out.
If you could chose 3 bands to play with who would they be?
E: Dillinger, Meshuggah, Tool and us headline act.
J: I will go completely different with, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and us.
Which is your favourite gig so far this tour?
J: London was great, we had the whole crowd to perform too as we went on stage a little later and just about a sell out I think which was great. Manchester was pretty good too very good crowd,
Are you guys also struggling with the accent?
J: yeah for sure, you have a very deep Yorkshire accent and you sound like Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, I think Newcastle has been the hardest so far but I bet Scotland will be difficult too.
What 3 words make a good album or song?
J: I think like erm (thinks for about 2 minutes);
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Suffering – I think its good to suffer for your craft,
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Challenging,
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Melancholy or something like that
E: yeah I agree I think he means like emotions rather than just melancholy.