Dianne Webb of YesterdazeNews recently conducted an interview with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY guitarist Woody Weatherman. You can listen to the entire chat via the SoundCloud widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On the band's forthcoming studio album, "No Cross No Crown", the first to feature frontman Pepper Keenan (also of DOWN) in 13 years: Woody: "I'll just say this: We have the greatest fans. They have stood by us through thick and thin. It's so awesome. We feel so lucky to still have folks who come see us, check out the tunes and all the rest of that stuff. It's a giant part of it for us. We worked hard on [the new album]. The expectation that we put upon ourselves was 'We aren't going to toss any crap out there.' We're going to work on it until it's right. We don't want to disappoint people." On the chemistry between him, Keenan, bassist Mike Dean and drummer Reed Mullin: Woody: "It's awesome. Really, it's kind of like riding a bike. We all know each other. We're all bros for many, many years. Really, the best part of it was getting back and playing all the classic songs from all those albums like 'Deliverance', 'Wiseblood', '[America's] Volume Dealer' and 'In The Arms Of God'. It's been a real pleasure for me to jump back into those songs and re-learn and re-remember them from the past. And then of course, it's a pleasure to work on all the new material. It's a big part of my life and I'm just having a blast." On the writing process for "No Cross No Crown": Woody: "Technically, it took that long [one year], but the way we did it this time was we would jump in and Pepper would fly in from New Orleans and I would climb down off the mountain and head back to Raleigh and we would meet up for these four or five-day sessions and just write and record one to two songs in each one of those sessions and just be done with it. And, of course, then we'd all go boogie and go back home for a couple weeks, then we'd all fly back and we'd meet up and do the same thing. Over the course, I don't know, I guess maybe seven, eight, nine months, I'm not sure how long it was, but it took us that long doing it that way to get it done. But it was almost like we sort of needed those breaks in between those intense sessions to sort of get our minds back straight and let what happened set in. It was a totally different way of making a record for us than what we had ever really done, but I think the end result came out good for us." On working with longtime producer John Custer: Woody: "He's awesome. He has worked on every record from the 'Blind' record on up. While we're in the studio working, he's sort of like another member of the band. He chimes in with ideas whenever we hit a wall. He's not big on the songwriting part of things, he sort of lets us do our thing. Once that sort of stuff is already in motion, he jumps in. Say if we're doing something and we hit a wall. We're like at a point where we don't know which direction to turn, he'll be like: 'Okay, here's three ideas.' [Laughs] And all three will be awesome, so we'll be like 'Oh, shit! Okay, why didn't we think of that?' It's why we keep him around and he enjoys it. It's just like butter like the rest of it. He knows what we do and how to get the best performances out of each of us. He knows what to ask of us without going too far. It's awesome. But, really, when you get down to brass tax, he's just a wizard musician and he knows a lot about all different genres and all that and he makes Pepper and I look silly on the guitar. He's just a master. It's awesome having him around and I really couldn't imagine doing a C.O.C. record without him." "No Cross No Crown" will be released on January 12 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. It will be made available on CD, digital, vinyl, and cassette formats. CORROSION OF CONFORMITY is currently supporting BLACK LABEL SOCIETY on a North American tour. The tour began December 27 in Denver, Colorado and will wind its way through nearly four dozen cities, the journey coming to a close February 27. Additional support will be provided by EYEHATEGOD and RED FANG on select shows. Photo credit: Dean Karr
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