Self Proclaimed
Southern Sludge/Doom/Drone Collective – CRAWL – have been making
music since 2012 and since then they have built a well deserved
reputation within the Doom/Sludge Metal community.
CRAWL released their
acclaimed debut album – Old Wood And Broken Dreams – back in
November 2014. I rated it very highly back then and it's still an
album I listen to on frequent occasions.
I wanted to see what
the band have been upto since then and I'm happy to report that Eric
Crowe (Guitar/Vocals) kindly agreed to this interview.
Hi
Eric. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today.
Things
are going good today, getting caught up on some things.
Can you give a brief history of how the band came together and where it is today.
In
the Spring / early Summer of 2012 I called up an old band mate of
mine, Tommy Butler, to see if he would be interested in starting up a
new band with me. We had played previously in Sons of God, but had
been a couple years since that disbanded. We had a long time friend
of mine, John Holloway to come in and play bass, but he was in a
difficult place and hard pressed for the time to devote. Then came
Tyler Akers a couple of months later, playing bass for us for quite a
while until he decided that he wanted to venture out into a different
direction.
So
then we recruited Patrick Lowe into the fold March 2014, who has
played with me in an old band Big Yellow Mama in the early 2000s.
Just recently, Tommy has stepped down as our drummer. He has been
there since the beginning and it was a bit out of the blue. He wants
to pursue a different avenue musically, and we respect that. So we
are currently in search of a new drummer.
Why did you call the band CRAWL. Any particular meaning.
The
bands name comes from a thought process I had during the end of a
really difficult depressive period. I have battled depression since I
was a kid and there are days where the weight of it all is so heavy
and I didn’t even have the motivation to move. Everything is a
struggle in those dark places. Getting up is a struggle, dealing with
people is a struggle, even doing things I like is a struggle. But at
the end of each day even if all I could do is crawl, I was still
moving forward.
How would you describe your overall sound to new listeners and followers of the band?
We’ve
joked around and called what we do “Whiskey Doom” or “Speed
Drone” just because we have been open to write songs differently
from the others. It’s partly cause of how I write. I haven’t
really locked into one way to write or how the songs come out. I just
hear it and feel it, and go with it. So some have a heavy southern
blues based groove, others are much slower and darker, exploring the
realm of discomfort and then we experiment with the extended pieces
and drone.
You released your last album – Old Wood And Broken Dreams – back in October 2014. It received quite a positive response from the Doom/Sludge Metal community. Did it surprise you the praise the album received?
It
really did. I do hope that others dig what we are doing and can
resonate with it to some degree. So we were stoked to read peoples
thoughts and to hear tracks on radio shows and podcasts along with
bands we respect and those that we call friends.
Looking back at the album, would you change anything about it? Or would you leave it the way it is?
I
think most artists look back on previous albums and see things here
and there that they could have done differently. I feel like it was a
collection of songs that we had at the time, but I do like the fact
that the album got darker at it progressed. There are definitely
things I would tweak on it, but those are things that we learn and
grow with over time and apply to the next album.
Are you guys planning on recording any new material in the next 12 months or so. Or perhaps play some gigs. Is CRAWL still active today.
Crawl
is still very active, even with the search for a drummer at the
moment; we are always planning the next 2 to 3 moves. There is always
something brewing. We are heading into the studio to record a track
for a Sabbath tribute for Stone Groove Records called
“Sabbatarianism” that should be out the first part of 2017. This
will be the last recording with Tommy, so we think it’s going to be
something pretty special.
What influences you when writing and recording new music.
There
are a lot of things that influence me; from personal turmoil,
relationships with people, or just how I feel on a particular day or
moment. Personal struggles and life long struggles tend to take the
forefront of the writing, like the journey through depressive
episodes and feeling trapped in them. It’s hard as hell to see the
end of it and wonder if you can even make it back into the light.
This past year has been hard with quite a few losses, a lot of people
have had losses this year, and so those feelings and pain find their
way into the music, the riffs and lyrics. There is a drive inside of
me to create and I guess it tends to be more cathartic than I
thought, but in some way or another it’s always been some sort of
release.
Do you have to be in a specific mood when playing or performing with CRAWl. As your music can be quite bleak at times.
Thank
you for that. It helps sometimes, it really does. There are times
where there are a lot of distractions and I’m personally not
hitting it as hard as I should. The band pulls together always and we
make it through to the end of the set. I was playing a show in Macon
at the Oglethorpe Lounge with the band of one of my best friends,
Billy of Hexxus, and he helped me get into the right headspace before
playing. It’s become a ritual for me before sets. I can’t always
do it, but it helps me when I can. I think about the songs we are
playing that night, where they came from and how those things have
shaped me and the importance of each song. Then you slowly let it go.
I do sink into those moments when I can, and know it’s more genuine
when I do.
Do you guys perform regular gigs in your hometown of Atlanta, GA. As Atlanta is perhaps known for Progressive Sludge style bands. Do you find it hard to fit into the overall Rock/Metal scene. Or does Atlanta Rock/Metal scene see no boundaries of genres.
That’s
an interesting question. We probably play here around 4 times a year,
give or take. Our focus is more out of town and state. We’ve been
able to do an East coast run with our brothers in Dead Hand last
year, and looking to expand our time on the road this coming year. I
think there is a degree of difficulty in playing in the scene here
due to Atlanta really having a wide variety and high volume of bands.
It’s
saturated with talent and shows are always going on, so it makes it
hard for booking sometimes. With every “scene” there’s cliques,
there’s unnecessary attitudes, there’s great and genuine people
and hard working bands as well.
I
wouldn’t necessarily say Atlanta is known for Progressively Sludge
bands, it’s known for Mastodon, that’s for sure. But there’s
more to this town than that. Whores are blowing up right now and
getting a lot of well deserved notoriety that comes with their hard
work. They are different and something you would have heard from
Amphetamine Reptile records.
Dead
Register is a post Goth rock synth driven project that stays clean
and is beautiful vocally, but are so heavy without being heavy. I
know that doesn’t make sense, but you have to hear what they do.
The Dirty Magazines, Order of the Owl, Gnonenaut, Lazer/Wulf and
Withered all bring different things to the table as well. Bands
closer to what we do would be Sons of Tonatiuh, Kr’rth, Canopy and
OOTO. Atlanta has a lot to offer so I know I’m overlooking a lot.
With 2016 drawing to a close. Have you listened to any good albums this year that really surprised you. Can you recommend any new albums to your fans out there.
This
year has been great on music!
Hexxus
“Tunguska”, Ember “261”, Dakessian “The Poisoned Chalice”,
Sea of Bones “Silent Transmissions” & their split with
Ramlord, damn this thing is so heavy! Pesta “Bring Out Your Dead”,
Curezum “100 Years / The Top” (with Billy Anderson. They take
Cure songs and make them Black Metal) Black Tar Prophet / Iron Gavel
split, Wasted Theory “Defenders of the Riff”, Shroud Eater / Dead
Hand split 7”, the Leechmilk “Starvation of Locust” re-issue on
vinyl and the return of Never Presence Forever.
How hard is it to perform as a band in today's Doom/Sludge Metal scene. Are things you would like to see improved. If so what things would you improve.
There
are difficulties, but that’s just part of the process in some ways.
Overall you just keep pushing through and find other avenues to move
forward. As far as improvements are concerned? I’d say
communication between bands, venues, booking and promoters. Good God,
being on the road and promoters not doing their job and being lazy,
that sucks. If you are a promoter, do your job.
Go
put up flyers around town and at least at the venue the band is
playing, especially if the band is from out of state and can’t do
those kinds of promotions. Venues that are in another state wanting
you to find locals in the area to fill the bill is stupid to me and
comes across as lazy. If we have never played that city before and
don’t have any friends there, that’s really difficult. Last time
we had to do that we ended up getting this local band with huge egos
and were racist. I’d like to see venues and bands working together
more efficiently.
Too
many times the venue or band feel that they are more important than
the other, when it’s the combination of the two is what makes it
work.
Before you go, do you have anything to say to your fans.
We
sincerely appreciate that people dig what we are doing and those that
can help spread our music to more people. We appreciate all our
friends and new friends we’ve made out there, and are looking
forward to more tours in the coming years. At this time we have a 7”
due out early part of 2017 on Bad Road Records in Russia. We are
finishing up our newest drone piece which is a collaborative effort
with highly respected Dark Ambient project, WILT, out of Michigan. We
are still writing for our next full length which has some different
elements and leans more to the doom side of things, so we are
excited. Thanks so much for the support and doing this interview with
us.
Words by Steve Howe and
Eric Crowe
