This past winter was
a particularly brutal one here in the great state of Michigan….colder temperatures
and more snow than I can ever remember. When my son Elijah was 4-5 years old we
would go on walks forever, just walking aimlessly for hours. He hasn’t been
wanting to walk as much the last few years but one day this winter we went on
another one of those monster walks; this time surrounded by mountains of freshly
fallen snow.
I don’t know what it
was about that stroll but for some reason I started thinking a lot about my
sons and the relationships between the four of them, and then my mind wandered
to siblings in music. From there I immediately started thinking about the
Patterson brothers and how awesome the output of both Ryan and Evan has been
over the years. Naturally, I figured it would be cool to try to reach out and
talk to one of them.
For those who have
been living under a rock the last couple decades, Ryan has been creating some
of the best and most dynamic heavy music for a long time now; my favorite of
which has been the angular, noisy hardcore that has taken expression in Black Widows, Black Cross, and most recently Black God, but also in the form of
Ryan’s main project, the mighty Coliseum; which over the years has evolved from
raging d-beat hardcore to moody, jagged post-punk.
This summer the band
has been celebrating their ten year anniversary with the re-issue of their
debut LP via Deathwish, a run up the East Coast with Trap Them, and a
culminating week-long run which kicks off this Friday with a free show in their
hometown of Louisville where the band will play a career-spanning set, joined
by a full cast of former members.
I’ve never known
Ryan personally but have always admired his work. As his answers trickled in
for this interview over the course of the last several months, I was
continually impressed by how grounded, reflective, and wise he is. Read on, and
draw inspiration.
You've recently been celebrating ten years of Coliseum, so
first things, first, congratulations! I imagine it's probably been a somewhat
reflective time….that said I'm curious to hear what stands out for you about
the last decade, what you're most proud of, and what you foresee for the band
going forward.
Thank you very much. It’s strange to think that
the band played our first show in early 2004; it’s a long time but also seems
like the blink of an eye. It’s amazing how quickly that time has passed but we’ve
played almost 1,000 shows in that time and worked very, very hard over the
years. On a strictly personal level, I’m proud that I’ve been able to continue
doing this and stick with doing Coliseum all this time. I’m still friends with
all of the former members of the band and I’m incredibly fortunate to have
Carter and Kayhan in the band now. With the band as an entity, I’m proud of the
music we’ve made, the records we’ve released, and all the shows and travels
we’ve done. Obviously, the records are the documents of what we’ve created, but
contained within those records are our experiences of traveling the world with
our music, all the people we’ve met and places we’ve seen, all our lives in
between those records. When I think of all the wonderful people I’ve met and/or
become close friends with over this past decade it’s truly incredible.
I’m not sure what the future will hold for us...
We are about to tour Australia for the second time and we’re starting to work
on new music for our next album. From there, who knows? We simply move forward
and keep creating music that’s meaningful for us.
Coliseum has always seemed like it’s defined
by your presence on guitar and vocals, particularly since there's been a lot of
movement in the bass and drum slots over the years. Despite your steady role as
primary song-writer, the sound has definitely shifted quite a bit over the
years. Would you say that has been due to your own personal tastes in what you
want to play/hear, the influence of whoever the other members are at a given
time, or a little bit of both?
I’d say a big part of it has been due to
learning to be confident as a singer and songwriter, the growth that comes with
experience, and finding out what you really want out of the music you’re
creating. When the band started I wanted it to be stripped down and simple, the
rawness of the music and vocals was a big part of what was exciting about
Coliseum for me when it first began. As time went on we pushed ourselves more
each time to try new things within that framework of a heavy, fast hardcore
band. Obviously there were always melodic aspects to the band from day one, and
then on “Goddamage” we became even more melodic with songs like “Year of the
Pig” and “Set It Straight.”
By “No Salvation” I think we’d started pushing
ourselves into a direction that didn’t quite feel right to me and never quite
fit. This was partially my fault because I was throwing too many parts into the
songs and partially because of the lineup at the time with Chris Maggio on
drums. I think by 2007 we’d kind of lost sight of the songs in favor of
intensity. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, I think “No Salvation”
has some great songs and it certainly has great playing and production, but
after touring a lot behind that record I started to feel unhappy with where the
band had gone.
So with “House With A Curse”, I started focusing
on writing with the rhythm section first, laying a stronger foundation and
building the songs around that. Going less riff-based and more song-focused. I
wanted the band to have more dynamics, more depth. I wanted it to represent
more of what I love about my favorite bands, while still having whatever that
special thing is that makes us who we are as a band. Carter joining the band
was a really big part of that; we have a much more similar musical perspective
and attitude toward the songs. From there, we took it forward with “Sister
Faith” and I think we wrote even stronger songs while also exploring new ideas.
Kayhan was also a big part of that change; he could handle a lot of
responsibility musically and was able to make the rhythm section really
unstoppable.
When you start a band, you just want to write
some songs and play some shows. Even though I wanted Coliseum to be the
defining band of my life from the start, I didn’t sit down and think, “Is this
exactly the style of songs I want to write and play for the next ten or fifteen
or twenty years?” I love progression in bands, I love change, I love risks and
new ideas....that’s what makes art interesting, exciting, full of life. I’m not
the exact same person I was ten years ago and just as I grow and change,
Coliseum will grow and change.
I'm not generally a guy who's real big on the technical
aspect of music in terms of gear and tones and all that, especially when it
comes to guitar stuff, but the first thing that jumped out at me right out of
the gates when I heard "Sister Faith" was the guitar tone. It
immediately took me back to a scene in the Fugazi "Instrument" film
where they were tracking one of their records and Guy described the guitar tone
as sounding "woody". How intentional are you from record to record
about capturing tones that will mimic the feel you want the record to have? In
general do you feel you learn more about yourself as a musician in the studio
space where you have more time to experiment with those sorts of things or in a
live setting where you might have to be more spontaneous with certain
situations that may arise?
There is some spontaneity, but it’s all an educated
spontaneity, for lack of a better term. Which is to say, I’ve certainly gotten
much, much better at creating the sounds I want to hear and using the tools at
my disposal (guitars, pedals, amps, etc.) over the years. The sounds and
atmosphere created by the guitar are really important to me and they can be
different each time, depending on the record or what I’ve learned over time. I
had a hard time with it for years; I would change amps often and try things in
the studio that sometimes didn’t work as I’d hoped. That trial and error was
really good for me in the long run. I have records I’ve done where I am very
disappointed with the guitar sound and it helped me get to a point where I’m
finally happy with most of the sounds I get.
It’s hard to sum all of this up in a relatively
quick answer because there’s so much to it, yet it’s so simple. Ultimately,
I’ve gotten comfortable with knowing the sounds that come from my guitars and
amps and I try to use them in the ways that they work the best for the sounds I
want to hear and they sounds they can make. I’ve always been a humbucker/Les
Paul into a Marshall JCM800 guy, and I mostly still am, but I’ve also been able
to get a sound that’s a bit more unique to me by really getting to know most of
the elements that affect the sound along the way. It’s really just following
the signal chain and thinking about each step of it: the picks, the strings,
the tuning, the pickups, the pedals, the amp, the EQ, the gain, the speakers,
the cabinet. I think about that a lot and while I don’t know all that much
about the technical aspects of the inner-workings of these items, I know a lot
about how they sound and how I can make them sound.
There is more spontaneity in the studio because
you’re creating new sounds and ideas, you generally have more tools at your
disposal, and depending on the scenario you may have enough time to experiment.
In a live setting, you have to have things nailed down and ready to go. I’m
really meticulous about my live set up and sound, but I’ve also had to learn
how to get just about any amp to sound how I want quickly. We’ve been fortunate
enough to do a lot of shows where we’ve flown in and used rented gear or a
backline provided at a festival or the amps in a radio station, etc. While it
used to be very difficult to for me handle jumping into situations where I
might not be able to use the equipment that I would prefer, I’ve had to learn
that skill and I feel reasonably comfortable making it work on just about any
amp these days.
I’m a person who really doesn’t care for the
flashy or technical aspects of playing guitar. I can respect it, but I just
like the sounds guitars and amps make together. I like songs with guitars. I
love playing a long sustaining guitar note, hearing it sear out of the speakers.
That’s really beautiful to me. I’m not a huge fan of the extravagant guitar
solo or the fetishism of guitar gear; it sometimes feels hyper-masculine and
loses the point. I could listen to J. Mascis or David Gilmore’s guitar solos
any time, but they have soul, they aren’t trying to impress with technical
prowess. The same thing with guitar equipment; these are tools (fun and
interesting tools, to be sure) that are used to create sound and songs.
I wonder if it's kind of crazy for you to
watch you and your brother Evans's musical journeys which have so many
parallels; starting in the same scene, landing on the same label, both having
been able to travel the world doing music. I'm curious how the rest of your
family has felt over the years as you guys started out in bands and as you've
been able to make it a huge part of your lives well into adulthood. Also, how
often do the two of you compare notes on touring, recording, working with the
label, etc.?
It’s definitely amazing and fortunate that we’ve
been able to accomplish all we have; Evan and I were just kids who grew up
making noise in the basement in a small town in Kentucky. Our parallels are
very natural, we’re brothers and we’re close and we’ve been on this journey
together the entire time. All these mutual experiences and friendships make
sense because of that; our bands are going to be very connected no matter what.
In a lot of ways Evan and I are two sides of the same coin. We’re very
different people with different tastes and different personalities, but our
lives and art will always have that direct connective tissue. We do talk
regularly about all the things related to music and our bands.
Our family is supportive and proud of us;
they’re interested in stories of our travels. Obviously the music is still
relatively strange to the average person and the details of this world of
touring, labels, releases, bands, etc. isn’t easily relatable for most people.
Our parents are proud of us, they understand how important it is to us, they’ve
seen how hard we’ve worked on this since we were kids and how hugely important
it is and has been to our lives.
It's actually been quite a while since I have seen Coliseum
play live but I saw you several times in the early years of the band and one of
my favorite things about seeing you was your between-song commentary. I always
found it to be a refreshing mix of humor, honesty, and humility. I'm wondering
how important it is to you to have that on-stage dialogue with the audience
versus letting the music and your performance speak for itself.
It’s important to me but it’s something I’ve had
to learn how to balance over the years. It’s an ongoing process. In the early
days of the band it was a big part of the experience, the openness and
expression was part of connecting with the audience and having the show be more
meaningful. Sometimes that backfires and that connection doesn’t happen or I’m
unable to properly communicate what’s on my mind. I’ve definitely put my foot
in my mouth many times over the years, but even when things don’t work out as I
hoped I can at least know that I’m being honest. These days, it really depends
on the situation. If we’re not the last band on the bill or if we’re playing a
festival I generally try to talk less, focus more on cranking through the
songs. If we’re headlining there’s usually a point where I try to let the
audience know how meaningful and important this is to us. At the same time, I
think I’ve become better as a lyricist and songwriter over the years so I’m
better at expressing myself in the songs. At times it’s nice to simply let the
songs stand on their own without a lot of over-explanation.
Over the course of your time playing music
you've obviously worked at and with a lot of labels over the years; some rather
small, some pretty big (at least big fish in a small pond anyway). Just
yesterday Coliseum obviously announced a renewed partnership with Deathwish. I
was hoping you could give us some insight on that decision, and more broadly
just talk about what some of your label experiences have been like over the
years and what makes a successful indie/d.i.y. label.
I’ve been really lucky, I worked at Initial
Records for many years, which was wonderful, and I also released a few records
on my Auxiliary label and didn’t entirely lose my ass in the process. Coliseum
has been fortunate enough to work with huge indie labels, tiny bedroom labels,
and many others in between. As for what makes a successful label, there are so
many things....the economics are part of the art, doing things affordably is a
huge part of making a small label work. Having great taste is another. That
said, there are very successful indie labels that put out music that I
completely detest and other labels that can barely sell a few hundred records
that put out music that means the world to me. Honesty and integrity are a huge
part of it. There are really no rules. Coliseum has always been a relatively
small band....we’ve never made money for the labels we’ve been on. The labels
that we’ve worked with have put out our records because they believed in us and
cared about what we’re doing. I’m incredibly thankful that we’ve had so many
opportunities and that there are still such great labels interested in putting
out our music. We’re excited about the future with Deathwish and had a
wonderful time working with Temporary Residence over the last few years.
As I reflect back on my time in punk and
hardcore one of the starkest shifts I have noticed over time is a move away
from more political, activist type issues to an attempt to be the darkest, the
saddest, the bleakest; both in terms of lyrics as well as imagery and persona.
I don't want to put too fine a point on this or draw any sort of causation but
I feel like your visual work both with Coliseum and Shirtkiller is a part of
this move.....maybe on the cutting edge of it, maybe riding that wave, I'm not
sure. I guess I'm curious what draws you to that sort of incredibly caustic,
dark visual imagery.
I don’t see that as being the case, certainly
not for me and for us. Social issues are incredibly important to me and always
have been, and Coliseum has always had some of that content and addressed those
things at times. I’ve tried to strike a balance of personal, social, and
narrative. The imagery is different from the lyrical content or my personal
stance on things. I generally don’t like imagery that’s too on the nose. I
don’t like wearing my beliefs on my sleeve, but I do feel strongly about
speaking my mind and working toward what I believe is right. I just don’t
necessarily want a band t-shirt to spell out all of my stances on things. Dark
imagery has been around for thousands of years. In art, music, and film it has
been there going strong since at least the 60s. Whether it’s Kenneth Anger or
Pushead, it’s been there for quite some time. Coliseum’s imagery has never been
“satanic” or intentionally bleak....it’s dark, hopefully mysterious and
hopefully with elements of hope and inspiration, which is also what we’ve tried
to achieve in our music. I’m drawn to the mystery of the imagery, the powerful
elements, the beauty in it all.
What
I’ve done in my design work for other people is not indicative of who I am or
even how I want to represent myself. In those cases I am simply trying to
create a design that looks good to me based on the criteria and needs spelled
out by the client. Personally I’ve actively stayed away from things that are macho
or misogynistic. I hate those aspects and elements of heavy music and that’s a
big part of why I’ve always been drawn more to punk rather than metal.
One of the things I've noticed with Coliseum is that the
titles of almost all your records include references to religious or spiritual
concepts, and as with most punks, the slant is to look at those ideas with a
critical, skeptical eye. At the same time, I feel like at least in terms of the
titles, things have gotten more nuanced.....while "No Salvation" is
pretty clear cut, "Faith and Curses" or "Sister Faith"
suggest a less black and white look at these issues. I know you said you don't
always like wearing your beliefs on your sleeve, but to what extent would you
say your personal thoughts and experiences with religion and spirituality are
reflected in your work with Coliseum?
I think my take on religion is pretty clearly
spelled out throughout the lyrical content on our records, sometimes with some
depth and ponderance, sometimes with straight forward anger and frustration. I
grew up going to church with my mother, but I never thought much about it and
didn’t have any particularly positive or negative experiences. I was very
young, it was something that I accepted and didn’t question, although I didn’t
strongly believe in it. It was while spending some time in the Baptist church
during my early high school years that the negative aspects of Christianity
began to become apparent. As time has gone on, those negative aspects have
grown stronger and more omnipresent and I was turned off to religion entirely.
Spirituality
is different to me than religion. I don’t see myself as a spiritual person, but
I do see humans as part of a very powerful and wonderful ecosystem on this
planet and I see that as majestic and intertwined in every part of our lives
and existence. That’s not necessarily something that is reflected in Coliseum,
just like many aspects of my life and personal perspective might not have been
addressed in the context of the band.
I write about certain things that inspire
me at that moment in my life so I can’t say that the full extent of my feelings
on any subject have been expressed in my lyrics. It’s a very finite medium in
many ways; you’re trying to get something across quickly while also making it
musical and memorable. You could get a general idea about how I feel, or have
felt, about many things through my songs, but it certainly doesn’t begin to sum
me up entirely.
For even longer than you've been doing
Coliseum, you've been doing stuff with Rob Pennington; first as Black Widows,
then Black Cross, now Black God. Rob has been a huge inspiration to me ever
since the first time I saw BTGOG, I'm curious what it's been like to have
worked with him for so long and to have (I'm assuming) grown up watching him to
eventually playing alongside him.
Rob is one of my closest friends and longest
musical collaborators. I went to Endpoint shows in high school and he was a
huge figure to me at that time, he certainly influenced how I approach honesty
and expression on stage. He was the one that initially reached out to me about
playing music together, close to fifteen years ago, and I’m very happy he did.
We’ve made a lot of music together that I’m really proud of; we work really
great together in that regard and I’m very happy that we’ve done this
continuing string of bands together. He’s a great friend, one of my best friends
for a very long time. One of the greatest things about the punk culture and
community is that you can become friends and collaborators with people you
admire.
Over the course of the last few years Black
God has cranked out a series of 7 inches on No Idea, and you've sort of
embraced this ethos of "no song longer than 2 minutes, no record longer
than 6 songs." Are you guys gonna stick to that model, and is there more
coming down the pipe or is it gonna be three 7 inches and out?
There’s always talk of breaking the Black God
rules, but I’ve been making us stick to them so far....I think punk/hardcore is
a style of music that, in many cases, thrives in the 7”/EP format. Black God is
a band that does well with those parameters we’ve set for ourselves, it keeps
it simple and keeps the inspiration flowing. We’d hoped to get our fourth 7”
out in 2014, but I’m not sure we will. All of us are incredibly busy with all
our other aspects of life and it’s been hard to get everyone in the same room
together this year. Regardless, whether it’s this year or next, we do plan to
continue.
Going from one of the elder statesmen of
Louisville punk and hardcore with Rob, to the younger generation, you've also
been doing a bunch of stuff with Will Allard, both in your other band Whips/Chains
as well as collaborating with him on the mix of the live album "Faith and
Curses". What's it like working with Will and is it ever surreal to be
sort of the bridge between the older and younger camps of the punk &
hardcore community in Louisville?
Well, I’m much closer to Rob’s age than Will’s
age, but Will and I are also very good friends. Will works with me at Shirt
Killer, we’re in Whips/Chains and Automatic together, and he’s done a lot of
stuff with Coliseum, both touring with us as our live sound engineer and
recording or mixing various projects with us. The age gap between Will and me
can certainly be surreal at times, there’s a very big generational gap when it
comes to pop culture references, but our tastes in music are similar and I think
we both influence each other a lot.
I think I may be a bridge between a couple
of different generations of the Louisville community simply because I’m so
active in music. I was younger than most of the guys in the 90s hardcore bands
here and younger than the guys in the bands I first started touring with, then
when my brother started touring and he and I were doing music together, I was a
few years older than he and his friends. I don’t ponder it much, I just stay
busy and stay creative, but it is interesting to have felt like a younger
outsider when I first started going to Louisville shows in the early to mid-
90s, then become one of the more visible, long-term participants as time has
gone on. Once again, that’s one of the great aspects of punk culture.
Bringing it back to Coliseum, on the song
"Bad Will" off "Sister Faith" you seem to be expressing a
pretty strong sense of disillusionment with punk and hardcore, which is
something I often feel as well, especially lately for whatever reason. Being a
decade in with Coliseum and roughly two decades in as a person involved with
underground music, what is it that ultimately keeps you anchored in the
community, that brings you back when that sense of disillusionment starts to
kick in?
Actually, “Bad Will” has very little to do with
punk and hardcore, at least not in a general sense. I’m always inspired by
punk; there are always great new bands, always great scenes, always inspiring
people. There are always shitty bands, too. I hate the idea of being jaded or
too cool for something or “over it” or any of those kinds of terms that come to
mind. I never stepped away from this life; I’ve lived it with all my heart and
soul for a very long time. “Bad Will” is more about letting it all out. I try
to stay positive about things; I try to not speak negatively about things I
don’t like in any public forum. I think that’s counterproductive and pointless.
I’d rather talk about things I like than things that I don’t like. That said,
sometimes you just want to yell “this fucking sucks!” That’s what “Bad Will” is
about; it’s just letting off steam.
Punk as an idea and a culture has limitless
possibilities and it’s also malleable enough that it can exist and be defined
however you choose. The traveling punks asking for change at a highway exit
have a definition of punk that works for them and is real for them. It may be
different than my interpretation or how I choose to live my life, but it’s
still part of a greater general idea of living outside the lines.
I
have never been disillusioned with punk, or even hardcore, because it’s
personal to me. It doesn’t matter how shitty some band is or some scene is or
what kind of moronic bullshit someone says, punk is and was powerful and
life-altering for me. That’s why punk is better than any religion, because it
doesn’t have a doctrine, it doesn’t have a book that lays out the rules. It has
a lot of music and a lot of ideas and a lot of inspiring people who took their
lives and their art into their own hands and built something beautiful with it.
That’s what I’ve tried to do and what I continue to try to do every day.
Whips/Chains crushers: http://whipschainshardcore.bandcamp.com
