Lelahel Metal Interviews Moat Cobra
jeudi 27 juillet 2023
Interview Moat Cobra
Moat Cobra, born from the Orlando punk and metal scene, has been on a journey of musical evolution since 2013. The band's sludgy, chaotic, and metallic sound incorporates elements from hardcore, punk, and even death metal. With a new EP on the horizon and a unique live and studio release, Moat Cobra's blend of aggression and melody continues to captivate listeners and push the boundaries of the metal genre. As they navigate life's challenges, the band remains dedicated to their labor of love, hoping to share their diverse sound with audiences far beyond their hometown.
1. Can you tell us about the origins of Moat Cobra and how the band came together in 2013?
This band really came out of a couple friends that all played in other bands in the local Hardcore Punk and Metal scene in Orlando Florida. Me (Dave Moreno) and Jordan Douglas, our original Drummer, had about 3 songs written and two of those songs ended up being “Blood Crops” and “Soffo Cone” but after jamming the songs with a couple random people interested in playing with us and having a few friends coming out to jam on the songs we ended up bringing in our friend Jeff Stamborski on bass who played in another band with Jordan in Orlando called The Products, a local thrash punk band, and Brett Beavers on vocals, from Destructonomicon another local thrash punk band, and that solidified the core beginning lineup of the band. As we kept writing songs, recorded a three song demo and started playing shows, our bass player jeff moved to Australia for a job opportunity he couldn’t turn down, which lead to us to getting our friend Jeremy Ashe, a local tattoo artist and contributor to hardcore and metal scene over the years, to take over on bass and after falling out with our drummer, Jordan, we got Al Serrano from Motivated by Silence, a local melodic deathcore band, to finish the recording process of our first studio album Deimos, which is one the B side to this record, but after releasing our first album came the pandemic and prompted the exit of Jeremy after he moved to the coast of Florida. That’s when we got Roberto, who we call “Open,” to fill the bass position but sadly he just had to move a couple weeks before the releasing this album so we’re gonna continue as a three piece until we find the right person for the gig especially after having Open in the band and him raising the bar on bass for us as a band and being an all around good dude.
2. Moat Cobra has experienced some lineup changes over the years. How has this affected the band's sound and dynamics?
Well, when we first started writing songs we really didn’t know what our style was really going to be we just wanted to do something a little different from what we had all been doing in our other bands since jordan was playing thrash punk and I was playing in a band called Aella, a mathy hardcore punk band. We both liked sludgy bands like High on Fire and Eyehategod so we wanted to incorporate that into the sound and since we all had a punk background, including the rest of the guys in the original lineup, we wanted to mix in our punk roots in the sound as well. As I mentioned before “Soffo Cone” and “Blood Crops” were our first two songs, “Blood Crops” is our first attempt at a sludgier style and “Soffo Cone” was our attempt at mixing hardcore punk with like a sludge groove breakdown. It was as we kept getting new guys that the sound kept evolving. Once we got Al we could start incorporating blast beats and more double bass parts and by the time we got Open, he was able to take the songs we already had from Deimos and make them his own and add a lil more nuance and character to the bass lines which you can hear for example in the live version of “Bad Star” which has Open’s bass parts verses on the studio side that has Jeremey playing bass on it. Now with our newest song “Devour” you can hear a glimpse of what we’ve been working on with our sound, incorporating not only the sludgy hardcore punk elements but also adding elements of death metal, and mathcore influenced by bands like Trap Them, Converge and Botch.
3. You've had members from various local Orlando bands. How has this diverse musical background influenced the band's style?
It has influenced our style, as I mentioned before as a new member came into band, each of their own musical influences comes through in their playing. We’ve all gotten better and grown as players as well while playing in this band and I’m sure there’s still a couple other influences we haven’t messed around with yet and some that everyone will hear in the future.
4. Your debut full-length album "Deimos" was released in August 2018. Can you share the creative process behind that album and any memorable experiences during its recording?
Sure, what we normally do for writing songs is I come to the band with a rough skeleton of a song from start to finish on guitar and then we work on writing and adding the drum parts, followed by bass and last comes the vocals. Of course as we start adding drums and bass, some of the parts in the song change, either extending or shortening parts, adding or taking always parts, even when we start adding vocals lastly there will be times where we’ll want to extend a part or something like that. For the Deimos album, 2 of the songs, “Soffo Cone” and “Blood Crops” came from our two song demo, which were re recorded for the album with Al and Jeremy. The rest were written after the demo recordings were done and right before we went into the studio with Jeff McAlear, an awesome recording engineer that’s worked with bands like Sevendust, Shroud Eater and Hollow Leg to name a few and he’s also a kick ass drummer for Junior Bruce, one of our favorite local sludge metal bands. As far as stories from Recording that Album; the studio we recorded at is run by Scott Angelicos the singer of an influential hardcore band called Bloodlet, if you’ve never heard of them you should look them up, and he’s also in Junior Bruce and hollow leg, but after a day of recording vocals; Brett, Jeff McAlear, Scott and I (Dave) all went bar hoping around Deland Florida where the studio we recorded at is located and after hopping from several bars and ending up at river house restaurant where we had some killer fried catfish, and took over the jukebox there blasting slayer, much to the disappointment to all the retired older folks that where scattered throughout the restaurant/bar, we kept circling back to talking about the album and Scott wanted to do guest vocals on one of the songs so we cashed out and headed back to the studio and recorded a few takes of guest vocals and that’s how we got the guest vocals on “Blood Crops” for the Deimos album, even though Scott did vocals on three of the songs we ended up liking the “Blood Crops” vocals the most so that’s what’s on the album. The next day we had a laugh about it as we nursed out headaches and it was also a “wait did that happen” moment since we were fans and I grew up listening to Bloodlet haha.
5. Moat Cobra has had the opportunity to open for some notable bands. Could you tell us about your most memorable experiences sharing the stage with other artists?
Yea, probably the two biggest shows and probably the most memorable, as well, has been when we got to open for High on Fire and the time we opened for Soulfly. The High on Fire show was interesting because that was our third show and we had been playing as a three piece since Jeff Stamborski had just moved to Australia and that show was a sold out and it was one of the times I’ve seen the most amount of people crammed into Will’s Pub here in Orlando, this venue has a rather small stage and if you know or have seen High on Fire, you know they have a lot of gear and amps and speakers haha so all of their stuff took up all the space on the stage so all the bands that opened had to set up and play on the floor but that ended up being pretty cool having everyone so close in your face while you play and it ended up being an absolutely amazing show. The time we opened for Soulfly was memorable because that was another show that was packed and even early since we played second out of the six total bands for that show but during Incites set, which is Max Cavalera’s sons band, some guy tried to stage dive and to be fair he was a lil bit of a bigger guy… yea well the crowd didn’t catch him, they let him hit the hard floor and incites set had to be cut short so paramedics could come stretcher the guy out of the crowded venue as the whole crowd sang the Ole soccer chant haha… the show eventually went in and Soulfly crushed it.
6. "Devour" is the first new song in four years since your debut album and the first written with Roberto Oppenheimer on bass. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this song and its significance for the band?
Yea, we’re so glad that everyone will get to hear what Open adds to the old songs and “Devour.” He really did work his ass off to not only learn the old and new songs but to really make the bass lines their own thing and not be so much of just following the guitar lines. As far as inspiration, I wanted the guitar work to be fast, intense and chaotic but come to a head with final groove riff. Since this was also the first new song we wrote together, we wanted to make it somewhat short and to the point. As for vocally the song is based on a painting by Goya called “Saturn Devouring His Son” and how it represents the current status of our current world and times, we seem to be… devouring ourselves.
7. The band is working on a new EP. What can fans expect from this upcoming release, and is there a specific theme or direction you are exploring?
Yea, we’re hoping to get 5 song done and then start the recording process, right now we have about 4 songs. We actually originally recorded 2 new songs when we recorded the live set with Josh for DCxPC but that night was the first night we had played the other new song called “Doom Weaver” and by now we’ve made some changes to it since that was now about a year ago. These new songs will be some of our most technical and most diverse work yet and “Devour” might be one of the more Aggressive faster songs out of the bunch but we definitely have some slower melodic songs in the mix as well. Stay tuned to our socials, we’ll be posting some video of us playing “Doom Weaver” since we have some footage from our last couple shows.
8. The DCxPC Live & Dead Vol. 1 Presents Moat Cobra series showcases live recordings during the pandemic. How did this idea come about, and how has the response been from your fans?
Well, this all wouldn’t of happened without Scott and Mike of DCxPC Live, they started the label during the pandemic when people were live-streaming shows from empty venues which eventually turned into them putting on shows after things started to open up and having them recorded and put on vinyl. Since both of our bands Call in Dead and Moat Cobra had played several show together so we were close and once Scott and Mike started doing DCxPC they had mentioned that they wanted to record one of our shows and put it out, so it seemed meant to be and we as a band were stoked. Originally this was going to be a 7” but after talking to Scott he wanted to do a 12” and then asked if we had ever pressed our studio album Deimos on vinyl, which we hadn’t, so he mentioned the idea of putting out album on one side and the live set in the other… which at that point seemed like a no brainer, haha. Any time we talk to people about the concept behind this album seem to love it, it exposes people to a new band and not only do they get to hear what they sound like live and raw but then also get studio recordings as well, it’s the full package starter pack for a new listener.
9. The album covers for the DCxPC Live series pay homage to the VMLive album covers of the 1990s. What led to this creative decision, and how do you choose which live shows to release?
That would definitely be more of a question for Scott and Mike from the label, I’m pretty sure that came from an idea that Scott had. As far as the Botch 061502 12” album recorded at their initial final show in 2002 being picked for a preorder giveaway just came from Scott asking us what Live metal 12” album did we like, so we figured that was going to be for the giveaway.
The album covers for the DCxPC Live series pay homage to the VMLive album covers of the 1990s. What led to this creative decision, and how do you choose which live shows to release? This is Scott from DCxPC Live answering this question. I loved the old VMLive series from the 1990's, so I thought it would be rad to pay homage to them and play on the nostalgia that I feel when I see one of those albums. It also keeps the covers simple, which means it keeps production costs lower, and doesn't get slowed down by bands taking months to design a cover. As for which shows. It's a combination of things. Sometimes it's local bands, sometimes I dig a touring band, sometimes reach out to bands who had live albums that never came out on vinyl or sometimes I run into a band somewhere, and I give them a card, and they figure out how to record it in their area. The most important things are that I dig the band and they are good people. I'm not so worried if they are touring monsters or the biggest band. I want to document the scene that I love, in the way that I love it most--live!
10. Alongside the live recordings, you have a unique concept of including a "dead" (studio) side. Can you elaborate on how this dual-sided release enhances the listener's experience?
I think this can enhance the listeners experience because in getting the studio album the listener can hear the finer details in the songs, especially if it’s on that’s on the live side as well. Also giving the listener to pick for themselves which version of the songs they like better whether it’s the live or studio version since the live versions are slightly different from the studio versions. Both sides also have songs that aren’t on the other side so listeners have something on both sides that isn’t on the other.
11. Moat Cobra has been recognized as "Band of the Week" by Orlando Weekly and nominated twice for "Best Metal Band" in their yearly awards. How do these accolades impact the band's motivation and creative process?
It’s definitely let us know that we’re doing something right, and keeps us pumped to keep going. It also gets the band more attention and we can see a bump in everything when we get mentions or write ups from the Orlando Weekly. Even though we’ve been nominated for best metal, now 3 times counting this year, we have never won it and this years winners haven’t been announced, which I believe is in August, maybe this is our year! Haha.
12. With a sludgy, metallic, chaotic, hardcore sound, how do you push the boundaries and maintain a distinct identity within the metal genre?
We push more boundaries playing live, since we have a diverse sound we sometimes fall into somewhere between punk and metal we can play punk shows and we can play metal shows but we still stick out a bit but we bring people together from other genres where sometimes those boundaries aren’t crossed.
13. How has the band's musical vision evolved over the years, and what direction do you see Moat Cobra heading in the future?
The sound has definitely evolved over time from the punk sludge foundation to more of a technical mathy metal but still mixed in with punk and sludge, while also adding a hint of death metal. Each new member brought a slightly higher skill set so eventually the songs started to get more technical with timing and song structures. In the future you could here us use possibly some cleaner tones, other than just heavy distortion and messing around with more melodic passages to break up some of the intensity a bit.
14. What has been the most challenging aspect of being part of Moat Cobra, and how have you overcome those challenges as a band?
The most challenging aspect is simply life, haha. Since we have real jobs and families, life can get in the way sometimes but we do well with managing it and whatever money we make from shows or merch we put that money back into the band that way things do cost us purely out of pocket and that really helps keep the band going. It’s a labor of love, but we keep trudging forward.
15. Apart from music, what other forms of art or external influences inspire the band's creative process?
I’m sure for each of us it’s different, I know for me it’s mostly music itself since I’m constantly looking for new music, new sounds regardless of genre, also paintings if I get to go to an art museum when in a new place or if there’s a local art show from a local artist I know, all that can inspire me. For Brett it’s probably also anything to do with outer space and current events/status of the world and art, like paintings as well, since he’s based songs off that too. Al I’m inspired by other drummers and watching them do clinic videos and probably mixed martial arts, haha, and Open is inspired by gear and recording technology.
16. What are your aspirations and goals for Moat Cobra in the next few years, and what can fans look forward to in the future?
Our goals are to get this record out hopefully sell all the copies we have and let that help fund recording our new EP and give people some completely new songs and a studio version of “Devour.” I really think people are gonna hear the progression we’ve made and really dig into the material. Hopefully we get to start sprinkling in a few more shows a year outside of the greater Orlando area, since we’ve started to get a couple more out of town show offers.
