Not the End of the World (yet) – An Interview With Doc Coyle of God Forbid

By Dan Hoyt

God Forbid is a band that isn’t settling for anything less than the maximum. Their last album, the conceptual IV: Constitution of Treasonwas released over a year ago but the band is still out promoting it, and is currently headlining a tour featuring Goatwhore, Arsis and Mnemic. Lead guitarist Doc Coyle is adamant that there is still much more for people to understand about this most recent work, and I chatted with him over the phone about the band’s message right now.

SMN: How’s the tour going right now? I’m sure you guys are enjoying the diversity that each band brings to the table.

Doc: Yeah, that’s definitely what we were going for. I mean, we’re such a diverse band that it’s actually kinda hard, but I think people are coming out and enjoying the whole show. A lot of our fans are getting exposed to new bands who don’t sound like us, and that’s way better than getting three bands that do.

SMN: Definitely. The show here in Eugene was a big local charity show for Food For Lane County featuring a ton of local bands as well, and I was wondering if that was taking place at all the shows or if it’s just a Eugene thing.

Doc: I think about half the shows are benefit shows put on the promoters, and it’s cool because all the local bands can show up and pass out fliers and tell their friends about the show. We don’t have a problem with it at all as long as we don’t end up playing at two in the morning or something. All the local bands have been very nice and appreciative.

SMN: What do you expect your fans to get out of this tour? Since you guys, Arsis, Goatwhore and Mnemic are all from different parts of the metal spectrum.

Doc: It’s important for us to let people know that first and foremost, we’re a metal band. Some people try to put us in the metalcore category, and maybe they think that we couldn’t pull off a tour like this, or it wouldn’t work, but in any event we’re showing that our fans are metalheads. They’re not hardcore kids or scenesters or something like that. We wanted a straight up metal lineup. We don’t have much in common in terms of sound, but we’re all metal bands.

SMN: Moving on to you guys specifically, it’s been over a year now since IV: Constitution of Treason was released, are you guys working on anything new right now or just focusing on promoting that album since this is your first headlining tour for it?

Doc: We haven’t officially started writing, but we took a bunch of time off after June last year to take some time away from the band so we could relax and not stress out about stuff. So for this tour, we had to do a headliner to show the world and the metal community that we could do it and that people actually believe in the band. And for our fans, so they can come out and see us one last time before we do a new record. I think once this tour’s over, we go to Australia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and possibly a Canadian tour. But after that, we’ll probably work on a new album and a DVD that’s probably coming out this summer.

SMN: What’s going to be on the DVD?

Doc: It’s probably going to be a concert documentary. Since we’re headlining and all and playing really long sets with songs that we wouldn’t normally be able to play without people getting bored so it’ll work out really, really well.

SMN: Being a concept album, Constitution focused on a strong underlying theme that we as a society tend to repeat our mistakes. Now, have you ever thought of adapting the themes of that album into some other media like a book or film?

Doc: I don’t think it really requires that. It’s not that unique of a story. In its essence, it’s similar to a lot of post-apocalyptic stuff like Terminator, The Matrix, and it represents a lot of the same ideals. So I don’t feel the need to turn it into anything more. Maybe if we do another concept album where we thought it out a lot more in advance. I mean, Constitution wasn’t originally a concept album. It ended up being that though.

SMN: The reason why I mention that is because you see a lot of movies and books that focus on dystopian views of the world, and being that the album did that as well, I thought I’d see. You guys really evolved as storytellers on this album.

Doc: It was cool, but I think it got a little too much attention. People took it really seriously and thought we were making some huge political statement, and we weren’t trying to do that. We were just trying to do something different from what we feel our counterparts have been dipping into, and we want to branch out and bring a different level of intelligence to what we’re doing, instead of screaming over riffs.

SMN: If you’ve thought about it yet, what do you think we could expect from the next God Forbid album? Is it going to be allegorical again or more straightforward?

Doc: Honestly, I couldn’t tell you! We’re the kind of band that jams a lot. On our last album, sometimes I would come in with a song and we’d go from there, but the songs really get created in the rehearsal space depending on what we’re feeling. All our albums have a certain vibe and that’s what we were into at the time. When we go into recording, we find that we’re different people and we want the album to reflect that.

SMN: As a guitar player, how do you tell a story like one that appears on that record?

Doc: When it comes to that record, the guitar playing was heavier and more intricate. We were playing new riffs and trying to expand and challenge ourselves more. I definitely want to push that with this band. I always want to do challenging stuff and play riffs that I’d want to hear on a metal record.

SMN: Dallas and Byron put together a lot of the lyrics for this record, right?

Doc: For most of it. I wrote a little bit but it was mostly those two, yeah.

SMN: Did they do a lot of the lyrics together when you guys were writing the songs or did they keep it separate?

Doc: Most of the time it was separate, but sometimes Dallas would write a chorus or half the song, and Byron would fill in the blanks. It’s really by committee. Basically whoever’s inspired to write something does and we go from there. The song “Into the Wasteland” was a big brainstorm with no lyrics and we had to write and record them in studio. It’s one of my favorite songs but we were struggling to make it work.

SMN: I’m sure that was a challenge for you guys to adapt to all the different writing styles as well.

Doc: It changed – Byron used to write all the lyrics. There was a time where we weren’t doing any of it and we let him go and do whatever. But we kinda wanted over time to put together a focal message that represented all of us and not just Byron. Not to say he isn’t important because he is, but we wanted to tackle some issues that meant something to all of us. The lyrics are a bit more universal, and we wanted them to connect with people. If they’re a bit too introverted and obscure, people don’t get it. We want people to sing along and enjoy every aspect of the band. There’s a lot more melody now with the vocals, and we wanted the words to be heard and for people to understand what we’re saying, instead of saying that it sounds “pussy.” We’re such a melodic band musically, we wanted the lyrics to complement that.

SMN: With so much oversaturation in the metal scene today with internet music, Myspace, all of that, do you think you guys are the transition that sets a lot of these bands apart from others in the mix?

Doc: I think we’re a bit misunderstood. Those who have formed opinions on us haven’t really listened to our most recent album and lumped us in with this trend. So it’s been a struggle ever since the album came out, because I think this album with the darkness and the concept went over a lot of peoples’ heads, and it might not be successful as another band, but hopefully it will pay off because we needed to make this album so we didn’t get lumped in. We could have fit in with what everyone else was doing and stick to the formula and the breakdowns and cliché, but it was important to us with this album that we didn’t stick to a formula with every song. We love different song structures where people don’t expect the breakdowns and the big clean chorus.

SMN: I understand that and I’m sure many of your fans do, but it’s just unfortunate that it would go over a lot of peoples’ heads.

Doc: Well it’s funny, because the critics got it. All the critics gave the album crazy reviews that blew me away, but other people don’t really get it. We’re not heavy or underground enough, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like it translated 100% to the kids and we didn’t get the chance to express the album on things like Ozzfest. So we needed to get out and spread the word for the album, since I still feel it’s underexposed.

SMN: Well that’s why you got this tour. You got some phenomenal bands and you’re on top of it.

Doc: In a sense, we’re headlining so we’re preaching to the already converted, but we’re always going to be fighting naysayers and shows like these help you rebuild your audience. There will always be 15-year-old kids who want to come out and buy metal records, and that forces you to go out there and expose yourself to new audiences instead of recycling. This album wasn’t everything we wanted. We’re not an underground band – we’re accessible to a degree, so if we can’t get out to those people who want to hear us, it’s going to be tough. We’ve done a lot of great things though and we’ve refused to let it kill us.

SMN: What do you think of using websites like Myspace, anyway?

Doc: It’s obviously working. Bands that have never done anything – never been on tour or been on a label – can go out and get 100,000 friends and get a record deal because of their Myspace. The exposure is undeniable. As a communication tool, it’s really amazing to have that kind of feedback. It’s a marketing tool. You can get closer to the fans, talk to them, they can send you pictures and it’s so interactive. The only downside is too many bands that make peoples’ attention spans get smaller and smaller, and if you aren’t right in their face, they forget about you and other bands fill the void. I can’t say anything too bad about it though because it’s been good for us and I wish we would have gotten in on it sooner. The bands that did are reaping the benefits now.

SMN: But at the same time, you guys can do it the old-fashioned way with touring that still reaps just as much benefit while showing the world what you can do.

Doc: Exactly. Tours say things about the band that other forms of expression don’t. So far it’s been pretty good. We’ve got magazine, radio, TV spots talking about the tour and we’ve never had that before so it’s important. I think the lineup, like you said is really good. Any metalhead can enjoy it because it’s waving the flag. It’s saying “hey, here’s a great metal package so you can support the scene.”

SMN: That’s awesome to hear, man. Thanks a lot for your time. Take care.

Doc: Sounds good, seeya later!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 9:19 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

dalenkwint wrote:

Awesome shit… just keep doing these awesome headlining shows in long island and I’ll go ’til I die.

March 6th, 2007 at 1:45 pm

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