Philip A. Wickstrand is a contributing freelance writer for Metal Psalter Webzine. He caught up with vocalist/guitarist Jason Landrian at the Satyricon in Portland, OR on July 16, 2010.

Since 2001, L.A.'s BLACK COBRA has been the premier purveyors of the two man band Sludge/Doom Metal sound. Having released their third full-length album, Chronomega, in 2009 on Southern Lord, they have dramatically increased their visibility with wider distribution and support slots on tours with PELICAN and HIGH ON FIRE and are making great strides in bringing in new fans.

Phil: First off, how's the tour been so far?

Jason Landrian: Well, this is our first show of the tour…

Phil: D'oh!

Jason: But we just got back from Europe, like Sunday. Today's Friday, so we haven't been home for a week and we're back out. But The European tour was cool - it was grueling, there was a lot of long drives, but we played a lot of cool festivals, a lot of cool club shows with SAVIOURS and WEEDEATER and now we're back; we're here with HOWL, it's our first show, we're going to meet up with STRUCK BY LIGHTNING as well in a few days and they're going to do a bunch of dates with us and HOWL, so it's going to be killer, man. We're looking forward to the whole thing - it's going to be really good.

Phil: What was your favorite thing outside of the shows themselves while touring in Europe?

Jason: Oh, man, we got to go to this church in Czech Republic which was… I guess it's known as the Bone Church.

Phil: Oh, that one - yeah!

Jason: That one, yeah. It was awesome. That was really cool. Getting to go to the Baltic Sea was really cool. There were a couple things like that, like… oh, we saw Il Duomo in Milan, which is amazing, dude.

Phil: The ceiling inspired by Dante's "Inferno". (I confused it with Il Duomo in Florence here)

Jason: It was fucking amazing, dude - it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. It was really cool.

Phil: When I saw that, I was really disappointed that I got home and my pictures that I took of it did not turn up at all.

Jason: I didn't even have a camera with me, but it's one of those things, like even if you took pictures of it, it doesn't capture… you have to see it person, you know what I mean? So it was cool. There were definitely some things that we got to do on this tour. We only had one day off, the day off is when we went to the Bone Church, but we made a point to go do things when we had time. It was like, "We have two hours, I'm going to walk around the city and see what's going on." We were in Milan, we didn't have a long drive that day, so we and some of the SAVIOURS dudes were going to go see Il Duomo and it was awesome.

Phil: How do you think this tour's going to be compared to your previous forays through the States with PELICAN and HIGH ON FIRE?

Jason: It's going to be interesting, you know what I mean? I'm looking forward to it, you know, we're going to see kind of, I guess, what kind of groundwork that we laid with those tours did, I guess, in a way. But other than that, we're just looking forward playing shows that are more focused around, I guess, our… I don't want to sound self centered, but we're headlining and we have these bands that we chose to come out with us, HOWL and STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, so we're just looking forward to playing with the bands really and… I don't know. It's hard to say, as far as being different from those. We're looking forward to it. Touring's kind of what we do, so… not that it's not different, but in a way, I guess it kind of is because we're back on the road, this is what we do, but we're going to play a little bit longer set and just looking forward to playing for, I guess, a crowd that's more BLACK COBRA-centric, for lack of a better word.

Phil: When can we expect a new release?

Jason: Hopefully next year. After this tour, I think we're gonna try and buckle down and start writing some more stuff. And probably on this tour we're going to try and just come up with some ideas and start sketching some stuff out. We've been kind of brainstorming some stuff, but we're hoping by next year… the end of the tour is mid-August, so once we get home and we get a chance to start writing, get our heads together after the tour and everything. Hopefully we'll be in the studio early next year. I mean, ideally that would be it and then the album will come out after that.

Phil: How's your time with Southern Lord been so far?

Jason: So far, so good, man - they've been really supportive, they put the record out, the distribution's great, the record is available everywhere. Working with them has been really easy; Greg is really cool. It's been no problems at all. It's been great them helping us get the record out there to as many people as we can and they kind of helped perpetuate things with getting us on Hellfest, as well, so it's been great - they've been really supportive of the band and we're working just as hard, too, to go on tour and get the album out there and everything.

Phil: Has being on Southern Lord increased distribution of both Bestial and Feather and Stone?

Jason: Well, I mean, those are still on At A Loss and they still have the same avenues of distribution. Hopefully it's generated some more interest in those records. But as far as distribution, At A Loss has their kind of distribution that they have and I guess it hasn't expanded so much, but hopefully it's led people to those albums.

Phil: Yeah, I probably phrased that poorly - I should have phrased it like, "increased interest and increased sales".

Jason: Yeah, I mean, the sales for those have been pretty consistent and steady over the years since they've been released, so it's hard to say, like "Oh yeah, all of a sudden they did this or that", but they haven't slowed down too much, so it's been pretty cool. I think it's kept interest consistent.

Phil: How did the split with ETERNAL ELYSIUM come about and why was it just tracks from Feather and Stone?

Jason: It came about because we're friends with ETERNAL ELYSIUM and we were trying to get a release out there in Japan and they proposed doing a split with them and of course we wanted to do that. So we had actually already written most of Feather and Stone, what became Feather and Stone, for that split and then At A Loss wanted to release it in the States as a stand-alone thing, so we had an extra track that went on that release that wasn't on the Japanese release because the Japanese was supposed to have [unintelligible] tracks from us, had four tracks from ETERNAL ELYSIUM. Feather and Stone came out after; actually, the split came out. The split came out first and then Feather and Stone was released afterward in the States with one extra track from us. And then that extra track was one the re-release of the Japanese Bestial… so yes, it's confusing. That came about just 'cause, like I said, we're friends with ETERNAL ELYSIUM, we were trying to get some stuff released in Japan, they helped us out with that, proposing doing the split with them and we did a subsequent tour - it was really good, you know. They're kind of like our… I guess in a way, our sister band in Japan. We've toured there twice and both times we've played with them; we've stayed with them, they've stayed with us, they've played with us in the West Coast and the U.S., so they're kind of like our brothers and sisters over there. They're cool people.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

Jason: A book for your readers… well, I just finished "The Road". I read it on tour when we were in Europe and I also finished "A Clash of Kings", which is the second book of "A Song of Ice and Fire" (by) George RR Martin. Kind of different books, I guess. "The Road", I guess, for post-apocalyptic, dramatic needs. Also, "World War Z" was another one I finished recently, which was fucking amazing, another for post-apocalyptic needs, but a little more… I don't know… I would say, not less dramatic, but dramatic in a different way, you know what I mean? Really fucking good. And it's got zombies in it. C'mon - you can't really argue with that, you know?

Phil: I've read it three times.

Jason: I was just about to say that I'm about to go back and re-read it 'cause it was really good. Actually, the thing I really loved about it was it's the zombie thing, but the angle it approaches it from is very serious and very well researched, so "World War Z", highly recommended and like I said, "A Song of Ice and Fire" - I just finished book two, so I'll pick up book three soon - it's really cool, epic fantasy stuff and "The Road", good stuff, too. All around, man, I recommend it.

Phil: Excellent! Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Jason: No, just looking forward to the rest of this tour with HOWL and STRUCK BY LIGHTNING and stayed tuned for more BLACK COBRA stuff coming out next year.

Black Cobra's Jason Landrian

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

Formed 2001
Los Angeles, CA  USA
Label: Southern Lord
Genre: Sludge / Doom Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Jason Landrian: Vocals & Guitar
Rafael Martinez:  Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

Black Cobra EP (2004)
Bestial (2006)
Eternal Elysium/Black Cobra
                                         (Split-2007)
Feather and Stone (2007)
Chronomega (2009)

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August 17, 2010

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