Interview with Cosmic Vomit
(Photo copyright: Meg Janderova)
In Autumn last year, I interviewed the members of Walter Frosch (article here) who also made up one half of the now-defunct, YC-CY to get a better understanding of their projects as well as their approach to creating and making music together. I was also of course interested to know what other bands and projects they’re part of and that’s when I heard of Cosmic Vomit.
The band was also one of my highlights at this year’s Kombinat Festival. The Gotthard Bar was so packed that barely anyone who enter or leave the venue. The duo’s debut album, lifeisfuct, had given the impression that there were a lot more members in the band, so I was surprised to see only two people stage with a bass guitar, drums and some futuristic disguises with microphones strapped to their helmets. However, being only a duo did not stop them from the impressive and loud performance which captured the audience’s attention.
With not much information online about the band and having enjoyed the album and the live performance so much, I wanted to know more about Cosmic Vomit and reached out to the band. I would like to thank Mike for taking the time to reply to my questions and giving me an insight into the band!
(Photo copyright: Meg Janderova)
Introduction
Who are you? Who’s in the band? Are you in other bands/projects?
We are a band / duo called Cosmic Vomit. Roman on bass and vocals, me (Mike) on drums and vocals.
Other than Cosmic Vomit, Roman has a “one-person-metal” project called Orman. He also played in many other bands before that aren’t active anymore.
Outside of Cosmic Vomit, I’m currently playing in Spear Flower and I’m also doing some home recordings for a project called Lost Armor.
How would you describe the band’s music?
I think we would describe it as noise/punk, probably a little silly, fun, energetic. It’s not really at all that serious and is just something we are having fun with. We don’t have much of a plan at this point to be honest.
Tell us about the history of Cosmic Vomit: How did you meet? How did you come up with the idea behind the band? What are your influences (musical and non-musical)
We go way back as friends. Roman is 12 years older than I am and when I was around 15 years old he was already in local bands that I worshipped as a kid and would go see live. At some point one of his bands was looking for a drummer and they asked me to join. That’s how we really got to know each other. After that we played in several bands together and have been really close ever since. I consider Roman one of my dearest friends and even at times when we didn’t play music together, we would always see each other. Watching movies, going out, going on trips and all that. Just regular friends stuff.
The idea came up when I bought a new bass guitar and while trying it out at home, I just stumbled into making some silly songs with just bass and drums. I am really into all kinds of effect pedals and stuff like that and just started playing around with some pedals on bass. I figured if I split the bass signal and go through different chains of effects, I can almost make it sound as if a whole band is playing together. So I just played around with that for a while at home, not thinking much of it. After recording a couple ideas that I liked I sent them to Roman and asked if he would like to try and play the songs with me, him on bass and myself on drums. That’s pretty much how it started. There was no real plan behind it or anything.
Some musical inspirations for us would be Kurvy Češi, lightning bolt, USA/MEXICO, lebenden toten, some dance / techno music as well as some metal stuff too. I don’t really know. Just noisy music with interesting beats maybe.
We both share an interest in movies and probably watched hundreds of hours of different movies together. So far, all our lyrics are quotes from Sci-Fi movies. So that whole genre is definitely also some kind of an inspiration for us. Hence the robot style masks and robo style / synthetic bass sounds at times.
Writing and recording / lifeisfuct
How do you write and compose your songs? Do you have a particular method?
I write all the songs at home. I usually just come up with drum beats, record and loop them and then jam to them on bass. After I record jams and ideas I usually listen back to them while I go running and decide what ideas to pursue.
After that I go in and add some structure to the songs, different riffs, play around with the effects and sounds of the parts and go from there.
The bass is split to 3 signals / amps. So I usually have 3 “core-sounds” to work with. One being the bass, one I look at as guitar and another one I see as a buffer for random effects, arpeggios, samples, synths and whatnot.
So once I have all that figured out I send a demo version to Roman for feedback. If he says no, it goes into the bin. If he says yes, I either work on it some more with his feedback or we look at it together during a practice session. That’s pretty much how it goes.
Where do your lyrical themes come from?
So far, all our lyrics are snippets / quotes from Sci-Fi movies. As for now, we are going to keep that theme going for our new songs.
Where and with whom did you record the album?
We recorded our first album ourselves at the practice space. We just set up some mics and played the songs live and added some overdubs as well. Nothing fancy. After mixing it ourselves we gave it to a friend for mastering.
What are your memories of recording lifeisfuct?
Recording lifeisfuct was a lot of fun. We recorded it during 2 days at our friends practice space. We stayed at this really old hotel while recording. It used to be super fancy but the owners just kind of stopped taking care of it for the last decades and now it’s this ancient castle type building that you can tell used to be fancy but is now worn down and dated. The interior is in bad shape and kind of wonky and the rooms are crazy. There is a tennis court too.
So in between recording we went there to sleep and watched a documentary about wrestling on tv before going to bed. It was fun. For breakfast you go sit down in this fancy dining room and they just bring out mountains of food, mostly meats (we are both vegetarians) and stale croissants. It was really something. Staying there kind of felt like time traveling. We booked the cheapest room but got upgraded to a suite too.
The recording process itself went pretty smoothly, we just played each song a couple times and used the best takes. It was pretty straight forward and we wanted to record in a way where we would be able to play it all in a live scenario as accurately as possible.
Where did the idea come from to release it on cassette?
We think that our music is probably most enjoyable at a live gig. We don’t really expect many people to listen to any of it at home or on headphones while they are out and about. The music just seems too annoying somehow. Live there is some energy to it, it’s fast and noisy and you can watch us play and whatnot. We still wanted to have some kind of physical release. Cassettes are easy to make and also affordable. So it made the most sense to us to just do that.
Are there any plans to release the album on vinyl?
There are no plans for a release on vinyl. Who would even wanna buy that haha?!
(Photo copyrights: Michaela Theus, Roberto Bilic)
Live and the future
How would you describe Cosmic Vomit live in concert?
I would describe it as noisy and silly. Hopefully a bit hypnotic at times and able to suck viewers / listeners in for 20 mins or so. I think it can potentially be a lot of fun to see us live. I feel like I played in a lot of serious bands over the years and I really enjoy that there is a silly aspect to Cosmic Vomit. I mean we really try to make interesting and unique songs and we also practice a lot to be able to play the songs well enough. But overall it’s not too serious and I am happy that so far people seemed to get a kick out of it seeing it live.
Your first show was a bit over a year ago - what are your memories of it? What highlights have you had since on stage?
Technically that is not true. Our first show we couldn’t play because at soundcheck the venue realized that we are too loud for their decibel requirements. So that was a bit unfortunate. But after that it has all been smooth sailing so far.
The highlights are really just all the times Roman and I are together having fun, playing the songs and going out to eat after practice. We have been friends for so long and it’s really cool to share some kind of creative outlet together.
Where did the idea for the microphone helmet come from? And the ideas behind the disguises?
The disguises are kind of just on brand with the lyrics and whole soundscape of the band. The idea started because it was hard to sing without moving away from a mic stand for both of us. So a microphone within a mask / helmet would keep the microphone in place no matter what we do. So it was a practical choice at first.
I have to say though, it is really nice to play incognito style without people being able to see my face.
What have been your favourite moments so far with Cosmic Vomit?
Like I already said, my favorite moments are just all the time spent with Roman. He’s a keeper.
What do you have planned for the near future?
Right now we are getting ready to record our second album which we highly expect to shake up the music industry. We are just finishing up all the songs and getting in some practice sessions to be able to play them as well as possible for the recording sessions.
Other than that we have some more gigs planned in June and July. That’s about it.
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