We’ve been enjoying the live videos from Fun Fun Fun Fest nightly but as enticing as it sounds, repeated viewings of this priceless performance by The Jesus Lizard or this epic Les Savy Fav clip at home shouldn’t be a part of anyone’s Friday evening agenda. Especially since Red 7 is hosting a handful of top-notch local rock acts that will surely expunge any lingering post-Fun Fest lethargy. But be warned, the sounds resonating from the venue this night are not for the weak of heart. Eagle Claw bring the thunder early on with an ample supply of sizzling guitar licks, Woodgrain’s chiming experiments continue the sonic onslaught, and the always impressive Tia Carrera bludgeon through lengthy doses of psych-metal in the penultimate slot. Black Cock’s thumping electro-rock brings down the curtain on this exceptional noise-laden bill, adding some vocals to all the racket along the way. Chock-full of resonating keys and immaculately layered vocals, the band’s debut full-length Robot Child With A God spawns ominous soundscapes that might not usher in the end of days just yet but are disconcerting enough to imply impending doom and darkness. We chatted with Black Cock’s ringleader Chico Jones earlier this week to learn more about the band’s recording process, and their hopes and dreams.

Where was Robot Child With A God recorded?

We record at Ohm Recording Facility -- my studio. Ohm is designed to operate fully analog, fully digital, or a hybrid of both. The rooms sound great. We've got 24 track 2" and 16 track 2" and we have Apogee X series converters. I really wouldn't record anywhere else unless I could nerd out and watch over some experienced engineer's shoulder all day.

Australian Cattle God Records, who we consider to be one of Austin’s genuine purveyors of noise-rock, released the record -- how did you get connected with them?

Bryan Nelson is a friend. He records and mixes other ACG bands at my studio like Reid Wilson, Red X Red M, and Woodgrain. I have recorded his band, Snake Trap, a couple times. It made sense for him to release our debut. He had the distribution. We had the finished album. He liked the record and we like him. He might be an illusion to all of us--a mythical beard nymph. so we enjoy him while we can.

Tell us about the band’s creative process and production techniques.

Ben (Kent) and I spontaneously produced the foundations of all of the songs -- several of the songs on the record went straight to 2" tape as they were conceived, if that makes sense. Then I would try to bring more structure to them by adding keys for bass parts and keys for other melodic elements -- since the guitar is often rhythmic at best. Keys Keys Keys. Piano was my first instrument. I even play guitar percussively because of that. I would add all the vocals and harmonies last to try to bring it all together.

On the technical side: the drums and guitar were recorded live in the same room. We'd run back and forth after rolling tape. Then the basics were transferred into the computer. Overdubs were done digitally but with lots of analog in the signal path. We built up layers and layers with keys and vocals. Then the guitars were too thin. So we added a couple guitar overdubs in a few spots on the recording. Then the drums would get lost. So we'd back up again. We'd run the mixes by good engineers who don't even like our music. We didn't want musical opinions at that point in the game -- just balance advice. I mixed it in the box. But I prefer to mix back out through the console -- it sounds better. A digital mix buss is at best a representation of other virtual tracks. I love analog gear. It far outweighs the fidelity and reliability of digital. But we were ready to be done with this record. You pick your battles. We had it mastered by Jason Ward in Chicago Mastering Service because he rules.

Everyone plays a role in the creative process. I often played the different arrangements for Ben, Jordan (Lee), and Whitney (Lee) and they would approve or send me back to the shop. I had a lot of fun by myself trying different sounds on keys--there are about 7 or 8 different keys on the album. If I f*cked it up, we'd erase the work, or get Jordan or Ben to try out ideas. My favorite time was vocal time. It was not easy to write vocals on some of that record. But the process was fun.

Once we all agreed the song was good enough...Jordan and I would add more noise using keys mostly. And the best part...we'd remove lots of my vocal tracks and replace them with Whitney, of course, and Jordan & Ben as well. So even if I handled most of the shaping after Ben and I produced the skeleton of the song, there were important breakthroughs that we made with writing or performances by Ben, Jordan and Whitney that were essential to zipping it up. It's our record.

How do you define success and what is the ultimate goal for this band?

Longevity. Either you created a musical moment or scene so powerful that it spawned several bands to become great (The Pixies). Or maybe you continue to put out great records even though your label dropped you, or your CD sales are down, or your band broke up and you went solo etc. (insert name here) The new model for "making it" includes internet marketing. And the internet comes with a lot of hype. After a couple years the dust settles and a new story is written about a particular band. I think a long track record of creativity is a good measuring stick.

But along the way, every creative person can be distracted by rent, bills and the job that pays for those things. You'll find out that band x wants to get their song into a commercial because band y made $10K on this or that. You can't hate on that. We all see the old standards dying: CD sales, a big tour bus, and advance from a label (what is that actually?). But it seemed like that was Bob Seger's job. Now bands are trying to mix instrumental versions of their songs before they even have a fan base. And to check if we're on the right course with our music, we're left trying to measure things like MySpace hits , Bandcamp downloads and YouTube views. Maybe that's not how things shake down in the end. Those things can be hyped and manipulated. But shitty music is still shitty. And hopefully bands are thinking about that and not taking the hype too seriously.

Ultimate goal: I have a studio. I know a lot of talented people. I plan to explore all the musical ideas I can in this band (and any other project). What is my lame excuse otherwise? And of course, if we get some recognition from fans or media along the way and maybe even a buck or two...I wouldn't complain. Black Cock should be big in Japan!

Thank you for speaking with Austinist.

[Black Cock MySpace]
[Tia Carrera MySpace]
[Woodgrain MySpace]
[Eagle Claw MySpace]

Filed in Arts & Entertainment and tagged australiancattlegodrecords, blackcock, eagleclaw, music, red7, tiacarrera, woodgrain

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