Crude, crusty and eternally sludged, 18 years into the band’s existence, Sourvein have rightfully amassed a reputation for bullshit-free heaviness the likes of which almost no one else could even begin to think about matching. Frontman, vocalist, founder and lone original member T-Roy Medlin offers a look at life that’s as intense as it is intimate, casting off the “songs about monsters” ethic in favor of a brutal honesty that’s won Sourvein loyal fans the world over. Raw expression is barred by neither language nor culture, and Sourvein‘s primal take is about as close to “real” as it gets when human beings are involved.

The North Carolinian outfit’s new full-length, Black Fangs (Candlelight), is their first long player since the beginning of the Bush era. In 2002, they released their sophomore outing, Will to Mangle, on Southern Lord and began to cement a legacy they’ve since backed by nearly a decade of constant touring and solid EP and split releases with the likes of Japanese mayhem bringers Church of Misery (twice) and now-defunct Israeli crushers Rabies Caste. Their trio of Sourvein-only EPs, Emerald Vulture (2005), Ghetto Angel (2008) and Imperial Bastard (also 2008), allowed them to keep on the road without taking too much time off to record, while still also maintaining a momentum of offerings going into the eventual next album.

And as that album emerges in 2011 in the form of Black Fangs, Sourvein find themselves with perhaps their most potent, gritty batch of songs yet. Medlin — joined in the band by guitarist “King” James Haun (Ol’ Scratch), bassist Ahmasi O’Daniel (Earthride’s Dave Sherman filled in on recent tours) and drummer Jeffrie “Kong” Moen — is scathing in his throat-ripping assertions, seeming to inflict physical and emotional pain in equal measure on himself and audience alike. That feeling comes straight out of Sourvein‘s live show, and captured on Black Fangs by Vince Burke of Beaten Back to Pure, it’s balanced perfectly with clarity of sound.

To be blunt, there was a lot to discuss with Medlin. From the time between albums to the origins of the material on Black Fangs itself, Roadburn, other upcoming tours and his appreciation of tragic Hollywood starlets (Theda Bara graces the cover of the latest record, and the band have had a years-long love affair with the memory of Sharon Tate), he was no less honest over the phone than he ever is in Sourvein, and it was exciting to hear him talk about taking the lessons he’s gleaned from his years in the band and using them to move forward into their next record and beyond.

Please find the complete 3,300-word Q&A after the jump, and please enjoy.

Who’s in the band now? It’s you, Jeffrie, James. Who’s playing bass?

There’s a bass player, who’s the studio bass player – he’s not the studio bass player, but he’s a bass player – and he’s able to do this tour, but we don’t really have a set bass player. I’ve got a couple different guys I use. Sherman from Earthride filled in for two tours because he was available and right there, so that worked out. We used him for those two tours, and then Ahmasi, he’s gonna be doing the summer tour, and we’ll see if he can do the next one. King James is on guitar. He’s ex-Ol’ Scratch, and then Jeff “Kong” Moen is on drums. They’ve been in since Halloween of last year. Maybe a little before.

Would you be interested in this point in having a set lineup for Sourvein, or do you like having people come and go?

It brings something different to it each time, but like I said, these two guys have been in it since Halloween, or last summer for James, and I like what’s going on with them and I hope that it works out for everything for them to stick around, those two guys. The lineup thing, it’s obvious. It’s been going on for… this is my baby and my band from the early ‘90s, and it just really boils down to who can tour and who can stick with it. Things change and life throws people different curveballs and shit – myself as well – and then also different members have different obligations and stuff like that. A lot of lineup changes have just been from that. I said it back then, we’re no different than Queens of the Stone Age, Crowbar, Megadeth, Nachtmystium or whatever. My focused thing, and whoever can tour and commit to it. In the past, there’s been fill-in guys, and it’s seemed like, “Oh yeah, that guy’s in the band, now he’s not,” but they were actually filling in. They weren’t ever supposed to be in the band. But like I said, I dig what I’ve got going on now. We’re looking for a permanent bass player, but until that guy comes and proves himself, I’ve got some people to do it.

Were the songs on Black Fangs all written since last summer?

I’ve been working on the album for over two years. I had some setbacks and stuff. My mother passed away and that really threw a curveball on me and I wasn’t able to get in the studio like was planned, and once again, if I had time to go in the studio and someone didn’t, it was stuff like that. Me and James wrote a lot of stuff together, and then James brought some songs in. James actually brought in “Night Eyes,” the music for that. So yeah, it’s been written since ’09. Been working on it since then.

I know you did the trilogy of EPs and a bunch of splits, but was there something different about this material that made you want to go the full-length route with it, as opposed to splitting it up over different releases?

Nah. The reason I did the splits and the EP thing was I thought the EPs would be a cool idea and it was like the way I was able to record between – I was touring like a madman at the time, so it was a way to still be recording but still be touring and that and everything. In the in-between time of the full-length to this full-length, the band hadn’t stopped doing anything. We’ve been recording and touring nonstop the whole time, nine years or whatever. Just waiting on the right label, really, to put out the full-length. We ain’t just gonna put out a full-length just to do it, and it not get distributed or promoted. Plus, I like to give it time for a full-length to live it out and everything’s really personal, the lyrics and everything, and I like to let it become its own thing before just throwing a full-length out there. I was waiting on the right label, really, to do the proper full-length. Candlelight came along and here we are.

How has it been working with Candlelight?

It’s good, yeah. We’re stoked to be with them.

You said King James brought in some of the music for the songs. What’s your writing process like at this point?

I write riffs. I come up with parts and breakdowns and stuff like that and I contribute that. And I kind of choreograph a lot of the songs with the players. They bring something in and we shape it together. But I’m constantly bringing riffs in. The main riff on “Fangs,” the main riff on “Gemini,” that’s stuff that I do. Just worked together. He brings stuff in, I bring stuff in. But to shape it so I can sing to it as well. Arranging it.

What was the recording process like? Did you do it all in one shot, break it up?

Yeah, it was broke up into a few pieces. It was really rough because, like I said, I was going through a really rough time, and once again, when I sing, it’s not about haunted houses or movies or fast cars or whatever. It’s about shit life: poverty and struggle. Strife and pain. I was going through a bad time, as far as having the death in the family, so it was really rough, but it was also kind of good, because it was like releasing demons as far as venting through the vocals and stuff and getting some of that stuff off my chest. Overall, it went well. Vince Burke from Beaten Back [to Pure] and Hail!Hornet, he did the record, and he did a really good job. And James and Ahmasi, and we had Ashley from Buzzov*en play on some songs. It came out and I’m stoked with it.

That release. How does that compare, recording to live? You’re very confrontational on stage. I saw you at Roadburn. It’s almost like you’re fighting.

(Laughs) Once again, that’s where it’s at for me, the live thing. It’s like a vent. When I’m up there, I’m in my own zone. That’s kind of what it is to me. I’m just venting all this stuff. I’m battling just to get it out, you know what I mean? I just take this stuff pretty serious, so I’m kind of fired up when I’m doing it. It’s not against the crowd or anything. I do battle and say stuff to get everybody riled up. Who wants to see a guy just stand there and be like, “Yeah, doom, man,” or whatever? Throw some water at me. Make it fun. You see somebody just slouching, tell ‘em, “Bang your fuckin’ head.” I’m not confrontational with the crowd. It’s serious. I lived out these songs. I just kind of get in my own zone up there. I hope people dig it. That’s where we’re at live, and that’s what we try to create on the records – the live sound – as much as possible. We’re a good-time band, too. We like to get up there and have fun.

I think the live sound comes across on the record, but it’s still clear. Vince did a really good job keeping that balance.

Yeah, I think he did an amazing job capturing our live sound, but making it record-worthy. Like you said, a good balance between both. That’s something that we were trying to do: make it sound as live as possible, but also make it thick and heavy and stuff like that where it needed to be. We’re the type of band that, we don’t try to sway or nothing. I’ve seen some reviews so far and they’re like, “Nothing new here,” blah blah blah. But there is a lot new there if you listen. We’re trying to hit some different notes on songs like “Flux” and just different rhythms and stuff like that. If you really listen, there’s stuff that’s moving around from our last releases and stuff like that, and different vibes in there and stuff like that. That’s our sound, man, dirty. Our name means “dirty,” pretty much. Ugly. Sourvein, that’s where it came from. The spelling got switched up on one of the early fliers, and it looked better, so we just went with it. The ‘e’ instead of the ‘a’ just flowed better on the flier or whatever, so we were like, “Yeah, that’s cool, whatever,” not knowing that people would take the meaning different. It means dirty and ugly, and that’s how we like it, and that’s how we’ve been liking it since ’93. We’re not gonna stray too far from that, but we’re also trying to incorporate some different notes and different rhythms, use some different influences on different songs. “Flux” has a different kind of vibe to it, and there’s a song, “Gasp,” which uses some of our old crust elements in it. We hadn’t done that in a while. Different things.

So you change it up within the context of what you’re doing.

Yeah. It is what it is. It’s never been set out to be anything different. We’re not trying to shred on you or do any math problems or be the next big thing or nothing. We just try to straight up come in and fucking crush. Loud as possible, dirty as you can get it, thick as you can get it. We don’t stray too far from that, and we’re not going to, but we like to use different notes and try and separate some of the stuff in different rhythms and still try to be original with it. The scene has been played, as far as sludge and doom. It’s kind of hard to hit a new note or whatever, so we were trying to find that.

What keeps you wanting to do that after 18 years in the band?

I’ve been doing this since high school. I’m a lifer at this. Even without that word, it’s painted. This is all I know. I’ve been doing this since payphones and book your own life. House parties and shit. It just all kind of evolved on me. I was cruising along, just being in a band, and next thing you know, we’re here, we’re there, I’m moving to L.A. Next thing you know, it’s been eight years and it’s one of those things. You brought it this far, let’s keep going. Now, I turned around like two years ago, “Damn, fuckin’ 15 years. Can’t quit now.” I’m gonna ride it till the wheels fall off, basically. Do it as long as I can do it. I don’t want to be a dude that’s 50, 60 years old. I don’t want to be playing some basements when I’m 50 years old, 60 years old, but if that’s where I’m at at the time, I probably will (laughs). I just love playing music, man, and I love creating new stuff and playing live and recording. I love it all. It’s what I’ve been doing. It’s what I know, and I feel that after the years, I’m just finally getting to have the wisdom and stuff that comes with being in it for years. I think that my next album, it’ll be the one that I can really put some wisdom into, some focus into, use all the albums that I’ve done, the experience, and come in and be more on point. After having the experience of all the albums I’ve done, and this album, Black Fangs. I learned a lot from it, and I think I can build from that.

How do you mean?

From recording this? I just learned more about even my vocals. I’m more on point. I kind of go about it a different way. I don’t drink as much as I used to, at all really. When I play live, I drink a little bit, but I don’t really look at partying anymore and stuff like that. And like we were talking about, my riffs and stuff like that, and even helping arrange stuff, just being more on point. I’ve learned through that process a way to do it.

Does some of that come from working with Vince?

Yeah, working with Vince, and working with Billy Anderson in the past. There’s things that I learned that I forgot, and all of a sudden, it’s like, “Oh yeah, this is something we could do,” just from years of doing it. Definitely working with Vince, and having time to do one-on-one kind of stuff. Just being more focused. And even my guitar playing’s better now, so I’m gonna be able to add more of that to it. I just can’t play live due to – I broke my arms like three times skateboarding and once on a motorcycle – so it just doesn’t work in a live situation. It goes numb, my hand. I probably need some sort of surgery. Plus, I like to be free with the microphone, but I like to write and I like to bring the riffs in and help arrange stuff. It’s like anything, if you do it once, you’re like, “Wow, that was cool,” and you do it again, you’re like, “Yeah, I remember last time, we did this,” and after you do it six or seven times, you’re like, “This works, this works and this works, let’s do that. Don’t waste time on this, because I’ve done it before and it sucked. This works better for us.” Like anything: wisdom through experience. You learn through recording, so obviously it’s going to get better as it ages.

I’d think years of touring help too.

Yeah, same thing. Years of touring, where you pull up to a venue or something, you jump out, you know what to do. You know what works best for you, what you need and stuff like this, and you’re able to communicate that. If it’s your first or second tour, you just kind of fumble through it. So yeah, you just learn from the experience. And now it’s like both sides are becoming easier for me because I’m becoming more experienced.

How was Roadburn for you?

It was awesome. We missed it the year before because of the volcano, so it was cool to redeem that and be able to come back and play and everything. When we played, I was just super-excited about that. Just being able to play in there. A ton of people in there. It was just a full-on adrenaline rush. Super-natural high.

And how was it playing with Sherman there and on tour?

It was cool. We were thankful Sherman filled in and everything. He held it down, and we had a great show I think at Roadburn, as far as the way we sound. Sherman’s a cool guy and a great friend, so it was fun. We wish him luck in Earthride. He was saying he needed to get back to start working on some stuff with them, so we were stoked to have him for filling in, and stoked to hear the new Earthride. He was able to fill in for the Mardi Gras tour and the Euro thing we just did, so that was cool. We wish him luck in Earthride. He definitely needs to get on the road.

And you’re doing a tour in July with Hour of 13, right?

That’s definitely happening. The tour starts in Philly on the sixth of July, runs through New York, and Boston, New York state, all the way through the Midwest, through Ohio, Chicago, Indy, St. Louis, Kentucky, Tennessee, the back to North Carolina. We’re doing the US in three different runs, so nobody gets burned out and they can keep their dayjobs and stuff. So it’s like two weeks here, two weeks there, throughout this whole year. But we’re doing dates with them in July, yeah. Through the East Coast and the Midwest. There’s a couple other guests that are coming up that’re playing a few of the shows here and there that we’re excited about but I’m not able to announce yet (laughs).

Are you going to go back to Europe on this album?

Definitely. We’re looking at that in November. We’re hooking up with a different agent over there and getting something solid and professional. We’re talking about November, the UK and some of Europe, Belgium and Holland. Maybe a couple dates in Germany, but once again, we’re just trying to keep it to little two-week things here and there. We’re setting up the West Coast for the end of September, early October, so that’d be another two weeks. Every state’ll be hit, we’re just not doing it in a big 50-day run. We’re spacing it out, a month-on/month-off kind of thing, and trying to see what’s out there, what offers might come in. We might try and do some package touring. I’d like to be the opening band of something bigger or get a bunch of bands together and do a fest kind of tour. Similar bands or whatever. We’re trying to be available for things and plan ahead.

What’s next for recording? It’s never really long until the next Sourvein release is out.

This time, people are like, “Well, it took nine years,” but we don’t look at it like that. It took nine years to find the right label. It took nine years to do a record that would count. Once again, to throw a full-length out there on so-and-so buddy’s label, just to have it sit. I want everyone to get it, and we had to find the right label to do that. I’ve already got a few songs working for the new record, and James has a few as well, so there’s already four in the mix that’re gonna be ready for demoing after this tour. I’m hoping to have the new record recorded by March of 2012. I’m working on it right now. I was working on it this morning. Both records were in the mix. I was working on one thing, Black Fangs, and some of the songs I was doing were becoming something different. I wanted to save those for this other record that had a theme to it and stuff, just sounding more like that stuff. There was some stuff that was on the backburner from working on Black Fangs songs, so I was able to get a head start this time, and like I said, I’m more focused now and really inspired. I was working on it today, so there’ll be a new record following this record. I’m looking forward to that as well, but right now I’m just promoting Black Fangs and trying to get on the road.

One more question and I’ll let you go. Who’s on the cover of Black Fangs?

That’s a cover I did with a friend and my girlfriend. It’s Theda [Bara]. She’s one of the original vampire ladies, from like ‘50s vampire movies. She had a troubled life and stuff, and so it’s paying tribute. She’s one of my favorite vampires. The record’s kind of tied in with a usurper, vampire theme. Not really a theme, but an overall thing. That’s the visual for the record’s feeling. Lyrically, I like to do songs about old starlets that just had a bad break, down time. Like Sharon Tate. You were at Roadburn, you saw the backdrop of that, and there’s a t-shirt. We have a few songs about her. She was an actress that just got slain. It wasn’t her choice, so we’re just trying to keep her spirit alive in our way. She was hot, and she was a fearless vampire killer in some of her movies she was really cool in. It’s kind of in her honor we bring that up. Same thing with Theda, Black Dahlia, Savannah, the porn star. Just wayward starlets sometimes is a theme I touch on. But that’s her on the cover, yeah.

Sourvein’s website

Candlelight Records

Tags: Candlelight, North Carolina, Sourvein

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.