A little while back I did an On the Radar profile of Richmond, Virginia southern metallers Might Could. The four-piece outfit boasts current and former members of Lord (that’s bassist The Rob), Facedowninshit, Inter Arma, and Alabama Thunderpussy — the latter being rhythm guitarist and one of the South’s best heavy riff writers, Erik Larson. His being involved in a number of projects (Parasytic, Birds of Prey, Freeman, Hail!Hornet, and so on) as well as lead guitarist TJ Childers touring with Inter Arma and playing in War Graves — both six-stringers handle vocals — preclude Might Could from being a full-time project for the moment, but their first demo and short tour made waves nonetheless, and I figured now was as good a time as any to get Larson on the phone to discuss.

When we spoke, he was on the road driving for Relapse Records technical death metallers Obscura (the rules being: “there’s no smoking, whatever drugs they bring they have to be able to eat it, and there’s no rap music in my van, ever.”) on their US tour. Nonetheless, Larson openly and honestly discussed how Might Could formed around himself and drummer Ryan Wolfe, their plans, how he balances time between his sundry bands and real life, etc.

Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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There isn’t much to the story of Richmond, VA‘s Might Could that separates them from a lot of bands — dude moves from one place to another, starts a band, other people join and rock is had — but personnel changes the game. Drummer Ryan Wolfe may have been the catalyst, but the participation of former Alabama Thunderpussy/Birds of Prey/Hail!Hornet (the list goes on) guitarist Erik Larson is bound to turn heads in Might Could‘s direction just as much as the heady southern grooves and riffs are likely to keep them turned.

Joining Wolfe and Larson in Might Could are bassist The Rob and TJ Childers, who shares vocalist/guitarist duties with Larson. The four songs on their MySpace are high grade southern metal, and the four-piece sounds surprisingly tight for being so relatively newly formed. Perhaps even more than that, they sound like a band, and even Larson‘s contributions blend in as part of the whole; exactly as it should be.

I don’t know what their plans are (though I hope to find out) as far as putting out an album, touring, etc., but for now, it’s great to hear Might Could come out of nowhere and keep real southern metal going when so many pretenders the world over think it’s about nothing more than big riffs and vocals in the key of whis. Already looking forward to wherever they go from here, and it’s obvious even after one listen that Might Could is sincere when they toss around the phrase “fuck all.” You bet your ass they’re on the radar.

And for anyone in the Richmond area or otherwise able to take the ride, Might Could are playing their first show Dec. 14 at The Tripple. A little Monday night rock never hurt nobody.