5 Questions with Black God

When you think about the great musical towns of the United States, Louisville, Kentucky is hardly the first one that comes to mind. However, when I scroll through my iPod, I think differently. Some of my favorite bands are from Louisville, and one of those bands is Coliseum (If you're an avid Clock reader, you'll remember Coliseum from being included in my Favorite Albums of 2010).

Needless to say, I was excited to learn that Coliseum majordomo Ryan Patterson was releasing a new record with his other band, Black God, out next week on No Idea Records. Simply called Two (It's their second release), the EP is a brief, visceral slice of Kentucky fried punk n' roll that could be the bastardized offspring of Epitaph and Dischord's joint 90's catalogs, with the melodic sense of the former and the grit of the latter coming together beautifully to form something truly its own. Don't take it from me, head on over to http://blackgodlouisville.bandcamp.comand take a listen yourself. Many, many thanks to Ryan and Ben to answering my questions.

Please state your name and role in the band, and give us a brief history of Black God.

RYAN: Ryan Patterson, I play guitar in the band. Black God is a continuation of bands that Rob and I have been doing since 2000 when we started a band called Black Widows. Black Widows changed our name to Black Cross in 2002 and put out two albums, Art Offensive and Severance Pays, along with quite a few singles. Black Cross kind of fizzled out, but never really broke up. Nick was the bass player on the last Black Cross album, and when Rob and I started talking about continuing on with a new project, Nick was the obvious and perfect choice. Ben is a great drummer from Louisville's younger generation of bands, we knew him from Prideswallower and Mountain Asleep and had always wanted to play with him. So, we wrote some tunes and that's that.

BEN: Ben Sears, I play drums. Ryan and Rob asked me to play drums for this around the time that my old band broke up.

2.)People who don't follow metal and hardcore wouldn't necessarily list Louisville as a musical hotbed, but it really seems to be. What is it about the city that breeds awesome, aggressive music? Who are some bands from the area we should check out?

RYAN: Louisville is a big music town on all sides, although without a population big enough to really support the large amount of local bands. I don't really know much about the metal scene here, but obviously the punk, hardcore and indie rock community has spawned a lot of bands, including our own current and past bands. It's an affordable place to live with a great groundwork put in place by 30+ years of underground bands. Currently, I dig Xerxes and Vaderbomb quite a bit.

BEN: Growing up in the Louisville music community was great for me because there is such a huge group of creative weirdos to draw inspiration from. A lot of the bands here rarely play out of town, so not a whole lot of people are aware of all the unique music we have. There are so many bands doing great things right now, it's hard to come up with a list without taking up a whole page.

3.)Black God is much more on the punk side of things than the members other projects. Was this a conscious decision, or just what happened when this group of guys started writing?

RYAN: I don't see it as being more punk than any of my other music or what we did in Black Cross. We did consciously decide for the songs to be short and concise, so that points toward a relatively simplistic and energetic approach. Personally I tried to focus a bit more on playing fast single notes more than chords.

BEN: I think all of us are influenced by punk to some degree, so it's only natural that it comes out in the songs. We write songs quickly and don't over analyze things, so maybe the punk sound comes from how raw and simple it is.

4.) You recently posted the "Rules of Black God so far" on your Facebook, those being no song longer than 2 minutes and no record longer than 6 minutes. Would you also say that releasing the record on vinyl is a rule? That seems to be the go to format for you guys. Any place to ever release a CD or cassette?

RYAN: In an attempt to keep the band stress-free and as a bit of humor between ourselves, we've come up with some "rules" for the band: No song over two minutes, no record over six songs, no record larger than a 7", no splits, no covers, no stress. That's all I can think of so far. I'm sure we'll come up with more and/or break these rules when we feel like it. Yes, 7" vinyl EP's are the format of choice for this band and the short songs enable us to fit six on each record. I have no love for cassettes, coming from a time when cassettes were the common format. They have no practical function other than nostalgia or novelty. Compact discs are almost as irrelevant at this point. I could see us releasing some longer formats at some point to collect various releases, but we have no long term plans to release new music on anything other than 7" vinyl.

5.)Black God has a pretty youthful, vibrant sound to it. Is punk rock what you were into growing up? It seems like this is kind of a back-to-your-roots record for you guys. Was there anything you listened to growing up that has bled into Black God at all?

RYAN: I think the benefit of some of us having been in bands for a few decades is the ability to accomplish music that is pretty close to exactly what we set out to do. Punk, hardcore and what is now called "indie rock" (but was called "alternative" or "college rock" when I was a kid) shaped my life and my musical perspective in innumerable ways. It still does. Black God is not a back to roots or retro band in any way. We've all been involved in bands since we were teenagers and some of us continue to do our other active long running bands. I don't take offense to the question, but I have never liked that idea. Everything I've ever done has come from the same place inside my heart and mind, so there's never been an attempt to recapture something. Black God is a band comprised of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. it just is what it is, there's no grand concept.

BEN: I haven't been playing music for nearly as long as the rest of the band, but I think we all share influences. I learned how to play drums by listening to loud, heavy, and fast music so I have never really strayed too far from my roots.