"I whooped Howard's ass and you can print that..."

In this sit down chat with guitarist for God Forbid, Doc Coyle shows that he is definitely a great spokesman; not having a problem speaking his mind. He definitely wears his emotions on his sleeve, passionate about God Forbid, and defends the pay to play on Ozzfest. He also had a time convincing European interviewers that he was not Howard Jones from KsE hence the statement above. Nevertheless, he loves KsE and Lamb of God that he wants to put them on Docfest. Read on to find out more.

Sharita: Do you guys ever get tired of the comparisons to Living Colour?

Doc: I think it’s inevitable since there are not a lot of multiracial or black bands playing metal and rock. I mean obviously musically were not even close, people who are straight up metal [know the difference] but you know Living Colour they could play funk and the singer he was really soulful, I mean you could tie it directly to black roots ya’ know, but what were doing were just a straight up metal band, if you didn’t see a picture of us you wouldn’t know that there were black people in the band which would probably throw some people off but it is what it is and we’ve kinda had to deal with it and that’s fine. I mean when were sitting there rehearsing we don’t think about that we do what comes naturally.

Sharita: I saw a post on a message board that said black people can’t rock, if a fan told you that would it bother you and how would you respond to that?

Doc: I wouldn’t even bother responding because that person is ignorant; black people invented rock music you know, I mean without Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, I mean black people invented rock music, all rock ‘n’roll is straight up blues that how it is. I mean I think 99.9% of people don’t have that [mindset], the people that do you don’t have to feel sorry for these people because they’re not stupid they just might not know any better. I mean they are probably in a situation where they hung out with some other ignorant people and their ignorance is fueled by hate, something bad happened to them so they want to blame their problems on other races of people and you can tie it to a lot of psychological or sociological things and why racism exists or why people have these views but I still think generally these people are in a minority. There still are people that don’t like blacks or don’t like white people but that’s just the way it is but people don’t have to like each other. I don’t let that occupy my day, I just think about being in a good rock band.

Sharita: What did you listen to growing up?

Doc: I was all about Metallica, Guns and Roses, Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura, At The Gates, Meshuggah more of the traditional thrash metal stuff then I started getting into the more extreme like Morbid Angel, Suffocation, you know things like that. Then for the past few years I’ve gotten more into the traditional rock, melodic stuff like Radiohead, Beatles and Deftones. Just trying to find really good music wherever it lies, but when it comes down to my main influences it comes down to the original thrash Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, and Pantera that’s definitely the real roots for me.

Sharita: How different are the crowds in Europe as opposed to the US crowds?

Doc: Well we haven’t done a real European tour, but we’ve done the UK, but we’ve also done some shows in Germany, Holland, but when we did the UK it was Chimaira, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and us. So the shows were insane and every one was sold out and it’s a much younger audience, a lot of teenagers and they like so excited you know. We are big metal bands over there and it was amazing they were really appreciative, bought all the CD’s so it was cool. I think it really depends on the tour.

This Ozzfest tour, were doin’ some off dates with Slayer, Slipknot, and Hatebreed so even on our off-dates were playing to 3,000 - 4,000 people and fans are sayin’ oh the Slayer crowd is tough but as soon as we play the first note the crowd goes nuts, even on the off-date with Hatebreed the shows have been insane. [Everywhere we’ve gone so far] we been getting a great reaction. The more people know who you are the more fans you have in crowd the better the shows are gonna be. We’re getting ready to go on a European tour with Machine Head and they’re really big there so we will see. The culture is different, the way people react is different so we’re not well known over there, it’s really going to be a test trying to win people over. If you’re going to [make your career] in a band and make a living you’ve got to tour Europe. A couple of months there feels like six months.  (We both laugh)

Erika: Why does it feel like that?

Doc: Well because it’s certain comforts that you don’t think about, that they might not have. The culture is different; everything is a little smaller, people don’t speak the language, it’s just not as comfortable. Especially in the wintertime they don’t have central heating, every room is individually heated so you’re freezing and it’s rough being there, like you can’t go get a cheeseburger at 4:00 in the morning and if you do it probably sucks. (We all laugh) I mean unless you get big and stay in hotels and have things they way you want, it’s not the most comfortable thing. Most people couldn’t handle being away from home and not being able to sleep in a real bed but that’s just the way it is.

Sharita: Talk about the songwriting process, do you guys get together and bring all your ideas to the table or how does that work?

Doc: Well we usually just get in a room and start with a riff and just kinda’ go off and collectively take all the notes. On the last album me and my brother would be a home and we’d write things out, and we have a plan to come in and put together the ideas and take it from there, but now I think we’re a band definitely gets a lot done. I mean there’s a lot that goes into being a room and working things out together and having a more collective input and that definitely makes the songs better because it’s not one or two guys it’s everybody. You cover each other’s weaknesses and get the creative juices flowing; sometimes it will take you a month to write a song, sometimes it will take you… 

Sharita: 5 minutes (laughs)

Doc: (laughs) Whatever is natural so it just keeps flowing. We usually write the music first and the lyrics come later. A lot of the times we will write the lyrics at the last minute in the studio. Sometimes we will split up 3 ways Byron, Me, and Dallas, we just want something catchy that everyone in the band can relate to.

Sharita: I know you said the band was going on tour for the next two months but, have you guys started writing for the next album and is it going to be vastly different from the last three albums?

Doc:  Well I know it’s gonna’ be different because none of our albums sound the same. It’s pretty much impossible for us to do the same thing over again. I mean some bands they have a formula, there’s certain things that happen in every one of their songs that are very predictable and usually bands like that are very successful because the people know what their getting and they know if they buy it they’ll like it. We’re much more unpredictable and change things because we get bored. We started out doing a style that no one was doing, now there’s like 28 million bands doing the style we’re doing so we don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. I would definitely expect the unexpected. We have started working on some material and we actually plan on getting the album out by next fall.

Sharita: I’ve talked to a number of bands who have a problem with the Ozzfest tour being so expensive to play on, what kind of message do you think this is sending to fans as well as bands?

Doc: We’ll this is not a new concept the pay to play, buy-on tours because well when Staind toured with Korn, Staind was paying $100,000 a month but they knew that playing with Korn they’d play to 20,000 people every night. The fact is Ozzfest is proven for bands that started off unknown playing Ozzfest have ended up being successful and this tour has a lot to do with that. It’s like you know, some bands get lucky they don’t have to pay. Some bands have cheap and whack labels and they're records are not getting out to as many people as they deserve. Trustkill, Ferret, Victory, and Century Media have realized 3 years ago none of the bands from these labels were on Ozzfest.

The money is well spent, any band will tell you that everything is taken care of. You never go hungry, there is plenty of security so you know what some bands that do it are successful, some aren’t it’s a gamble you should be willing to take. When it comes down to it you’re spending the labels money and you have to pay back anyway; no band ever recoups, platinum bands don’t recoup. TLC sold 6 million records and went bankrupt so no one is making money off of album sales so who cares. I mean we had to go way in the hole to do this but we understood that if we didn’t do it we would be highly disadvantaged and bands who did it would be further ahead of us.

Sharita: If you had your own festival, Docfest who would be on it?

Doc: Um, hmm… probably Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth, At the Gates, Sepultura, all the bands that are broken up. (we all laugh) Lamb of God, Killswitch (Engage) and us.

Sharita: Talk about the weirdest experience you’ve had on tour, like when you were in Europe anything you can recall happening where you said oh my God I can’t believe that happened?

Doc:  When things happen I don’t really recognize them as being weird and sometimes I don’t remember because I was really drunk on the last one. (laughs) hmm…Howard from Killswitch Engage, um a lot of people that attended the shows [in Europe] thought I was him and they kept coming up to me and asking for autographs and I would go out and people would sit down with me and say “Oh can we interview you and they be like Howard, Killswitch…

Erika and Sharita: Oh no!

Doc: Yeah and I told Howard about it and in Ireland he told the whole crowd that I was pretending to be him…

Erika: (laughs)

Doc: And the whole crowd chanted fuck you Doc. (laughs) me and Howard got in a wrestling match and I whooped Howard’s ass and you can print that. Tell everyone that I whooped his monkey ass.

Erika and Sharita: (laughing hysterically)

Erika: We’re any of you brought up in a musical family?

Doc: Well me and my brother were. My father was a piano player and teacher and my mother was a singer. It helps because my father understands and is very supportive. He toured also but not to this extent because he was kinda’ that working musician playing in cover bands and weddings which is great but I think it means a lot more to do like original music. He made no money and we’re not making any either but we understand you have to sacrifice to do what you want to do.

Erika: The others in the band?

Doc: I know Byron used to sing in church, and Corey used to be in drum choir and in marching bands. Me and my brother were always around music and that was important for a lot of reasons.

Sharita: How do you feel about downloading songs?

Doc: I don’t think you can blame people I mean downloading became an issue about 6-8 years ago and we’re talking about a generation of kids that didn’t know anything besides downloading. On top of that you got these crappy major label TRL groups who put out shitty records with 2 good songs and how can you argue with kids not paying 18 dollars for two good songs on another whack record, then only 2 months later there’s another group doing the same thing with just another pretty boy or girl on the cover. Music sucks right now, popular music sucks most of it. I don’t feel about people downloading these albums but the speed of the internet is key. Underground bands go on tour and everyone knows about them because people find out so much quicker. I mean maybe we might sell more records if there was no downloading but until technology is rectified where people can not do it then there is nothing that you can do about it. CD’s are too expensive, they’re shouldn’t be more than fifteen dollars anywhere period. I mean I know people that haven’t bought CD’s in 2 years.

Erika and Sharita: (laugh)

Doc: Then there’s a lot of people buying DVD's because you can’t burn DVD's and if you could well it would se the same situation. You can burn movies but it takes a lot longer. They don’t have an iPod for movies. There is very little benefit to buying records these days. You know if they want to fix it they have to make it so you physically can not do it and once they can’t do it they will have no choice but to go out and buy the records.

Erika: What do you say to say to fans that have a problem with your band playing a big tour like Ozzfest?

Doc: Well that doesn’t really applies to us because we were really never an underground favorite, we were selling out clubs before this. A lot of the fans we did have were the kids that went to Ozzfest. We’ve never been that kind of underground band. Unearth has always been extremely popular in the hardcore scene, Lamb of God same thing. The fans are waiting for us to get big. I don’t hold my breath though, I just want to be able to get by and make a living if we do better than that cool. We will see what happens.

Thanks to Doc Coyle for this fabulous interview, to Jeremy (the tour manager), and Century Media for setting it up.

Click here for live photos of the band!

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Here for a new interview with Doc