Interview: COLPOLSCOPY

Southern California-based label Gore House Productions recently sent me several of their releases for review, and one of the immediate standouts was Ready for Gore, the debut album from Oxnard’s Colpolscopy.  The band employs a unique dual-vocalist approach that when coupled with their leveling low-end-fueled brand of brutal death metal creates a singular, instantly-recognizable approach to the genre.  A full review of the album is coming soon to THKD, but in the meantime I couldn’t resist the opportunity to interrogate the quintet in order to get the full skinny on their beginnings, their motivations, and their thoughts on brutal death metal’s imagery and subject matter.

THKD: For those who might not be familiar, how did Colpolscopy get together?

Colpolscopy: We have all been friends for years now, and at one point or another we all played in previous bands together. The guitarist Chuy and one of the singers Ryan started writing music together, not long after, Oscar the drummer joined, and Marki the other singer and Edward the bassist followed next, there was not a lot of hesitation in forming this band, because we all shared a love of music and banding together to play brutal shit was a no-brainer.

THKD: What is it about brutal death metal that first got you interested? How have your thoughts on the genre changed over the years?

Colpolscopy: Brutal death metal has inspired many riffs and patterns that we use today and have used. We never really intended on specifically playing brutal death metal, or any specific genre of metal, being that we all came in listening to different genres including, death metal, black metal, slam, gore grind and porn grind, so when we write music we tend to feed off of each other, and whatever comes out no matter what style metal, if it sounds good and made with heart then we’ll use it. We’ve always introduced different bands to each other, enabling us to feed off each other, we’ve all had our moments of what we get into for a while and our favorite styles, but we think keeping an open mind to metal and brutal shit in general has created our own unique style of music.

THKD: One of the things that makes Colpolscopy unique is the dual-vocal attack. How did this come about? Did you always intend on having two vocalists?

Colpolscopy: Ryan had known Marki for a while now, so when he and Chuy started writing together, it was simple to bring Marki in, knowing that he had talent and the same type of drive, and most of all was a good friend. Chuy and Ryan didn’t start the band specifically focusing on trying to include two vocalists, but that’s just how it happened, it was just fortunate to have another friend who was a great vocalist. As out of the ordinary as it may be, we never thought twice about it, we just went for it and it has always been something we have made part of our band, and really tried to maximize as a perk.

THKD: You released your debut album Ready for Gore at the end of last year. What did you set out to accomplish with this recording and are you satisfied with the result? How has the reaction been amongst fans and critics?

Colpolscopy: Prior to releasing Ready for Gore, we had released a smaller scale demo CD which including 9 tracks and entitled Sickness of Vile Impregnation. We were able to release Sickness of Vile Impregnation locally and it sparked interest in the band, and allowed us to be booked for more shows. It helped us self observe and start evolving into creating our Ready for Gore album. Ready for Gore has helped us to take the band a step further and with the partnership of Gore House Productions Ready for Gore has been made into an album accessible internationally. So we’re really satisfied, because it gave us more exposure and has allowed us to spread our music, we love the outcome of our sound and the songs we’ve written. People have responded well to the album and we have much appreciated support, we have had some critics but it’s all good, there will always be.

THKD: What can you tell us about Colpolscopy’s songwriting process? Did you do anything differently or try anything new when creating the material that would become Ready for Gore?

Colpolscopy: We usually chill first with a couple of brews, then we get on our instruments, typically the guitar riffs come first then the drums get added on, but during the process of adding the drums, we start to structure the song, leaving off some riffs and adding others, allowing anyone to input a guitar riff or idea. Sometimes lyrics are already written beforehand so Ryan and Marki will just flow along as the song is being played, or sometimes they start writing lyrics as we are writing the music. During this time, the bassist is also learning the riffs and with time the song starts to become complete. In regards to Ready for Gore we used about the same process; we’re not too picky about the process, sometimes it’ll be guitars and vocals first, but overall we collectively give our input when writing music. We try not to pressure ourselves with writing new material, we just let it come when it does, sometimes we write a small portion of a song and continue it next practice. The main focus is that we write music that sounds awesome to us and that we can be pretty fuckin’ proud of, and always continue to improve.

THKD: Do you have a favorite song or moment on Ready for Gore? If so, what is it and why?

Colpolscopy: We all have different favorite songs when it comes to Ready for Gore.  For a while we played “Quivering Entrails” at the end of almost every set because of its powerful ending, then after a while we started playing “Deflowered and Defleshed” a lot. “Skull Rotten to Perfection” has been one of the most consistent songs that has remained a favorite, it especially stands out because it is what opens up the album. Overall we love all the songs and have played each of them numerous times. A memorable highlight would have to be the recording process, because we stayed in the studio located in Los Angeles, woke up everyday and recorded music, one of the nights the studio producer Samur hosted a party slash show on the third floor roof. The next day we woke up and recorded again. It really felt like a little vacation, recording music and hanging out, it was a memorable experience.

THKD: What can you tell us about the lyrical inspirations for Ready for Gore? Are these songs based on real-life scenarios of violence from the news or perhaps specific books or films?

Colpolscopy: Yes, some songs are based on some of our favorite films, for example the lyrics written for “Putrescent Scent of Death” was inspired by the film Perfume which is a film where the main character makes an orgasmic perfume, that literally leads to people having sex when sprayed, or giving them a particular type of fantasy when they smell the scent.  The perfume was made from the scent of different females dead corpses. The main character stalks a particular type of female to his liking, murders them in different ways; he then goes through a grueling process to obtain the scent, using animal fat to preserve the scent of the women. After a certain number of women, he gathers all the scents into one perfume, and before being decapitated for his murders, he releases the scent. When the mob of people receive the scent, they all felt a euphoria that led to a huge orgy. He then commits suicide by pouring the perfume on himself and letting the towns people eat him, and that is how “Putrescent Scent of Death” came about. Different scenarios and ideas inspired the other songs on Ready for Gore.

THKD: Much of the violence and gore in brutal death metal lyrics and artwork is directed towards women and/or is sexual in nature. Why do you think this is? Is brutal death metal misogynistic? How do female fans react to your lyrics and artwork?

Colpolscopy: We don’t think the people playing brutal death metal and the people in bands are misogynistic but the lyrics and scenarios definitely are pictures of violence, usually involving woman. But, we are not sexist or misogynistic people, we love women, and females are common at our shows. As weird as this sounds, from a certain angle it is a result of the admiration we have for a woman. Females have responded well to our album art, and a lot of our female friends wear our t-shirt without any issue. As people we treat each other with respect. We, our friends, and people that listen to our music, look at it as brutal shit that nobody takes personally, because were all familiar with the style.

THKD: Ready for Gore is your first release for Gore House Productions. How did you come to work with them? What can you tell us about the relationship between the band and the label?

Colpolscopy: We first met Carlos from Gore House Productions at the San Diego metal swap meet. We handed him our demo and we kept in contact after that. He then hooked us up with a lot of awesome LA shows with bad ass bands, and talked about a future release through Gore House Productions that came to be our album Ready for Gore. Gore House really helped our band get to the next level, providing shirts, patches, CDs and always repping for us online, as well as putting our music out there and giving us a good name. We have an enormous amount respect for Gore House and all the other brutal bands under Gore House, and we much appreciate everything that has been done for us. We see Gore House expanding every day and putting a lot of brutal music out there, and we’re really fuckin’ happy to be apart of it.

THKD: Are you playing any shows or doing any touring in support of Ready for Gore in 2014? How would you describe the Colpolscopy live experience to someone who’s never seen you play?

Colpolscopy: We haven’t toured since we headed towards the Colorado Gutfest, but during that tour we played a lot of Ready for Gore songs as part of our set, and now in 2014 we continue to play a lot of Ready for Gore songs as part of our set.  We would have to describe the live experience as a heavy, energetic, mind opening, pussy pounding. Our songs consist of different metal styles and different tempos, so when we perform live, that detail becomes very apparent, and each tempo and riff change becomes a cool little adventure. We work hard on our live sound, making sure everything is heard and making sure it sounds heavy enough for the people to feel the vibrations through their body including highs and especially lows. All of us collectively feeling the groove and uniting into one like some transformer type shit is one of the greatest feelings in the world, we make sure to head bang with you and express our music with great pride and make it a really fun experience.

THKD: Being that Ready for Gore has been out for a while now, are you working on new material this year or will you continue to focus primarily on promoting the current album?

Colpolscopy: Yes we have a lot of new songs with plans on releasing a three song e.p, contribute to album splits, as well as recording a second full length album, and we almost have enough new music to do all those things, we actually are currently working on a new song. Although we have a lot of new music, none is officially released yet, but we do play some new songs here and there. We usually involve Ready for Gore songs in our set and always continue to promote it.

THKD: What are you currently listening to? Do you have any recommendations for THKD readers?

Colpolscopy: Each band member is listening to different styles, for example one of our singers Marki has been listening to a lot of depressive black metal, others to brutal death metal, slam, porngrind, gore grind and cyber grind, we all constantly are discovering new bands and hook each other up with music. What we would recommend, is to always keep an open mind when it comes to metal, listen to as much metal and different metal as possible, because its all worth it, you never know when a particular band or metal style will come up and slap you in the face.

THKD: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add?

Colpolscopy: Thanks a lot for this interview, we really appreciate great opportunities, and we hope people can give us a chance, listen to our music and check out our live show. Expect to hear more from us and our music.

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