Cold World

5 September 2008 | 12:28 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Pennsylvanian hardcore kids Cold World are set to unleash their Deathwish debut later this month, and I have no doubt it’s going to make a lot of readers top ten lists for the year. Nick Woj (Drums) was cool enough to answer the following questions...

Pennsylvanian hardcore kids Cold World are set to unleash their Deathwish debut later this month, and I have no doubt it’s going to make a lot of readers top ten lists for the year.

Nick Woj (Drums) was cool enough to answer the following questions...

Interview w/ Cold World (USA)

By Cameron Chambers 


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Can you please tell us your

name, what you do in the band and what exactly does "Cold World"

mean? 


My name's Nick Woj. I play drums

and do other duties in the band. Cold World means that shit's real in

the field.   


You haven't had much press

here in Australia, so can you give us a bit of a run down on how the

band got together, your current members, what you're doing at the moment

etc… 


Alex, Dan and I were in a band

called Magnus years ago. We were a Youth Crew style band. Me and Alex

did little things here and there, but it was a while since we were in

a band that we had creative input in so we decided to scratch the itch.

We've had many lineup up changes but us three are the permanent members.

Scace from Mental/Righteous Jams is our second and last bassist and

Haroun from RZL DZL is our new second guitar player (and hopefully our

last).  


A lot of bands sit around and

wait for labels and managers to help them out, but you guys released

"Ice Grillz" in 2005 and hit the road for close to twelve

months. How important was it for you to strike out and go it alone? 


Actually "Ice Grillz"

was released by Lockin Out Records and that was our second ep. The debut

ep was released by our friend Bobb Mac's label "Walk All Night".

He put out stuff by Blacklisted, Think I Care and One Up.  


What was your initial reaction

when Deathwish came knocking after only twelve months? 


It was more like 2 years and they

didn't knock so much. Our friends in Blacklisted put it in their ear

that we were looking for a label to do our LP with because Greg wasn't

going to do Lockin Out as a serious label anymore so they gave us an

offer. We were also talking to 1917 Records and we wanted to find a

way to work with both labels so we released "No Omega" on

1917, which was everything we did to that point (minus the song from

the "Generations" comp) and a DVD of us fooling around on

tour and in the studio. It was cool to know that Deathwish was interested

in us because they're one of the few major players as far as hardcore

labels go right now.   


To mark your signing with Deathwish

in 2006, the label randomly sent out 500 copies of a limited press 7

inch, featuring one new Cold World song. That's a pretty inventive way

of getting the band's name out there, who's idea was it? 


I'm pretty sure it was Tre from

Deathwish's idea. I'm a vinyl enthusiast so I want to be on as many

pieces of vinyl as possible so I was obviously down with it. We knew

it would be a while until we got the LP ready but at the same time we

were demo'ing material for it, so we decided to put one of the demo's

out on vinyl to hold people over.  


Looking forward, your Deathwish

debut "Dedicated To Babies That Came Feet First" is set to

drop in a couple of weeks. Can you tell us about the writing and recording

process? How did it come about that Billy from Biohazard produced and

engineered the album? 


It took very long for the LP to

be finished in it's entirety. We wrote the songs here and there, and

mostly put stuff together during the demo sessions. Alex and I would

have ideas for riffs and parts, and I would have lyrics so we'd put

stuff together and see how it'd fit. I also had a few complete songs

in my head, I just needed Alex to make them into real music and not

"jud-jud"s and "jent jent"s. Working with Billy

was cool because obviously Biohazard is a huge influence on our sound.

We were originally going to record with Kurt from Converge but he was

really busy at that time with touring. We wanted to try a place that

nobody we know recorded at before because a lot of the time you can

tell where something was recorded just by listening to it. That can

be a good thing and a bad thing, so we decided to avoid it all together

and work with an influence.  


Who are some of Cold World's

key influences, musical or otherwise? 


Cold World is influenced by so

many different genres and bands that it's hard to say really. I've taken

ideas from techno songs and made riffs from them. Some of the bands

that we took cues from on this album are Dinosaur Jr., the Stone Roses

and Portishead. There's loads more but I don't want to reveal any secrets!

There's also the obvious stuff like hip-hop, Life Of Agony, Metallica,

and NYHC.  


Do you think Billy's presence

on the record had an impact on the songs as well as the quality of the

recording, ie: did he have much of a role in the writing and arranging? 


Outside of the overall sound,

he had no impact on songwriting. Almost all of the songs were demo'd

and they didn't really change at all. He would help me and Alex with

our vocal parts and he had a lot of hand in how some guitar parts were

played but he definitely didn't arrange anything.  


How do you think the your sound

has developed and progressed since your earlier recordings? 


Our goal was to make song parts

more extreme without compromising the song itself. Some hardcore band's

songs just sound like a bunch of parts put together. Although that's

literally how some of our songs are written, we make sure it doesn't

sound like it. The earlier stuff was definitely more straightforward

hardcore while the new stuff is a little more dynamic. We're definitely

still a hardcore band though. There's no doubt about that.  


The album title is definitely

a little strange, what does it mean? 


It's a line that Ghostface says

in a Raekwon song and it always struck a chord with me. "Babies

who came feet first" just means kids who maybe had things a little

harder or were on their own from a young age.   


Deathwish releases are always

a total package in that the artwork compliments the music. What's the

go with the cover for "Dedicated To Babies…"? 


The photographs used for the cover

were taken by our friend's dad in Wilkes-Barre during the 70's. We couldn't

think of better imagery to use than fucked up old people and young bad

ass kids in Wilkes-Barre.   


You guys have shows booked

up until the end of August, what have you got planned after that? Is

an Australian tour on the cards at all? 


We really want to go to Austrailia

and Japan. I will do anything to make that happen. I need some kangaroo

action in my life.  


Who are some bands that you

think kids should be checking out if they aren't already? 


As far as hardcore goes, check

out Rhythm to the Madness, Bad Seed, True Colors,  Trapped Under

Ice, Early Birds, World Collapse and Let Down. I'm sure there's others

that I'm forgetting.  


Your most embarrassing onstage

experience? 


Aw man, I dunno. Probably one

of our first show's with our old second guitar player, Party Boy, when

he tried to get everybody to clap along to a part.  


Best show that you've ever

attended as a fan? 


Probably Morrissey at the Apollo

or Cro-Mags at CBGB. I'm about to see My Bloody Valentine next month

so hopefully that'll take the number one spot!    


Any parting words? 


I don't remember what it was called

but I saw a movie that took place in Australia and the one dude in it

owned a shrimp cart. It was like an RV that sold shrimp. I hope Australia's

full of shrimp carts when I come there.




For more info on Cold World head to the bands Myspace page.