Cosmic Carnage | facebook | twitter |
By: Dan Salter
Photos courtesy of Jose Caamano
Over the last 18 months or so Cosmic Carnage have come from nowhere to establish themselves as one of London’s top promoting teams for low down dirty doom, psych and sludge, showcasing some of the best bands on the scene with the likes of Pigsx7, Bad Guys, Arabrot, Bong, Oozing Wound and many more all having put in appearances for the appreciative sweaty masses in the pit. With their second summer all dayer coming up very soon, we thought it was about time we sat down with Rich Collins and Lindsey Amos, the team behind the noise, and pop them a few questions.
(((o))): What made you want to start promoting?
Rich: I just wanted to watch awesome bands play together and jump around. I tried to start something for ages but could not get anything off the ground because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
However, I started writing review for Echoes and Dust so started to build some contacts. One night Lins and I met James from Palehorse after they supported Anaal Nathrakh at the Underworld.
He had read my reviews and agreed to play for us which was a bit of a surprise because were completely FUCKED.
Lins messaged me the next day saying if I wanted to actually start a night then she could get involved, she also had some experience with promoting. I said yes and as soon as she did the night happens, Lins gets shit done.
I quickly messaged Meadows and Bong Goblin, two bands I asked to play my non-existent night during Bleh Fest and they said yes. All of a sudden we had an incredible line up, we asked Slow Plague too because their demo blew us away with its miserableness!
Bong Goblin are the only band to have broken up since we started putting nights on which is a real shame because they were great. Sort it out lads!
Lindsey : The motivation really was to put on bands we wanted to see and have a good time. I actually love planning and organising, and Rich loves getting smashed and throwing himself around a pit. And we both love heavy music. So it’s an ideal set up. We just want bands to play to a good crowd and for people to come away maybe having heard something they hadn’t before, and hopefully buy a record or something.
(((o))): How have you found it?
L : It’s a hell of a lot of fun and very satisfying. There have been some stressful moments (headliners having to cancel, horrific clashes, things running late) but it’s easy to ride those out when the majority of the time it’s ace. We put on shows we genuinely just want to go to ourselves, and we’ve also met some totally rad people… Working at the level we do, the majority of the people involved are really sound – be that the bands, crowd, venues, DIY labels, other promoters and press.
R: Yeah it has been fucking awesome, we’ve only been doing it since 2013 but we’ve put some our favourite bands on the planet. Hey Colossus, Arabrot, Drunk in Hell, Morkobot, Oozing Wound, Bong... absolutely fucking mental. And yes we’ve met some really great people too!
(((o))): How do you two work together? Who does what?
R: I tend to get drunk, roll around on the floor and ask bands to play and Lins does the important stuff like paying people and all the essentials I probably don’t know about.
L: It’s good that there are two of us and we can each do a bit more when the other is busy with general life stuff. But we definitely have our individual strengths. Rich is way more gregarious than I am and will talk to anyone and everyone. He’ll be in the stink for every band at every show. I’m more organised, in charge of the ‘boring stuff’ and generally able to keep shit together. We’re a team and we always have a laugh, which I hope comes across. We both know we couldn’t have started this without the other.
We decided at the very beginning that we wouldn’t put on any band we weren’t both super pumped about. And I think that stands us in good stead as we have similar but not the same music tastes – that has shaped the shows and types of bands we put on. We discuss everything, some things we agree on immediately and others are more of a debate. We’ve been friends for well over a decade and can be brutally honest with one another.
(((o))): How do you find the bands you put on?
R: There’s some pretty great bands on the internet. We also attend lots of gigs and discover bands for ourselves in the flesh.
L: Going to gigs (and not just in London), listening to lots of new music and getting recommendations from friends and bands.
R: Writing for Echoes and Dust has been stupidly handy, the team constantly share anything they are excited about which keeps the finger on the pulse. There’s so much stuff happening all the time, if one band breaks another one starts, it excites me that there are shit loads of amazing bands out there that I have not heard yet.
L: We get approached more these days which is cool. We do listen to everything we get sent. We generally prefer for at least one of us to have seen a band live before we book them but that’s not always the case. And I totally agree, there is no shortage of exciting stuff out there to discover.
(((o))): Are you surprised it’s been as successful as it has, considering the extreme nature of the music?
R: Yes definitely, we’re putting on bigger bands than I ever thought we would and the gigs tend to be well attended.
L: Yes and No. I’m thrilled and a bit shocked it’s become as successful as it has in a couple of years, which is a relatively short space of time. But there’s definitely an audience (and a bloody lovely one) for the types of music we put on. We’ve had a few people say to us “I hadn’t heard of these bands but knew I’d love them because it was a Cosmic Carnage show” – BEST THING EVER. We put in a lot of effort, but for me the surprise is more from how naturally it has grown. It makes me happy to see that by approaching something with what I consider the right attitude, the success (if you want to call it that), just kind of happened.
R: I think we’ve been lucky in that the scene has exploded over the time we’ve been doing it. Last Friday we are at Gnod and Hey Colossus at Corsica Studios and it was fucking packed, you could not move and I’m not sure that would have been the case 2 or 3 years ago.
There’s festivals like Desertfest and Temples that sell very well, there seems to be way more people into it and a real thirst for watching weird and heavy music, which is fucking great.
Bands are also stepping up as the scene grows, Ghold for example were playing DIY spaces in Deptford to a handful of people back in 2013 but this year we saw them high up on the main stage at Temples. They are quite a weird band when you think of it, a bass and drum duo doing weird grunting but absolutely smashed it on the big stage in front of hundreds of people.
We also work at it very hard at it. Lots of social media stuff and reaching out to relevant websites and blogs. We’ve had incredible support from you guys at Echoes and Dust but also The Sludgelord, The Quietus, Riot Season, MetalRecusants and The Sleeping Shaman. We also hand out lots of fliers which we find really important because you meet people face to face and build deeper connections than you can online.
We have our own art guy too, Graeme Ross which we have found has worked well as all the posters have a clear visual style so you know it’s a Cosmic Carnage gig as soon as you see it.
(((o))): You’ve got an all dayer coming up, it’s a big thing to take on, what are you excited for?
R: Excited for the whole thing really, the line-up is varied, from punk to psych to disturbing droney sludge. There’s people making noise in the shed too and a free BBQ. It’s a real shame Terminal Cheesecake pulled out but Luminous Bodies will be fucking NUTTS.
L: I actually said ‘never again’ after last year! (It was an awesome day but I found it pretty stressful). However, I was excited as soon as we started planning this one. I’m especially pumped about seeing Zolle, having never seen them live and the videos look amazing. The whole day will be ace – awesome bands and all the good feels of an all dayer at the Windmill.
R: There’s nothing quite like an all dayer at the Windmill, you feel a bit cut off from the world and there’s just a wicked vibe.
(((o))): What have been the highlights of CC so far?
R: Genuinely every gig we’ve done has been a highlight, loved every minute of every single one. There was a doubt if Arabrot could
play after we booked them because Kjetil sadly got diagnosed with throat cancer but he recovered, came to the Windmill and blew everyone the fuck away which was just magic. Hey Colossus playing their brand new psych material for the first time was bonkers, the whole room turned into this churning mosh pit.
L: Hosting Slomatics first London show was an honour. In my opinion they are one of the best UK doom bands. We’d been emailing Chris pretty much since we started CC so it was great when it finally came off.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs leaving the stage on the shoulders of the crowd at the end of their headline set in March. Being part of some weird ritual in another dimension during Bong…
R: There have been many many magical moments!
(((o))): Rich has just started a family & Lins has moved to Glasgow, what’s the future look like for CC?
R: I thought it was looking fantastic until I read that question but we’re fucked I guess. No, it’s looking good, we have gigs coming up being headlined by No Spill Blood and Sloath, which is ridiculous. I can still manage to do around one a month with a baby.
L: The inside of a Megabus.
R: You just needs to neck three bottles of Buckfast so you can’t remember the experience.
L: Best advice. Seriously though, we’ll keep going. It would have been impossible even a year ago but we can make it work now I think/hope! Every show will still be a joint effort to organise but I won’t be able to be in London for them all. Eventually I would like to start promoting in Glasgow too and hopefully we’ll be in a position to put on shows in both cities as Cosmic Carnage – as long as that doesn’t confuse the fuck out of people.
(((o))): Is there anyone you haven’t managed to book yet that you’d like to put on?
R: Absolutely fuck loads. Here’s some dream bands that probably won’t happen:
Amenra
Meshuggah
Circle
Andrew WK
WHORES
Prizehog
Winnebago Deal
The Body
Brainbombs
That sounds like a pretty good festival actually, we’ll try put that on at the Windmill.
L: We always said if we put on Amenra that would be us done, we’d quit happy. I think that applies to Circle too. But more realistically Part Chimp, The Cosmic Dead, HaiKai No Ku, Super Luxury, Foot Hair, Bast …
(((o))): Which new bands should we be looking out for?
R: We’re lucky enough to have heard the Luminous Bodies album which is coming out soon on Box Records. It’s catchy yet powerful and so much fucking fun. People are going to love it and expect a bit of an explosion for them soon.
Bodies on Everest and Kylver are two Northern bands who have got in touch recently that we hadn’t heard of. Their recordings are fucking GREAT!
L: Wiegedood released their debut this year, which I was obsessing over in anticipation. It totally delivered.
I caught a set by two-thirds of Monolith recently. Comprised from members of Ommadon, Bismuth and Moloch, they’ve just been recording and definitely one to look out for.
Clenstch – mathy noise rock from Leeds, including members of Cattle. Ace.
(((o))): Thanks guys, before we go is there anything else you would like to say?
Thanks for reading, come to every single one of these bad boys:
Luminous Bodies, Zolle, Khunnt, BRITNEY, Early Mammal, Silent Front, Casual Nun, Dead Arms, Whitby Bay
August 15th Windmill, Brixton
https://www.facebook.com/events/480128318808016/
No Spill Blood, Necro Deathmort, Death Pedals
September 4th Montague Arms, Peckham
https://www.facebook.com/events/1133911046626108/
Sloath, Telepathy, William English
September 11th The Black Heart, Camden
https://www.facebook.com/events/411070989079260/
See you in the pit!
