Confessor: Scott Jefferys
Confessor is another legendary band that has made a return to the metal masses. After issuing a full-length album and an EP via Earache Records in the early 90’s, the band disappreared, but thankfully reformed a few years ago and has recorded a new album. Our own “Metal” Mark Skaar spoke with Confessor vocalist Scott Jefferys about the comeback of one of metal’s most unique groups.
White Trash Devil: Confessor is back. Unraveled is the new record on Season Of Mist. Tell me how you guys got back together…
Scott Jefferys: It pretty much happened because of the death of our old guitarist Ivan (Colon), who passed away a few years ago due to cardiac complications, and we got back together to do a benefit show for his wife who was left to incur a lot of the medical bills. So we did sort of a benefit for her and some other bands, like the older lineup of C.O.C. and some other local Raleigh bands and all of the money went to her for the medical bills. That night on stage it was kind of like “something’s still here.” Steve, Kerry and Shaun, the drummer, guitar player and bass player were all in a band called Fly Machine at the time. It was kind of coming to the end of that anyway and so it took about a half a year or so to wrap that up. That’s pretty much how it started. We just got together and started writing songs.
WTD: The Sour Times EP was the first thing people heard from the rekindled lineup…
Scott: The first thing we did was a demo and that was called Blueprint Soul, and that had “Blueprint Soul,” “Hybernation,” and “Sour Times” on it.
WTD: That’s what I meant…thank you! (laughs)
Scott: Then the Sour Times EP that Season Of Mist released just had “Sour Times” and “Hybernation” and “Condemned” and a video of Ivan’s last show.
WTD: Unraveled has come out now. How did you hook up with Season Of Mist?
Scott: We shopped our demo around to the metal labels that we researched and knew of. I’m sure their were a ton that we didn’t send it to. At the time I was kind of out of the metal scene. But we popped it out there to the people we knew and we actually had several offers and we felt like we didn’t basically wanna get fucked again like we did with Earache. It was important for us to have a contract that we felt was fair to the band and we were totally willing to not sign with anybody and just try to release it ourselves, had we not found a favorable contract. So, I think Season Of Mist saw something on the internet about us being back together and they actually contacted us initially. We felt the contract was fair and that’s why we went with them instead of someone else that might have been a little bigger.
WTD: Scott, what has the fan reaction been from people that were into Confessor during the first go-around?
Scott: It’s been awesome. Confessor has never really been that popular. I mean, we are and probably will stay like a cult kind of band and so it’s not like a huge, massive amount of people who are so stoked that we’re back together…it’s all those cult people that we had from back in the day that are excited. We have had a lot of reviews on the new record and there’s maybe one out of 10 that aren’t good. I’ve seen maybe one or two where maybe they didn’t know who we were or whatever but to me it’s been really, really great. The whole attitude and excitement from everybody that’s been in contact with us.
WTD: I used to see a lot of people in the metal underground wearing Confessor t-shirts back the first go-around and there’s something to be said for you guys just going out on a limb and doing something completely different from anything that was on the Earache stable and kind of doing your own thing. Between your vocals, which, I guess people would say was an acquired taste and what Steve was doing drum-wise, just made you stick out for lack of a better word…like a sore thumb. (laughs)
Scott: (laughs) Yeah, we’ve always been a sore thumb.
WTD: On Unraveled there is perhaps some restraint shown on some of the songs but there’s still that crazy tendency to go off and do what you’re known for and so there’s a lot of different patterns going on there. Plus you’ve all matured as well…
Scott: I think that’s the main thing. I don’t we set out to say, “ok, let’s not make it so crazy this time.” They kind of wrote the songs to give a little more room this time and, as far as what you were saying about the vocals, you know, “acquired taste” and stuff like that… Condemned was written, half of it or more, when we were still teenagers. Those songs when they were recorded were actually really old, quite a few years old…the songs that we had really built up. So, vocally back then, I think I wasn’t mature. However, had that second record come out a year or two later it would have sounded a lot like this record I think. Vocally mainly. A lot of the new stuff that we had written, 3 or 4 songs for the next record… the vocals in that were very similar to how they are now. Nobody ever got at chance to hear that maturity thing that was happening with the vocals.
WTD: Will we ever get to hear those songs?
Scott: Actually, you’re hearing part of those songs on the new record. (laughs) There are some parts that came from some of those songs. The chorus part in the song “Until Tomorrow”...that’s one right off hand I can think of that I know came from what was written for the second record. Most of the stuff is new. As far as it being more tame now, I think that we’re more mature now and were thinking about the song structure a little bit more and thinking about the vocals a little bit more but still trying to keep a little bit of that edge but also a little groove in there too.
WTD: Would you say the vocal acrobatics that you employed earlier on in Confessor was intentional or were you just trying to be different?
Scott: I think again, I was young and the singers I was listening to were all pretty high. I was listening to King Diamond and Manowar and Fates Warning and all those singers were pretty high. Of course you never hear anybody bitching about those singers (laughs). I think that’s where it came from “singing high is cool, I’m gonna sing as high as I can”. I don’t know. I know the past is what people remember. I like talking about the new stuff personally.
WTD: Speaking of new, you have a new video for the track “Wig Stand” I know that video is on your website. Is there any possibility of a widespread release?
Scott: We are going to try to get copies to send out to all the video markets. We’re a band that is not able to tour a lot so we feel like that is going to be one of our best way it out there to the new kids that are out there.
WTD: Another great tool is like the old tape trading days except now we can do it on the internet with sites like MySpace…
Scott: It’s hard to know how much it really helps. I know there are tons of bands on there and there are tons of people interested in music that are on there but it’s hard to know, for me, because I pretty much manage all of our stuff. It’s hard for me to know how much that really comes out in actually selling a record. Yeah, they hear your music but Jesus, there are so many bands there, and it’s just like, “ok, yeah…you’re band is cool or whatever”. Does that mean you just think we’re cool? Does that mean you’re going to go out and get the record or come out to a show if we play. I don’t know. I think that’s the bad thing about the internet is not knowing exactly what it does for you.
WTD: It’s difficult grasping any tangible results from it…
Scott: Right. It’s fun and it’s encouraging to hear positive feedback and things like that. I could spend all day on there just sending out a little note to people who are fans of metal or fans of our genre of music. I wish I could hire somebody to do it full time everyday.
WTD: I understand you have a DVD of a live show forthcoming as well…
Scott: That’s true. We went to Norway to film a live DVD at a festival that Season Of Mist put together called Sonic Solstice Festival. We’re looking forward to that. We’re still working on it, getting all the footage put together and things like that and we’re also going to add some extras on there. They’ll be the “Wig Stand” video and some footage of us in the studio. Steve is going to do a drum instruction thing. It’s not gonna be a drum clinic cause he’s like, “that sounds so stupid.” (laughs) I think he’s basically going to explain and go through a few of the songs and just kind of show and explain what he does. That’ll be interesting too for a lot of drummers anyway.
WTD: Definitely. I think he’s been an unsung influence. I know Chris Adler from Lamb Of God takes a big que from what Steve has done and freely admits it and puts you guys on the map when he can. That must be very flattering.
Scott: Yeah. It’s funny because back in the day, when we were together before, you don’t know that these people like you, and, of course, they probably weren’t even together then (but) it’s just weird people saying we influenced them at all. It’s definitely cool but all these bands that were influenced by us that are huge now (laughs)...and we’re still scratching the bottom of the barrel.
WTD: What’s in the future for Confessor?
Scott: Like I said, the touring deal is going to be limited. We all have jobs and stuff like that and if it came to a point where it got big enough to where we could just tour, people would probably do that. But it’s not going to be get in the van and play for 300 dollars a night…we all have houses and stuff to pay for. What we’re hoping to do is get on a really good tour for three weeks or something like that where we’re basically opening for a really big band in front of a lot of people every night. We would like our video shown on MTV because we feel like that’s a good way to introduce to those kids that don’t know us. Without touring, it’s going to be hard to get new fans I think because you can’t just run a handful of ads in a magazine for a month or two around when you’re album is out and expect to sell a lot of records. There’s gotta be more to it than that and part of it is our fault for not being able to tour and part of it is just the limited budget for promotions that the label has. So the video has to be, in my opinion, one of the tools to help push it. And we have started writing songs for another record. I hope it won’t be another one and out thing. (laughs)
Metal Mark | 07/10/2006