Cold World Interview: Alex Russin [23rd Oct 2008]

October 25, 2008, 03:28 AM

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Altsounds: Your debut album's called 'Dedicated to babies who came feet first'; were any of you babies that came feet first? If not, what made you choose this title?
Cold World: I was actually. Feet were first and backwards.. no lie. The title is from a Raekwon line. "Dedicated to the gods and the earths.. Dedicated to babies who came feet first". Nick's got his own take on it.

Altsounds: Your album was produced and engineered by Biohazard guitarist Billy Graziadei. Biohazard are cited as one of your longtime influeneces - how was it working with him?
Cold World: At first I was a little taken aback by working with someone who I looked up to since I was 15. We got to go in for a night before production started just to meet Billy and kind of get the jitters out. He's a nice guy and helped me out a lot with some guitar stuff and some singing. Once we got to know each other more, it was just like working with any producer we've worked with.

Altsounds: What made you choose him as your producer? How did that opportunity come about?
We saw that he had a studio, some real nice equipment and he was one of the founding members of a band that is one of our major influences. We were hoping that he would help us with constructing our songs to make them a little more developed, since he had written three records that helped shaped the sound of Cold World. He helped out with me more than anyone since he is a guitar player and a singer.

Altsounds: What I like about the production of your music is that it's not overproduced, which can be tricky to do when using samples in songs. Was this an intentional choice?
Cold World: I wanted this record to sound huge but real. It had a lot to do with the mixing of the record and the compression. When Billy asked me what I wanted my guitar to sound like I said

And I think that kind of helps sum up the sound of the record.

Altsounds: You have lots of guest vocals on 'Dedicated...', who was you're favourite to work with and why?
Cold World: There are 4 people that do guest vocals, Warrior Queen, George Hirsch of Blacklisted, Mark Porter of Floorpunch, and John Cooper of Clubber Lang. Warrior Queen was done all through e-mail, so there was no personal interaction. George, Cooper, and Porter were all in the studio at the same time. George was the only one we actually had planned to be on any of the songs, Cooper and Porter were just hanging out cause they lived near the studio. They are all very close friends of ours, so it was more fun than anything. A lot of laughing. Seeing George work in the vocal booth was pretty awesome though. That kid belongs in there. He's got a real talent.

Altsounds: When are you planning on touring next, and which countries will you be visiting?
Cold World: We will be back to Europe, and getting to Japan and Australia are things that we have to do in order for me to feel somewhat accomplished. We don't have anything booked for a little bit because Dan, our singer, is having a baby very soon and he wants to make sure the baby and his girlfriend are totally healthy and are on their feet and doing well before we start booking shows that are 2 day drives away from home.

Altsounds: What are your crowd like at gigs and what makes them so good?
Cold World: It really depends on the gig. Certain gigs, it just feels right and everything is clicking and kids are singing along and going off, no one is getting hurt and it everyone has a great time. I know its so cliché and hokey to say, but we really feed off the energy of the crowd. Dan and I don't usually have too much to say during breaks in the set, but we try to never let it go silent and I feel like we do a good job of keeping the energy high and steady throughout the set.

Altsounds: If you could tour with any band, who would it be and why?
Cold World: I'm gonna do a reasonable one: Blacklisted, Fucked Up, Ceremony, and Paint It Black. And a dream one: Guns N' Roses, Queen, and Alice In Chains.

Altsounds: Describe your music in three words.
Cold World: Wilkes-Barre Hardcore.

Altsounds. What are you songs about? Are you trying to convey any particular messages?
Cold World: I don't write the lyrics, but I don't feel that there is any underlying message to the songs. I feel all the songs convey similar feelings.

Altsounds: What is the typical writing process for your music?
Cold World: Sometimes I come up with a riff, or a whole song and Nick and I will work on it and fine-tune the shit out of it. Sometimes Nick calls me up and tells me an idea he has and I'll try to work on it alone, but it really works best when its the two of us putting our heads together. Nick actually wrote some of the riffs on Dedicated when he had a guitar at his place for 3 days. Nick and I work really well together and when I have a guitar and he has the drums we can put out some real interesting things. Both of us think progressively in a a song writing sense, but still are able to keep it in the context of hardcore.

Altsounds: You're signed to Deathwish records, how has that effected you so far? What perks and so on.
Cold World: Being on Deathwish has given us more exposure to people who would not check us out without being on the label. Its great because they have a very dedicated fan-base who will check out anything that comes out from them. We've made some good friends with other bands on the label and the people that work there are awesome.

Altsounds: What do you want to see happen for Cold World in the future?
Cold World: Ideally I would like to make Cold World my only job. I would like to be able to focus all of my energy on writing songs, touring, recording, and pushing us forward as people collectively.

Altsounds: Add anything you would like to promote here.
Cold World: Start a zine. Start a band. Open a venue. Check out Title Fight @ MySpace.com - TITLE FIGHT - KINGSTON, Pennsylvania - Pop Punk - www.myspace.com/titlefight

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