CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's DEAN Talks 'Animosity' Lineup Reunion, Upcoming Album

PunkNews.org recently conducted an interview with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY bassist/vocalist Mike Dean. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

PunkNews.org: How did the [reunion of the "Animosity" lineup] come about?

Mike Dean: It really was like a suggestion offered as a joke. We got an offer to play the High Voltage festival [in the U.K.] with Pepper Keenan, who took on vocals after I stopped singing, and it was gonna be the first time Reed [Mullin], our drummer, was back with us, but then, that fell through, and I was frustrated so I suggested we just do it as the three-piece in "Animosity"... and then everyone went, "Okay!" Which I didn't expect. So then, our idea when we decided to do some shows. Then we wanted to do a full-length release, and we got some offers to play some more shows and we wanted to take some of our new songs just to show we are not just out there for nostalgia. We had sort of a music agenda — a fresh agenda that we wanted to pursue. There's a lot of 40-year-olds in bands dusting off their golden-age material, but we kind of wanted to set the bar a little higher.

PunkNews.org: Your new release as the reunited [CORROSION OF CONFORMITY] is a 7" on Southern Lord Records. You've stated that when recording the new single you tricked your fellow bandmates into thinking it was a demo so they weren't perfectionists. What is there to be said for imperfection as opposed to being precise?

Mike Dean: I didn't really want those to guys to think about recording it. It was just serendipitously recorded. It can be good to have imperfection, but you also want the sound to be quality... It's good to have equal measure of both, but I think sometimes with our group, we have to be careful that it doesn't get too much one way or the other. I think you can have pretty close to perfection and still have spontaneity.

PunkNews.org: Do you have a new album in the works?

Mike Dean: We're still writing material. We expect to knock it out shortly. We're not really going to take a lot of time doing it. I think because we've been on the road, and because we've been in that mode, and also getting some appreciation, I think you'll hear that mindset in some of the new stuff. We have current ideas and one's that reflect our older material. I don't think that the two sounds are diametrically opposed.

Read the entire interview from PunkNews.org.

Video footage of the reunited classic "Animosity" lineup of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY — Mike Dean (bass, vocals),Woody Weatherman (guitar) and Reed Mullin (drums) — performing a new track on August 14, 2010 in Denver, Colorado can be viewed below.