The UK’s CONAN, a monumentally brutal stoner doom three piece, hold a sinew-tight line and an iron-grip command over the uber-synchronised powerchord changes and tempo-shifts of the anti-holy trio of bass, drums and guitar. Hear the roar of battle. Smell the stench of split blood. A thousand heads piled high like a grim mound of suffering – a blasphemy to nature. Hail CONAN!
Metal-Roos: Conan’s sound is thick and powerful, you have said that you agonise over amps, wire your own cabs, also effects pedals made for you alone…. Do you have separate guitar rigs for the road and hometown shows?
Jon Davis: We usually lug our gear to our shows in the UK and mainland Europe, but if we’re playing a show in Australia we would rent Equipment that we know will sound great.
Metal-Roos: What do you look for in a guitar?
Jon: I started playing on Fenders but have now moved to Jackson guitars, I like their more solid sound.
Metal-Roos: Favourite effects pedal or combinations?
Jon: I have a custom Fuzz-Throne which has been modded by a friend of mine to give it a stronger sound, plus a Zack Wylde wah which is cool.
Metal-Roos: With all that drone and feedback on-stage, how do you mitigate stage noise and hear yourselves during performances? Do you use in ear protection or monitoring? (what type)
Jon: We’re not the loudest band on-stage but since we like to tour a lot, hearing protection is a necessity we use in ear protection with a filter rated at 17 decibels, which enables us to hear what’s going on and not damage our hearing…as long as I don’t lose them…
Metal-Roos: Have you ever thought about what you would like to do with your Conan theme, regarding stage production, if budget weren’t an issue?
Jon: I would love to have someone record the show, and then put the show through a sort of Kaleidoscope lens and play it back in real-time as the backdrop, with effects and stuff going on…play around with VR, putting the band in different situations while we play in real time.
Metal-Roos: Running several businesses (label, merch, touring) and working a real world job would be an incredibly hectic workload… When you allow yourself, how do you like to indulge? How do you treat yourself?
Jon: Spending quality time with my kids and listening to music.
Metal-Roos: Outside of music and family, what is the one thing you can’t live without?
Jon: Coffee…hahaha
Metal-Roos: With Black Bow Records you have accumulated quite a roster of bands from around the globe, even from Malaysia and Australia, do you have an idea of how a band should sound when they approach your label or are you open to any styles of music as long as it’s awesome?
Jon: I don’t really want to pidgeon-hole the label into something, like we kind of have a core sound, but if the music is amazing and the band are organised and see to have their act together, I would be willing to work with them. We have quite a variety of genres on our digital platform, the access to digital platforms makes releasing albums just so much easier.
Metal-Roos: Conan’s fantastic latest release Existential Void Guardian has a much pacier feel, not only are some songs legitimately fast (Paincantation), but the song lengths themselves are shorter than your average, was this a conscious decision or is that just how that happened?
Jon: Yeah, you’re right the songs are a shorter on the latest album, originally the songs were much longer, but when we were listening back through the album, we decided to cut back some elements the songs. We feel this helped the album by trimming the fat so to speak, helps keen the energy and momentum moving forward.
Metal-Roos: If I can ask you about your personal battle with Depression and Anxiety…
The impact that Depression has not only in entertainment industries but to everyone all over the world is severe. Even with more and more attention and awareness brought to the subject, RUOK day, advertising and education about the subject, anti-depressant medications, etc… we have lost and continue to lose, so many loved and admired people to suicide. With who knows how many more people all over the world enduring that battle as we speak,
You have said that you worked for years to get through Anxiety and Depression on your own. Can you explain how you approached your battle? is this something that you still work through to this day? How to you keep a positive mind?
Jon: When I was going through that period of my life, I wasn’t in the best spot in my life. I was only about 22, and not doing much with my life. I wasn’t enjoying college, or working that much, living at home with my parents. One day I went to the doctor and they prescribed my anti-depressants, which my mum told me not to take, she was flat out against them.
The way I worked through my depression was baby steps at a time. I would set small goals for myself, even as small as getting up to make a cup of tea, then being able to get up and do it, would give me a positive charge for that time. This slowly helped me get busier and more involved in my life.
Then beginning Conan gave me a positive outlet for lots of the negative emotions I was feeling, so I keep positive by surrounding myself with my family, my band and my work all the things that are the most important to me.
Metal-Roos: And in closing is there anything that you would say to a person struggling against depression and anxiety?
Jon: What I would say to anyone battling depression is to email me and talk to me. I would never turn away a fan, especially one suffering depression. Talking to people that will listen with a caring and sympathetic ear really does help. Keep going, you can do this.
Interview Date: 2018-09-20
Interviewer: Jonathan Hurley
