Exclusive Interview: Coiled Around Thy Spine talk Writing, Recording and Gear!

Last week saw the release of the sophomore album “From The Ashes” from Turin Italy based duo and seasoned musicians Sergio Costa (guitars, bass) and Daniele Rosso (vocals) otherwise known as Coiled Around Thy Spine, which completely blew our tiny minds. We exclusively interviewed the duo about that piece of Melodic Death Metal majesty last week and now we’re back for round#2, a special chat about writing, recording and gear. So crack a beer or pour a fresh cup of coffee, push play on the album and have a read of this… if you dare! [cue evil laughter!]

What did you learn from the studio time for 2018’s “Shades” helped with the recording of “From The Ashes“?

[Daniele] “We learnt from our mistakes, so this time I think the production is better and we work better together, and that helped a lot on every aspect of the record”

[Sergio] “I mixed and mastered both From the Ashes and Shades, so that’s true, I think Ashes sounds a lot better! Even if Shades has great songs on it, of course. Maybe one day I could work again on it and make it more ‘listenable’”

How does the writing process of a new Coiled Around Thy Spine track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first?

[Sergio] “It depends, sometimes it’s the melody that comes first, like for Burning Souls or Red Rising Sun, other times it’s the riff, like the opener riff of Back To The Dark Dimension, I have no rules or boundaries. Usually after I have something workable, I send it to Daniele to sing over it and after a 1000 or so reworks, it’s done. Daniele usually writes the lyrics first and then adapts them to the song, starting with the chorus”

The guitar work on both records is incredible! Did you ever find yourself stripping some of it back or thinking it was too much?

[Sergio] “Thanks man! Oh well, I saved something for the next one lol! However, yes, sometimes I need to shorten leads, usually when they become pointless or start to ruin the vibe the vibe of song! The thing is that I really enjoy playing guitar, so for me it’s really kinda natural to have those fast leads right in the middle of the song like on Survival Instinct, for instance, where the bridge part between the chorus and the verse is… a fast lick!”

In our review of the record, we’ve compared Daniele Rosso’s vocals to Jeff Walker of Carcass fame. How did you go about getting the vocals Vs guitar balance for the album? Did you ever consider bringing in a guest? Was keeping the vocals all unclean deliberate?

[Daniele] “It’s all about the balance between faster, aggressive parts and slower and more melodic parts, with the vocals that of course are death metal vocals. We thought about a collaboration, yeah, but we didn’t eventually”

[Sergio] “I don’t want clean vocals on Coiled stuff, never!”

For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound?

[Sergio] “Sure, I am a big fan of the Kemper profiler, so everything was done with it, from leads to rhythm and bass. I profiled my old 5150 with two different cabs, an oversized MESA and an ENGL, and I use them for the rhythm guitars; I used the mesa profile for the main lead parts, while I did the harmonies with the ENGL profile. I usually do this to add more diversity in the guitar tone. I used my Jackson RR with the green pinstripes for the rhythms [below] and basically all my guitars for the leads; I am not a big fan of pedals, I just use an overdrive in front of the amp to tighten the bass frequencies a bit. and we are tuned down to drop B, so I use Ernie Ball 0.11 – 0.58. The bass guitar is my good old Warwick Custom, and I tracked all the songs with an SVT random profile I found on the net, while drums, well, I don’t know lol. I don’t like to reamp, even if I am into the Kemper, so everything was tracked with the final tone, adding some EQ and compression afterwards.”

What difference would it make to you as a band if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer?

[Daniele] “I think I could get a better tone with trying new gear, of course!”

[Sergio] “No difference for me, but I could use some free strings lol”

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