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Are Comets On Fire still on hiatus? Back in '09, you said you weren't broken up, just on hiatus.
There was some sense [of breaking up] when we did the last Comets record. I think [Ben] Chasny and I spoke a little bit about it in some of the songwriting that we'd done for the band on that record, there was some sense that it might be our last one. It seemed that [there were] tensions and [we were] wondering if artistically if this was the time to stop or rejuvenate ourselves. Also, with Howlin' Rain getting ready to go out and tour, there were tensions there that I wasn't going to be available.
I tried to maintain things, but there were moments where I had to fly in for a gig with no rehearsals, which is something I didn't want to do, especially if we were getting together every five months. Then I decided to take some time off from that, and it was murky. And as a result, we went and played the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Festival four years ago and that was fun. We had a great time at the party in Seattle and that was our last gig. It was a really nice, fun time. Then some of the guys moved out of town, and I realized the other day, when all five Comets were standing together in a room, that we hadn't been together socially or creatively for four years, since that Sub Pop event. It's just the way it worked out. It was sort of representative that maybe we needed a break from each other on different levels.
[Then] Ben Chasny asked the Comets to play as his back-up band for his Six Organs of Admittance record, which is probably due out in the fall this year on Drag City. So we agreed. Thought it would be fun, so a couple of weeks ago all the Comets got together and played rehearsals for three days and performed as his backing band.
It was for the whole record?
We thought it would be a few songs, but it was a full-on album.
So this was a Comets record without being called a Comets record?
No. It was the Comets making music for Ben Chasny and his vision of Six Organs in a Comets way.
Because the Comets were more democratic?
Yeah. The Comets would have written a song, and I would be singing. You could very much hear Comets in what's going on this record, but you can also hear where it's not that because it doesn't have my narrative. It's purely Chasny's songwriting.
Kind of like him providing the blueprint and telling you guys what you need to do.
What I think he wanted was to not necessarily have the guys together and have a good time, but to have a Comets feel to the Six Organs rock record that he wanted to do. The five of us also realized when we got in there that we couldn't help but sound like us. I think we thought we would sound Comets-esque backing him up, but of course it just sounded like us playing together.
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