Interview by Jason Schreurs
Black Cobra axe-man Jason Landrian has a special connection to recently re-banded Miami doom-crunchers Floor, in that he has played with two of its three members in a previous band. So when Oblation, Floor’s first album since their 2002 self-titled album, was recently released, Landrian got on board quickly. Truth is, it’s months later and he still hasn’t gotten off the Floor train.
Landrian: I’ve been listening to the last Floor record that came out a few months ago and it’s been on the heaviest rotation of albums that have come out recently. I’ve always been a big fan of theirs, and in my old band Cavity I got the opportunity to play with two of those guys back in Florida. But that record’s been spinning quite a lot and I really enjoy it. All of those guys are old friends of mine, but in addition to that, I’ve always been a really big fan of Floor.
You just blew my mind because I totally forgot that you were in Cavity. Awesome band!
Yeah, I joined Cavity right after Supercollider came out in 1999, and I was with the band from there until the end of it. And the Floor guys, Anthony [Vialon] and Henry [Wilson], the guitar player and drummer, I was in Cavity with them when I joined. Cavity was one of those revolving door-type bands; the only constant was their bass player, Dan [Gorostiaga].
I thought it was quite different than their other two albums, even different than their self-titled one.
Yeah, that self-titled album really changed directions for them, and that box set that Robotic Empire put out is really worth getting if you’re into Floor; it basically has everything they ever recorded, including the the albums and 7″s, and their sound changed a lot over the years. They started out more Melvins-influenced, with the heavy, sludgy vocals, and the aggressive and abrasive stuff, and then the self-titled album came out and it was still crushing in its heaviness, but the vocals took it to this different level. And that was also the jumping off point for what Torche became, because Steve Brooks plays in both bands and there’s that constant there. He brought a lot of that Floor sound to Torche, and then expanded on it. It’s funny, the two bands have a lot of similarities, but there’s a definite difference there in that Floor come off as a lot darker and more heavy. I’m not sure if that’s the right way to describe it. But Oblation, it’s really good, I love it and it’s really cool to hear a band that went on a hiatus and have some new output from them after so many years. And it was really cool that the album was as good as it is, because I’m sure most people think when bands break up and then get back together and put out music, it’s always this feeling of, “Is it going to suck, or is it going to be awesome?” But Floor nailed it.
It’s an interesting album, because some of it is kind of left-field for Floor.
Yeah, some of it definitely takes you by surprise.
What’s it like as a grower? I’ve only listened to it a half-dozen times or so, but it sounds like you’ve spent some serious time with it.
It is kind of a grower of a record. When you throw on the self-titled album it immediately hooks you in and the album just flows from there, and not that Oblation doesn’t, but I think it’s just different. The more you listen to it, the more those songs stick and those riffs take hold, and maybe it’s just a little, I don’t know, I don’t think harder to digest is the right way to put it, but maybe there’s a little more to it than the self-titled album, in a way, and that’s why it takes longer to grow on you, but it definitely does. And it holds up and holds true to that last record, and I think it grows from that record to this new one. And the songwriting is great.
Floor‘s Oblation is out now on Season of Mist Records.
Black Cobra‘s most recent album, Invernal, came out in 2011 on Southern Lord Records. They are currently on a US tour.
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