Vicki Holda
A&E Editor
___________
Coy Scottberg, a full time student at Wright College, is the guitarist for the band
Clad in Darkness. Scottberg and his friend John Benter (guitarist) have been playing
together seven years while attending Prosser Career Academy, although the entire
band wasn’t formed until a year ago.
They have a show at the Elk Grove VFW on April 22nd. You can listen to their
music on www.myspace.com/cladindarkness.
Interview Section
Diversity: Do all of you go to Wright?
Coy: No, I’m the only student here at Wright.
D: How did all of you meet?
C: John Benter and I were the founding members; we met in high school. We
contacted our drummer Brian Rendina through the Internet; we got his email address
from a flyer in Guitar Center. We also met Casey Hogan and Chris Shive online.
D: How long have you guys been playing together?
C: As a whole band… for about a year, but John and I started six or seven years ago.
D: Who plays what instrument?
C: I play guitar; John is the other guitarist; Casey is our vocalist; Brian plays the drums
and Chris is our bassist.
D: What do you think the reason is for the lack of shows you perform?
C: Sometimes we don’t always pursue playing shows because we’re kind of lazy and
like to procrastinate a lot.
D: What type of music would you say you play?
C: We fall into a lot of different genres. I guess if you want to keep it simple I would
call it black metal.
D: Where do the ideas for songs come from? And do you have any say in the
lyrics?
C: At the moment I have been the sole writer for the lyrics. Songs such as “Foreword”
and “Revelries and Silence” which can be heard on our demo, have to do with a
concept we are creating.
D: Does being in a band interfere with your schoolwork at times?
C: I’ll be honest. I’ve put off some schoolwork to go practice, but no, for the most
part we get things done before or after.
D: What more do you think you could do to get the word out there about you
band, so that you possibly get signed by a record company if you haven’t
already?
C: We could be more active in trying to pursue a label, in general. Our main
promotional took is Myspace. We just keep in touch with our “friends” that we have
on there- whether it be the average listener, promotional company, magazine/webzine,
radio station or label. Really, I think we just try to rely on letting our music speak for
itself, and those that find it and enjoy it, great.
D: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
C: That’s a question we actually have on our group website. We “might” have a
vocalist by then. We had the hardest time finding a vocalist, so maybe then we’ll have
a vocalist. It’s an inside joke. It took us a long time to find an exceptional vocalist. It’s
a bit of a reminder on how hard it is to find the right pieces and what we have
accomplished, even in the smallest regard.
D: What do your families think of this?
C: My family might not like what I do but they’re supportive. They think we should go
for a more economically sound genre of music, play something that might work out
better than black metal even though it’s gotten a lot more popular in the past few years.
D: Which song is your favorite and why?
C: I probably like the one that we just finished writing. It’s called Nepenthe. It’s about
14 minutes long. So far we haven’t cut it down. It’ll probably be revised because it’s
still a little rough around the edges, but I think it shows how we’ve matured in our
music and we’re trying a lot more different approaches.
D: What do you think makes your band different from all of the other bands
out there?
C: Well, as far as the local scene, there aren’t too many black metal bands that have
the same sort of dynamics where we like to switch between more mellow parts to
more drastic areas. There are a lot of bands that like to copy each other.
D: What do you think would be the number one goal you’d like to achieve as a
band?
C: To continue to evolve and get better at what we are doing. When speaking to my
band mates, one of the most common subjects we speak about is the growth of our
music. We hope it continues to flourish and get better as we progress.
D: What do you think most of your songs are about?
C: Honestly, from each song it’s not varying topics. Right now we’re trying to write a
concept album based off of the book “Ethan Frome,” by Edith Wharton. Basically we’
re taking the major themes from the book and adapting them in the form of music and
lyrics.
D: Who do you look up to musically?
C: I like jazz. Wynton Marcalis is one of my favorite jazz players. As far as metal is
concerned, I like to bands like Opeth, Agalloch and Empyrium. I listen to just about
anything. I don’t discriminate too much when it comes to music.
D: How would you describe the band in three words?
C: Boundless, creative energy.
D: Do you guys practice a lot?
C: Just once a week. Probably not as much as we should.
D: What advice would you give other students trying to start their own band?
C: It’s difficult. As I’ve said, we’ve been playing together as a whole band for about a
year and we’ve been around for six or seven years. It takes a long time to form a
band. Just don’t give up.