Q&A: The Cold Stares, Rock & Roll Duo

Formed in 2010 in Indiana, rock and roll duo, The Cold Stares released their new, fifth album, Heavy Shoes on August 13 via Mascot Records, produced by The Cold Stares, mixed by Mark Needham. Guitarist, vocalist Chris Tapp and drummer Brian Mullins usher in dirty fuzzed-up rock and monstrous riffs. The result is rock and roll meets blues, garage and desert rock with a Southern Gothic sensibility that grabs you by the collar. There’s a richness running through their songs with dark,  multi-layered narratives. Somber storytelling infiltrates their songs with unflinching honesty. Heavy Shoes follows their 2019 album, Ways.

The Cold Stares’ hard rocking story is based on blistering rock and roll that’s sung from the soul. Their personal story includes cancer, suicide, betrayal, divorce, loss, self-identity crisis, survival, and ancestral skeletons. And their songwriting is executed with vivid imagery, poetic nuance, and music with hard-driving beats and beefy tones. It’s hard to believe it’s only the two of them on Heavy Shoes. Recorded in Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, the Memphis vibe seeped into the record.

The road-worn warriors, The Cold Stares, have toured the U.S. alongside Rival Sons, Spoon, Grand Funk Railroad, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Thievery Corp. Their music has been streamed over 20m+ times and has featured on TV and games; ESPN, X-Games, Monster Energy, TNT’s Animal Kingdom, Dodge Motors and the smash-hit game CyberPunk 2077.

Rock & Blues Muse
You originally began with just drums and guitar at a gig. You created this outstanding, heavy, gritty sound. How do you produce the full-fledged sound with just guitar and drums? Did you ever consider adding a bass player?

The Cold Stares
We’ve thought about it multiple times, probably would be more likely to add an organ player that could sing backups. It took me about a year to really get the sound dialed in doing bass along with the guitar, won’t share all the secrets of how I pull it off, but now that I’ve got it right, it helps keep me writing in a parameter that fits the live rig, which isn’t a bad thing, I think.

Rock & Blues Muse
The press materials for your record Heavy Shoes described this album as your heaviest yet. Do you agree?

The Cold Stares
I don’t think it’s heaviest at all in the sense of like heavy metal or heavy distortion. It’s heavy perhaps lyrically and vibe just because of the horrible year we came through writing it with the shutdowns and the shit show in America.

Rock & Blues Muse
Tell me about your title track, “Heavy Shoes.”  You have such interesting lines: “Feels like there’s a stone in my shoe,” and “I don’t wanna be locked in your tomb.”

The Cold Stares
It’s written directed towards a relationship, but the idea of “Heavy Shoes” is just something that is wearing on you and dragging you down. Could be addictions, shutdowns, physical issues, a lot of things. I heard a friend say that a relationship was heavy on him (like) carrying around baggage, and it stuck with me as a visual of trying to take steps with that extra weight of burden.

Rock & Blues Muse
You have a number of references to death, tombs, and graves in your lyrics. Tell me about that theme that runs through a number of your songs.

The Cold Stares
I don’t think I’m necessarily a dark person, but the things that I love and have influenced my writing probably have a gothic leaning. Edgar Allan Poe, Hammer Horror Movies, Southern Gothic novels, cities like New Orleans and St. Augustine, I think it’s a culmination of a lot of influences. Especially with this album, I just let it flow visually in the lyrics because the year was so heavy and there was so much death and talk of death. I don’t fear death, and I don’t view it as a dark or scary thing anymore. Same with the dark.

Rock & Blues Muse
You said that there were a million opportunities to bail, that you’d both been through divorces, you’ve been through cancer. What do you think held you two together as a band?

The Cold Stares
I think with each obstacle, it just pissed us off more. My grandfather always would say if something good is about to happen, you’ll know it by a string of bad things trying to derail it. My attitude is of perseverance and not being a quitter. Also, we love this, it’s not what we do, it’s who we are. I can’t imagine not creating music.

Rock & Blues Muse
Chris, you have been through a lot in your life–finding your grandfather who took his life, plus you had cancer, and in addition you found out you were adopted and that your great aunt was the victim of violence by the Sheriff and as a result, your grandfather shot him. That is a lot to process. Is music your way of dealing with those events?

The Cold Stares
I had Melanoma cancer. I think anything you go through comes through in the songwriting whether you realize it or not. I don’t intentionally write songs with that stuff in mind, but as with anyone that’s been through things, I’m sure you are going to carry some of that into your art. Plenty of people that have been through tough times, horrific situations, soldiers, losing a child. I think the sooner we all realize that we are all prone to that, the sooner we can empathize and help each other through it. As dark as all that is, it’s all diminished by love and understanding.

Rock & Blues Muse
Who writes all the lyrics? How do you both agree on the direction of your songs?

The Cold Stares
I write all the lyrics and songs, and Brian and I arrange them and sort them out. We always agree on the song before it goes too far, but I don’t think we’ve had something that we’ve ever hated. Just songs we feel work better than others. I’ll usually write a song and just bring it in to sort out, but sometimes we’ll jam a riff and then I’ll go home and write lyrics to it.

Rock & Blues Muse
Tell me about your song “Hard Times.”

The Cold Stares
Well, I thought it was an anthem for the lockdowns. It’s just a song about not being able to get up. I had the old great blues artists in mind with some of the lyrics, a bit of a nod of the hat to the Delta greats. It’s also about going, “Okay, I’ve got the bad luck, so just bring it on.” About facing superstition without fear. Another reason we are releasing the record on Friday the 13th. I’m calling the card on it.

Rock & Blues Muse
Who are your musical influences? Do you listen to current artists and if so, who?

The Cold Stares
Classic rock of the 60’s-70’s, early blues singers like Robert Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson. Current artists I like Mark Lanegan, Clutch, Dead Combo, few others but we both mostly still focus on the classics.

Rock & Blues Muse
Chris, tell me about your guitar rig. Do you tune down to get that heavy sound?

The Cold Stares
I usually tune a full step-down D-D. But that’s not really what gets the bottom end, it’s just the way the rig works I set up. Amps come in and out in different octaves to get some dynamics and options.

Rock & Blues Muse
Brian, tell me about your bass drum, drum kit and your sound.

The Cold Stares
In the early days it was a 1965 28” Ludwig marching bass drum with the original heads on it. Someone found it in a dumpster and gave it to me. We named it “Butterscotch”. I’ve now switched to a more reasonable 24” drum, but I like to have them big and resonant sounding. I want my drums to sound like “Cream” on steroids. Paiste cymbals are the sound of rock and roll to me. Alex Van Halen & Stewart Copeland were the first drummers I noticed, and their cymbal sound captured me.

The snare I use is a Pork Pie 6.5” black nickel over brass. The rims are bent, and it’s beat up, but it sounds amazing.

Rock & Blues Muse
You’re touring parts of the US and also will be on the Joe Bonamassa ‘Keeping The Blues Alive at Sea II.’ Tell me about your US and European tour.

The Cold Stares
Very happy to be playing with our friend Joe who’s also been great at mentoring and advice. We have shows in the Midwest in the States in August and September, then to Aftershock Festival with Metallica and a West Coast run in October, followed by another European tour this fall. Staying busy!

The Cold Stares website

Listen to “Take This Body From Me’