Coma Beach blends punk aggression with existential introspection, drawing inspiration from literature and philosophy. Their latest EP continues the journey of their antihero, exploring themes of chaos, despair, and defiance.
1. Coma
Beach’s music explores themes of shock, chaos, pain, rage, and isolation. What
draws you to these dark and intense subjects, and how do you channel them into
your music?
Due to our
main musical and literary influences (from Bad Religion to Joy Division, from
Samuel Beckett to William Shakespeare), we've always been very interested in exploring
the darker and more menacing aspects of human nature. This includes the existential
struggles inherent in the human condition, the desperate, but oftentimes fruitless
search for meaning in life as well as the countless humiliations and injustices
we, as a species, experience and/or mete out on a regular basis.
Musically,
this type of thematic approach has resulted in a mixture of classical punk rock
in-your-face aggressiveness (e.g. in “Nothing Right“) and post-punk/alternative
introspective moodiness (e.g. in “Passion“), a slightly unsettling marriage, as
it were, between punk's “Fuck you!“ and post-punk's „“I’m/We’re fucked!“.
2. Your
debut album, The Scapegoat’s Agony, is an allusion to Samuel Beckett’s works.
How does Beckett’s existentialist perspective influence your songwriting, and
are there other literary figures that shape your music?
A direct
quote from Beckett’s famous play Waiting For Godot,” The Scapegoat’s Agony”
perfectly encapsulates the general nature of the – for the most part – painful
and excruciating odyssey undertaken by the album's unnamed antihero. Haunted by
the apparent absurdity and meaninglessness of the world within and around him,
he nevertheless sets out to tackle the Sisyphean tasks laid out before him by a
pitiless and seemingly cruel universe, just like Beckett's Unnamable (”You must
go on. I can’t go on. I'll go on.”).
Other
literary influences include Douglas Adams, with his satirical-sarcastic
approach to the absurdities of human existence; William Shakespeare, whose
countless characters often have to suffer through tragic and – not infrequently
- self-inflicted conflicts, and Arthur Schopenhauer, whose radical metaphysical
pessimism has probably impacted our general world view to a considerable
degree.
Add to this
some deeply unsettling motifs of the-nightmarish-in-everyday-life, as employed
in the works of Franz Kafka and director David Lynch, for instance, and – voilà
– you get The Scapegoat’s Agony .
3. Your
sound blends punk rock and alternative rock, with influences ranging from the Sex
Pistols to Joy Division and Therapy? How do you balance raw punk energy with atmospheric
and existential depth?
Like a lot
of musicians, we started out covering several songs from our favorite bands,
some of them punk or punk-ish, such as Sex Pistols, Ramones or Die Ärzte, some
of them post-punk, such as The Cure or The Jesus and Mary Chain. When we finally
began to create our own material, our songs at first turned out to sound more in
the post-punk vein: “Passion" and “Absurd", tracks #6 and #10 off our
album, are perfect examples of this more despondent streak of ours.
Starting
with “The Past Of The Future” (track #1), “Nothing Right” (track#2) and “A Madman’s
Dream” (track #4), our music began to take on more and more of a raw and
unbridled classic-punk quality and energy, which would become kind of our signature
sound. What all of these songs have in common is that the lyrics came first and
the actual songwriting as step two (more on this below).
4. The
Scapegoat Revisited EP triptych celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Scapegoat’s
Agony. What was the motivation behind revisiting these songs, and how has your
perspective on them evolved over the years?
The idea of
revisiting the songs of our debut album first came up while the world was still
in the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic back in early 2021. We just felt that
the bleak existentialist views expressed in our lyrics and our music might be a
perfect match in the midst of such a life-changing global crisis. Also, not
least due to the advent of various music streaming services, it had become much
easier for independent bands to put their music out there, especially when
people worldwide would likely have much more bandwidth to listen to different
kinds of music during the pandemic.
And,
finally, our several re-releases in the form of singles and EPs were also about
paying homage to a – if I may be so bold - wonderful and challenging piece of
art that we managed to create three decades ago and leaving a legacy for
present and future generations to engage with, to enjoy and, should they feel
so inclined – to share with others. Or, to say it with Tom Stoppard’s
Guildenstern: “There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could
have said – no. But somehow, we missed it.”
5. Your
latest EP, Passion/Bliss, continues the journey of your unnamed antihero. Can you
elaborate on his emotional odyssey and how his struggles reflect the album’s overarching
themes?
As already
mentioned above, Passion/Bliss is the third and final installment in our Scapegoat
Revisited EP triptych celebrating the 30th anniversary of our debut album The
Scapegoat's Agony (1995). The album title is an allusion to the play Waiting
for Godot by Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett and points towards
the – for the most part – painful and excruciating emotional odyssey of the
unnamed antihero.
The trials
and tribulations that this antihero has to endure lie at the very heart of the major
narrative that runs through both our album and our EP trilogy. Some of those trials
include our antihero struggling with his total lack of emotional well-being (“Passion”),
his being plagued by apocalyptic visions of a world doomed to repeat the same
vicious cycles over and over again (“Bliss”) or – still in the clutches of his complete
mental breakdown – his assuming the treacherous persona of a Christ-like would-be
saviour (“Astray (Fallen Angel)”).
Whereas
“Nothing Right” revolves around our antihero coming to grips with his past and
present failures and regrets, “The Final Door” strikes a more vengeful tone,
with him envisioning his alleged abusers being subjected to some kind of karmic
punishment at the hands of seemingly unstoppable infernal forces. All in all,
it could probably be argued that our album as well as our EP trilogy offer, as
one reviewer put it quite succinctly, an “unflinching exploration of the human
condition.”
6. The
song “Bliss” presents an apocalyptic vision of a world trapped in endless
cycles. Do you see this as a commentary on society, or is it more of an
introspective reflection?
As is often
the case with our lyrics, they work both ways, I guess: As a key part of the larger
narrative depicting the antihero’s odyssey,” Bliss“ represents the point at
which he has succumbed to his insanity, while being plagued by these
cataclysmic images of a world doomed to repeat the same vicious cycles over and
over again.
Taken on
its own, the song's mantra-like chorus ”Kill your thoughts to free your mind/Life
is easier when you’re blind” could reasonably be interpreted as a scathing and
sarcastic comment on the general allure of blissful ignorance that too many people
seem content to resort to these days.
7. Coma
Beach’s lyrics are deeply rooted in literary and philosophical ideas, including
Schopenhauer’s metaphysical pessimism. Do you view your music as a form of philosophical
expression?
Since we’ve
always been very interested in asking the great questions of life, the universe
and everything (to borrow a phrase from one of our favorite authors😉), the only correct answer here would be a
resounding ’Yes!‘ The harrowing dichotomy between our species' desperate search
for meaning in a seemingly chaotic world, on the one hand, and of having to
possibly face the utter meaninglessness of human existence, on the other, lies
at the very centre of our songwriting, as exemplified by our antihero's
anguished, but also defiant cris de coeur in ”Passion” and ”Nothing Right”.
Staring into this existential abyss might get you a one-way-ticket to insanity,
as happens to the narrator in ”Bliss”, or lead you to some form of deeper
insight, a moment of clarity and wisdom, which would result in a slightly more
accepting, yet still critical attitude towards the absurdities of life and all
its mind-boggling intricacies. The latter outcome manifests itself in the
second half of our album The Scapegoat’s Agony, in songs such as ”Absurd”,
”Another Song” or ”I Won’t Listen”.
8. With
influences from bands like Bad Religion and The Jesus and Mary Chain, how do
you incorporate elements of both punk aggression and melodic introspection in your
sound?
As far as
these two types of sound are concerned, they frequently bleed into each other
quite fittingly, e.g. in ”Passion”, which is a clear manifestation of our
postpunk/dark wave roots with its labyrinthine structure and its blend of
melancholy moodiness and defiant outbursts, the latter of which obviously
pointing towards our punk rock influences. A slightly different mix of
introspective melodiousness and fiery lashing-out can be found in ”Bliss”, with
its slow, almost hypnotic beginning and its explosive, ever quickening second
half.
”Nothing
Right”, on the other hand, was not only one of our first true punk rock songs back
in 1995, but – due to the punch it packs and its anthemic in-your-faceness – it
also epitomizes the EPs duality of existential despair and righteous fury at
the innumerable injustices dished out by an apparently merciless universe.
9. How
does the dynamic between band members shape your creative process? Does each
member bring a specific musical or thematic contribution?
When we
were still active, our creative process would generally work something like this:
one of our songwriters (singer B. Kafka, guitarist Captain A. Fear or bassist
U. Terror) would come up with a story idea, mostly already put into concrete
lyrics; in some cases, those lyrics would have to be translated from German
into English, as happened with “Passion” and ”Nothing Right”, for example.
After that, our guitarist Captain A. Fear would work his inimitable songwriting
magic by wedding suitable chords to the lyrics and then off we would rush to
our rehearsal basement to blast out the new songs in full force😉.
Musically,
all five band members have made vital contributions to our overall sound, of
course, from Kafka's intense and growly vocals to Fear's exceptional guitar
work, from Blunt’s reliable rhythm guitar to Terror's steely bass and Lecter's
propulsive drumming.
10. Punk
rock is often associated with rebellion and social critique. Does Coma Beach use
music as a vehicle for protest, or do you take a more personal and existential approach?
The latter,
for the most part, I'd say. While a heavy dose of rebelliousness and scathing
criticism of society's follies does lie at the heart of our music and our
lyrics, these elements generally work as parts of a larger, more existential
narrative, as personified by the unnamed antihero of our album, our singles and
our EP trilogy.
Especially
with our EPs, it has been quite interesting to revisit our old songs, trim them
down to their essential core and place them in a slightly different context as compared
to our original album. This artistic approach has allowed us to present updated
and crisper versions of our album tracks both to long-time fans as well as to first-time
listeners, while by the same token creating new variations on our album's overarching
narrative. After all, to crib from Beckett once more, "[t]o find a form
that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now." Well, man
got a point there, don't you think😉?
Coma Beach - Bliss (Single Version) (Lyrics Video, designed by Sara K.)
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