Interview with Uchino from Coffins

Coffins is possibly one of the biggest death/doom acts that come out of Japan. The band has released 3 full length albums and a whole host of splits, with a couple more coming up this year. We talk to Uchino, guitarist and vocalist of the band.

HMT: Hi Uchino! Last year the band had an Australian Tour. How did these shows go? How was the crowd response in Australia?

Yeah, that tour was excellent!! We worried that no one would know us because we had visited Australia for the first time. But a lot of metal manias came to see us. Awesome!!

The band will be embarking on a Japan tour and a European tour this year, how are preparations coming along? Will there be any special surprises for fans who are coming for these shows?

We will do the first european tour with Sourvein(US) and Aguirre(FR) in April, and also play Roadburn 2011. Looking forward to it!! As for the shows in Japan, we will support Monarch(FR) and Dark Castle(US) Japan tour in March. We release a CD album called "Ancient Torture" in February 2011. It's a comp album that collected the single songs released between 2005 - 2009. We will sell them at the shows.

Coffins has 3 full lengths out so far, but have a large catalogue of split albums. What is the reason behind having such a large number of splits instead of compiling them and releasing them as full length albums?

As we can't frequently do an overseas tour by circumstances in work, we are exchanging it with various overseas bands through split release. And we are not professional band, so we only make the album when we want to make it.

Some of the splits are also released only in vinyl format. Will the songs on them ever be released in CD format in the future?

It's possible to listen to the songs that will be released by 2009 on comp CD called "ANCIENT TORTURE". It will be released from US label "Deepsend Records" in around February 2011. As for the other tracks after 2010, we're not sure but we will add to another release as a bonus track.

When writing the songs for split albums, does the band take into consideration who the other band is before writing the songs in order to suit the split release? What is the songwriting process like for Coffins?

I occasionally write the split song according to the partner band style. But we offer split the song completed at that time usually. Our composition process is... first, after the composer completes all riff, the detailed part is arranged by the other members.

I read that in 2000, the band was playing music in the veins of doom/sludge rock. What was it that caused you to infuse the death metal elements that have become an integral part of the sound of Coffins?

It's my idea. We did the activity stop once in 2000. When starting again in 2003, I wanted to start as COFFINS different from the past because the band member also changed.

Coffins lyrics are evil and often reek of death. Where do the inspirations to write the lyrics come from?

I'm getting an idea from the religious bags and the war problems etc. I arrange the idea by the movie and the fantasy element. But as my English is so poor, I don't make lyrics public haha. Uchino, you also mentioned in a 2008 interview with Lords of Metal that manga relates with your work.

Do all the members currently have a full time jobs besides being part of the band? If so, how do you juggle between having a full time job and such an active band?

Indeed, I'm manga artist. The bassist is doing the work of the print. The drummer is working at the soba nudle shop at Haneda International Airport. In Japan, there is almost metal bands in underground. So it's not possible to live only by band activity. We can't spend time for band activity easily. But I work for this band at least.

Japan seems to have an affinity with neo-classical/power metal bands, receiving a lot of attention from the metalheads there. However, what is the underground scene like? What are some of the bands that we should be listening to?

Recently, a lot of young new bands are born in an underground scene in Japan. The hard/crustcore scene is active as usual. Doom/Grind/Death metallic scene seems lively, too. Young bands has not come out from the old school death metal yet, too bad.

We have come to the end, thank you for taking the time off for this interview and we wish you and Coffins all the best in the upcoming tour in 2011!

Thank you so much!! Doom on!!

Coffins on the internet:
Official website
MySpace

©2011 Heavy Metal Tribune | Hong Rui