Metal Contraband’s Chelsea recently spoke with Tim Williams of Rollin’ Coffin, to discuss the new single “Sun and Rain”, the origins of Rollin’ Coffin, some Bloodsimple history and VOD happenings, Tim’s work with producer Machine, and more. Check it out below:
Chelsea here on the phone with Tim Williams of Rollin’ Coffin. How are you doing today?
I’m doing good. Happy to be here, doing some press today. So that’s always cool to connect with the people to see how things are going.
Awesome. I’m excited to talk with you about the new Rollin’ Coffin music, you have a new single out this week, which is “Sun and Rain”, and from an intro that’s literally metallic, transitioning into a wall of sound, this song feels like a little part punk, part grunge, hardcore, heavy metal, maybe even a touch of thrash I hear in there, and it just has so much depth to it that it’s such an awesome track, and I would love to start by digging into the inspiration for the new single.
Well, it was inspired…I always have some songs lying around, and this one, I wrote the music not too long ago, and I just knew at least the music had such a really cool hook to it, and as the lyrics started to come into play and the verses, and obviously the chorus, it really started to feel like it was definitely going to become something. I’m not sure exactly what inspired me to kick off the song, but it’s kind of like, if you would say a duality in life, or say, maybe me in my life and things that are important to me, would be the sun and the rain as all the exterior forces out there that seem an attempt to stop me from either achieving goals, or just to drag me down or take away things that are important to me, and that would be the general theme of the song, you know?
I get it, I mean, that’s relatable for a lot of people as well. Things can tend to get in the way of goals and dreams and aspirations and things, but you persevere through it, and a lot of times you come out with something awesome, which is an example of all the music you’ve come out with in your whole career. Any obstacles that have been your way haven’t stopped you, that’s for sure.
I’ve been very fortunate and lucky that people have paid as much attention as they have for as long as they have, I will always be honored and humbled by that.
That’s a great attitude to have about it as well. So let’s go back to Rollin’ Coffin a few years ago when you first made your debut with “Runaway”. How did you first start out with the songwriting for this new project, and getting a band around you for the first recording?
This song kind of came out, you know, I hate to say this, but this is the reality of where the project came out of, the COVID pandemic. Which, you know, I don’t know, it’s not a COVID thing, but that period of time, at least some of it, it allowed me to have more time than I normally wouldn’t to really focus on getting the first couple of songs off my computer and out to some people that I know in the industry to help me kind of bring it up to the next level. Cause a lot of these songs, mostly all, are written by me with an acoustic guitar in my home studio, or literally at my kitchen table with a notepad, just writing down ideas and lyrics and then I load them onto my computer and then I build off of that. With that extra time that I had, you know, VOD kind of got quiet, Bloodsimple went quiet. So at that point between the pandemic and everything, I just had time, but at the same time, I was inspired to really get off my ass and do this somewhat solo thing that I’ve always wanted to do. I just never had the time. So it kinda came out of that, and I started giving songs to my co-writing partner, Colin Schiller, he’s really great in the studio, but he’s not like over the top. He doesn’t overplay and he really seemed to get the vision that I was going for, and he got it right away, and that was a great feeling. We started writing, I think we wrote like a five or six song demo in a couple of months, where I would send in the stuff and he would co-produce it, put drums to it, better guitars…you know, I’m really not the best guitar player. And the songs really started to come to life, and we start to shop around a little bit, and when we finally got to Static Era Records, who still is with us, doing stuff for us, “Runaway” was just a great song, like when we went into the studio to record those first two singles, “Runaway” and “Misery”, we felt like those were the strongest songs we had at that time, and they just came out incredible. I remember when we recorded, people were still wearing masks and shit, you know?
Yeah, well, I mean at least you took what was a very strange time in the world and harnessed it creatively, and really made some awesome music out of having the time to do so, it kind of worked out in a weirdly good way.
Yeah, like I said, I always wanted to do my own thing, although obviously I have a songwriting partner who, these songs wouldn’t be possible without him. Whenever we do play live or we do our videos, we have our other band that just get in videos and stuff, but it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m just happy that we’re still doing it. We don’t have that much out, but we’re doing enough where I feel pretty good about it.
Definitely, well, a lot of people feel good about it too. Like I said, I mean, this new track, “Sun and Rain”, is just absolutely killer and it’s exciting that you have new stuff on the horizon. And this single is also something that I believe you co-produced with Machine, who’s obviously no stranger to you and your music. He’s produced VOD, Bloodsimple as well. What do you think keeps you two so connected that you keep coming back to working together?
Well, I’d say for one, we live relatively close, you know, even though he does a lot of his time in Texas, you know, his studio, I have access to him, he’s in Jersey, and I’m over here in the city. So that one thing is great. I really don’t feel like traveling far to record stuff, especially if it’s just a couple of singles. And more important than geographically is just, I love what he does with my voice. I’ve worked with a lot of producers and they’ve all been good in their own way, and I have nothing bad to say about anybody, but Machine just really gets my vision. He understands my voice, and he really knows how to get a great performance out of me, and that’s important. This project especially, or band, whatever you want to call it, the vocals drive it. Whereas my other bands, there’s a lot of crazy talented amazing music behind it that carry the vocal as well, this band is way more stripped down and a lot of the attention and effort goes into the vocals and the lyrics, and they kind of stand out more, I would say, than my other bands.
Definitely, I’ll agree with that for sure. I can really see that also on your other recent single, “Heaven Knows”. It’s another great track and I would say it’s maybe slightly more melodic than “Sun and Rain”, which still has a heavier tone, but I think that that focus on the vocals and the melodies and lyrics really comes out in that song, Heaven Knows.
We love that song. That song was when we did the EP, Product of Demise, and we were with a different producer, we were with Jon Markson, again, relatively local guy. We did the first two songs with him down in Brooklyn, and this time he booked us at this killer studio out in Jersey called the Animal Farm, and we did the full tracks there and they were just…”Heaven Knows”, right away, I was just like, “Wow, this song”. You know, sometimes you go into the studio, and the songs sound better but maybe there’s no, like, crazy moments. But that song, once it all started to come together, I was like “holy cow, this song is really really great”. And I feel lucky that we did that. It really captures the Rollin’ Coffin sound, and then we got to shoot like an incredible video for it, which was another just amazing day for all of us. We had X amount of dollars to spend on the video, we shot it down in Coney Island with Jerry Farley who knew a lot of people in Coney Island, and we got some incredible footage. It was really a great day.
That’s great, I love it. It sounds like you’re definitely having a lot of fun with this project.
Yeah.
It feels like you probably have a good amount of freedom in terms of who you want to get involved, when you want to do it. So I feel like that’s definitely letting you kind of let loose and relax, and just have fun with the project.
Yeah, that’s kind of where I’m at now. Music ruled my life for so long, that I’m in a chapter in my life where it’s still a big part of my life, but it’s not taking over my entire life where I can’t do anything else. I just feel fortunate enough that I’ve been able to achieve a balance where I can still do my music, put out the music I want, keep the integrity, keep it honest, keep it original. Like, I don’t want to record the predictable crap. That’s just not what I want to do. It’s hard to do that. It’s hard to step out of the box and take a risk, I’m at a point where I’ve done a lot. It’s not like I got nothing to lose, but I’m just not afraid. I don’t care. As long as I know it’s good and it’s done in a professional atmosphere and it’s done right, I’m good.
There you go. That’s awesome. I’ve also heard that one of your original inspirations in music was The Doors, and it’s such an interesting comparison to me because you’ve obviously ventured into a lot of different musical directions, a lot of heavier ones too, but where would you say that inspiration comes up the most for you? Is it more in your music, your lyrics? Where do you feel The Doors have influenced you the most?
In early years, they influenced everything. Mainly, obviously Jim Morrison, and the way he was, the way he wrote, the way he performed on stage, and just the aura of the Doors. But as I’ve gotten older, I still, every once in a while, will go back to some of their records and still be like, “this is f**king great”. It is strange for a metal hardcore guy to be into that stuff, but it was just something that grabbed me at a very young age, and still one of my all-time favorite bands. Now it’s just an influence that’s there, it was a very big part of my life and me coming up as a musician. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that band, that I know.
That’s great. It’s not even necessarily a strange thing. I think inspiration comes from all different directions, and there’s definitely a direct pipeline from Rock and Classic Rock to Metal and Hardcore and Punk. It’s just an unusual one because a lot of people will go different directions with Classic Rock, they’ll cite like a Led Zeppelin or a Pink Floyd, but I feel like the Doors are not as often recognized, so I like that they’re your people there. And I do want to touch very briefly on Bloodsimple because a fun fact – fun and somewhat random fact – that I found that I love about your Bloodsimple days is the fact that the band became connected with the gaming world. Because “Dead Man Walking” was on the soundtrack for a WWE game when it came out and I think it’s always so fun when metal meets video games or sports, and kind of connects with those other entertainment worlds in a sense. So how did that come about, and did you ever play the game?
No, I never played the game, I used to play games, I had like a very old Xbox, and now I just don’t really have time to sit around and play video games even though I like the Call of Duty games, they’re my favorite. I just know that “Dead Man Walking”, it’s just got so many…you know, I’m not tooting my own horn, it’s just a fact, it’s got so many goddamn spins on Spotify, it’s like, incredible. And I always joke to my wife, if they just gave me a dollar for each spin I ever had, it would be a life changer, you know? But you’re going back to like 2007, maybe Warner Brothers or somebody did that, but I don’t really remember. It’s hard for bands these days, it’s hard for musicians, I don’t have to tell you that. Any way that somebody can get a crack at it and get their music out or, God forbid, get paid, I am all for it. I love when things like that happen, and how randomly that song became as big as it did. I know it’s a great song and Bloodsimple did some great sh*t, but like…unbelievable how many spins it’s got. It’s got be because of that game and whatever other playlists it was on.
Yeah, it was just something I came across, and it is sometimes the most random connections that happen that’ll take something in the streaming world, or on YouTube or something, and it just goes wild. But of course the song has to be good to begin with for people to connect with it, and of course, that is a killer track.
Yeah, that was a good one. We had a lot of fun with that record, we did some really great big tours with it. You know, Bloodsimple, good band. Great stuff. A lot of experience from those years and I don’t regret them.
Now naturally, Rollin’ Coffin is the focus right now, which is awesome, but not that long ago you also performed at a benefit concert at Irving Plaza as VOD, so was that a kind of one-time scenario for the benefit concert? Are there any more plans?
It takes an event like that to get us off our asses to actually go do something, and when those emails… you know, I handle a lot of the VOD business and we get offers all the time. They don’t stop, and it’s all good, and I’m grateful, but we really don’t do that much. But when that offer came through, everybody jumped on board, everybody in the band, and we started to buckle down and really start rehearsing because we knew it was a big night. We wanted to do it right. It was for an incredible cause, and it wound up being a great experience and a great show.
So coming back, of course, to Rollin’ Coffin, what’s coming up next? We have “Sun and Rain” which we can enjoy for a while, but do you have anything else on the horizon?
You know, “Sun and Rain”, we hope it’s gonna burn and keep people interested for a while. Again, it’s hard to keep everything going, but “Sun and Rain” hopefully has some legs and keeps people interested. We’re definitely going to be doing a video for that in the very near future and then we have another single that’s already ready to go. We’re just trying to figure out when we’re going to let that go. It’s getting to a point where it’s getting hard not to play live, so I don’t know. I’ve got to start thinking about that, and looking at that, and trying to figure out what that’s gonna look like, because I think it’s coming to a point where it’s kind of inevitable now. So I’d say those are the things that are coming up.
Sounds good. Well, we’re excited to hear more new music from you. It’s great to know that there is something waiting on the horizon there, but yes, for now, “Sun and Rain” is an absolutely amazing track. We will definitely dig into this more, spin this a lot, and just enjoy it for now, and look forward to more stuff coming from Rollin’ Coffin. So thank you so much for your time today, Tim.
You got it, Chelsea. Have a great day and thanks for having me.