The cacophonous chaos of the Callous Daoboys isn’t always an easy pill to swallow – but on their new album, amid the violence and stylistic shifts, they’ve found something madcap and genius.
Three years on from their breakthrough record, Celebrity Therapistthe band are determined to show that they’ve evolved. Somehow they feel more polished and yet more feral on I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven.
Maddie Caffrey could barely play guitar when vocalist Carson Pace convinced her to start a project together, the pair having met at a Christian youth karaoke night, of all places. Older and wiser, but by no means diluted, their third album delivers a highly-orchestrated representation of their uncanny sonic vision.
Caffrey and co-guitarist Daniel Hodsdon are more than happy to discuss their new developments – with the exception of their secret “horrid” pedal, that is.
How does the writing process work for such a chaotic sound?
Caffrey: “In the early days we did a lot of chopping and screwing, throwing stuff at a wall to see what stuck. When you make chaotic music, that’s the fun of it. We get written off as being a chaos band with lyrics that are just random and quirky – but we’re very intentional about everything that goes into this music.
“Everything that happens deliberate choice; we prioritize and write towards specific moments. They aren’t random. A lot of people think it’s just random nonsense that we package up nice. I won’t say we haven’t done that before; but as we’ve matured, we’ve gotten pretty purposeful and intentional.”
Is the new album proof of those intentions?
Caffrey: “We’ve always had the intent of making records like this. It’s taken a few albums to figure out what the Callous Daoboys is. We got a lot of ‘knockoff Dillinger Escape Plan’ comments in our early days; now we’re not knocking off anybody. I like that somebody can still listen to our first EP – they can see how a band can develop.”
There’s a mention of Guitar Center, Arkansas in Full Moon Guidance.
Hodsdon: “It’s about the living room-rock god that has to be seen and heard on a Tuesday afternoon in a Guitar Center. Carson and I both worked at the same Guitar Center. There’s an air about people who tell you about their glory days: ‘And if you keep trying at it, you’ll get there, bro!’ They’ll sit for hours playing the most expensive guitar, then leave without buying a single thing! I saw it all the time.”
What guitars did you play to track the album?
Hodsdon: “The two main guitars were a Dunable Asteroid Flying V and Carson’s Charvel San Dimas Superstrat. We used a handful of other guitars as the situations arose, depending on the tonal quality we wanted.
“Maddie’s custom-built Balaguer flying V has a Telecaster neck pickup; we thought that would be cool, and it is cool, so that got used for select parts. We also used our producer Dom Maduri’s Reverend Charger and my Music Man Silhouette.”
How was the tone building?
Hodsdon: “I got to dial in all the amp tones. I’m really proud of how they all combine together. The Dunable is a very dark sounding guitar; we plugged that through an Orange Crush, and the Charvel was going through a 5150.
“The tones rounded each other out to make this very nasty and gnarly sound. Dom was so genuine in telling me that they complement each other so well that I thought he was being sarcastic!
“We use the same kind of amps on our Kempers for live – it’s either a 5150 or a Diezel VH4 from Wes Hauch Kemper packs. I was trying to emulate that, but asking what it would sound like on real amps in a big room.”
Single-coils seem to play a big part in the sound.
Hodsdon: “Designer Shroud of Turin [from 2023 EP God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys] was written on a single coil neck pickup. It needed that tube-y kind of hollow sound. I always flip to a single coil in certain parts instead of turning to a clean channel or turning my volume down. It’s good to have that versatility.”
There’s a pressure to be slickly produced. We’ve had a lot of conversations about whether that’s fitting for us
Maddie Caffrey
Caffrey: “It has adds fun dynamics to your heavy tones. I think a lot of bands just think, ‘Heavier, heavier, and heavier!’ But it makes the heavy parts a little bit more impactful when you can dial back or give it a different texture.”
What are your most valuable pedals?
Hodsdon: “Studio and live, we use DigiTech Whammy and Ricochet pedals. I really want to get the Hammer On pedal, too. We use an EHX Pog octaver a lot. And there’s one pedal which is a secret that we’re not allowed to talk about. It makes that horrible screeching noise that you hear on …Unreality.”
Sorry – a secret pedal?
Hodsdon: “It’s off the shelf; people can buy it. It’s one of those things like Tom Morello says – you crank it to 10 and see what you can do with it. We found the most horrid noises possible! I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface with it yet.”
Caffrey: “Carson wants us to paint them all black so that people looking at our pedalboards won’t know what it is!”
I play my parts as accurately as I possibly can, but it’s nice to know that I can play wrong notes
Daniel Hodsdon
Hodsdon: “Greg Kubacki from Car Bomb has all his pedals covered with tape. It’s like when Eddie Van Halen would turn around when he was tapping so no one could figure it out. ‘Fuck you – figure it out, or maybe make something newer and crazier!’ If you’re just copying, then what?”
What’s your approach to live shows?
Caffrey: “In the metalcore space there’s a pressure to be slickly produced. We’ve had a lot of conversations about whether that’s fitting for us. We use a click track for sound effects that we don’t want to leave out of our shows; as we’ve been touring we’ve had to think about whether we program this or automate that. Some things we don’t want to automate.
“I know it’s silly, but I love using pedals. It takes a little bit of practice to do something with your feet as well as playing guitar, but I don’t think I’ll ever not have a Whammy pedal there to do some crazy little wee-woos. It’s fun, even if it’s a pain in the butt, or sometimes you misstep. That’s part of the performance.”
Hodsdon: “I like fucking up! I play my parts as accurately as I possibly can, but it’s nice to know that I can play wrong notes. Sometimes notes get messed up. Who cares?”
