The first time I really started to question whether on not Norma Jean were actually human was back in 2006 when they released Redeemer. In my opinion, that release marked the first time in the band’s career when they really began to experiment with what heavy music could be. Ever since, Norma Jean has continued to push their creative limits with every following album, but their latest release Wrongdoers (released in early August of this year) sees the band continuing to expand their brand of interesting metal. Norma Jean’s ability to create awesome album, after awesome album has been going strong for the better part of eight years now. It is something few bands are capable of doing. So naturally, I began to worry that early on in the band’s career they must have somehow been replaced by alien, metal-making machines! I began to worry so much that finally I had to get in touch with Norma Jean frontman Cory Brandan to make sure that the band was in fact – still human. Except I had so many other questions that I forgot ask about the whole metal-making alien thing.
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BGM: You’ve described Wrongdoers as an album that “connects everyone”; can you elaborate on that more?
Cory Brandan: I wanted to find a word that was easily interpreted by anyone with a southern touch to it. The idea behind Wrongdoers is that we all have faults in us. None of us have room for judgment on another. In that sense, we are all equals. We are all Wrongdoers. We should start a gang.
It seems that your last four albums including your latest have become more progressive and experimental, is that what made the writing process so difficult for Wrongdoers?
We push ourselves very hard in the practice space and studio. We don’t cut corners. Sometimes it can be very frustrating and stressful, but we fight through it and make sure we do something we all love.
How have the three new band members contributed to the Norma Jean’s overall sound / writing process?
Goose (Holyoak, drums) and John (Finnegan, bass) were in a band together previously. That may not seem like a big deal, but all we saw was that they already had chemistry as a “rhythm section.” We saw that as a great opportunity to build that part of Norma Jean. I think you can hear that throughout Wrongdoers. Jeff (Hickey, guitar) is a riff machine. He brought a lot of ideas to the table. Almost too many. Such a great guitar player.
I read that the band wrote a bunch of songs and scrapped them. Was there a particular reason for this? Will any of the unreleased songs from those sessions see the light of day?
Most of the songs were scrapped way before recording. A few after. We just didn’t like the songs. We spent months on some of them too, but when it came down to it, they didn’t make the cut. The others that were tracked will most likely be re-written and re-recorded. Maybe they’ll come out someday.
With there being so many line-up changes what is it about the current line-up that really embodies what it is that Norma Jean stands for? Was there ever any talk of renaming the band?
To us Norma Jean isn’t really a band. We are more of a collective at this point. Even in the past when we have had guests, like Chino Moreno or Page Hamilton, they didn’t just come in and sing something on top of whatever we had written. We took them in as 6th members to write a song from scratch. We will most definitely work with past members on future recordings. They haven’t left, they just needed to do other things in their lives. They have our blessing in those things.
You guys have been making heavy music for over a decade now. Is it hard to keep the heaviness going?
Nah, it’s just what comes out naturally. We love a lot of different kinds of music, but when we start writing, we like it loud!
I don’t think it’s anything like the scene I grew up in anymore. There is a popular part of the this music that was non-existent before. There are still a ton of bands that are mostly unheard of that are doing great things in heavy music.
Any artist or band that are / were personal music heroes?
So many! I couldn’t even begin.
There is an insane amount of great / heavy bands on the Summer Slaughter Tour, what’s it like being on this kind of tour?
It’s been amazing! Easily one of my favorite tours I’ve ever been on. We made so many new friends and discovered some other bands that we may not have been into before touring with them and seeing them do their thing night after night. It was a true testament to what a live show can do for a band.
Do you prefer to be on tour with bands that have a similar sound as you or a more diverse lineup?
Either one really.
Norma Jean was initially associated with Christian Metal and it seems you have distanced yourself from that. Is that something that the band tries to convey through your music? Or are you just Christian guys who are in a band?
We don’t really even think about it really. I think you’ll find that message is still a cornerstone to a lot of our songs, but all of those songs come from our own life experiences. After that is music. That’s a our real only connection with every one of our fans. We don’t want to isolate anyone from that.
If being a professional musician hadn’t worked out did you have another profession lined up?
I’ve been a graphic designer since 1998. These days everyone and their dog is. I also have a printing business and it just so happens that I have better prices and quality printing than anyone else.