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Serpent of Fire

"illuminate me" New Coffin for Mary song out today - February 13, 2009:

Today we uploaded a new song that is a continuation of the musical theme first introduced on 'Serpent of Fire". Entitled "illuminate me", This song is probably too much to handle musically but our prog rock influences are very prevelant with its Malmsteen-esqe arpeggios, odd time signatures and Dream Theater-ish wierdness along with the usual trapings of Coffin for Mary musical darkness.

Coffin for Mary news update for February 04, 2009:

Coffin for Mary is now on Reverb Nation!!!! Please support us and go there now to hear our music in higher sound quality than here on myspace.

Coffin for Mary news update for November 04, 2008:

Coffin for Mary is seeking a second guitarist primarily to perform rhythm guitar but at times some lead work depending on what the song calls for.

Anyone in the central Louisiana area interested in auditioning or obtaining more information can contact the band through this myspace page or by emailing the band at this address:

Nightcladangel@gmail.com

We need someone with a perfessional attitude that is an adept and accomplished metal guitarist.

Coffin for Mary news update for October 28, 2008:

To celebrate Coffin for Mary's 13th year as a dark, sinister, mysterious and sometimes romantic creative force within the gothic metal realm we release the re-recorded 2008 version of the classic Coffin song "She walks the Night".

The demo version of this song was perhaps the most well known and successful song ever released by us. Only available as rough demo version till now, we believe the is the difinitive version of this song and we hope to see it take on a new life...She walks theNight once more...Rock N Fukin Roll

Coffin for Mary news update for October 20, 2008:

"As we creep towards All Hallows Eve"

"Coffin for Mary will be appearing on RED 104.3's "THE PIT" Saturday October 25th. We will be doing an interview and performing a couple of acoustic interpretations of our music live on the air. The show is from 8pm till Midnight.

"We would be honored to have you all listen and show a bit of support for one of the darkest bands to ever emerge from Louisiana.

"We will be making a few announcments and the acoustic version of "Serpent of Fire" should be add the perfect atmosphere to these days of waning sunlight and prevailing darkness.

Click here to visit "THE PIT" myspace profile

Click here to visit "RED 104.3 KEZP" myspace profile

Coffin for Mary news update for October 04, 2008:

Here is a new Coffin for Mary interview, I wish to extend a very special thanks to our friend "DJ Zeph" for her kind support in doing this interview, we also have more interviews coming up in the very near. We will announce those details soon. so on to the Interview........

Deep in the dark recesses of your mind they wandered until now.... out of the shadows and mire comes Coffin for Mary to quench you're curious desire. I, Zephyrael, am most pleased to be the one to bring them to you.

Zeph: How did you come up with the name of your band, Coffin for Mary? Who are the current members of the band?

Tristan: I was a bit frustrated at an old girlfriend who just so happened to be named "mary" its pretty much self explanatory from there. Some people think it is some kind of anti-christian name and all of that crap but the truth is a lot simpler and less dramatic, a bit on the silly side also. Our current members are : Ken Bergeron – Drums, Bain – Bass, and myself( Robert Tristan deValler) I do all the vocals and guitars.

Zeph: When was Coffin for Mary formed and what inspired you to create the band?

Tristan: I formed Coffin in late 94 early 95, I was playing guitar in a cover band called Rumblefish, an awesome group of guys. We mostly played grunge stuff and I was a seriously tired of doing other peoples songs and wanted to do something that was more in line with my more traditional and metallic tastes and preferences. I was being exposed to new sounds and styles such as black metal, gothic rock and industrial and it made an impression on me and out of the pure fucking need to create real art I created this project. It was also a spiritual need as well, I wanted an outlet to express my idea's and beliefs that was very both active and re-active which was impossible do before. I wanted to create something that gave me a bit of an escape from reality, something magical that often dealt with the darker paths to enlightenment and truth. I was intent on building something that was indeed larger than myself, with grand representations of the occult and esoteric.

Zeph: Tell us about your unique style of music and who are your major influences?

Tristan: I really have no idea what genre we fit into, I say we are simply extreme dark metal because we encompass so many of the metal sub-genre's such as black metal, gothic metal, progressive metal, and power metal. But I do believe we sometimes create a very distinct atmosphere and sound since we have so many non metal influences also such as classical, blues, psycadelic rock, 80's rock, traditional goth and so forth, for years one of my strongest influences has been "Dead can Dance" and that is in no way metal but they give me so many idea's and inspiration. ken is really into jazz and stuff like that also. A few of our major influences are "Fields of the Nephilim" " Judas Priest" "Dream Theater" "Queensryche" "Rush" "Iron Maiden" and "Yngwie Malmsteen". We also have more contemporary influences such as "Dimmu Borgir" "Evergrey" "My Dying Bride" and "Typ o Negative" as well as countless individual influences that shape each one of our personal musical styles.

Zeph: What sort of equipment do you use in the making of your music?

Tristan: I use heavily modified Fender stratocaster's, very customized. I have two that are my main guitars, both have dimarzio pickups and scalloped fretboards. Basically they are just like the fender Yngwie malsteen signature models. I also use an Ibanez 7 string with dimarzio pickups. I use a pretty simple guitar rig, line 6 half stack, a Johnson millennium and a few effects and secret weapons. I have a in-depth blog on our myspace page detailing my gear and equipment. I am a complete guitar nerd though, sometimes I get to caught up in my gear but I love to experiment with and modify things. Bain plays Fernandez basses and ken plays Tama drums. We use some pro tools in post production and mixing.

Zeph: Does Coffin for Mary play live? If so what are your favorite venues? If not then do you plan to do so in the future? Tristan: Rehearsals are about to begin this fall for the live presentation of the new songs that will be on our upcoming release "Of the Rage of Angels" we also are totally reworking lots of our old material. So we are very committed taking this out some venue's in the near future, hopefully by spring of 09. We are going to make it into the best production our resources will allow, ken our drummer has years of experience with professional staging, lighting and production. He has done it all when it comes to that. We want to make the live presentation more than just us playing the songs, we want it to be visually stimulating without it being overly theatrical but some theatrics are good as long as it doesn't take away from the music.

Zeph: What has been your biggest challenge with Coffin for Mary thus far?

Tristan: Simply getting a adequate place to rehearse and plan our live presentation, it's been a real challenge because we have limited space but ken is building a studio that dwarfs my home studio set up. It will actually has enough room for us to set up as much equipment as we like and play as loudly as we like. Not being able to play live for so long have truly been our biggest challenge by far, I am even considering seeking out an additional guitarist since it would give me more freedom to concentrate on my vocals but thus far that's been another obstacle since we have been unable to find a guitarist that is technically good enough and is willing to be dedicated to this, I love playing guitar, I love doing the lead guitar work but I would love to have a really accomplished and seasoned player to back me up and fill out the sound.

Zeph: What are some of the highlights of Coffin for Mary and what are your goals for the future... such as where do you hope to be with Coffin for Mary 5 years from now?

Tristan: One of the hightlights was when I first released the demo recording "Sorrow Songs of Gothic Tragedy" on mp3. com back in 2002. It got such a huge response that for several weeks we were actually in the mp3. com top 20 gothic and black metal international charts and at one point for a few days we were as high as 2 on the mp3. com gothic and black metal charts right under Cradle of Filth who was 1, we have topped out some of the biggest names in the genre without any support from a label and so on. That was a truly great feeling to be appreciated in that way.

Zeph: Are you currently working on or planning any new releases?

Tristan: We are currently working on our next release "Of the Rage of Angels" pt.1 and pt.2. the first part is mostly songs from our older demo "Sorrow songs of Gothic Tragedy" rerecorded and rearranged along with a few new songs and the second part will be all new material and will be kens recording debut with us. I really liked the older songs but I never liked the way they sounded, they never had the heaviness and intensity I intended so being an obsessive and often neurotic perfectionist I had to re-record those songs except for the drum tracks which were played by a session drummer named chad betts at the time we did the original recordings, I have since released "Sanguine Dreams" one of those re-recorded songs onto our myspace page along with a new song called "Serpent of Fire" which has had a wonderful response. We will be finished with and ready to release part I hopefully by the end of the year and then we will go back into the studio to begin recording part II.

Zeph: What are your views on the current Goth/Metal scenes?

Tristan: Well as far as the goth scene, I really have not been involved with for a long time now. I think our music has changed so much that it really dosnt fit into the goth category in a traditional sense, I have seen gothic culture become so assimilated into pop culture lately, I mean you can just go to the mall these days and get stuff at hot topic that "looks" like the types of clothes and trappings that we used to half to crawl about in the French quarter to find, Im not saying there is something wrong with hot topic, that's the only place some kids can get cool stuff. Im just talking about the commercialization of it, I do love goth style and music even though im not too familiar the newer styles, Im more of an old fart that still listens to Sisters of Mercy and the Nephilim. On the other more positive side I have seen how the goth style has influenced and given metal a facelift for lack of better word, you can hear goth influences these days in lots of the newer heavy bands yet artists like Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride have been mixing gothic elements for years with death and melodic metal and they in fact have had a huge influence and are at last being appreciated. The metal scene seems to be thriving again and its a wonderful thing after seeing the 90's almost kill metal and then that nu-metal thing came about. I think both scenes goth and metal feed of one another to an extent, perhaps it's the darker elements of both cultuers that bind them together. I believe there is a solid difference between the two scenes but bands like cradle of filth, 69 eyes and typ O negative have really blurred the lines and I dont think there is anything wrong with that at whatsoever because there is so much beauty to be had in allowing culture to grow and evolve.

Zeph: What are your views on collaborations and do you have any collaborations coming up?

Tristan: I never had much luck with collaborations, most of the time I get labeled a control freak and impossible asshole but it would be nice to have some to stretch out a bit sometimes. I would love to do some guest guitar solo's and maybe vocal work or something like that for other bands or musicians. As for Coffin we don't have any planned but I have some people in mind that I would like to have do some guest guitar solo's or something. I actually love playing blues, I love SRV and Hendrix and I would enjoy doing some blues based stuff with someone one day.

Zeph: How long have you been in the music industry and how has it changed over time?

Tristan: I have been playing in bands since I was 15 and playing guitar since I was 14 but didn't start playing on a professional level till I was 20 or 21 so I am a old bastard now so I have been involved in the scene for a number of years in fact I started playing guitar about 20 years ago. It has changed in the weirdest ways, I remember the 80's when pretty much metal ruled, I remember the 90's when we didn't rule so much and what we play was pretty much an underground thing and now the day we thought we would never see. Every basic obscure genre of the metal scene has been thrust into the mainstream in some form or another even though it may not seem obvious to most. It great that its cool to be appreciated as a good guitarist again, it's cool to be considered metal is not a bad thing and the young kids have given us farts a new reason to put our shit out there.

Zeph: Where do you typically get your inspiration for songs?

Tristan: Our older material was mostly based on your typical vampiric mythology and was pretty single minded and un original early on but over time after things change and shit happens to change your life in a drastic way your scope sort of widens. These days I take more inspiration from more spiritual sources, we have always had a occult link in our lyrics and so forth but nothing near as consistent and meaningful as what I write about now. I have tapped into a source of inspiration that holds great power and meaning for me ever since I was very young so the music has taken on this new sort of life after I opened the door and let it just flow out. Actually I have plans to turn the new collection of songs we are recording into a short story that will encompass a lot of original artwork, It will most likely not be finished for quite some time but it has been a secret desire of mine for literally years. Another thing that gives me great motivation is the strength and clarity I feel after overcoming addictions and self destructive habits that through my own strength I overcame, that in itself gives me a desire to fill that void with something that holds more power and significance for me. I have this philosophy presently, I look at what I create in this way: "I am going to die tomorrow, this is my legacy and what I want to be remembered for" this new perspective came about after dealing with my mother's death just a little over a year ago and dealing some personal shadows as well.

Zeph: If there were one thing you could change about the music industry today what would it be?

Tristan: I just wish the magic was back like I felt in the 80's, when you would see a video or hold an actual album in your hands and stare at the artwork. Things seemed larger than life back then but it was probably just my age. I think the internet is great for promoting and making music available but on the down side it has taken something away, the mystery and fascination has died a bit I think. I would just wish things were a bit more fair for real musicians who practice hard to perfect their art, I see a lot of talentless people getting treated like they are the second coming Elvis or some shit.

Zeph: How do you feel about the issue of people downloading music and sharing music on the internet?

Tristan: I have mixed feelings about that, I understand the frustration artists feel when the music they love and work so hard to create is just thrown around the web for free with no regard for the artists rights. I find our entire catalog of music on these torrent and mp3 websites and I never submitted our music nor did I give permission for these songs to be made available but I cannot control it. No one person or artist can, there must be a lack of respect for artists these days by some small margin of people out there but that's the chance we take by making our music available in digital formats and I just accept it and move on. On the other hand I understand kids that just want to listen to good music or get one certain song, I'm guilty of downloading myself but I never realized how it takes money out the pockets of independent artists till the past few years. It really is a gray area so to speak and it has had such a impact on the record industry in general that we as artist are going to half to be prepared to deal with being ripped off and not making money of cd sales and just focus more on live performance.

Zeph: How is Coffin for Mary being received by the public? Has the response been good?

Tristan: Since we released "Serpent of Fire" the response has been very positive, we have always had a steady group of friends and fans but nothing overwhelmingly crazy but people are really digging this song and giving it a chance, I do believe "Coffin for Mary" is an acquired taste and I never expect people to go ape shit over us or anything but it's really rewarding and justifying to be appreciated.

Zeph: Is there anyone special you would like to acknowledge, and anything you'd like to add?

Tristan: I wish to say thank you to Erin…and all our dogs and cats.

Zeph: Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview with me. It is very appreciated and I hope to speak with you again soon.

the interview can also be read at any of these sites.

www. DarksideRadio. com

Grave Concerns E-Zine www. GraveConcernsEzine. com

Redrum Entertainment www. myspace. com/redrumentertainment07

Redrum Entertainment Group http://groups. myspace. com/RedrumEntertainment

Skrewicide Fanzine & Promotions www. myspace. com/skrewicide