From left to right: Chris Fielding, Jon Davis, Johnny King

One of the heaviest doom/sludge metal acts out there at the moment for $1000 loan today, Conan have gradually ascended to the top tier of the respective scene with a number of strong records over the past decade. Blending slow, crushing riffs with fast, scorching ones, the UK trio goes all in on their latest LP, Evidence of Immortality. Perhaps their most consistent release so far, this collection of songs displays fine samples of all their sonic strengths, with a touch of dark humor as well. I reached out to the group to find out more about it and thankfully, founding member Jon Davis (vocals/guitar) shared more insight into Evidence of Immortality, the gear he’s been using lately and how important is the image to a band today, among other topics.

Hi! You are back this year with your 5th studio album. How was Evidence of Immortality born? Did the last couple of years affect the creative process in any way?

Hey yeah, the last couple of years were weird as fuck weren’t they? For us it kinda helped, because it helped us slow down the process and take our time more during the writing phase. It was pretty difficult to not be able to rehearse in the same room, but it worked out in the end.

Your previous album, Existential Void Guardian focused on shorter, immediate tracks, whereas Evidence of Immortality consists mostly of longer, more expansive ones. When composing, how do you approach a new idea?

Well, originally we had a mix of long and short – “Krull” into “Satsumo”, “Dying Giant” into “Sea Lord”. Then we had “Headless Hunter” and “Invincible Throne”, so we definitely have a lot of longer songs. Honestly, I prefer those kind of tracks but they really MUST hit hard. Sometimes the quicker tracks are more immediate, and that’s cool too, but we love to draw things out and so this album went in that direction pretty naturally. I think we have some songs on here that are long, but still have that sense of movement, which is not all that easy to do.

Evidence of Immortality is just another excellent album title in your discography. What was the inspiration behind it? Is there a recurring theme throughout the LP?

Thanks! My inspiration is that weird pay-per-view TV channel called GAIA. My wife and I watched that a lot during lockdown and it is full of shows where people talk, with a straight face, about being able to take themselves back in time and talk to ancient civilizations and crazy stuff like that. They say they can literally project their consciousness into outer space and shit like that, so I started to wonder how long it would be until one said they were immortal and the idea ‘Evidence of Immortality’ came around pretty quickly after that.

Last year you celebrated 15 years of activity as Conan. Looking back, how much do you feel the band has evolved since its inception?

I think we definitely have evolved, of course we have, because failing to do that would be pretty embarrassing after 15 years right? We have become slightly more complex structurally and I think we use what we have in a more efficient way. We get the job done better on the faster tracks and the slower songs crush more. We have had a few lineup changes along the way, and that has helped us to fine tune the things we like (and don’t like) about ourselves on a personal basis, and it has made us a tighter unit for sure.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from the music business so far?

Buy a van as soon as you and maintain it properly, if you want to tour often it will save you a fucking FORTUNE over time. If you can afford a sound engineer, then get one and keep that person on side because having a consistent live sound will help your reputation a lot. Don’t go crazy expecting this game to make you famous or rich, it probably will not, or if it does you will lose yourself along the way. Maybe also, don’t copy other bands too much, it gets boring and everyone will talk about it behind your back.

As a band you created quite a powerful image and universe to match your music. From the song/album titles to the lyrics or artwork, is everything connected? How important has this image become for you?

The imagery created by Tony Roberts has become synonymous with our whole vibe and because of that it holds a lot of importance for us. It’s funny because the lyrics are inspired by the images Tony comes up with, and in turn our songs inspire his artwork – we kind of feed off of each other in that way.

In recent years, many bands seem to have dropped the idea of creating a certain image around themselves, opting to look and present things as casual or down-to-earth as possible (and in the process, this aspect often can be seen as an image itself). To expand upon the previous question, how important do you find the overall image to be for a band/artist these days?

I think image is important, but not all bands suit having one. Now that social media is the new battle ground for acquiring fans and followers, it is even more important to present something cool or interesting and this makes some try a little too hard sometimes. Some of those bands who try and look like they’re not trying are making that their whole thing this ‘hey, I’m too cool for this, but hey, buy our merch please’ – it’s kind of disingenuous. If you pose for a band photo, whether you’re a black metal band in full make up or a punk band in an alley way smoking cigarettes, you are trying, so give up the pretense that you’re too cool for this, you’ll probably get more fans if you try harder.

Let’s talk a bit about music gear. What are your favorite instruments and pedals to play on these days?

Right now, on my pedal board is my old reliable Fuzz Throne fuzz pedal, into a rack mount amp setup (preamp into a Mesa Boogie 2:95 power amp). As for guitars, I have an older Japanese Les Paul Custom by Orville and a newer TTTides Iron Bird copy that I LOVE.

How much do you experiment with gear when rehearsing or recording a new album? Do you frequently switch equipment or have you found a winning combination and stuck with that?

I experiment a little but really, after this amount of time I kind of know what I like best. I don’t have a huge amount of amps to choose from so I kind of stick to what I know.

Any particular item that blew your mind lately and/or are you excited to try in the near future?

I recently received an Earthquaker Devices ‘Life Pedal’ from a dear friend in Hamburg who passed away. He sent it to me in his last days and it arrived after he passed on. That pedal will be used on every album we write from now on, so that in that way he will live on through our music, rest in peace Christian Smukal.

What are your plans post album release? Where and when can we see you live in the near future?

Well, we hope to tour a bit and play some festivals. We have quite a lot in our diary currently so we will follow that through and hopefully get to the USA next year.

If you could arrange a massive dream tour, which bands would you play with?

Fudge Tunnel, Nailbomb, Helmet and Slomatics.

Conan’s official website: https://hailconan.com/

Official webstore: https://conanukmerch.bigcartel.com/

Sputnik’s Evidence of Immortality review: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/85399/Conan-Evidence-of-Immortality/