Jake Figueroa – Crobot ‘Beardos Unite’

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Plugga73

Crobot, the quartet of hard rock spaced out Pottsville, Pennsylvanians recently released album number three in their brief existence, Welcome to Fat City. Breathing life back into southern grooves with a new edge, intertwined with plenty of 70’s inspired guitar, the band are making a name for themselves as one of the up an coming bands across the U.S and slowly but surely, the world.

Wall of Sound tracked down bass player, Jake Figueroa to give us the low down on the new album, it’s sound and a few other odds and ends, check it out below….

One of Crobot’s catch phrases has been, ‘Always on Tour’, I believe that’s where you are at the moment (on tour). What part of the U.S do we find you today?

Currently we are in the MidWest heading toward Wisconsin! Curds 4 life!

And again, touring with some great bands, Sevendust and Wilson at present, you guys have landed some incredible slots in the U.S the past few years it has to be said.

Yea, we’ve been very lucky to have the opportunities to share the stage with some heavy hitters. Shout out to our agent, Mel, who we call “Ma,” for taking care of us!

After the U.S shows, I believe you’re heading to Europe again. Has there been any offers to tour Australia with this album?

Not that we know of. We’ve heard rumours here and there but we can only keep our fingers crossed at this point.

Speaking of the new album, Welcome to Fat City, a great follow up to Something Supernatural, another great batch 70’s rock groove again though some stuff on the album definitely has that Rage Against the Machine influence, which sounds kind of weird saying it loud – but there are some definite bombastic beats in there, agree?

Oh yea!! We had a saying in the studio about our song endings or the big breakdowns…we called them “dick in the face endings.” Ha-ha, but in all seriousness Rage is definitely an influence on us so seeing it come through on the tracks is pretty cool.

So, the title of the album, what does it mean and what were some of the meanings behind the tracks on Welcome to Fat City? It seems there’ always a story behind a Crobot song?

Well the title goes along with the first track, which describes a planet that thrives on sleazy deals and corruption. Basically a pirate’s paradise. As the album continues, it further delves into the Crobot universe that Brandon is creating with the Graphic Novels. Each song can either be linked to characters or planets or story lines that he’s writing.

What about some of the crazy artwork behind the album? What was behind that concept and who created it?

Bishop (Chris Bishop – guitarist) is the wizard who creates all the artwork for the band. He wanted to created anamorphic images and portray a kind of trippy graffiti style with this album and we couldn’t be happier with it! He does an incredible job of capturing imagery from the song or just related to an overall theme and visualizing it.

What are some moments on the new record that you’re most excited for your fans to hear?

The part where the music starts…then all the stuff after. And some of the new effects that are snuck in there that we developed in studio.

You’ve also jumped on board the band beer making bandwagon, I see, joining the likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Amon Amarth etc. Tell us a bit about that.

Double Barley Brewery in North Carolina makes a mean beer. And they make mean beer with us! We got to meet their brewer, Mark, at a show and he invited us to check their place out. Turned out they were SERIOUS brewers!!! So we got nice and drunk and hashed out a recipe for our own beer!

Mike Patton of Faith No More famously lambasted Australian band, Wolfmother about 10 years ago during a live interview, saying, “Are you fucking hearing this (upon Wolfmother playing in background)? What fucking year are we in? Are people really this fucking stupid to listen to this?”. Firstly, ten years later, having yourself been compared to Wolfmother, any rhetoric to Patton? Do you care what he said?