As a long time Cog fan, I was certainly looking forward to a chat with Lucius Borich, the drummer. After listening to the new single, ‘What If’, I was excited. The lyrics are close to my own heart and Cog have obviously, grown up, are a bit more socially aware, and placed a bit more importance into the themes of their songs.

The band members come from Bondi Beach but have spent most of 2007 living in a little town called Weed, California. A town with that name might make you think they were “up to no good”, but they are up to “all good” from the sounds of it. Working with Sylvia Massey at her studio, they have achieved some fantastic new recordings.

My big worry was that these surf boys from Oz had started growing roots in northern California. Lucius quickly quells my fears. What is more Aussie than driving the inland highways? Lucius gets all excited and waxes on about their road trip. “We are just taking a drive from Adelaide to Byron Bay. What a great trip. We normally take the coastal roads, but inland is a great trip, very much the Mad Max turf. You get to see some great country.”

Lucius has been touring with Cog for years and has not only seen a fair bit of the country, but played in most of its towns. I mistakenly assumed that from his long list of “out there” influences that the drummer would be the root of the interesting time signature of the new song ‘What If’. “We do the writing together, kind of, equal writing by developing song through jamming. It took us seven or eight months to get ‘What If’ right, but the riff came from Flynn. We didn’t try to make a weird time signature, but it just came out in an odd time like that”.

I know that in the open-minded 1970’s, bands like Pink Floyd, with ‘Money’, and other bands like Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Genesis put out oddly timed songs. I was curious to find out if record companies or industry honchos would wince when hearing the new single. So I asked if Lucius thought that putting out a single which wasn’t a standard meter of time made it hard to get airplay and attract a wider audience. “It is not so important. It is really important to keep the pulse in our music. We are a bit quirky, and it is very much a Cog thing but we don’t want to alienate everyone. There are great songs in odd time signatures like ‘Golden Brown’ that are what if-ish, with a catchy strong chorus, but still quirky and heavy in that Cog style.”

“I am a massive Frank Zappa fan – Dad introduced me to it – and I always loved it. We are all into Sly And Robbie, Zappa , Dub, Reggae, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Police, Talking Heads, as well as all the new heavy stuff, Underworld, Left Field, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley and the local greats, Shihad, Living End ”.

Although, when Lucius talks lovingly of the Oils and AC/DC, you get the feeling that they are his truly favourite Aussie bands of all time. Lucius adds: “I played in a band called the Rolling Clown and Mark Evans was on bass, and in a band called Juice that did support for Midnight Oil in 1991.”

With 20 gigs between now and New Year, Cog will be on stage showing the east coast crowds what they are made of. But I am reminded that although it is “hard work”, it is “what we love to do, so it is a labour of love. I am really looking forward to North Queensland; I haven’t played up there yet.

“In the US we went to play in Texas and LA. We will go anywhere the heart and our music takes us and we love to go. The alternative is making coffees and we don’t really want day jobs any more.

“Playing 15 shows in the USA was more just for novelty and there was no fan base. That was different. We run the shows headlining in Australia and just do support gigs in the USA. We were back to gigs with no soundcheck, kind of garage days, only four mics on the whole stage, a pretty crap PA, and it is just up the guts, 15 minute change overs and no fucking around. We all found that exciting, and almost enjoyed the lean production.”

If you listen to the lyrics you will very quickly get an idea of where the songs are coming from. Just to make sure, I ask how Lucius how Cog came up with the idea for the new CD and the concept. Lucius obliges and confirms my gut instinct. “We definitely keep the ear to the ground as far as current events go, and for present day government, where things are going, new music, in Europe and the USA, and the international politics. Australia is bombarded with US culture, through media and big business. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an American flag over Canberra one day. I would rather see a republic with an Aboriginal flag replacing the Union Jack”. He adds that the “no vote” on the question of Australia becoming a republic was something that saddened him.

He also believes that Australia is becoming more and more run by big business, and the old monarchy still has a strong hold on politics. He adds that Australia is basically owned by overseas interests. At this point I see we both could talk for hours on politics so I move the conversation’s direction.

I ask Lucius if he surfed much in California. “It is fucking cold! Even down in LA, but especially up north. We are on the way from Adelaide to Byron Bay and have actually just got out of the surf at Corindi Beach. It is stunning, absolutely beautiful little waves and warm water! When we were in San Francisco we went to see Mavericks but it was big, cold and crazy; we had no boards. I am looking to go to Indo, and crank it!”

It is always a dilemma for a great band, that has a catalogue of previously tried and true material that the punters love, to bring in new material. It certainly seems that the boys from Cog have established a set list they are happy with and that the crowd loves.

“Mixed bag,” says Lucius. “Four new songs, some old stuff; it is a combo, not too much of the new stuff. When the new CD comes out, maybe we will add more. At the moment it is just a taste, based on the single for this tour.

“The new CD is supposed to be more vocal focused,” Lucius explains. “It’s because of the lyrics. It is more that, what we are singing about needs to be heard, it is not as metaphorical as our previous material, the new stuff is more to the point, so we bring up front. It definitely suits what we are doing right now.”

When I ask if the change was difficult because of the record company, or is Difrnt Music their own label? “Difrnt is not our label but we are the only band on the label. We are lucky to be backed by them – an indie label – but we still get distribution with Universal. It really suits the band to the ground, nothing is worse than having no control. Bands need to make some money to continue, and record, but the record companies got the money in the past when a record sold.”

From the excitement that I sense from Lucius about the recordings, I am certainly looking forward to hearing the whole CD when it comes out on March 27. If you want some sneak previews, you might experience them at Cog’s website and I guess I will have to see them live to see for myself if the band have improved live, like they have in the studio. My bet is on the band.