Happy 4/20! We’re helping you get the day good and lit with this sludgy cover of a smoking favorite, “Bury Me In Smoke.” Y'all know I’m a sucker for covers, and we’re about to witness two bands taking on this Down standard from 1995’s NOLA. I’m talking about Atlanta’s DAYGLO MOURNING and Birmingham’s EMBR, two top notch doom bands we’ve featured in these pages before and played on The Doomed & Stoned Show. The pair had this to say about their collaboration:

Dayglo Mourning and EMBR are fans of each other’s music so we decided, “Hey, why not collaborate on something special”? We threw around a couple ideas on what to do. After a few conversations we finally decided to cover a classic song together: “Bury Me In Smoke” by Down. Not just because it’s a jammin’ song – it’s also a fucking classic. I mean really, who doesn’t like that song?

We had a few jam sessions and headed to Ledbelly Sound Studio – and the end result? - we think you’ll dig it. We tried something different with the video and collected short clips from Old Blood, MWWB, Witchpit, and Blacklab, among many others. It’s all a tribute to the 4/20 holiday.!

The EMBR/Dayglo Mourning rendition of the song features big, sweeping riffs, sludgey beats, and dank vox. My guess is you’ll have this on regular rotation in the 4/20 playlist today. Personally, I couldn’t help listening to it on repeat. May the smoke be with you!

Give ear…

Continuing his two-and-a-half-years’ journey into the deepest, dankest corners of the heavy underground, Doomed & Stoned’s intrepid sludge reporter Shawn Gibson continues his series of fun and lively interviews with bands in our still blooming and booming doom-stoner scene with this interview with founding member and drummer Eric Bigalow, whose partner Crystal Bigalow fronts the Alabama band EMBR. We hope you enjoy getting to know the band as much as we did, especially in light of their new album ‘1823’ (2020) which was released recently on New Heavy Sounds.   [Editor]

Eric, how ya doin?

Good. I am on my daily walk. Watching my “conspiracy videos.”

Ah!

How are you?

I’m good.

Glad to hear it! Were you able to listen to that album?

I did. Last night two times in a row!

Really?

Back to back.

Possible Album Of The Year? (laughs)

I would say it’s up there, a contender for sure! I definitely like it alot!

Thank you.

In the song “Where I’ve Been,” Crystal’s vocals are amazing, beautiful, and haunting. At the end of the song Crystal has that growl!

She learned how to scream a month before we got in the studio and freakin’ knocked it out! You know the song “Powder,” where I’m singing to the verses?

Yes, that’s definitely another one I like on '1823’ (2020)

We are going to do a song where she’s taking the reins on [vocals] instead of me doing it.

Is she doing dual vocals on that track? Clean, then a bit harsher vocals.

Yeah, she’ll kind of mirror some parts. When I’m done singing, she will come in and sing.

“Vines” is another good one from 1823. Who’s doing those growls?

That would be me. I pull it off live while I’m playing drums, too. I’m glad you dig it! It’s weird when you come out with songs, as far as what you think will be people’s favorite and what the band’s least favorite is. You know what I mean?

Oh yeah.

“Vines” was kind of ours. We were kind of, “I don’t know about this one.” It seems that the people that have heard it like it.

You and I are friends on Facebook and I see good reviews for your songs and the whole album '1823.’ You guys have gotten a great response!

Seems like we’re getting good responses [on that song especially]. The count on our Facebook has been doing wonderful! Almost a hundred thousand views!

Very nice!

One thousand likes and four hundred and seven shares. Thats crazy, man!

Glad to hear that! You guys deserve it!

Thank you! It’s always nice to hear that. In your opinion, buddy to buddy, do you think the response from the album will be as good as one song?

Definitely. I would envision praise and a very warm welcome from doom metal fans. Tell me about recording '1823.’

We went to Ledbelly Sound studios in Dawsonville, Georgia. The owner and engineer’s name is Matt Washburn. He has worked with Mastodon, Royal Thunder, Artimus Pyledriver. We are real big fans of Artimus Pyledriver! They broke up years ago and it kinda hit us hard. We worked with Matt multiple times. He mastered 261. He recorded 271 and he recorded Spiritual Dialysis.

We always got along with Matt really well. He pushes you hard, but is also kind of laid back. It’s a little hard to explain how that works. He has the same kind of sense of humor as we do, so it’s always a good time there. We recorded this album 1823 in six days over the course of two weekends. As far as recording, we just plugged right in and Mark and Alan recorded the scratch tracks for guitar and bass while I was playing drums. I got my drums recorded pretty much on the first day.

Damn!

Yeah! Then we went back and tracked over the drums. We had the music pretty much done in the first weekend. The second weekend was pretty much a few overlays on guitar and Crystal laying down her vocals. Everybody knocked it out pretty quick, especially Crystal. Crystal goes in the booth and knocks out a song in one or two takes then moves on to the next one.

Glad to hear that!

She is really good at recreating what she does. She does the same exact thing live. She’s talented that way.

Crystal has some angelic vocals, while the music is heavy as hell!

(laughs) That’s what we are going for.

That is a beautiful contrast and compliment at the same time.

Thank you! She is good at finding the right notes to accompany dropped tuning. We are in drop A. The recording was awesome – working with Matt is always awesome. We are scheduled to go back and see him in a couple months. Can’t tell you why yet!

That shows you guys are working hard.

We are trying! We are trying to make a video for every song on 1823.

That’s a great feeling to have plenty of songs written and recorded, always having material to put out there. You guys work hard and practice hard, so it is easier to record and lay down tracks quicker. If you’re knocking a good chunk out on a weekend, that’s good! If you’re paying for studio time, I’d imagine you’ve practiced and are ready. Studio time can be expensive.

Yeah, you don’t want to go in there and dick around. You don’t want to figure out the song in the studio.

Right! Tell us about your backend.

At the moment we are using Orange amps. Crowbar is using those, too. We have two Orange heads and Mark tunes one mostly to mids and lows and the other one is mids to high’s. The secret sauce – well, it’s not a secret now that I’m going to tell you – I bought an old 1969 tuck and roll bass amp. It’s three 15 inch speakers. It’s only two hundred watts, but you crank it all the way to where it’s just breaking up. He is running two guitar amps plus a bass amp to get his guitar tone.

Wow!

That’s how we achieved our guitar tone. Our bass player Alan uses really good equipment, too. He uses a dark glass amp that sounds really awesome. Matt told me he loves recording my drums because my drums are the John Bonham version that Ludwig makes, so it’s all really big sizes.

Damn.

Yeah, you get a huge sound out of it. To get the shells for that kit is $1200.00 bucks, which isn’t that bad. You get monster sounds out of these things and I love em! I actually have two sets!

Awesome! Listening to '1823,’ “Powder, "Vines,” and “Where I’ve Been” are my faves. I love at the end of “Where I’ve Been” when Crystal screams, “Where I’ve been!” That is badass! “Vines” fucked me up with Crystal’s singing and then those male growls!

That was good, huh? Thank you! We are hoping that the next one will be a little bit heavier. A lot of our older stuff we have seven and nine minute songs. We are trying to reel that back, where we are three to five minutes. Doing stuff that is memorable, not necessarily technical.

Are you guys going to try to get back to playing shows in the fall or winter if things open back up?

Yeah, we will start booking heavy when everything opens back up. Right now we are not doing anything because nobody knows what’s going on right? When stuff opens back up we will hit it hard.

You should!

We have a business plan in place to do certain shows in certain months or so many shows each month. Certain states we want to go to. We all have full time jobs, so we are trying to figure out some four day runs to kind of “tour” for the album. It is just up in the air right now. We have thought about doing some Facebook live videos or videos of us jamming in the practice space. We talked about how to get a quality recording with the footage.

On that note, what do you see in the future for EMBR?

We are planning on releasing an EP sometime soon. Right now, we are focusing on writing riffs and songs for the next actual album. In the future, we want to play a lot more shows. Right now, we are focused on material. We are putting stuff in the bank like we did for 1823. Mark will send me a riff and show me how to play it. Then I’ll record it on GarageBand and write more to it then put it into Google Drive so everyone can hear it. We have about nine song ideas right now for the next one. Some might not come to fruition. What the future holds for EMBR is more work! Keep working and keep truckin’! We are all a bunch of work horses.

Hell yeah! I think you have three or four EP’s before '1823.’

Yeah.

That’s why EMBR has such a great response. You guys work your asses off! Do you guys have shirts or any other merch?

Oh yeah.

Where can we find this stuff at?

Our shirts are made by a company called Amplified Tee. On album 271 we had a guitarist named Craig who worked at Amplified Tee. Basically you go online and order whatever you want. I think we have five or six different designs. You can get regular shirts, girl’s style tees, or a hoodie. You can go on amplifiedtee.com/EMBR. We have that available right now.

I will have to check that out!

I am actually working on a newer design right now. There might be a new design soon.

Well that’s about all I have for you, Eric. I hope that you and Crystal and the other guys in EMBR are well and staying safe!

Oh yeah, definitely.

Until next time I will talk to you later, Eric.

Alright. Thank you, I appreciate it!