Chicago – Irish rockers Wounds are ready to unleash their hardcore punk on the world. Brothers Aidan and James Coogan and Craig McCann just signed a multi-album deal with Razor & Tie Records. (If you’ve been following Wounds for a bit, it seems the foursome has become a trio, with bassist Aaron McGrath leaving the band. It’s now facebook official.) Wounds will be re-releasing Die Young on November 25, with a few previously unreleased tracks.
Considering all that the men of Wounds have been through the past few years, this is amazing news. In 2010, James fell off a balcony, landing him in a coma, struggling for life. After months of reconstructive surgery and physical therapy, James defied all odds, and despite being told by doctors that he’d never play guitar again, he proved that his love for music and sheer determination were strong enough to shred again. (And man, did he shred at Riot Fest in Chicago!) Once back on his feet, James rejoined the band in making Die Young.
The weekend of Riot Fest, Best New Bands was able to chat with the hilarious Aidan Coogan of Wounds. We talked his obsession with death, James’ accident, their debut album Die Young, and Toronto weed.
Sarah Hess: You formed in 2010. How did you guys meet?
Aidan Coogan: Well, me and [my brother] James, we would always flirt with the idea of playing music together. He’s a bit younger than me though. By the time he was able to kind of go outside the door, we just done it from then on. We’ve been kind of the nucleus of the band. Then I met Craig, who cut his hair, and then yeah, here we are.*
*Note: Aidan previously worked in a barbershop
Sarah Hess: And Aaron McGrath?
Aidan Coogan: Aaron, is not here… Aaron did not show up to America. He was actually supposed to get on the plane, but he didn’t. So we’ve spent the last few days sort of speed dating different bassists. You know how to play the bass? (laughs)
SH: Did you all grow up in Dublin? What were your childhoods like?
AC: Pretty terrible, thanks for asking.
SH: Really?
AC: (laughs) No, it was good! It was good. We grew up in Berrymount. It was like a suburb. There [were] a lot of gypsies around us and so forth. Then we kind of made our way out of there.
SH: You guys took a bit of a break because of James’ accident. Can you talk a bit about the accident?
AC: Yeah, he fell like four stories off a building and spent five months in a coma and such. I guess it was the hardest point in any of our lives. After that, we were just kind of messing around, but then we were like ‘fuck this, let’s go travel the world and play music!’ We play every show like it’s our last because you never know, it could be your last show.
SH: How did your brother’s near-death experience change you, your views on music, and the band?
AC: Towards music and life in general, it was like you’re just sick of temporary bullshit. I guess it makes you seize every single moment. Once you get [through] the initial trauma, you begin to romanticize things a bit more, and you’re just like wow, this is really special what we’re doing right now, rather than what we might be doing in a week or so. I guess it’s just a shame that it took something so horrible to wake us up, but it did. So, we’re awake.
SH: Even before James’ accident, you guys seemed to be obsessed with death and dying. Why is that?
AC: I’ll take the blame for that! (laughs) I’ve just been obsessed with it. I grew up around it. Where we came from, there was a lot of death very early on in our family. It seemed like almost a yearly occurrence to us… It was like a regular thing to be used to people dying. As we got older and got out in the world a bit more, we realized it’s not a regular thing. So, I’ve always been fascinated by that.
SH: You started recording Die Young before the accident and then finished it after James’ recovery. Did the accident greatly transform the growth of the record?
AC: We recorded a few songs, and then we kind of went on a [break]… We’d always kind of had a vision to make a record about death, so it became very valid at that stage. (laughs)
SH: Who wrote “No Future?” What inspired it?
AC: Me and James kind of came together with that. The idea was to write a really party sounding song that people could rock away to, but then when they actually looked at the lyrics, they’d realize the irony of it. That, you know, they’d be partying away, realizing there’s no future. You don’t really have anything but now. This could be your last night on earth, so let go. Let go!
SH: Talk to me about the song “Dead Road.”
AC: “Dead Road” was written about (our) dad. He got sick. He passed away. It was a song we were always very hesitant to play live. And then Ian D’Sa from Billy Talent, he picked it up off our album. He was like, ‘It’s a really good song! You should go with it.’ It was hard to start singing and give it away to people because it was such a personal song, but once we did, so many people could identify with. It’s all about loss. It was the first song I ever kind of wrote on my own, and it’s probably the last song I’ll ever sing.
SH: Who came up with the idea for your album artwork? Who photographed it?
AC: That was just ‘let’s use what we have there, the scars.’ (laughs) One of our friends actually took it: Shane Griffin. He just took it with a shitty iPhone, and that was it.
SH: I saw you guys were riding around in a golf cart at Riot Fest Toronto.
AC: Yes, that’s how we got here. (laughs)
SH: What craziness have you gotten into so far at Riot Fest Chicago?
AC: We had a few freak-outs. I was convinced I was dying the other night. That was pretty funny. Canadian weed is pretty strong. (laughs) I was crawling around the floor, asking for an ambulance! I thought I could handle my shit, but I learned a lesson.
SH: What’s been the highlight of your U.S. tour so far?
AC: It’s only just started, but I guess the highlight so far was when I came out on stage and the first words out of my mouth in Canada were, ‘It’s nice to be touring the U.S.’ So that’s been my highlight personally. (laughs) That’s my life, a constant catastrophe.
SH: Anything you’d like to leave us with?
AC: We have an album coming out in the Fall. You should buy it!
Wounds are set to release Die Young November 25 through Razor & Tie. The guys will continue touring North America this October, joining Finch and Maps & Atlases on the Back To Oblivion Tour. Click HERE for tour dates.
Sarah Hess
After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.
You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
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