Corey Straight of Cosmic Abyss has long been an artist I wanted to talk with. There is something in his music that has resonated with me since I first encountered his work. It has been inspiring, even before I realized that he has been processing grief, which has been something I’ve been working on over the past ten years or so. I’ve had some rough bouts with it and I am incredibly grateful for the connections I have found in the musical community, especially this conversation with Corey. It was great to learn about his creative process and to have the chance to share his work with you. I hope you enjoy it.
CR:
What is your musical origin story? How did music enter your life and what inspired you to become a musician?
CA:
My interest in music started when I was 10. My mom was into a lot of classic & progressive rock. I was shown stuff like Pink Floyd & Zeppelin. The bands that made me want to play music was Black Sabbath & Early Metallica. When I was 14 my mom wanted to encourage me by starting to play an instrument. I started with learning to play bass. I had a difficult time the first year not sure if I would be able to do it. Around that time I was getting into punk rock. Some friends that were starting a band taught me how to play a Dead Kennedys song & after that everything clicked. I realized if I put my mind to it I can pull it off. That teenage band did not last long but it gave me the confidence to keep going. Punk taught me what I can do with music & learning the diy side of it was one of the most important & impactful things for me as a kid. Even though I don’t play that kind of music anymore, the lessons & mind set I learned from it have stayed with me to this very day.
CR:
A DIY ethos certainly can give a person an artistic resilience that is exceedingly helpful. Could you talk about some of your other early creative influences? What kinds of things were you into outside of music when you got started? Can I ask where you are from? I think that the geographies of our lives (interior and exterior) impact our creativity, even if those connections are not direct.
CA:
I am from Aurora Colorado. It’s just right outside of Denver. Growing up in the 90s & 2000s it was a very diverse area with working to middle class families & military. Growing up in an area with so much diversity definitely has had an impact on my creativity. It was a tough place but a lot of hardest working & best people I have met was from living in that area. Since it was cheaper to live there back in those days I grew up around a lot artists of all types. The people from Aurora had a drive to go as hard as you can when it came to creative work. I can go on forever about that. Another area where Colorado has impacted my creativity is the natural beauty of the state. Where I live at its just a rock throw to get to the mountains & endless trails to explore in the woods. It is my favorite way to clear my head get inspired to write new music & even work on some photography stuff while I am wondering & getting away from the noise of city life. Also as far as things outside of music when I started I have a huge love for horror. Even as a child I was obsessed with universal monsters & Kaiju films. As the years went my love for it kept growing and expanding. It plays a big influence into the paintings I work on.
CR:
Tell me about your paintings, I'd love to know more about those and what your process is like.
CA:
The paintings were something I started doing during the pandemic. I was not able to see my band because my wife & I took the social distance protocols seriously & limited our interactions with others outside of things we needed to do like work. With that down time all I had to focus on was Cosmic Abyss. I needed an extra creative outlet since doing a one person music project could be maddening. I started just doing extremely simple paint designs & ideas since I had no idea of what I was doing. As time went on Cosmic Abyss was evolving & the paintings became an extension of the project. I would challenge myself to just go for it & see what happens. I would do paintings of standard horror stuff like zombies & vampires. Eventually I was trying to create my own creatures & landscapes that I would get inspiration from while working on Cosmic Abyss material. A lot of this stuff I don’t know where it was coming from. Doing those creations would come naturally. I felt compelled to keep making them & it really helped to keep me motivated.
CR:
I love these paintings, there is a primal quality to them. Some of them remind me a bit of a cross between Mike Mignola's work and neolithic cave paintings~ there is a primal element compounded with playfulness which I enjoy. When you talk about wandering the trails in the woods and the mountains, it definitely resonates. I definitely thought that the wilds had a place in your life, what with your postings of videos of your wanderings and the snippets of your sounds. Those go really well together, by the way. I have relatives in Colorado and a bunch of musical connections there~ I look forward to getting out that way some day. Before we move on, could you talk about some of those artistic influences from Aurora who impacted you so deeply? I'd love to hear more about that.
CA:
Thank you. Growing up in Aurora we had a music scene that went unnoticed but was very important. They all had a grind that definitely rubbed off on me and is something I still carry. A lot of bands would form & we had a lot of venues & other crazy things going on. Some kids I went to high school with would throw backyard shows. A lot of these folks would later become people I would work with & be in bands with. Almost every band I have been in has had members that were involved with that scene in one way or another. We also had a record shop that was a main hub for everyone that is still going today. They would have shows in the shop & had things that were supportive of this community. They had a corner that was always filled with flyers for shows happening in the area, ads for things like recording studios & flier ads for bands looking for musicians. Another thing they had was a section that had demos, mixtapes & records that were made by the local artists. All the employees were musicians & rappers that were encouraging & would plug this stuff & play them in the shop. Looking back it was a special time & a sense of community that has been lost in time. Even though not everyone was not fans of what everyone was doing, the respect was there & we were all in it together.
CR:
Supportive communities like that are amazing. After that experience in the teenage punk band, what was next in your musical journey?
CA:
I was playing in a punk band from 2009-2012. During that time we were playing tons of shows, put out a couple 7 inch’s & were attempting to tour around. After that band broke up I was in a burn out phase where I felt I had two choices. Call it quits or try to do something different. At that time I felt I had accomplished everything I was ever going to accomplish in that world. Things started to feel leveled off & it was time for a change. After playing in several punk & hardcore bands I was invited to start a grindcore band. That reignited my love of playing music & made it fun again. As time went on that band evolved into a goregrind/ brutal death metal band. After a couple successful years things started to fall apart in 2018. Around that time I was invited to join a new doom metal project. After spending a few years playing as fast as humanly possible I felt playing as slow as possible would be a good challenge. That band went on to be Seed Of The Sorcerer Womb Of The Witch & I still play guitar in that band. Also around that time I was becoming extremely fascinated with one person black metal projects. I was struggling with mental health issues around that time and the more depressive stuff really helped me get through a tough episode. That inspired me to want to start something that was mine alone. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to do it because I am extremely limited on what I could do on certain instruments. Once I heard Sunn O))) black one album everything started to click which led to me starting Cosmic Abyss. Things evolved very quickly after that which got me on my current path in my music journey.
CR:
Could you walk me through your earlier releases and your creative process for those tracks?
CA:
On those early releases I knew I wanted to go for a drone doom sound but wanted to add more atmosphere. I was inspired by Sunn O))), Earth & early Boris. I did not want to sound exactly like those projects & the record Clestite from Wolves In The Throne Room was what inspired me to create the mix I was going for. I was not extremely confident when I started. I recorded a demo track on an old Tescam 4 track cassette recorder & only showed it to my wife & band mates. They gave a lot of encouragement. When writing I did not know how to approach it so I treated it like I would rehearsing with my bands. I would come up with ideas & put them together. After all that I would rehearse them until I felt comfortable with the work. I was not confident in recording myself so I would book studio time with Austin Minney at All Aces Studios. I have been recording all my bands with him since 2015 so I felt comfortable working with him & trusted his feedback & opinions on what I was doing. When I got back the master I started the Bandcamp page. I was nervous to release the material. I did not think anyone would care about this project. I decided to go for it & see what happens. Around this time I also started booking myself on shows. My anxiety was extremely bad since I had never played a set by myself. I had the comfort of having a band with me. I wanted to see if I could do it & luckily the reaction was good & super encouraging. So I kept with this routine. Around that time I knew I was tapping into a dark space of my inner psych. I struggle with mental health issues & trauma with losing my father when I was 19. This project became a vehicle to face this dark part of myself head on. When performing this stuff live or in the studio I would mentally disappear. The first 3 Cosmic Abyss records were me coming out of my shell & getting comfortable showing this personal side of myself. I had never done that before in any of my previous projects. I am just basically trying to find light in darkness with this music. When the pandemic happened I started experimenting with the concept of using meditation with creating. The early recordings were building to something but I did not know what. When the world shut down I had nothing but time to reflect & think about where Cosmic Abyss was going. That’s when things started to evolve & my focus became more clear.
CR:
I'm really glad you took the plunge and started playing solo shows~ I've never done so, always playing with groups, though I have often considered what that level of anxiety would feel like. To be honest, playing in a group was a leap for me as well, though it did get decidedly more comfortable. Anyhow, I'm always impressed by solo performers. Maybe someday.
I'm an improviser, so your meditative approach definitely sounds familiar. So does utilizing the creative act as a means of working with your shadow side in a public fashion. I really like how you talk about trying to find the light in the darkness through the music. At the risk of this being an invasive question, could you talk a little bit about the meditative processes you use in your creation? I always find this fascinating, though I am aware that putting some things into words can be impossible.
CA:
Definitely recommend doing a solo show. It’s an extremely rewarding experience & you learn a lot from doing it.
Well using this process in both a recording & doing it live are extremely similar. When performing live the experience is strange. I have done shows where I feel like I completely left my body. I remember one of the last shows I did before the pandemic happened. Only a couple people were in the venue when I started. When wrapping up I always slowly shut down my pedals slowly with noise going. When I shut the last one off I look up & the room is full. I still don’t know how that happened. 30 minutes always feel like 10 when in a live setting. I started wearing a mask I painted to add to the show side & keep the focus on the performance. I have also had experiences where the audience was in a meditative state with me which was wild to hear and experience.
When recording I start by setting up dialing in the sounds I will be working in. I turn off all the lights in my work area & the only light in the room is from the equipment & a few prayer or ritual candles I get from a local witch shop. I do a little warm up before hitting record. After that everything just happens naturally. When I am relaxed the direction & theme of what the record will be just starts building itself organically. Once that spark happens I keep repeating the process every night until it feels complete. Sometimes it results in An EP, split material or a full length. I usually only complete a track or two at a time & I have a personal rule to never force anything. This process gives me this strange feeling that I am in a different realm of existence which results in stories or me looking inward in myself. This has been a extremely important factor in being able to be more personal in my work. Death: The End Of A Journey was the most open I have been with the darkness I deal with. I did a whole write up breaking down my experiences that lead to the creation each track on that record that is published on my Bandcamp page. I have never been that open about myself or my work prior. The journey I have had with this project what got me comfortable enough to share this side. It has strangely become therapeutic. Every October I do a thing I call the October project where I do this process every weekend until Halloween. The reason I do this is because October is the anniversary of my fathers death. The month is always extremely difficult because I still deal with pain & trauma from that incident. I started doing this in 2021 & that first year was extremely difficult. Each year I have done this it keeps getting easier & I end up feeling mentally better each time.
CR:
I have had a good deal of loss over the last decade, some of it very recent, and music has been a primary means of working through things. Like you said, it takes me into it's own stories while also being a means of looking inwards. On many levels, music has always done this, but for me it has been more deliberately transformative in the past ten years or so. That seems to draw me to musicians who are going through similar experiences.
October can be a heavy month. The veil is thinner, so they say. I think the cyclical nature of your annual work is powerful, both for you personally but also in terms of creating a journey and musical narrative as an offering to the listener.
Could you talk about how you create the sounds you work with? I'm always fascinated by gear and process.
CA:
That’s something that makes me a big fan of your work. The work of Continuous Revelations is something I feel I relate with & I am extremely grateful to have been able to find so many cool artists I can bond with on this stuff. It makes everything feel less alone.
For the sounds I work with I try to keep everything as simple as I can. I have my effects pedals looped in with my keyboard set up or whatever instrument I am using. I have 2 reverb pedals that seem to get used the most but I am always playing around with different combinations & always on the lookout for something new to try & see what happens. I am always on the lookout for cool stuff the independent companies come out with. Also in my area a couple cool independent music shops are close by so I always stop by to see what they got.
CR:
I draw a lot of inspiration from your willingness to go into these meditation states of contemplation of death and related topics. I really like what I perceive as the authenticity of your approach~ you don't seem to be trying to work through things so much as work with them, giving them an expressive form and seeming to create an ongoing conversation through this project. It all seems like a genuine way to approach your art and I wanted to acknowledge that.
Thinking back on the development and deepening of the Cosmic Abyss project, could you talk about your experiences and intentions in creating the albums Midnight, Dead Sun, and Ritual? I know that Midnight really caught my attention when it came out, I think the premise is fascinating.
CA:
Thank you. I am glad to see the work being seen that way. I have a lot of moments where I do hesitate because I think the work would be interpreted as a bummer.
I can explain the development with those records.
With Midnight I wanted to expand on what I did with the Plague EP. Plague was done with a guitar using synth effects. I wanted to expand into straight keyboards. I have never used one before so I wanted to experiment with one. I did research on how to use my pedal board with one so the core sound would be still intact. I bought a used Yamaha for 40$ & started playing around with it. Writing came extremely naturally so I decided to challenge myself. I would work on an idea every day for about an hour then record on the weekends at midnight during the tail end of winter . Something about that hour sparks creativity. I would finish what I worked on & want to keep going so I would create another one. I started doing this around February 2021 & decided to keep going with it until the first day of spring. The next thing I knew I had the full length complete. It was an important record to me because it showed I could do different things with his personal project & it was a precursor to the ritualistic approach I do today.
With Dead Sun I was inspired by European vampire films from the 70s. The big one that got me inspired was Nosferatu The Vampyre from 1979. The score to that & the atmosphere of that film was fascinating to me. The concept was based around the idea of a gothic era vampires trying to figure out how to survive with the sun being no more but as result humans were wiped out in the process.
Ritual was the result of the first October project. It was the first time using meditation as a tool for creating. I had played around with the idea during Midnight but this time went full on with it. That record was recorded every weekend in the October month around the midnight hour in complete darkness with only candle light. Doing things this way helped me focus & kind of have a unique experience where I was putting my emotions into the music but everything felt out of body. It’s hard to describe. Each weekend a different concept would come naturally which led to the 3 phases of that record. At the time I did not know how everything was going to work. I had no idea if a full length, EP or split/comp material would be the result. As each week went by the experiences got more intense. Phase 2 was the hardest because it was put together close to the anniversary of my fathers passing. I remember experiencing an intense panic attack before starting the first part of that phase. The pain was unreal but the peace I felt after that was unreal. After that, that's when I knew I needed to make it a regular tradition. The creative process of Ritual taught me how to create using my spiritual beliefs. It got me more comfortable to share the personal side of this project & myself. Showing that vulnerability was extremely frightening to me before that.
CR:
So, do you have near and long term goals for Cosmic Abyss and yourself as a creator? I'm assuming that you are following your process and letting that develop organically.
CA:
I do keep some small goals but I don’t keep many expectations. When I started doing this I did not think anyone would care & the imposter syndrome was real. I am extremely grateful & lucky with how everything has worked out. I try to keep the process as organic as I can. I just follow my gut & that has always worked. I see this project as an extension of myself & who I am. Despite that some of this comes from a negative place the results have made me very positive. The support I have received from people & so many amazing projects I am lucky to call friends is a massive part of keeping me going. I never know what is going to happen next so that keeps things exciting. It’s a never ending journey that I am happy to be on no matter the results.
CR:
Can you tell me about your band and what that group has been up to? I know you've been busy!
CA:
My band is called Seed Of The Sorcerer Womb Of The Witch. It’s a death/doom band I joined back in late 2017. Since things started opening back up last year we reformed after not seeing each since March 2020. The time away turned out to be a benefit that made everything stronger. When we reformed we brought back all the current members & one former member resulting with us having 3 guitar players. We work as a team & challenge each other in a way where the material has been our best as a group. We were working on a full length before everything shut down in 2020. After returning, 2022 was a crazy year for the band & we recorded a split with our friends Cronos Compulsion that came out towards the end of the year. The result of that was great but it caused us to make some difficult choices. We realized that the record does not represent where we are now so we decided to scrap the whole thing & start over. We spent the start of 2023 focusing on writing. We started the recording process back in June. Some life stuff with the band & playing out has caused some delays but we are finishing the final touches in October then going to post production. We are doing one last show in November before taking time off for the holidays then start planning the release. With the record we are finalizing a few things that are not written in stone just yet so that part I can’t talk about. We only kept 2 songs from the original record that have been re-recorded but one of the tracks from that session might still see the light of day. We just don’t know the right approach with it. The difference between them & Cosmic Abyss is instead of making all those decisions we do everything as a group. I can’t wait for this thing to come out. We all put in a lot of hard work & I am proud of what we did as a team. It has been an extremely long process but I think the end result will be worth it.
CR:
Can you talk about some music that you'd recommend for people who resonate with your work? Who are some musicians you think deserve more listens?
CA:
Not gonna lie this is definitely the hardest question because I can name so many. I am always trying to keep my ear to the ground & discover new stuff.
Projects I have been inspired by but have not had any interactions with:
Sophia ( depressive funeral dungeon synth)
Cave Mouth (witch dark ambient)
Ghoest (doom synth)
Of course the amazing folks that always have been very inspirational & super supportive:
Continuous Revelations (nature synth)
Robes Of Snow (amazing friend & killer atmospheric black metal and folk ambient)
The Owl (drone, dark ambient & dungeon synth)
Cinza Misama (drone doom)
It Is Dead (drone doom/sludge)
Sereth (vampire dungeon synth)
Forest Of Orthanc (nature/dungeon synth)
Trail Of Ghosts (doom/fuzz ambient)
Puppengott (industrial black metal/dark ambient)
Marla Van Horn (dark ambient)
Of course cool record labels I always recommend Frost root, High Mage, and Weregnome.
CA:
The list could go on & on. Anyone I forget that reads this, I apologize. It’s hard because there are so many & I am always discovering more cool & like minded projects.
My many thanks to Corey for taking the time to write this article with me and for sharing so much with us, including of course his amazing music and paintings.
Cosmic Abyss will be featured in an upcoming compilation to help support the site.
You can also help out by buying me a cup of coffee.
Any little bit helps me keep this up and running.
best,
Continuous Revelations