Crowbar guitarist Kirk Windstein has hinted that Down may release new music in 2024. In a new interview with Scott Penfold of Loaded Radio earlier in October, Windstein said that he and his bandmates are planning to get together soon to start writing and recording.
Down is a supergroup that besides Windstein features Philip Anselmo of Pantera, Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity, plus Jimmy Bower and Pat Bruders of Eyehategod. The band has released four albums to date, the most recent being Down IV – Part Two in 2014.
“I talked to Phil a pretty good bit, and we’re all gonna go out to his house and his property later this month… He kind of does like a little Halloween thing or whatever. So we’re gonna do that.” Windstein offered.
“Phil‘s attitude is kind of just like, ‘Look, fellas, I’m doing what I’m doing with Pantera. I love it. We’re killing it.’ And boy, are they. We had the pleasure of playing with Pantera in Poland in early June. It was unbelievable. I mean, I laughed, I cried. My emotion was something else, because I was very tight with Dimebag. It’s real — what they’re doing is real. But what Phil said, ‘Hey, man, in the big picture of things, dude, I really don’t have a band. I’m doing a Pantera reunion thing.’ And of course they’re gonna do it as long as they can. I mean, I don’t blame them. Who would? You do what you’ve gotta do. And they’re killing it and doing it heartfelt for the right reasons, and I love it.”
“But like he said, ‘Look, you are the guys.’ And I talked to Pepper about two or three days ago. I think he’s got a few shows in early November with C.O.C. and he’s off for a while. Crowbar‘s next gig is in Ireland in late February, so we’re off for a good bit. And when you have five guys — well, Phil, of course, will be kind of out of the picture for now but me, Pepper, Jimmy and Pat — in a room together, when you’ve got all these guys writing riffs off of each other… And that’s the way I like to write — I like to write spontaneously off the cuff. I don’t like to [go], ‘Okay, this is my new song. Boom. Here y’all go,’ or whatever. I like to write off the cuff, on the spot. I feel what the other guys are giving me vibe-wise and whatnot. And that, to me, is a winning formula. It really is.”
Windstein also said that he hopes the band can release an EP of six new songs in 2024. However, he admitted that it’s too early to say for sure if that will happen.
“We talked about doing like a cover-song EP. But we threw around like a hundred songs and we can’t pick and choose any of them. So, to me, it’s easier to just go, ‘Hey, guys, let’s get in the fucking room and just write some shit.’ Come out with six songs and do an EP. So I hope that that’s what happens.”
“To be honest, I don’t know,” he added. “And this is not from Phil or Rex or anything. They can do the Pantera thing forever. Like as far as festivals in South America, Europe and whatnot, they can — they can always go do a weekend or two in the summer here and there between Zakk and Charlie‘s schedules… whatever they’re up to with their respective bands. So I hope that they do. I hope they do it forever.”
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