Coffin Case is a well-known company name to musicians around the world, because of the distinctive profile of the “luggage” produced by the company: coffin-shaped guitar cases, well-suited for laying treasured axes to rest between performances. The Coffin Case concept caught on from the beginning, thanks to the vision of the company’s founder, a multi-talented man called Jonny Coffin, who not only plays guitar himself, but also surfs, writes, invents, and designs. During AAM’s recent visit to Coffin Case’s NoHo headquarters, Jonny took some time from his busy schedule to talk about his firm, his products, and his direction for the future.
AAM: When did you first get the idea for a guitar case that looks like a coffin, and how did it all happen?
Jonny: Actually, it all started in the late Eighties, when I made myself a coffin-shaped guitar case out of necessity. My old case broke, the handles and latches popped off, so I went in my garage. I had acquired some carpentry skills when I was younger, so I knocked off this rough version, this first edition, which I still have. I had moved up here from San Diego, and was in a local L.A. band called Jones Street, playing the Strip back then, and I’d walk into these clubs with this coffin-shaped guitar case, and I’d always get stopped by about five or six people on the way to the stage, who’d say, “Where’d you get that case?”
AAM: So as you got comments and questions, is it true that the idea and look caught on right away with other musicians?
Jonny: Yeah, actually it did. If we fast-forward into the mid-Nineties, a time when I was sitting broke in my apartment, I was thinking, “I’ve got to start a business somehow,” so as I looked at my own coffin-case and realized how many times I’d been asked about it, I figured that if I went into the garage and made a really nice custom version of it, a high-end production, all ornate and finished, to sell to some upscale clients, that might be the way to go. So I knocked out a really nice one out of maple, and hit it with catalyzed lacquer, and built up a “piano” finish on it, and I started walking around with that one and ended up getting some clients.
AAM: And those beginnings took place right here in the Valley, right?
Jonny: Yes, it was over in Burbank, where we had a “band house,” a one-bedroom apartment with nine of us all living there. We built three-story bunks in the bedroom, with curtains, just like on a tour bus. Everyone had his own little TV in there, and the living room was full of guys, and we had parties and played, and rent was something like 70 bucks a month, including utilities, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it until the day before rent was due, when we’d run out and borrow it from a girlfriend or somebody.
AAM: So how did you actually start selling this new design of yours, when you saw there was an interest? Did you market it on your own in the street, or did you go to stores or studios?
Jonny: First, I took the process a step further, by getting into silver-work, using jeweler’s wax to creating ornate handles and corner pieces, so that’s where I jumped into a high-end level. I took that first one that I made over to Slash’s rehearsal studio, because his tech guy invited me over, saying, “Slash has to have one of these!” So I brought it in, and Slash stopped his rehearsal and we talked for a half hour or so, and Slash told me what he wanted on it, and we came to a rough estimate of price, because I didn’t even really know what to charge, and Slash kept on saying, “I want this, and how much is that going to be?” And I said, “I don’t know, somewhere around a couple grand,” and then he’d add this and that, and it would be another couple thousand or so, and it kept on getting more elaborate as the conversation went on. So probably the most intense case I’ve made was for Slash, because I had to reproduce his snake symbol, carved out of wax first, which turned into twenty ounces of silver as a centerpiece on this thing. Slash was in tears when he got it, hugging me, crying, “It’s way better than I ever expected!” And that’s so rewarding, when somebody responds like that. And also, back at that first meeting with Slash, I walked out of his rehearsal, and I saw Steve Stevens, who is a really good friend of mine, and he was in there recording with Billy Idol, and Steve waved me over and said, “What is that?” And I walked in, and Billy goes, “I want one!” So I sold two in one day, from that first meeting I had, and I was thinking, “I’m rich!” -- And then it took me six months to do these cases, and then these guys were hard to get hold of, and I was trying to get deposits, and then I started wondering, was it worth it at that point? So I figured out real quick that the custom game was a very difficult one. I knew that it was necessary to build the name at a high-end level, to then trickle into the consumer level once the names were behind it, and fortunately I worked with a lot of great guys. I’ve made cases for legendary guys like Johnny Cash, Billy Gibbons …
AAM: So when there were at least a couple rock stars out and about with your cases, was that when that merchants saw them and contacted you?
Jonny: Yeah, I got a little press coverage that way. The news would get out in various guitar magazines, and around that time was when I filed for the patents and trademarks, which of course was very important. And then at that point I contacted a big case manufacturer, see if they wanted to license it or work with me somehow, and they said it wasn’t something that they wanted to take on, but they were nice enough to turn me on to some manufacturers in Southern California, so I was able to go into the affordable range for the regular consumer market. One of the numbers I got was Anvil Cases, which is a great company, owned by Joey Calzone out in the City of Industry. So I went out there, and they had just bought the machinery for a plastics division. I helped them set up, actually on the line with a bunch of guys, putting these molds up. I paid for the first mold, heated up the plastic, dropped it over, and that’s where it started. I made them in the U.S. for about two years, doing about three or four hundred cases, as direct sales through my P.O. box in Burbank. Then the stores started taking notice, and Musician’s Friend called and said, “We want these – how can we get them?” So I asked, “What are you willing to pay for them?” When they told me, it was actually less than what it cost me to make them, so it was at that point that I went to sources outside the U.S., and it was in China that I found probably the best quality with the cheapest price.
AAM: So over in China, do they just make the basic case, and then you do the inside here?
Jonny: It’s all done there. They single-box them, ready to ship, and when they land here, a lot of times they don’t even come into our warehouse, but we just ship ’em out to Guitar Center or wherever, what with back-orders everywhere.
AAM: We see that besides guitar cases, you’ve gone on to briefcases and other accessories, like even Coffin Case purses such as the one we saw Denise Ames with, right?
Jonny: Well, it started when the drummers began complaining. They’d say, “We love your company, but do you have anything for drummers?” So I started doing little stick-cases, and soft bags, so we satisfied the drummers, and it diversified from there into other realms, like microphone cases. But of course guitar and bass cases are the cornerstone.
AAM: So now, if somebody wants a purse or briefcase or whatever, they’re easy to get?
Jonny: Absolutely. The marketing approach I took really opened up a huge female market for us. Out of necessity, we went into purses and stuff for the girls, because they started coming to us, saying, “We love your company, but we don’t play guitar, so what do you have for us?” So we do a miniature version of our guitar case and call it an “accessory case,” because it also crosses over. A lot of guys can use it for microphones, or as a container for strings and stuff.
AAM: Are these items taking off in a particular area, like maybe with the “goth” community?
Jonny: Well, yeah, but it’s taken off in a lot of different directions, because we don’t discriminate, we love all music, we love all bands, from the known to the unknown, ranging from garage to punk to psychobilly to black metal, you name it. It’s across the board, we cater to all of them!
AAM: In order to be endorsed by Coffin Case, does a musician have to submit a package?
Jonny: That’s where it starts, and then we weed through it.
AAM: And speaking of music, we see you’ve also branched out into effects pedals, starting with the “Blood Drive” pedal, very intriguing. Since you’re also referred to as an inventor, we wonder if you have a hands-on involvement in the creation and development these devices?
Jonny: Yes, I do! As a musician, I’m very picky about tone. I’m a guitar player and I have my own band, the Death Riders. It’s a four-piece band, with me, and Blasko from Rob Zombie, and Danny Gray and Dave Casey. We’re putting our second album out, and we do a lot of soundtrack work, B-movie stuff. Check out our MySpace page for more info! – Anyway, when it came to this Coffin pedal, I applied for the patents for that, and for my first version, I went into a Halloween store, five or six years ago, and I got a coffin-shaped candy-box that was about the size of a pedal, and I made my own version, putting the electronics in it for a working prototype, and everything worked, and then I just sat on it for a couple of years, until the right company came around that wanted to develop it, which was MXR Dunlap, up in the San Francisco area. They’ve been around for years, making the Cry Baby wah-wah pedal, so it made sense to get involved with somebody who makes the best gear. So Jimmy Dunlap came on board, as a partner and a friend, and we started researching tones, and we wanted to do a distortion pedal, which started out as the “Death Box,” which was a high-gain distortion item, and we couldn’t really tackle a high-gain sound that I was happy with, but we ended up getting this overdrive pedal that everyone seemed to like. So we went with what seemed the obvious name, the “Blood Drive” overdrive, which was fun in terms of marketing for us. You may have seen our promo featuring John 5, who has played with both Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.
AAM: Now, although your appeal may reach across all genres of music, isn’t your core market mostly gothic and metal?
Jonny: We’re focusing a lot more on metal now. It was so obvious to start there for me, although of course I still want to embrace everyone. Anyway, that’s how we came up with the Coffin Girl marketing concept.
AAM: So how, actually, did the Coffin Girls get started?
Jonny: There was one of my friends, Avery, who I met in 1997 at the Fangoria show. She was in this little black vinyl Elvira-type dress, and she had the kind of image that I was looking for. So I said, “Hey, if you’re in town for a couple of days, why don’t we try a photo-shoot with some of the cases?” And my friend Kevin Estrada, who worked for Roadrunner, went with me to his office. We set up some white paper, put a Coffin Case in there, and Avery came in with her little dress, and she poured some oil in my hands and said, “Oil me up!” So we got the latex outfit all shiny, and she got in next to the case, and when I looked through the camera lens, I said, “That’s it! It works!” And since then, the Coffin Girls concept has exploded, and we have a Coffin Girl in each of the fifty states.
AAM: Do you get a lot of submissions, from gals who think they have what it takes to be a Coffin Girl?
Jonny: Daily! So since we’re all about music and creativity, our first priority is that the ladies also love music. And each of our Coffin Girls will tell you that they live for music, and that’s the right answer for us. If you live for music, then you’re on the right path, for us. And then, starting from that point, we whittle things down in terms of logistics, like whether the girl lives in L.A., and how we’ll get together to coordinate shoots. If they’re out of state, we’ll call photographers out there, and send cases to work with. We’ve gone international, now that we have Victoria representing us over in the U.K., who’s one of the prime up-and-coming models in London. We have Daniela in Italy, also.
AAM: Do you have pictures of all of these Coffin Girls on your website?
Jonny: Well, what’s on the website right now is kind of our “A-Team” from last year. Of course there’s Cassia, and Masuimi Max, and Dana Deluxe, a lot of these girls that have been with us for a couple of years, so they get the maximum exposure. They actively work with us here, coordinating fashion shows and putting together parties …
AAM: And speaking of shows – you have a big one coming up, yes?
Jonny: Yes, on October 27th is our big Halloween show, which we do annually. Our first one was held right here, when this was a big, empty warehouse, and the whole place was full to overflowing, it was great! So anyway, the one coming up is tentatively called “Beyond the Valley of the Vampires,” and it will be at the Globe Theater, at 740 South Broadway in downtown L.A. – they call it “Club 740,” and it’s got a perfect vibe for our event, with this ornate, “Phantom of the Opera” quality. There’s a stage, of course, where we’ll have two fashion shows. We’re doing the first one with Coffin Girls in “pin-up” clothing, and then we’ll have Masuimi Max doing her own kind of performance-art thing, and then we’ll have our “Brides of Dracula” show, with our top models showing off custom-made lingerie. It’ll be a kind of creepy thing, developed with Shirley of Hollywood, that’s going to splinter off into our own line of nightwear. We have to cater to the ladies, because our female market is growing so much.
AAM: Are there any other lines that you’re developing, like maybe skatewear, for instance?
Jonny: You know, we do! We have a team of skate guys on the road, including Darren Navarette, and our main guy is Dave Rule, and there are some San Diego and Orange County skaters who jump in a van and run around to do promos at skate parks. They’re like rock stars, they pull up to the park and kids rush them for autographs, and then they’re giving away stickers, and they have a “Coffin Deck” that we give away for a promo, which is part of the sports side of what we do, including skating, snowboarding, that kind of stuff. Now we’re getting into a broader field, more toward the “extreme fighting” arena. We have this “Coffin Fight Club” that we’re pushing in five states, involving martial arts, and we’re working some of our Coffin Girls into being “Ring Girls.” And we have teams that do demonstrations at WalMart openings and stuff. They wear our clothing, they’re part of the Coffin Fight Club, they have our t-shirts, to promote it in a different way, as a kind of lifestyle brand. “Coffin” gets defined as a death-defying brand, where it’s about being on the edge. It started with this Mall Ninja named Xin [pronounced “zen”], who takes this team of renegades into malls -- and he’s already banned from several malls around Southern California! He goes in there with a camera crew, and he does all this Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan kind of stuff, running up walls, doing backflips, leaping stairways, with the cameras filming until security runs them all off. So that’s where the Coffin Fight Club started, with Xin, and if you go to YouTube and type in “Xin,” you’ll be able to see some of the stuff he has done.
AAM: Speaking of defying death and affirming life, how did you happen to become associated with the name of the late, great Dimebag Darrell?
Jonny: Well, Dimebag Darrell is an icon to us, a hero, and he was probably one of the nicest, most sincere people you could have met, and his death meant a tragic loss to the music community. I was sitting here with Ben from Evanescence when we got the call, and we were horrified and stunned. So it turned out that Dimebag’s widow, Rita, was working on keeping the legend out there, and she approached us about taking on the Dimebag Hardware line, and that turned into a relationship that has been great and growing. We do the Dimebag Hardware, the Dimebag t-shirts, and it’s been about keeping his spirit out there. We’ve done two “Black Tooth Bashes,” both of which have been great. We’ve worked on behalf of a charity called “Little Kids Rock,” which helps youngsters get gear and learn how to play. Dimebag Darrell really supported that kind of stuff, and his estate continues that legacy, so we’re thrilled to be a part of this work.
AAM: And while you’re carrying on a legacy from the past, of course you’re also looking to the future, so could you tell us what might be coming up for Coffin Case in times to come?
Jonny: Well, the clothing continues to expand. The “Dimebag” clothing has been going great, and for us the Coffin Girl market is also growing. We’re doing purses, black-on-black handbags, t-shirts, nightwear, Coffin Girl picks, and we continue developing products for the Coffin Girls to promote. We’ve also been approached by video game companies, to produce guitar cases for the control devices in the “Guitar Hero” series of games, and “Rock Band” and other games coming out for the holidays. As part of the musical instrument business, we try to support anything that’s going to enhance the potential for growth.
AAM: So you figure that the gamers of today will be the case-buyers of tomorrow?
Jonny: Looks that way.
AAM: And so we see that rather than being death-embracing, the Coffin Case way is one that seeks to bring back music alive from the coffin, yes?
Jonny: Or to put it another way, “Buy or Die!
