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| June 2008 | ||
The Menzingers Frontman Discusses Band's History and Future
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Coming from Bob and the Sagets, what made you want to create a band with different styles? TM: There was a member change. We stopped playing with Curtis. And we started listening to less ska, less reggae and less island music. We listened to more rock and more punk and folk music. Can you tell me when you guys officially started playing as The Menzingers? TM: Let me think about this for a second. It was the fall of 2005. Did you play locally first? TM: Café Metropolis was the first show as The Menzingers. Do you have a favorite local venue to play now? TM: Definitely Metropolis because of the owners, history and sound system. It’s made for all-ages shows. And when they get bigger bands, you can make contacts and open up for them. Greg’s the only member of The Menzingers who wasn’t in Bob and the Sagets. How’d you get him in the band? TM: Greg was in a band with my brother, a ska/punk band. They were pretty much breaking up around the same time we [Bob and the Sagets] were. I called Greg up around three in the morning, which was like a school night for him. I asked him if he wanted to come jam. He came up and jammed and started playing. What qualities do you think he adds to the band? TM: He has a really passionate voice and a different approach as far as the guitar goes. We went from a lot of upstroke and flash to mostly strumming, straight-forward playing. Have you been able to keep a lot of the Bob and the Sagets fan base? TM: No, actually. A lot of the kids that were into Bob and the Sagets are stuck in the ska scene, or just went to college. Has it been easier getting new fans as The Menzingers? TM: Around here, it’s been difficult, but I like the crowd. Everyone’s older. The Bob and the Sagets fans were always real young. The kids are more mature now. We even played The Bog a few times, and it was a much older crowd. How did you get a contract with Go-Kart? TM: A kid who runs a website, a punk journalism website that does reviews, got a copy of our CD and saw us at a house show in Philadelphia. He interviewed us and did a review and gave a copy of the CD to Justin from Punknews, who then gave a copy of the CD to [Go-Kart owner/operator] Greg [Ross]. He listened to it and sent us an e-mail. Then we talked to him on the phone, and he said he really likes the way we write songs. He said he can’t believe we’re so young. We ended up meeting him in Syracuse at a Wegmans. We sat down with a tray of pizza. He told us all kinds of stories and said he was going to give us a contract. That was the summer/fall of 2006. How have you liked the label so far? TM: It’s good. It doesn’t seem to be a very active label right now, but Guff is on the label. I used to see them all the time at Café Metropolis. Anti-Flag also released a CD on that label. As far as being on the label, it’s awesome. Greg’s a cool guy and has a lot of contacts. How supportive has the band been in terms of your tours and going into the studio? TM: They gave us a lot of money to record, and we ended up re-recording the guitars. They paid for that also. They’re real good about sending us merchandise they made for us and CDs. They’re definitely very supportive. |
Menzingers' vocalist/guitarist Tom May
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The Menzingers: From Local Punk Shows Gigs to Punk Rock FestivalsOnly a few years after forming, The Menzingers have been able to establish a solid fan base locally, release a debut album and play one of the largest punk rock festivals in the country, The Fest, which gave the band the opportunity to schmooze with some of the most established punk bands playing today. The Scranton-based band formed in 2005 and released its debut album, The Abuse of Information Technology, on the New York-based punk label Go-Kart Records... |
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Can you tell me the process of recording your debut album [A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology]? TM: It was like thirteen-hour days. It was really drilled out recording. There wasn’t much fucking around at all. We sat around and played the tracks over and over again. It was awesome. We were in a warehouse about five minutes from New York City. If you went to the top of the warehouse, you could see the whole skyline. The environment was awesome. It was a Cuban neighborhood, so there was a lot of good food. And the power was out in the studio, actually. Everything was running off of extension cords from another part of the building. We couldn’t cook there. We couldn’t shower, so we spent about a week without showering. We’d get up at 11 and record and go to bed around 2. We also slept in the studio every night. There was a haunted room, supposedly. I slept in there because I wanted to get pictures of ghosts with my camera. Did you actually see anything? TM: No, there was just weird pipe taping. How long did it take to record each track? TM: Joe Godino banged out the drums in the first day and a half. It was awesome. He just flew through it. But I guess each track took about a day. What did you learn from recording an actual full-length album? TM: We learned, as cliché as this sounds, that if you really put everything you got into it, you can get something awesome out of it. Talk a little bit about working with Jesse Cannon [produced The Cure, Lifetime, other influential bands] as a producer. TM: It was really intimidating. When we walked in we were like uhhhh. All of the dudes that worked for him set up our stuff. We were just standing there, star-stuck, but we got cozy after a while. It was cool because we went into Jesse’s control room. I asked him an absurd amount of questions. I probably bothered the shit out of him with recording questions, but he knew everything. What was the best piece of advice he gave you? TM: Play shows, lots and lots of shows, and just write for ourselves. He gave a lot of mechanical advice, as far as the process of writing songs and the way it comes out when recording. But he said play as many shows as you can because it’s practice every time you play a show. We realized that’s the only option we have, to play hard. How much creative control did Go-Kart give you while recording the album? Did you feel you had to record a strict punk rock record? TM: We have full control over the art work. I don’t think they’ve ever said no about anything. As far as music goes, we did pre-production with them. We recorded 14 or 15 songs. We were in discussions with Greg and Jesse, and we did talk to them about what songs to keep. I personally didn’t want to use “Cold City Blues.” Greg wanted that put on there, and now I’m glad we put it on there. Your album’s been out for a while now, so what’s the reaction been like? TM: All of the reviews have been really good. One guy said that in a perfect world, everyone in the world would be in a stadium, grabbing on to each other and crying, laughing and dancing along to our songs. What’d you think when you read that? TM: I was blown away by that and really excited. That really makes me feel good and like the songs and music are actually reaching people, but there were a couple of bad reviews. How successful do you think Go-Kart has been getting your album out there? TM: I think they’ve done a great job at getting us reviews. They sent us a PDF with about 150 reviews, or something like that. As far as getting us shows and getting a hype about the album, I think they did the best they can. I think if we continue to get a bigger fan base and Banner Pilot does, too, I think it can help the label get bigger. There’s no question it’s not at the same place it used to be. Pages: 1 | 2 |
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