Hi easter is over and normal service has resumed, during the break i caught up with
Bulgaria's Mental Architects who's excellent new album i reviewed
Here . Check out what they had to say and if you havent already go listen to thier music.
PJ-First off let me say thanks for taking time
to join us today and welcome.
MA-
Nope, thank YOU for having us on
Sludgelord.
Pj-So Aaron Harris produced your new album
celebrations and Chris Common produced your last Ep. How did the hook up with
two legends happen. And what was it like Working with them.
MA-
Well it all happened through the web. We sought out Chris through the page of
the studio he holds with Matt Bayles in Seattle,
dropped him a line and we did it . Even though it took some time to work out
the scheduling the mix and master of the EP happened in two days. Chris is very
professional and very quick, we gave him total freedom when it came down to the
mixes and he didn’t let us down. He is the reason the EP sounds the way it does
which really challenged us when we were thinking about the next release because
it truly was the best recording of us that we had heard up to that point.
The
hook up with Aaron happened while we were browsing the web and stumbled upon an
announcement he had made through his web page -http://aaronharris-audio.com/ He
said he was free at the moment and if someone was interested in working with
him should send some demos. We were thinking about another EP at the time but
when he heard the demos, he encouraged us to do a whole record, so that was
that. If we should put our experience in working with Aaron in one word, that
word should be “awesome” but put on a galactic scale. Thanks to him we were
able to record 2/3 of the album by ourselves, he provided great insight on
structuring the songs, he helped us find a sound that related to all of us, he
got Bryant from Red Sparowes on the record not mentioning that he did a kick ass
job on the mixes and got James Plotkin to master the record. As we said –
“awesome on a galactic scale”!
Pj-Like myself you’re fans of ASIWYFA, and
being Irish myself was delighted to hear you also like Kasper Rosa, Bats Adebsi
Shank . Has the irish scene had an effect on Bulgarian bands in general or just
yourselves.
MA-
Well, you could never tell, there
are so many bands, so many people but we have quite a few musician friends who
are definitely ASIWYFA fanatics. For us the whole Irish attitude towards
creating music was really appealing because it’s very immediate, it’s dynamic
and it’s emotional. It relates to our cultural background. You guys get
straight to the point with the first hit, chord or word. And all of the bands
you mentioned are like that. That’s something that should be pointed as
reference when considering ASIWYFA’s popularity. People were sick and bored of
This Will Destroy You clones and that’s what got us into Irish bands - they are (pardon the
cliche) “real” with all of their flaws and everything. Don’t get us wrong we
love Lite, Russian Circles and a lot of different bands the obsess over
musicianship and composition but when it comes down to well structured composition
bursting with emotion, for us Irish bands really stand out! It’s worth
mentioning that Belfast
is the only city (in recent years) that successfully in our opinion defined a
sound which hadn’t happened for a long time and we gather that all comes from
the strong connection between musicians in the area. So, we salute you for
that!
Pj- What's the scene in Sofia like is it easy to get gigs and have
you a good following there.
MA-
Sofia has a population of about 2 million people and rock music (let alone
instrumental rock) doesn’t have the legacy opposed that most Western countries
have but we our friends support us and anyone who comes to our shows and
doesn’t know us personally, we consider
a great bonus and it time he tends to become our friend.
When it comes down to getting gigs
– it’s fairly easy. We talked with Steve from Khuda when we played together
here and he said that Leeds (for example) has 40 shows on a Saturday and here
(Sofia in particular) you have a choice of about 5 to 10. The trend is that the
number of shows/venues/promoters are constantly growing. Definitely we still
lack the diversity of shows a city like Dublin
can offer.
Pj- Personally I feel globally there's a real
surge in talent both in Instrumental bands and other genres, do you feel the
internet has helped expose bands and made it easier to be heard?
MA-
Most definitely! We are a perfect
example of that. The thing is that the talent has always been there and the
Internet has helped expose all of it - some better than other.Heavily touring
bands kind of look down on others who don’t because in their eye they – “don’t
pay their dues”. But all of us have families and immediate real-life
responsibilities which can’t be ignored. If it wasn’t for the Internet we would
definitely not be where we are now in terms of popularity or otherwise.
PJ- There is a great sense of energy present
on the album, do you try to put this across when playing live?
MA- Well, the songs were written to be played
live, so I guess what we wanted to do with the record was to try and capture
the feeling we had while we were writing the songs. At that time we were definitely
exhilarated, so thank you for pointing that out.
Pj - So have you touring plans lined up or any
festival appearances, personally I'd love to see Mental Architects playing in
the Uk
sometime.
MA- Well, we wouldn’t want to jinx it but we
have around 10 dates planned in Romania, Greece
& Bulgaria
before the summer season and a possible Irish tour with Kasper Rosa in autumn but
let’s wait and see.
Pj- Thanks for joining us at Sludgelord today,
have you a message for anyone reading that hasn't heard your music you would
like to pass on.
We’re available for children’s parties.
