MAMMAL
INTERVIEW
Despite only having been
together for a little over three years, and having only managed to produce one
full-length album (2008's 'The Majority'), Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) based
hard rock/funk act Mammal have come a long way, with their reputation as a live
act making them one of the most talked about acts on the Australian live scene.
Fresh
from a stint of overseas touring, and having just released their new live CD/DVD
'Vol 2. Systematic/Automatic' (the follow-up to 2007's 'Vol 1. The Aural Underground'),
Mammal (comprising of vocalist Ezekiel Ox, guitarist/backing vocalist Pete Williamson,
bassist/backing vocalist Nick Adams and drummer Zane Rosanoski) have once again
hit the road for a string of dates around the country.
With
the band headlining the three stage festival 'Swarm!' at The Esplanade Hotel this
weekend in St. Kilda, and plans for them return overseas in the coming weeks,
I thought there was no better time to catch up with guitarist/backing vocalist
Pete Williamson, and talk about the band's upcoming live dates, recording plans
and their latest effort 'Vol 2. Systematic/Automatic'.
"The
new live album was recorded at The Annandale Hotel up in Sydney about seven months
ago. We had three consecutive shows booked in, being the Friday night, the Saturday
afternoon all ages show, and then the Saturday night, and we thought it would
be the perfect opportunity to capture a live show professionally recorded on multitrack.
So we recorded all three shows, and along with another show we recorded last year
at The Annandale Hotel. We already knew that we were going to record our shows
at The Annandale Hotel before we actually played them, so it was just a matter
of picking the performances. For our first live album, we recorded it all in one
take, and at the one show. So this time around, we thought we would be a little
sneaky and taken a few different performances from a few different shows. Obviously
there's no overdubs or fixes or cuts in any songs. The bulk of it was taken from
one show, and the rest were taken from the other shows. We simply wanted to get
the best performances on there. I also think Forrester Savell (who mixed and mastered
the album) did a really great job on it, as he always does. He's a very talented
engineer. I really think the energy that Mammal captures live brings truth to
our sound a lot more than any studio album could ever do. So that's why we've
released two live albums so far."
As mentioned earlier,
'Vol 2. Systematic/Automatic' also comes with a DVD of the band's performance
at The Ferntree Gully Hotel in April 2009. Despite the audio shortcomings of the
DVD, the concert footage really does capture the band at their best.
"That's
why the DVD wasn't released as an actual stand alone DVD. It's really just a bonus
to the CD. We knew that the sound quality wasn't up to the standard of what fans
wanted a DVD release from us to be. It's really just a massive one hour bonus
disc of live footage in visual form. It's more about trying to capture a different
aspect of the band on the road. We had a video guy (Jason Williamson of Oi Productions)
travel around with us. That was just the one show too. We thought visually, it
was real strong, with some great lighting and a great performance from us. That's
not edited either. That's just us playing, and what the front of house desk was
picking up. So if you kind of crank it up, and look at the show for what it is,
it's not so bad for a bonus. And as a whole, with all the snippets of in-between
footage of us on the road, capturing us being really bad at mini-golf, sleeping
on the front in lots of different places and being completely exhausted from travelling
around, I think it gives a bit of personality to the band. There's a fair few
funny laugh moments in there too! (Laughs) We do have plans to release a proper
DVD in the future. We've been videoing so much over the last couple of years.
We have a lot of content that we didn't put on that DVD that we will fill up with
some international touring footage and things like that. But that's all further
down the track. We'll eventually film a show and capture the sound in full multitrack,
and release that as a proper full-length DVD."
Apart from
the new live album, the other major achievement in the band's recent history was
their recently completed U.K. tour.
"We took a two week
trip over to the U.K. It was amazing to play two hundred to three hundred capacity
venues in front of the Brits. The response was amazing. We've had a lot of support
for our video 'Smash The Piñata' over there, along with some radio support.
It was great to get over there and see that we had already made an impact. And
we've been invited back again too. We're going back there in November and December
to tour with a band called The Answer (Northern Ireland rock band). We'll end
up doing fifteen dates all throughout the U.K. Things are going really well over
there. They're definitely getting the music, and the band. They really love the
energy. We just got sent a review from the London show, and it was a five star
review from Kerrang! Magazine. We really didn't even have any real lighting, and
we were playing in this sweaty venue with us jumping around giving it all we had.
I don't know how we'll ever top that kind of review. We could play Wembley Stadium
with a million dollar lighting show with props and stuff blowing up, and we'll
probably only get three and a half stars or something. We've worked so hard just
to get inside the door, and it's starting to work for us. People don't bother
writing anything about us unless they really dig the band. We're not really shown
a real lot of love unless they're big fans of the band. We're not a fashion band
or anything like that. It's just great when we get respect for something that
we believe we do well, and that the fans get into. You can go see an indie band
and see ten people there, and they'll get the best review ever and all the support
under the sun. We do the hard work selling out venues, and it's great when fans
are there to show their support."
And there are plenty
of fans that are showing up in support of Mammal too. While the band have enjoyed
some modest success on both the sales and radio play side of things, it's live
where they are really making an impact.
"We don't feel
like it's happened that quickly. We've just worked constantly. We've spent years
developing this musical project and business. We've just slogged, and done everything
we could do in that time. We've rarely said no to a gig, and as soon as we had
enough money to go overseas, we went and did that. We're not saving our pennies
for anything. We're putting it straight back into the music. That brings you so
much more in rewards I think. We're a very fiery band, and we're always at each
other trying to improve the show and make sure that it's an energy filled experience.
I guess that was one of the good things about the U.K. tour. We were talking,
and we missed playing the smaller clubs just a little bit because we miss being
locked in with the whole crowd, rather than just being locked in with a couple
of hundred people. That's the real key as this thing gets bigger - trying to engage
with everyone. Ox is great, because he can really get to those people at the back,
and get right into their face. And the whole band feels that a whole lot more
in a small venue, and helps us hone that craft our there in the bigger venues
and festivals. Our fans are just so dedicated. They keep coming back and support
us. People will stop us after the show and tell us how they saw us here and there,
like at The Big Day Out Festival, or supporting Kiss. And then there's the forum.
It's actually run by the fans. We didn't even set it up originally. It was set
up by some really kind fans of ours, purely because we didn't have one. Now it's
been fully taken over by a big group of fans. It's amazing to have that support
of a bunch of hardcore music lovers who do that for the band, and bring other
people in, and create that discussion around the music. It's really inspiring.
So they're coming back and buying the tickets, the merchandise and all of the
releases, and in the process sustaining us so that we can move forward quickly.
So we're just very fortunate that we have a fan base that doesn't get bored after
seeing us once live! (Laughs)"
No doubt of a lot of the
Mammal faithful with be out once again when the band take to the stage at The
Esplanade Hotel in St. Kilda this weekend as headlining act at 'Swarm!'
"We've
never played in the Gershwin Room before. It's such a grunge era/punk rock room,
it's just going to be a joy to play there. We've all seen a lot of gigs there.
There should be a healthy crowd there, and plenty of spots there for Mammal to
expand the show to stage the show from there to a couple of bars further down!
(Laughs) We'll make it one big revolving stage. The pre-sales have been really
healthy so far, and given that it's the Espy anyway, it'll no doubt be full. All
I can say is get down there early and grab your tickets now before it completely
sells out. I think there's something like twenty five bands playing on the night,
and a lot of fresh faces amongst them too. And a lot of great bands I might add
too, such as MM9 and Jericco. We're really looking forward to it. We're going
to try and get there early ourselves and catch a bunch of bands as well. I want
to really catch K-Oscillate. I've always been on tour when they've played, so
I'm keen to see them. I just want to get amongst it, and be a part of the scene."
Looking
toward the future, Williamson has assured me that even though the band have just
released a new live album, new music is being worked upon for a new studio release.
"We
haven't actually recorded anything yet, because we're still in the writing stages.
We've had an EP, a live album, a studio album and a single, and now this new live
album, even though it doesn't have any new material on it. So in a sense it's
kept us really busy in the interim. Now there's that feeling of the second album.
We haven't released this massive multi-million selling pop album, so there's not
these pressures put on us by these corporations. There's just the pressure we
put on ourselves, wanting to just write the most kick arse rock record ever really!
(Laughs) We want the melt your face off kind of riffs on there. So that's all
kind of kicking around. We want to step the riffs up and make them bigger, and
the breakdowns bigger, and the moods broader. If you can imagine the splitting
of an atom, it's that kind of energy that goes in and gets expelled when it happens.
That's kind of what's going on at the moment. So we're fighting it out, and hopefully
that will mean it will be a step up on all fronts. Personally, I'm just going
to try and stretch my guitar performance out as far as I can. We'll hopefully
be able to afford more time in the studio this time around too to refine things.
Up until this point, we've had to do things on a tight timeframe. That's not a
bad thing, because you can capture that honesty. But in saying that, we haven't
had that creative time to stretch things out. Hopefully that time is now."
While
the band is keen to broaden their sound in the studio, it does bring up the question
about being able to reproduce the same sound on stage. But as Williamson points
out, there are clear differences between Mammal live and Mammal in the studio.
"We've
just come to the point where the two are very separate things for us, and that
the pair gives people very different experiences. People will always come and
see a band like Mammal live I think. And I think what we want to do is experiment
a little more in the studio. We might want the snare to have a lot of reverb on
it, and these toms to sound a certain way, or the guitar to be reversed. We're
going to go there knowing that the core riffs, the core grooves, the lyrics and
the melodies will work being carried across as a four piece punk rock tune. I
sometimes think people get too carried away ensuring that the guitars are on track
and the synths are being played simultaneously while playing onstage. I think
if you have a core kick arse song, you only add the extra flavours for the studio
release and the headphone listener to peak on, but those things are lost when
you go and play it live. That's not something that we really give a fuck about.
We're not that kind of band. What we do bring to it when we lose those things
is the energy and the interaction, and the chopping and changing in response to
what the crowd is feeling, and putting that into the song. And that's the reason
why we can get away with releasing the same songs on a studio album and a live
album. People can take away very different things from both versions I think."
Aside
from the U.K., Mammal has also managed to get a foot in the door in the U.S. as
well, with 'The Majority' released through Bieler Bros Records, who also distribute
Western Australian act Karnivool in the U.S.
"The plan
has gone a bit differently over there, and they've picked up the title track as
the first single release. Here in Australia and the U.K., it was 'Smash The Piñata'
that got picked up first. But it's worked out well, because in the U.S. the album's
been added to around twelve rock stations so far, and we're starting to feel the
effect of fans comments and interest from over there. Look, its early days on
that release, but getting a track like that being added to radio has sparked some
attention, and it has gotten the band and the band's message out there. Hopefully
it will build up, and get us there like it has done in the U.K., and we can go
play to a fan base that is already there and waiting for us. That would be a real
result."
With a release in the U.S., and another in the
U.K., a new live album released here in Australia, a recently completed U.K. and
a return visit planned next month, and all without a second studio album to their
name. It's almost safe to say that Mammal is virtually on the verge of global
domination.
"It's quite manic when you list it like that,
and it makes me feel quite big. But the life of 'The Majority', even though its
ending its life here in Australia, it's only starting its cycle internationally.
So we have to keep the energy up for ourselves to play those songs to a whole
group of new people, as well as remaining focussed on the next album and our plans
for next year. So there's a lot to concentrate on, and a lot to look forward to,
but in the same respect, the band is on fire at the moment, and things are really
starting to go well on the live front. We're really enjoying it, and this upcoming
'Swarm!' show is going to prove that!"
I would like
to thank Pete Williamson for his generous time, and Aaron Podoba at Third Eye
Music for making the interview possible.
For more information
on Mammal, check out - http://www.mammaltheband.com
©
Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
