Q: Where are you guys from and how did you all end up in MINE?
JIM FORD (Keyboardist/guitarist): Jim is from Los Angeles, Ca. We met in a gay bar in Milwaukee. We are not gay, it's just one of those weird things.
ERIC T. AMBLE (Guitarist): See our bio on the site. www.minemusic.net
JON HILKE (Drummer): I'm from Baraboo,WI and I thought the name Mine was Evil Selfish and a good name for any kill your ass Metal Band.
KASE VILLAND (Bassist/Vocalist): Jon and I met in another band, and when that fell apart, we kept in touch, forming MINE when we'd found a new guitarist. Then we blackmailed Eric and Jim into joining.
Q: What are some influences that you will find present in MINE's music?
JIM: Dream Theater, Iron Maiden.
ERIC: I'd say you're basically going to get everything that the individual members are into, and a little of each person's personality. I am influenced by a crapload of things but I'm trying to think which ones are really coming out in the music... there's some really obvious ones if you listen to us play, like Iron Maiden/Dream Theater, but some you might not catch, for me at least, is avant-garde composer stuff like Wendy Carlos or Varese. We've got a song called "Steppin' Razor" that is really dissonant, like something they would write. A little bit of Eric Johnson creeps into the guitar solo for "Rather Burn". For the Spinal Tap fans, there's a part in the solo in "Unfair" that is totally barbershop raga! Nigel Tufnel is GOD!!!
JON: Overkill Maiden Dream Theater and all kinds of other crazy shit I hope
KASE: I draw influence from almost everything I've heard, but most strongly from Dream Theater, Queensryche, Savatage, Symphony X, Type O Negative, Fates Warning, Pantera... and there's the old 80s metal bands that occasionally creep in - Iron Maiden, old Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax...
Q: All your music is well-timed and all instruments are synchronized very tightly. Is the band very serious about the music that you (and the other members) create? How often do you practice?
JIM: Yes and once a week
ERIC: Well, it's all I really care about. We are all uber-serious about that. We practice two or three times a week depending on how busy we all are (we have lives outside of sitting in our rooms and practicing), and when I'm not hanging out with the guys down at the studio I put in about two hours a day, less when I am in school.
JON: 3 times a week
KASE: We're very serious about the music we create. We have agreed from the start not to play anything that wasn't top-notch. We've completely written a few songs that we've completely dumped because they didn't measure up. But even the oldest of our originals doesn't bore us to play live- the stuff we've kept has always been exciting to play.
Q: What goes through your mind as you're up on stage playing? Do you fear making mistakes?
JIM: My leather pants feel very sensual.
ERIC: You can ask anybody about this... I go into a state of total oblivion; I mean like total blackout. Every time I do a show I am totally oblivious to the outside world... things just come to a halt outside of the music. I am less natural in playing than some people; I really have to concentrate to do the stuff that is demanded by MINE's style. Plenty of people say I get really into it up there on stage, and I feel I have to because I know there has to be a side to the band that isn't just total precision and execution. Precision is fine, but it leaves me unfulfilled as a musician. So I try to 'toss the testosterone' out to the audience, so to speak, and transmit some of that physical presence out to the people. That's my goal as a live performer: the ideal cross between a perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure guitarist and a guy who looks like he's spent the day snorting bag after bag of cocaine.
Fear of making mistakes? Not a bit. I don't think anyone's going to blame me for fucking up when I do fuck up. We never have any performance problems on stage that relate to skill. I reckon I blow about 5 notes per show; I never play perfect. The error rate is going to go up, though, because the new stuff we're writing is ungodly hard, especially the ensembles with Jim.
JON: Yes, I hate mistakes but what the fuck.
KASE: Not to sound too zen-like, but I don't worry about making mistakes when I play. I worry about getting the feel right, and not messing up enough to drag the other guys down with me. Bruce Lee wrote "You ought not be thinking of victory or defeat... let nature take its course."
Q: What do you think of the current music scene locally? and the music scene in general (worldwide)?
JIM: Cool, yet uncool.
ERIC: I have something to say about this. If you want my honest opinion, I think the scene is about what you'd expect for Southern Wisconsin: beer and cheese, if you know what I mean. Seems like the metal scene here is basically the people in bands who go and see each other play, them and their friends, and that's about it. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of incentive for people to come out and see metal shows.
That's what we're trying to do something about. I mean, other types of music have a lively scene here. Where is the incentive for people to come out and support metal? We're trying to get a good mix of all the most attractive things about metal: the aggression, the technique, the melody, and the knowledge that you've got four cool guys up there going for it just as hard as they fuckin' can. That's our strength, and we're going to ram it up your ass until it hurts you not to have it.
Across America, metal is back in the spotlight again, but it has already been corporatized, even faster than Seattle got raped in the early '90s. I think a lot of what you've got in the 'New Metal' is people that supposedly dethroned grunge, but it's the same shit, just repackaged: anti-technique, low-fi production, romanticizing depression. It's just another ebb in the trend of backlash and counter-backlash. It's real easy to tell who the pioneers are. Most of the New Metal on the radio is the 2000's equivalent of Kix or Bullet Boys
Worldwide, however, metal is doing great. Did you see that Iron Maiden's Brave New World made it to #6 on billboard worldwide? That's fuckin' huge! The only things above it were, like, Britney Spears and N'Sync or something. And you're not going to mess with them, I mean, they're like gods, golden calves.
JON: Our local scene is the worst shit around I think. As for the world, I like it heavy and I think most of the worlds music is for PUSSIES.
KASE: I think there's a lot of great musicians out there, making a lot of great music, but Madison is a tough place to get off the ground. It seems like most of the people out there have got their eyes on the horizon, looking off to other places for good music and not taking seriously anything in the area. It's been getting better, but it's a slow process...
Q: What do you think the secret is to being in a successful band?
JIM: Having a loving heart and a spoonful of "yeah!"
ERIC: It all depends on what your idea of success is. I guess unifying them all would be: being honest with yourself about what it is you are trying to accomplish and then working your ass off toward that end. I think that is the key to doing work that, at least, succeeds for you. I mean, if you're in music so you can get chicks, or drugs, or worshippers, or just for laughs, you better be honest with yourself about it. But that doesn't mean I have to tell anybody else what I want out of it.
JON: Who Cares, I'm in it for my fun.
KASE: Three things in particular. 1) Having a band you can get along with. I've seen a lot of bands with great potential fall apart before they could accomplish anything. 2) Planning ahead, and not spinning your wheels in the mud. 3) Having good music to play for people. That's the core, and where we're at in our plan- create a good product for people before you try to sell it.
Q: Is there anything that you would like to improve on or change in terms of music writing and performing?
JIM: More theatrics or pyrotechnics.
ERIC: I definitely have some problems. I tend to compare stuff I come up with to stuff MINE had before I showed up, and I am very critical of myself when it comes to that. A _ton_ of riffs and things get thrown out or shelved because they don't fit or not everyone likes them. Also, I try to practice standing up as much as I can, because your playing changes depending on whether you are standing or sitting. Also, Jim is kind of new to the band and we are building arrangements now that are more complex. I have also been told that I should change my stage attire (street clothes).
JON: Just to make it hurt all the time.
KASE: I think our writing system is working pretty well. Everyone is happy with everything we play- at least we say that at practice... when that feeling changes, we do something to fix it.
Q: What kind of merchandise is available to those who are interested and how can they get a hold of the stuff?
ERIC: At the shows you can get a copy of the old demo, which we still just love, and on the website there's going to be a store section where you can get the various usual crap, like shirts etcetera. Of course that's where you're going to get a copy of the new record too. I am going to call in a favor to a friend of mine and we are going to get some very high-quality shirts made for cheap. But what's dominating our attention right now is the main product: the music.
Q: I understand MINE is working on a new album, any idea when that will be completed? How is everything coming along with the album?
ERIC: The demo we have out there now was going to be the official demo, but fortunately Jim joined up and that made that demo kind of obsolete. We are going to integrate unbelievable new renditions of the stuff from the demo with the new originals we are hammering out right now, and that'll be the album. We will record the album ourselves to hard disk, with the absolute best performances we can get. There will be no compromise. We will probably take the record outside for mastering, and I will have to complete the artwork.We'll sell them at shows and on the website, and we may get us a distributor, but right now we intend to retain all our publishing. No record company. I like that punk rock DIY ethic. By the time this hits press, we will have started recording.
JON: We'll have it done this spring.
KASE: We're still working on writing new material, but may start laying down drum tracks for the stuff we have in the next few weeks. Hopefully it won't take more than a few months to get it all together.
Q: Where do you see the band in a few years from now? Are there any goals set?
ERIC: The immediate goal is to prepare new stuff while keeping the old stuff fresh. Then the album and the shows. We will be doing more shows, and are looking at places other than where we have been before. The extended goal is to stay together, because so many bands are breaking up that we will just succeed by default. De-fault! The two sweetest words in the English language!
JON: Hopefully blowing lots of minds.
KASE: I just see us growing as a whole. I'm not certain how we'll be doing, or how we'll be accomplishing anything, but then again, no-one's really sure what shape the industry is going to take in the next few years either. I'm pretty excited to be a part of it... it'll be interesting to see what becomes of the whole mess.
Q: Do you have a fan base started and a mailing list,ect.?
JIM: Our fan base consists of one kid named Joey.
ERIC: We have enough fans to get a show to break even for us. That's pretty good. Kase runs the shoutlist.
JON: Just the people who worship us.
KASE:Yes, it's pretty rudimentary at this point, but our web-site and our CDs have an e-mail address that I use to give a shout whenever we have a show coming up, or when something cool happens. It'll probably expand itself eventually, but for now, it's all we need...
Q: As a huge GWAR lover, I'm curious, who's idea was it to cover a GWAR tune?
ERIC: Salaminizer. Not sure who decided to do it, but I am a huge fan; I've got the original release of Hell-O on Shimmy-Disc. When we do it live, we always kick it off with a few bars of some 80's cheese tune. What's great is that people at the shows start grooving on it, like, "Yes! They're going to play a Def Leppard song!" I love to see their disappointment when we kick into the GWAR. And of course the real hardcore metalheads freak out! It's also a great audience-participation tune.
JON: Mine I think.
KASE: It was kind of a group decision. There are a lot of times that we can point to one person whose idea it was to cover a song (Eric's to cover For the Love of God, mine for Glass Moon) but it's hard to tell whose idea the Gwar was... I think one person suggested we play a song by them, and then together we decided to do Salaminizer... it was the rudest one we could find.
Q: Any final comments, advice, remarks, ect.?
JIM: Yeah - the passion for truth is silenced by answers which have the weight of undisputed authority.
JON: I hope if any metal heads are reading this that heavy means fucking heavy and if you suck go take lessons and well see ya out there.
ERIC: I would really like it if some people would start a Fight Club at our shows. Not a mosh-pit, or a redneck brawl over some chick. But a full-on Tyler Durden Fight Club.
MINE
Check them out at www.minemusic.net
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