The Grammy-nominated alternative rock band MUTEMATH have their own style and their own groove. Even the band members themselves have difficulty defining what makes them so unique. The band’s tour with 30 Seconds to Mars will bring them to AU’s Bender Arena April 23. They are also just beginning to record their third album.
In an interview with The Eagle, lead singer and keyboardist Paul Meany discussed recording, touring and their music of the past, present and future.
After an almost disastrous first night on tour, Meany, who is “stoked” to come to AU at the end of the week, knows this is going to be a great tour.
“[30 Seconds to Mars] ran into some border problems, I’m not really sure why — someone was giving them a hard time at the border of New Mexico,” he said. “It was a blurry night, went really fast. And it always makes for an exciting show when you’re flying by the seat of your pants, no one is prepared, trusses are still being flown and the opening band’s going. If everything’s perfect the first night, you’re on a bad tour.”
Although they are currently on the road, the recording process has already begun according to Meany.
“We’ve got our portable studio in the back of the bus and [are] getting back into the swing of things,” he said. “You play a show, and then on your off day you’re on the bus writing, trying to better or further the next recording. We’re pretty dead set on wanting to record our new record this year. We just don’t wanna take as long as we did on the last one.”
MUTEMATH have good reason to want to speed up the process — the gap between their first and second albums was three years long. But in that time, the band developed “Armistice,” which they feel may be their best album yet.
“‘Armistice,’ if you listened to it casually and it didn’t grip you, it’s that kind of record,” Meany said. “I really believe, in about five years, if you go back and listen to our albums, I think ‘Armistice’ will be a favorite over even the first ones. It’s not an immediate record, but it’s more dense.”
The single “Backfire” allows Meany’s voice to stand out on the verses while layering instrumentals for the chorus, creating an almost eerie-sounding, catchy tune.
The band show their range on the LP from the softer “The Clippings,” which highlights piano and string instruments to the high-energy, anxious sounding “The Nerve” that chants “set it on fire” over and over again.
It is difficult to pick standout tracks because “Armistice” as a whole is one of those cohesive albums that just works so well when listened to in its entirety. However, Meany fears that the album as we know it may be dying out.
“The one thing I hope that does not happen, but it seems like it’s inevitable, is the medium of the album kinda going away,” he said. “That’s one thing, I think for the first time, that’s really at the forefront of our mind as we go in to this next album, and how that might affect it — just the whole importance of an album anyway. Hopefully we can make our peace with the changing tide and find a way to balance it all, still make stuff that feels important to us.”
The changes the band went through while recording “Armistice” are evident in the music. The difference, according to Meany, is in the amount of “spring-back.”
“When I listen to the first record, I feel like I’m jumping on a trampoline,” he said. “When I listen to the second record it feels like I’m jumping on bubble wrap. The second record, to me, has got more snap to it; it makes more noise when you jump around, but it’s not as spring-back-y.”
But in a world where “it becomes more and more difficult to get heard,” MUTEMATH’s plan for the next album is just to go with their collective gut.
“You know, after doing two records and touring, we feel like we’ve learned a lot about how this band works, what we do best,” Meany said. “And I think now this next record is about driving that home, what we’ve learned over the past two records, being on the road, and to completely indulge that on the next record.”
Catch MUTEMATH opening for 30 Seconds to Mars at Bender Arena this Friday. Tickets are $20 and are currently being sold at Student Activities in Mary Graydon Center and online at Ticketmaster.com.
You can reach this staff writer at mhollander@theeagleonline.com.
