 |
All the Pieces ARE Assembled Right By JohnB |
Interview with Brian Sheerin of Mower EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview was conducted live and has been edited for content and length. In anticipation of my upcoming interview with Brian Sheerin from the San Diego based rock band Mower, the CD player in my car played their new album, Not For You nearly half way across the state of Michigan. Good thing for me my car has cruise control otherwise I’m sure I would have received several speeding tickets before reaching my destination. The almost unheard of mixture of the old school punk vocals of Dominic Moscatello and the raw untamed metal vocals of Brian Sheerin, Mower has proved to me that there are no boundaries in the insane world of rock and roll. I arrived
at the Machine Shop just minutes before the band got there. Due
to heavy road construction they too were late to arrive at the
venue. This added a new twist into the interview. Brian was ready
for my unleashing of questions and inquiries into the mechanics
of Mower but under one condition. FOOD!!! So Brian and I headed
next door to Big John Steak & Onion where, once situated in
our booth, I did my best to conduct the interview without letting
Brian’s dinner get cold. |
|
Right out of the gates I was straight up with Brian and let him know that until recently I had not heard of Mower but after hearing their newest CD Not For You, I could not stop playing it. This is where the interview took an interesting turn. Brian put me in the “hot seat”.
MWE: It’s tight! The vocals, the music, everything, but most of all I like the diversity of the album. I played it for several of my friends and one common response was “what are they”? One song sounds like Clutch, another song sounds like Motörhead and the list goes on, but to me that’s the magic about it, the diversity of your music. Not every song comes out sounding the same. Brian: You summed up everything right there. End of interview! Seriously though, the thing about it is first of all we’re rock fans all the way. The only thing we are not down with is new wave country pop shit. Everything else we’re rock fans. So, the first record we did was really focused on the aggressive hardcore type stuff. Our early career was based around the heavy hardcore stuff but we never saw ourselves as being one faceted or one sided. We went into the new album with a positive attitude but it was kind of a sarcastic attitude too. Entitled Not For You, it’s about what we enjoy. We figure, as fans of music people will get what you got, you know what I mean? You’re going to listen to it and go, “Ah, that reminds me of good 80’s thrash, or oh man that reminds me of Sabbath and that reminds me of Pantera and that’s kind of like Snot or holy shit that almost reminds me of Jane’s Addiction.” You know, we love all that stuff and we’ll give people credit for being into different types of music. Fuck dude, I like Slayer just as much as the next guy, I love Sepultura just as much as the next guy, but I just don’t want to hear that all day long, I want my brain to go in different places. So, if you listen to one song or two songs you won’t get a feel for the record. What’s really hysterical is we’re being tagged as an industrial band, we’re being pegged as a thrash band, as a hardcore band, classic rock band, punk band, and the thing is it’s all true, you know what I mean? From a marketing standpoint it’s a little confusing, but the way we look at it, it’s rock and roll.
MWE: We talked a bit ago about your trip to Japan. What was the reception like when you went there? Brian: It was insane. We went over there with such enthusiasm ourselves and we were matched by the enthusiasm of our Japanese fans. When our first album came out we sold a few thousand copies of it there. The venues we played weren’t enormous but they were full, people were there to see us, they were having a great time singing along with us, it was really cool. I spent a few months learning as much Japanese as I could and so did some of the other guys so between their broken English and our broken Japanese we had a great time. We were there for ten days. Two days were travel days. We did 8 shows and we were out of there. None of us wanted to leave. Treatment there was like absolute royalty. It was a taste of the good life. We really enjoyed it. We were in no rush to get back to the States but we are in a big rush to get back to Japan.
Brian: Pits are pits, man, but I think that maybe there was a little bit more respect and discipline in their pits. For instance, we played one club, I think it was in Kyoto, where you know how here we have a metal barrier in front of the stage, they didn’t have a metal barrier. Instead someone took like 4 pieces of thin PVC pipe and kind of made like a suggestion of where to stop. They were going crazy and people were flying all over the place but there were people holding each other back, that was the barrier. Even though they could have easily snapped it and gone on stage, they didn’t. It was like this represents where we cool it and where the band has their space. It was an example of something you wouldn’t see here. It was cool. MWE: Between 1999 and 2003 the band overcame some difficult challenges as most bands do. What do you think has kept Mower together? Brian: There’s four of us from the original band. Our drummer came back last year. Like every band, we’ve gone through a whole bunch of people to get the right fit but surprisingly after 8 years we’re back to four out of the five original members. We’ve definitely gone through stuff that has broken up other bands but now we understand that the people we’re with are in it for the long haul cause we’ve been through every damn thing. And it’s getting easier. It seems that the more popular we get, the easier things become such as touring and better tours and getting things out there. It’s easier than when we first started, but it really is about the effort. We’re a pretty active band.
MWE: This tour is about to end. What sort of things are in the band’s near future? Brian: I’m not sure, but it sounds like we will be touring with Dog Fashion Disco. They’re pretty eclectic, it will be fun. I don’t know what’s beyond that. We’re going to go tour with them then see what’s next. Providing we keep selling CDs, our plans are to tour all summer. The video’s done, the record’s done, now it’s time to go out and play. And that’s exactly what they did. The Machine Shop was almost standing room only as Mower took the stage. There was no question that the crowd knew why they were there. The intensity of their music was ever present as Mower tore the place up.
For more on
Mower visit them at:
Photos by JohnB
|
|
Brian:
So, what do you like about the new CD?
After
allowing Brian to put down a few more bites of his sandwich I
ventured off into Mower’s recent trip to Japan.
MWE:
Were the mosh pits in Japan as brutal as in the states?
We’re
very fortunate. We tour with some bands that don’t really
fit our mold, you know? We’re on Kottonmouth’s label
and have toured with them several times and that crowd, although
they’ve got punk influences that’s more hip-hop to
some degree, we come out with this live band and we’re flying
all over the place. So it’s kind of a departure, but they
all seem to embrace it and we’ve been out on metal tours
where it’s easier, like a Soulfly show makes perfect sense.
It’s all good.
If
you have never seen Mower live I would highly recommend you get
off your asses and go see them.