re:SOUND’s Sam Holt caught up with The Mysterines after their Bristol instore and spent some time chatting about the new album and why they have a thing about Englebert Humperdink’s Hapischord and Coronation Street.
I’ve listened to the album, and the themes that come through are grief, self destruction and heartache. Lia, you did a podcast a few weeks ago and you mentioned mental health issues and how you feel it can help create music. Was that the case with the album?
Lia:Yea, I guess so, it’s just sort of channeling experience and emotion really, I don’t know whether it aids it in anyway, but it’s definitely something I’m reliant on in terms of being creative.
If I remember rightly, you wrote the album in a record shop?
Lia:Yeah, I was doing some writing upstairs in the offices, it’s a cool record shop
Do you have to be somewhere like that, or do you get your ideas anywhere?
Lia:To be honest it was just because our mates had let us use the offices upstairs for a bit, so I could write there for a bit recently which was nice of them, but no I don’t technically have to be in record shops to write records.
I didn’t mean it quite like that…
Lia:Yes I like to have a space.
Does it just come to you when you’re out, in the van, on a train?
Lia:Yea pretty much, channeling all the time.
Callum: I used to work in the record shop Lia’s on about.
I’ll have to pop over some time when I’m in the area again.
Lia: It’s a boss record shop!
Lia: RockPoint records
I was interested to hear about the record being recorded live?
Lia: It was.
Paul: There were multiple takes, but they were live, and we chose the best takes. Some took only a few takes, about four, some took more, about 20 takes.
Lia: Catherine Marks (producer) was really good, she was the best in terms of feel, conveying the emotion.
She’s done The Amazons and the Foals, yea. She’s an enigma.
What’s your favourite track from the album?
Lia: We all have different ones, haven’t we? Lets start from one end of the table,
George; I’d probably say Under your Skin or On the Run, depending on which mood I’m in, it chops and changes between these two, I think
Lia: Probably Reeling, after the album.
Paul I do like Confessions.
Callum: I’d say On the Run, Under your Skin, or All These Things are my favourites, although that’s not one favourite though, is it? I’ll go with On the Run.
To be honest, when I first listened to the album, those two tracks really got me straight away, then the next time, another couple got me, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s how we listen.
I know so many people that only listen to a couple of tracks off an album, then don’t listen to the rest?
Lia: Oh no, you’ve got to listen to an album in full to appreciate its existence I guess.
Did you have much of the music written, or did the pandemic hold you back?
Lia: I don’t think the pandemic held us back in any way, if anything it gave us more time to write and to think about the record. I could write some more. Some of the songs we’ve had for years; Under your Skin (stuff all you know), they’ve been around since I was a teenager. Some of them were written in lockdown such as Life’s a Bitch.
The first time I listened to the album I loved Life’s a Bitch and the next time, Under your Skin. You also explained recently that the band has evolved over time, how do you think your sound has evolved or changed?
Callum: It started off quite psychedelically.
Lia: We’ve just been into different bands over time and established more influences when we brought Callum on board.
Lia: We met two people that have the same influences and ambitions, it was easier to be creative as a unit that way. For me personally I feel the start of the band was when they joined. Me and George have been in a band since 2013/14 I reckon.
When you have a day off, what you like to do?
Callum: We’ve got a day off on Tuesday.
Cornonation Street, always a good one
Lia: also Storage Wars.
Callum: Karate, we practice our karate moves on each other, There’s a bunch of weird and wonderful things. Colouring in is cool too!
What’s the least rock and roll thing you’ve done this week? Watch Corrie?
Callum: I’d say Corrie’s pretty rock and roll to be honest, it can get pretty dark, and there’s a lot of drinking on it.
Lia: I think everything we do is rock n roll.
If you could play your idol’s instrument, what would it be? I’ve asked this before, and people have said, Dave Grohl’s guitar for example.
Paul: I’d say John Bonham’s Gong ha ha ha ha
Lia: and I’d have Engelbert Humperdink’s Harpischord ha ha ha, that was an innuendo as well….
Callum: What else would be cool?
Lia: You can share Engelbert Humperdinnks Harpischord?…
Paul: John Bonhams Gong.
Callum: It’s a hard one that, there’s too many instruments….. Maybe Jimi Hendrix, no, Bob Dylan’s Acoustic Guitar, let’s go with that, or maybe his hat, maybe his pen.
Lia:That pen must be like Dr Who’s sonic screwdriver.
In the Dangerous video, I recognise a lot of the New Brighton area, the skyline, flats, sea wall…
Lia: I’ve always wanted to do a video in New Brighton, it means a lot to me. It was such a big part of my growing up, in such a small space with such a vast area to go to. It’s important to me.
George: You just chose the coldest day of the year to do a video on the beach
Finally, the last record you bought?
Lia: Nebraska – Springsteen
Lia, if I remember correctly, the first record you bought was Bridge over Troubled Water
Lia: It was. They’ll always have a place in my heart.
Released on March 11th, The Mysterines debut album ‘Reeling’ was recorded live under the watchful eye of acclaimed producer Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice, The Big Moon, PJ Harvey) over three weeks at Assault & Battery studios in London.
The band are out on the road for a series of headline dates from 18th March.
The Mysterines 2022 headline UK tour dates
18-Mar-22 Belfast Ulster Sports Club
23-Mar-22 Glasgow G2, The Garage
24-Mar-22 Kingston Upon Hull Social
25-Mar-22 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
26-Mar-22 Cambridge Mash
30-Mar-22 Manchester Band On The Wall
31-Mar-22 Birmingham The Castle & Falcon
1-Apr-22 London Electric Ballroom
2-Apr-22 Liverpool Invisible Wind Factory