band interview

Mute Math

Interview by Nicholas Hubbard
Tagged 2007 alternative rock electronic indie rock mutemath rock warner brothers records

Dreamers In Mainstream Rock N' Roll



I spoke to Paul Meany of MUTEMATH as the band tried to navigate the maze that is downtown Seattle on their way to Super Sweet Endfest 16 at Qwest Field. It was clear that I was dealing with a person who local poet Matt Gano would call a "professional dreamer," and I mean that as a compliment.

"To think that time after time we come back and finally... there's a room full of people singing our songs, it's just incredible... this is what we signed up for [and] what we love what do. Touring music is the backbone of this band. It's why we have a band."

He was totally sincere. They have been touring for nearly three years, and there isn't a break lined up for the near future. Nevertheless, Meany referred to touring, his bandmates, and songwriting with equal, confident idealism that must be contagious. MUTEMATH's popularity is growing steadily, as evidenced by their 166,733 MySpace friends.

Later that day, they drew a small crowd of late-night die-hards to a dreary, out-of-the-way SoDo venue called Studio 7. It looks like an underused industrial space from the street and an abandoned video arcade on the inside. It's hard to see why anyone would trek to the spot, but we all lined up at around 10:00 PM for the Endfest After Party, trusting that MUTEMATH would be worth it. I overheard a trio of girls discussing which lyrics they were going to have tattooed on their bodies, and a guy who was trying to impress his friends by claiming he'd just seen "Typical" video director Israel Anthem exiting from the back.

Two hours later than scheduled, the band arrived on stage and proceeded to deliver a performance that had enough energy to power all of their gear, the glaring Neon sign in the front of the building, and the flashing lightning tie worn by a kid standing behind me.

"I think when we started playing shows, it seemed like subconsciously those things started coming out: jumping around going out for the pass and catching the flying cymbal or whatever happened to fall on stage," Meany explained about the frenetic nature of their sets. "That all became part of the fun and the experience of getting in front of people and entertaining, and so, we enjoy that."

That night's acrobatics started with Darren King's manic drumming. He called out, "Last time I was in Seattle I broke my face!" With all of his Keith Moon-inspired flailing, I could see how it went down. Then Paul leapt onto his keyboard at the finale of "Typical" and played the last note by stomping his foot.

"At one point we either wanted to be football players, basketball players or soccer players and just couldn't cut it. [We] had some pretty traumatic, embarrassing moments in high school," Meany recalled.

They make up for it now. The big stunt of the night came when Paul did a handstand on his keys and then finished with a forward somersault over them. The crowd ate it up like popcorn at the circus. These kinds of physical feats made me forget I was at a dingy little club and not back at Qwest field. They're also what made MUTEMATH's backwards performance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" a few nights earlier so memorable. The band's visibility of late is due in large part to their television appearances and their internet presence. Their single, "Typical," was first released on YouTube.

"I think when we did this video and had the idea of doing it in reverse and messing with what you could see the human body normally doing when you play a song. It was very intriguing."

That's what you don't get by just listening to MUTEMATH's record. It doesn't mess with you like that. None of the music was lost in translation from recording to stage, which is a credit to their performance, but also a disappointment. Their setlist was essentially their tracklist — without even a cover added in. The crowd was happy singing along to just about every lyric, and since they were mostly 107.7 the End listeners, there was a mainstream radio feel that might have been the reason the whole thing sounded pre-packaged. The irony here is that the band's rising commercial success is almost anathema to the way they view themselves.

"[Forming the band] was just a creative exercise," Meany explained. "There's something very liberating about that approach. We weren't necessarily thinking about being any kind of band or who we were gonna open for, it was all just about creating music... as much of a record company or marketing nightmare as that would turn out to be, we wanted to make music that we were looking forward to playing every night and fantasizing about how a show could unfold or how we could set up who could play what."

Everything about MUTEMATH seems to embody this idea of "creative exercise". Toward the end of the show, the band has a ritual of passing out a home-made instrument they call "The Atari". It definitely looks like an accessory to an early video game console. I couldn't get my hands on the thing to test it as it was surfed over the mass of hungry fingers trying to get a feel, but I could see that it's played sort of like a theremin.

"It's just a noise-maker and at the end of the set, I usually pass it to the crowd and let them twiddle around on it... when people haven't seen us before they're a little scared by it. They don't know what I'm handing them. It looks a little strange -- almost like a weapon if you will."

Another thing that's strange? Meany's Korg keytar -- a fusion between a keyboard and a guitar, as its name would imply. The band mixes it up with classic, brand new and improvised instruments. Their unique use of all these was showcased on their closing number, "Reset". It featured a rapid -fire drum solo by Darren, with eventual help from Paul and bassist Roy Mitchell-Cardenas who added more percussion. They were banging on everything from music stands to parts of their equipment. Guitarist Greg Hill provided atmosphere by warping the electronic loop with a series of effects. On many of their songs, each member of the band ventures beyond their primary instrument and this process is continuing as they record their second full-length album. Though they have until the end of the year before they get back to the studio, they've been thinking a lot about the new record. Apparently the big revelation is the use of acoustic guitar.

"It's part of the challenge and the excitement of being able to play other things. Obviously in the writing process, we dabble with all kinds of other things. It's part of the exploration," said Meany.

Throughout the night, MUTEMATH appeared to be collaborators on stage -- a result of their history together and the way the past functions in their music. It's all personal, and this was evident as Meany laughed nostalgically when he referred to being chosen to do the theme for the live action Transformers movie ("It was a beautiful moment in our band's career -- being in the studio making robot noises and getting in touch with all [our] old childhood fantasies.") and seeing his band on the same festival bills as idols like the Police ("We live in a state of [having] goosebumps on the back of our necks").

He spoke with no less Romanticism about the process of songwriting. "It's usually a subconscious thing... a shoot from the hip, gut thing that happens. I'm not writing them down with pen and paper. They're in my head, and it's not until I hear certain music that it seems to unlock a certain file in my head where all of a sudden lyrics begin to surface and it really does seem like lyrics just magically appear within a given vocal melody. It makes you realize that you're writing a song and all of a sudden, it's about something that happened six or seven years ago [or] could've happened yesterday."

Given their continued exposure on T.V. and the radio, there's no doubt bigger things are in store for MUTEMATH. What remains to be seen is whether they can retain their independence, continuing to make music because they like doing it and looking at commercial success as a luxury, not an ambition. I like to think that as long as Paul Meany and company keep dreaming, they'll continue to make what he has called "music without borders" (interview with Amy Atkins, Boise Weekly, April 2007). This will keep them in control and outside the typical path of industry poster-boys.

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