Mares of Thrace Interview is up 4/9/2012
Mares of Thrace
1.For those of new to this Noise, Sludge, Doom Duo of Crushing sound. Tell us how the two of you formed and started Mares of Thrace..
Stef and I met in 2002 and formed a series of massively unsuccessful heavy music projects. We kept losing members to bullshit like "careers" and "babies" and "husbands" and "not wanting to starve in a filthy van for months at a time", so finally we decided: let's just be a two-piece.
2. Being just two women making some of the most powerful music around. How did your sound come to be and Where do you see it heading?
Silly Absolute Zero, we are not the most powerful music around! Manowar is!
Um, our sound came to be because Stef really likes Meshuggah and I really like giant amps and riffs that are slow enough for me to pick up my beer and drink it between chord changes. Where do I see it heading? Mostly to financial ruin.
3. How different are your recordings from the live event. Do you feel its hard to project the album sound live?
Lots of two-pieces present the live experience as being completely different than the record. I try extremely hard to not commit to tape shit I can't pull off live. Every now and then I'll come up with a second guitar part I just can't resist putting on a record, but these are the exceptions. We live to play shows, and I want our recorded stuff to reflect that.
4. Your working with Sonic Unyon how did you come to work with them they seem to be more focused in Canada. With Earsplit Pr I feel you will get a strong push in USA too now,,
We came to work with them because, out of all the offers we got, it was one of their employees who came to our show and bought us Mediterranean food. We can't say no to hummus. Really, who can? ...Um, SUR is a pretty stalwart Canadian institution; they've put out some very influential (to me anyway) records. I hope we get a strong push in the USA; that's where all the good tacos are.
5. Tell us please does The Pilgrimage have a story line or just a collection of blistering metallic noise?
Each of the songs represents a fucked-up little character that lives in my mind, and the Pilgrimage represents them sauntering off on a jaunty little journey to wherever they go before psychiatric meds annihilate them.
6. Do you feel social media ( Twitter, Facebook, Website, Soundcloud) are the new demo tape and college radio of the 21st century or do you miss old world promotion?
I do miss demo tapes. We still use college radio. But, gotta be honest here, I LOVE social media's ability to let me chat with people who just stumbled on us one way or another and dig our tunes. If I want to know which shirt design I should print, I just ask them. If I need help booking a show in a town I've never been in, I ask, and awesome people jump to help. If the internet enables the democratization of information, it also democratizes a lot of the tasks involved with being in a band... though, a lot of people are really douchey about using it to promote their band, and I try not to be.
7. Your website http://www.maresofthrace.com/ is just more a portal to other places on the web do you feel this is the best way to get people through the internet at one focused point?
Haha, funny story-- I'm a webdeveloper. The last thing I want to do when I get home from work is work on my own band's website. I keep promising myself I'll spruce it up.
8. Does your Early Material sound very different from " The Pilgrimage" ?
Yes and no. There are certainly aspects of what we're doing now on the last record, but I feel this one's more cohesive.
9. The artwork artwork work for " The Pligrimage" is very abstract how does it fit into the theme of the album?
The original painting that Scott (www.scottshellhamer.com) did had all the fucked-up little characters from the song titles in it. But out of all of them, the Goat Thief stared at me and demanded he be on the cover by himself. So Scott did one of just him and bam, it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Plus, goats are awesome.
10. What are the members of Mares of Thrace listening to right now . Always like to see that window into what influences bands.
I'm listening to The Secret, Pallbearer, Dark Castle, Vilipend, Sulaco, Mutilation Rites, Polvo, Craw, Helms Alee, Dalek, A Storm of Light, and Celeste (brief flip through the shuffle on my iPod). Stef only listens to Meshuggah and the screams of the gimp tied up in her basement.
11. Your video for " General Sherman " is very unnerving to say the least . what has been the feedback on this and will we see more ?
What I've learned from making that video is that people are really, really fucking stupid. People made comments like "oh you must be man-haters" and "oh, so violence is acceptable when the victim is male?" First off, the song is only 5 minutes long; we had neither the time nor the budget for an egalitarian violence spree. Secondly, we are very fond of men. Particularly barbecued medium-rare.
12. If you were asked to describe the band to someone that never heard Mares of Thrace how would do so and please don't just say heavy music be expansive..
Like a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos in which doom, noise rock and hardcore are the hippos and the marbles are severed heads.
13. Thank you for your time place any closing thoughts here.
Happy Easter. I'm going to go crucify a chocolate bunny. That's how Easter works, right?
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