At the Mill Interview, or; Hold It One Second!
What do you do when you can not tour as normal? Well, as band you try and create and rehearse. So if you have a management that wants you to do something digital but you in your pandemic mode have gotten used to being away from people, what can you do then to make it comfortable for yourself? You invite fans to a livestream from your rehearsal so they can take part in a bare assed, naked & raw production of the band’s history.
I got to talk a bit to Greg Mackintosh about this event and the release of that gig as a live cd.
- How is it at yours, have you still got a lockdown?
G: It is called a lockdown, but it is not a lockdown as it has been. Pubs are open now and stuff, but you must be seated, and you have only table service. There is still a mask mandate indoors.
- Tell us a bit about the new album that you have out.
G: Well, this is similar to Type O Negative´s second album. It is a pretend live album. The mill that we performed the set in is a legendary place in Bradford, we rehearse upstairs at that venue. It is an old Victorian textile mill, 6-7 floors high. We are on the top floor together with new Model Army and have been for the last 15 years. Nearly every band that has come up and though that area has rehearsed at the Mill. We have owned a room there for a long time. Downstairs is like a nightclub and that is where we recorded this. We just logged our gear down from our room and set up in the club.
- How did it come about that you decided to record a streamed gig?
G: We really put of doing this for a long time. Our manager had been moaning us for a long time. All the ones I saw myself were just so cheesy. Like trying to get a non-existent audience to get excited. Clapping hands and what not. I saw a few things and just felt, this thing does not work.
Our manager kept moaning and moaning so in the end we said that the only way we are going to do it is different. So that is why we have it like we have people in on what we feel is a presence in the rehearsal session. I mean the people that watched it seemed to like it.
That was the only way this would work for me doing it digital. We are not that type of band anyway. To me, when I watched it back, this is just like what a Sunday rehearsal looks like.
This was not planned as a live album at all, otherwise we would have made a lot more mistakes. From the nerves.
- What other feedback have you had from people?
G: Most people really liked it, but of course we had some complaint. Like the sound on the snare drum. But that sound is because that is the sound the snare makes in the rehearsal room. This was the point of it all. The guy who mixed it is the guy who mixes us when we play live. He is not a studio guy, he is a live guy. He did the sound and that is what we sound like. I know why people are saying it, you do not hear the big pounding snare like you are used to, but it is fine.
- What was the though regarding the songs performed?
G: Something that this livestream actually taught me was that we did do a different kind of setlist. It was a setlist picked by the band I guess. We did not have to do any crowd pleasers. We did not have to please the guy in the front clapping his hands. You did not have to make an atmosphere. It worked. The feedback we got tells me that.
- How do you see the coming back to touring?
G: I think just with the logistics regarding travelling I still think it going to take until 2022 to get back to some kind of ok touring. We do have one festival left for this year in the UK, the Bloodstock festival in august that we hope to be playing. I do really wonder if that is going to happen. If it goes ahead I think it is only going to be UK bands. We have a few things booked for next year. A 10 day UK tour in February if I am not mistaken.
And with that, We hold it for One Second before I Die in My Darker Thoughts.
