Interview by Rachel Jablonski
Listen to Mower’s latest release entitled Not For You and it will become obvious that this is a band to see live. The energy on the album is intense and definitely worth a listen. So I was eager to witness the translation from album to live show on the band’s stop in Cedar Rapids, IA. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled at the last minute out of the band’s control. A few days later, however, I was able to speak with vocalist Brian Sheerin about the band and my anticipation to see Mower live has since grown.
Rachel: I was excited to see your live show last Friday in Cedar Rapids, but due to circumstances the show was cancelled obviously. From the way the CD sounds it should be an amazing live performance. What is your goal when you play live? What makes your live show special?
Brian: We have built our whole career on our live show. We are probably one of the most intense bands that I can think of live. And that’s like thinking of everybody. That’s really how we got our start. Fortunately, the new record really captures what’s out there with the intensity and urgency of our songs. I think it translates pretty well. The goal is basically to floor people. I think we’re very fortunate. A lot of times we’ll come out on tour as support and we’ll be a band that no one has heard of or we’ll be playing in front of a crowd that isn’t there for our genre and we’ll come out and really rip some heads off and people walk away stunned. That’s really what we’re going for, a very high level of energy.
Rachel: I can definitively tell that’s how it would be; I wish I could have seen it!
Brian: Well we’ll be back!
Rachel: Are you still on tour with (hed) p.e. or is that tour over?
Brian: We just finished, we just finished the 18th in Fort Collins, Colorado. So now we’re on a bit of a break and then we’ll jump out in another couple weeks here and we’ll be on tour with Dog Fashion Disco.
Rachel: Oh really? That’s awesome! That’ll be a good show. How was the Back 2 Base X tour with (hed) p.e.?
Brian: Great! We were out with (hed) p.e. and Wicked Wisdom. There was a lot of comradery between the bands, which always makes it more comfortable when everyone’s having a good time and there isn’t a big vibe or cliquey type thing. I think everyone spent some time hanging out with the other bands, everyone was down to earth. We’ve actually known (hed) p.e. probably about 10 years now. They’ve always been really good to us and they are still continuing to treat us really well. They were excellent on this tour about making sure we had what we needed and it was great. It was a good time. We’d get done playing our set, pack our gear and then get to rock out and watch the other bands play every night.
Rachel: Some call you “California's hardest working band.” What is the biggest challenge you have had to overcome?
Brian: Well, every band is going to go through line-up changes and we’ve gone through pretty much every pitfall you could go through as a band. We’ve had trailers full of gear stolen, we’ve had ups and downs in, everyone has ups and downs in their personal lives, and we’ve had all of that compounded with members leaving and just kind of a revoloving door of that. But that’s nothing beyond what any band that has been around for a few years would endure. I think the “hardest working” moniker comes more from the promotion end of things. When we were young we were pretty ridiculous with promotion. I mean it was overkill. That was pretty much the Mower way. You couldn’t move 50 feet in San Diego without seeing a Mower sticker on a stop sign or… anything that was bolted down had a sticker on it, there was a flyer on every telephone pole and every car had one on the windshield and it was really ridiculous.
Rachel: That’s awesome.
Brian: We got a reputation for it. It was actually one of the things that attracted (hed) p.e. to us in the first place. They came down, they didn’t know us, we got put on a bill by the local promoter, and we promoted the show to where they showed up and the whole club was just plastered. They were like whoa who did all this promotion? And when they found out it was us, they really took us under their wing. Every time they’d play in our area we’d get on the bill and they just really appreciated the effort that we put forth and we really got a reputation for that. Promoters knew that they could count on a packed show because we’d be out doing the leg work. And I think that’s what the hard working statement would be about.
Rachel: So you guys physically went out and did all that or did you have a group that you recruited to help you?
Brian: You know it started out as our own efforts and then it spiraled; we really started to get some help. Once you set the tone for it and your friends see how much effort you put into it people want to help and you start getting a street team going and it spirals out of control. You let people know there’s a concert and pretty soon the whole town knows by word of mouth. We’ve been really fortunate that way.
Rachel: I disagree. I think that’s WAY more than a lot of bands that I know, well bands that aren’t known, do. They just don’t go out and promote.
Brian: Well and that’s probably why you don’t know them. We have a healthy mix of the artistic part of playing and the business end of things. Gotta get the word out!
Rachel: Your latest album, Not For You, touches on many different genres. What are the influences for such a unique album?
Brian: I’ll give you the ones that we all agree on. We’re big Slayer fans, Snot, Jane’s Addiction, and NOFX. From person to person within the band depending on what day it is you’ll get a different list of favorite bands. First and foremost we’re fans of music; we love everything, everything except for maybe modern day country. There really isn’t a limit to what inspires us at this stage in the game. I think the elements are pretty obvious. There’s a lot of punk rock, hardcore, there’s some whiskey rock, industrial, ya know even classic rock and some loungey, bluesy type stuff. We really put about eight different genres on the record and I think if you keep in mind that it is a record, that was the way we thought of it, as a whole album, a CD or a collection of songs as opposed to just trying to put out a single and add some filler. We were hoping that people would enjoy it all the way through because it does kind of change up and you don’t get bored with it. From what people are saying and the response that we’re getting, people are getting it, they’re appreciating it and that was our hope. It seems like we’re succeeding in that.
Rachel: Definitely, you can certainly pull off whatever genre you’re trying to do pretty well.
Brian: Well here’s the common theme. Everything that we did whether it was a punk thing or a hardcore thing or whatever, the best band in any genre is going to be a great live band; they’re going to have a massive amount of energy. When you compare a Jane’s Addiction show to a Slayer show I mean obviously they are two different worlds apart sonically, but you still walk away stunned at either show and that’s kind of what the common thread is. We just really want to have that raw energy no matter what type of genre we’re trying to do.
Rachel: Right, that’s cool. “Road Rage” is a hilarious song that anyone on the road can relate to. How do you deal with the traffic in San Diego? Is there a particular incident that the song alludes to?
Brian: It’s funny; you are among many other people to have asked if there is a particular incident. It wasn’t any one thing, but a few of us are East Coasters that are transplants to the West Coast. We’ve driven in New York gridlock and obviously the California freeways and like you said anyone that’s ever been cut off or disrespected on the road knows exactly where that’s coming from. It’s not a very philosophical song but it’s something everyone can relate to.
Rachel: There is a video for “Road Rage” which can be seen on your MySpace page. What was the experience like for shooting the video?
Brian: It was hysterical. The idea was pretty simple; we just wanted to get a chase scene going to depict what’s going on in the song. It’s a simple, straight forward song lyrically and we’re not trying to delve too deep into anything so we just wanted to have a fun video. Basically the shoot shows two cars chasing each other all over downtown Los Angeles; we got pretty reckless at times. It was cool. We had a chance to invite some friends out. If you look hard you can see our producer, Mikey Doling, in the video. He’s actually one of the more colorful people in it, but with editing and whatnot you have to keep your eye out for him. It was a good time. I mean basically it was a bunch of our friends standing around drinking for 8 hours and then we’d fly around in the car and they’d have a good time and we’d get it all on film so…
Rachel: That’s awesome.
Brian: Yeah, it came out all right; it’s good for a laugh. At a minute and forty-five seconds or whatever it pretty much says it all really quickly and then you’re on to the next thing. [laugh]
Rachel: How did you come about working with Mikey Doling to produce your album?
Brian: It’s a story that goes back almost 10 years. Dominic and Chris, my other singer and my bass player, were in a band in Breckenridge, Colorado and they had the good fortune to open up for Snot. So they tried to stay in touch, but you know how it is. Snot went on to blow up pretty quickly and they were doing Ozzfest and everything was going for them. Then Lynn passed away and we kind of lost track of them. But fortunately we ran into Mikey again because he reemerged with Soulfly. We did a gig with Soulfly in New York and really had a great, great crowd response. The place went ballistic and we were like first on the bill and it kind of lit everybody up because they were like who are these guys really tearing this crowd apart at 7 o’clock or whatever it was. So we managed to run into him after the show and Mikey remembered those guys. We all went out drinking and kind of bonded and stayed in touch this time and we’ve had a friendship going for years now. He’s actually been in a couple other bands and we’ve always played together, toured together, and stayed in touch. He started producing records and we were really interested in having him work with us. And to be honest with you, we almost missed the opportunity because his schedule was really tight. We had about two other producers that were lined up because we didn’t think we were going to be able to work with him and last minute we got a call saying hey man my schedule cleared so we jumped at the chance. Basically it’s like recording with one of your heroes. So there was a sense of accomplishment before we even started recording. We were already going to record with one of our biggest inspirations so it was a really cool feeling. It’s a nice story. And ya know we’re still friends and we’re actually talking about doing the next record already so we want to get our record going before he gets too big for us because he’s really talented and you’re going to hear big things from Mikey Doling that’s for sure.
Rachel: Is he just producing now or is he in another band?
Brian: No he’s playing as well. He’s in a band called In Vitro and he’s producing and he’s also working with a record label as well so he’s going to do big things. We’re glad to be apart of it.
Rachel: Definitely. What’s the significance of the Not For You album artwork?
Brian: You know it’s funny; there really isn’t a whole lot of significance to it. It’s just basically a picture of one of our friend’s dogs. He was hanging on a rope in the sun; he’d just sit and swing from it forever, and it kind of rips up his mouth because the rope is real abrasive and whatnot. So he’s got this bloody mouth and we just cropped out the background and put a black background. We actually used this probably five years ago on a three song demo. A few thousand copies are out there, I guess that’s kind of a collector’s thing now, but we liked the image and we submitted it to the label and everyone hated it but we didn’t care. [laugh] So we pushed it through. It’s a really interesting thing. At first glance a lot of people don’t’ even realize it’s a dog. You kind of have to take a look at it and then see what’s going on with it. So it’s just something that is a pretty powerful image. It grabs your attention.
Rachel: I like it. You have two dominant vocalists in the band. How do you maneuver that? How do you feed off each other?
Brian: You know there was more thought that went into that when we first started playing, but now it’s pretty organic. We pretty much know what our ranges are and what styles each of us can put forth. I think at this stage in the game we hear a riff and we pretty much know who is going to sing over it. I don’t know, it’s kind of unspoken at this stage in the game. We have a lot of experience writing and working together so it’s a lot easier these days than it was in the past.
Rachel: How did you work through it at first?
Brian: I’d say it was a lot more call and response where it would be his verse my verse, my verse his verse, that type of thing. Now we’re singing on top of each other, we’re harmonizing and there will be periods where its Dominic singing pretty much the whole song and then I’m singing another song. It’s really just what the song dictates at this point and less trying to get us all evenly distributed within a song. It’s really letting the song dictate what vocals need to be there.
Rachel: Right. How about live between songs, how do you not interrupt each other?
Brian: To tell you the truth we probably do interrupt each other quite a bit, but sometimes that makes for some funny times as well. Ya know you step on each other’s lines. But it’s the same type of thing if you’re playing 30, 60 shows in a row you pretty much get a feel for when someone’s going to say something and who’s got an introduction to what song and that type of thing. It works itself out.
Rachel: I see. That would be tough at first. What’s coming up for Mower? We talked about the tour, but talk about the album a little more.
Brian: The next one will be the third one, so we’re just getting ready. There was a lot of time between the first and second one. We went through some lineup changes, actually quite a few people came and went, and we don’t want to make anyone wait this time. We’re gonna tour as much as we possibly can. The video is done, the record’s done so now it’s all about touring and just meeting as many people as possible, getting as many people as possible turned on to the music. We'll get the new record ready so we’re not holding back on it but it will be ready to go when the time is right. I’d say that’s the big goal, just getting out there and letting people enjoy it right now.
Rachel: Are you just gonna tour hardcore this summer and then…?
Brian: We’re gonna do as much as we possibly can. The record drops in Japan in July, we were there in March, and we’d really like to go back there as soon as possible. We had the best time over there. It was definitely a taste of the good life. It was definitely one of the highlights of our career besides playing with Slayer. So we’re hoping we can get back over there. We were well received.
Rachel: Well cool. Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Brian: We’re happy that people are interested. Thanks for taking an interest in us and asking all the questions you asked. It’s good to see that people are kind of getting into the style and what we’re trying to do. It’s rock n roll and we’re trying to have a good time with it.
Rachel: Definitely and like I said I can’t wait to see the live show because I can just tell by the way the album sounds that it will be amazing.
Brian: I think you’ll enjoy it.