Interview Mircea Gabriel Eftemie MNEMIC

Lineup: Tony Jelencovich - vocals Mircea Gabriel Eftemie - guitar Rune Stigart - guitar Tomas "Obeast" Koefoed - bass Brian "Brylle" Rasmussen - drums/keyboards

Fury of the Fall Tour God Forbid Meshuggah The Haunted MNEMIC 10/23/05 El Corazon (Seattle, WA) Interviewer: Alexi Front

"Sometimes you can’t have it all!"

No truer words have ever been uttered but MNEMIC shall have more than their fair share of "it" before long! Now when you think of the vast music scene in Scandinavia, the last thing that comes to mind is Demark, however modern metallers MNEMIC, will quickly change your mind! Our correspondent Alexi Front caught up with the band's guitarist and synth player Mircea Gabriel Eftemie during the North American leg of the Fury of the Fall Tour with God Forbid, Meshuggah, and The Haunted. The band also made it official not that long ago that vocalist Tony Jelencovich (ex-Transport League and B-Thong) has replaced long time vocalist Michael Bøgballe. Join in conversation with Mircea as he discusses the band's latest release The Audio Injected Soul, the departure of Bøgballe and arrival of Jelencovich, & life itself. Read on.

Alexi Front: First off tell me how the American fans are treating you.  It must be a great response since you are back for your second time this year!

Mircea Gabriel Eftemie:  Exactly [Laughter]!  I mean, since the last tour, we have gotten a lot of fans in America.  I mean people come up to us with Mnemic tattoos and stuff!  It is like, “wow, what the fuck is going on [laughter]?”  We got a great response so far.  People everywhere know our songs, so it has been great.  The tour so fat has been a dream come true for us so far!  We started listening to Meshuggah as kids and have been listening to them for over ten years now!  It is crazy that they asked us to come on the tour!  We are so happy, everything is just peachy!

Alexi: Now I have read that you are going to come back to the US soon with Arch Enemy.  Is this true and how did it come together?

Mircea: That is true!  We will be coming back next month actually, in November [Doomsday Tour].  Arch Enemy asked us to go out, so we couldn’t say no!  We are friends with them and everything, and it is really cool that they asked us to come out with them.  It sort of came out of the blue really.  The record label told asked us if we wanted to do the tour because Arch Enemy had asked that we be on the bill with them.  We of course said yes because we love to tour here and we want to forever!  It is perfect!

Alexi: How has the music Mnemic played progressed since the first record, Mechanical Spin Phenomena?

Mircea: It has been awhile since we released our last record, Audio Injected Soul, and for me, I don’t want to say it hasn’t developed. We took a different direction when we wrote Audio Injected Soul because we were pressured by time and we wanted to go into the studio quickly and release another album just to be in the media loop because we are and were a new band.  We still are a new band.  The sound, it is more melodic and simple on the second album, because on Mechanical Spin Phenomena, it is a bit more weird and technical.  Personally, I don’t give a shit [Laughter]!  It is really up to the fans.  If they like it, that makes me really happy!  I just want to make good music, that’s it!

Alexi: What role do electronics play in Mnemic's sound?

Mircea: They play a big role.  Everyone in the band grew up with some industrial background.  I am a huge fan of Front Line Assembly.  We get inspired by that.  Basically what we are doing with our music is combining old school elements with new elements.  We are trying to put all the stuff we like into this big bowl and make our own stuff out of it.  I would say that electronics are very important to us. 

Alexi: When listening to Audio Injected Soul, it felt like there were less electronics in it.  Is there a reason why there may have been a cut back on the electronics for Audio Injected Soul?

Mircea: I wouldn’t say there are less samples, but they are simpler.  We mainly wanted to make a dirty album because the first one was so polished.  We wanted to make the second one sound more dirty and simple.  In my opinion they are pretty much leaning against each other.

Alexi: The song “Deathbox” has a 3-D feel to it when you listen to it through headphones. How did you achieve this sound and what program was used?  Was this an idea of the band’s or was this an idea during the production?

Mircea: Well actually, I used to play in a band called Mercenary.  At that time, the singer had this disc with special effects and stuff like that.  It was a company in our hometown that worked with the university to create this album, but that was a few years ago.  All of a sudden, I came to think about it, because of the title Audio Injected Soul and we wanted to make a sort of concept out of it.  We wanted to put this new technology in our music.  We worked with the company and the university and we had a few guitar tracks done in 3-D, so when you have headphones on, you will hear the solo go around your head.  It is the same on the intro of the album.  Still in my opinion, it is not what I expected.  I wanted more out of it.  Probably in ten years we can do more crazy shit like that.  I still think it is cool.

Alexi: It is still a technology that is being developed still I assume.

Mircea: Yeah, it is a technology they are using for games.  Hit Man, for instance is one of the first games to use that technology.

Alexi: Didn’t Pearl Jam use the technology also?

Mircea: Yes, on Binaural, but they didn’t use the same technology we did.  They used an old version of what we used.  At that time, it was undeveloped really. 

Alexi: Are other groups interested in this, or do you really want to be the first to really push the boundaries of how people listen to music, using this technology?

Mircea: Of course, we want to be the first.  Everyone wants to be the first when it comes to something like that.  I know that my older band, Mercenary used it after we released Audio Injected Soul.  It would be cool to be the first to do something original and have people really admire and respect. 

Alexi: Is it something you think that works for one song or for a whole album?

Mircea: It only works for one song really.  Also, one problem with this is that you have to use headphones to experience the technology.  Not many use headphones.  Once you get an album, you don’t put it in headphones.  You put in your sound system or car stereo to hear it.  To do it on all tracks, not now, but maybe in ten years, who knows? 

Alexi: Tue Madison has been doing a lot of big profile European metal bands as of late.  What was your experience like working with him?  What is your friendship like with him?

Mircea: With him, it has been like butter on bread, it is crazy!  When he did our first album, we told each other we have to do something unique and original.  We told him we wanted the best sound ever.  But that was also his part.  It was like a ping-pong between us.  After the first album, he got so many jobs, to the point of doing The Haunted and he is flying to New York to do the new Sick of It All album, which is great!  He is doing a lot!  Working with him is the best experience ever.  He is totally down to earth, he is super nice, he kids around, and we have same mentality.  He is a great guy and a great friend.

Alexi: What did he think about the 3-D idea?

Mircea: He liked it.  He liked it very much.  We tried it on our own by inducing this technology.  On the intro for the album, we had this bag with sand because we were trying to create the effect of a human head.  We put this bag with sand and two microphones, and we put a wig on it for the effect.  We played a lot with that and was down for trying it out.

Alexi: What role does Madison play in Mnemic?  Is he a producer or is he a sort of sixth member?

Mircea: I would say both.  He had some ideas here and there.  Basically, it was our sound, we knew what we wanted, but he took it to a new level.  We told him we wanted things a certain way and we tried it out.  Then he would come back to us and ask us to try it a different way.  He would suggest things like having a guitar come out of two heads and another come out of three heads.  It is a ping-pong, it is not like he is going to write a tune for us like Christina Aguilera and we are just going to sing on it or whatever.  I would consider him back then as a sixth member, because he is such a good guy and wanted the best out of us and out of his own work. 

Alexi: So he is a family member more so than a musician?  

Mircea: Yeah, absolutely!

Alexi: Now the recording process for the new album was actually cut because the band did some festivals.  Did taking a break from the process affect the music and the mentality at all?

Mircea: Well the whole thing went like this.  We wrote the album in two months because we were doing it on the weekends because we all lived in three different cities at the time.  It was really hard to go back and forth all the time.  It was a stressful period for us.  When we hit the studio, in my opinion, we weren’t 100% to hit the studio.  Then we had the festivals in between the studio time.  We had to take off time recording to do the festivals.  I am not sure if it helped or damaged anything.  Next time I would like to be isolated from everything.  No breaks from the recording or anything like that.  We want to be 100% focused on the record.  It was just a different working process. 

Alexi: You are sponsored by Caparison guitars, how did this come about?

Mircea: Well, it all started out when we were touring with Soilwork in the UK, and they were playing Caparison.  I asked Peter [Wichers] if I could try his guitar, and he let me try his guitar.  After that we talked about it for a bit and I really liked the guitar.  I told him that I would give him some CDs that he could give to the Caparison people, since he was going to tour in Japan and they make the guitars in Japan.  Once he got to Japan, he had some stuff I had sent to him, and he brought it to the guys in Caparison, and they dug our stuff.  We got in touch with them, and talked, and they wanted to endorse us because we kick ass! [Laughter]  We went to Japan and met up with them.  It is really cool to be a part of that family.  The Killswitch Engage dudes, Soilwork, James Murphy, tons of artists use that name because the guitars are hand made.  For me, the guitar feels great and fits perfectly into my hand. 

Alexi: What was going to Japan like?

Mircea: It was mind blowing for me!  It was such a different culture, different atmosphere, and something completely different.  It was like a different planet!  It was great for the mind and soul to experience that!  If you ever have a chance to go there, go!  You have signs everywhere that you can’t understand, futuristic buildings, and Japanese food, which is very social because everyone is sitting at a table and you are all sharing from these small plates.  If they see you on the street, and you look European, they want pictures with you!  They want pictures with some dumbass from Denmark! [Laughter]  That is really weird, but it is very fun!  We had a good time.

Alexi: How did it contrast with what you come from in terms of culture?

Mircea: Where I come from, it is a very small country, it is filled with rednecks, the weather is grey all the time, and people are not that friendly.  I like the country to a certain extent, but spending the rest of my days there, no way, it’s not gonna happen.  People are too weird and their egos are too big.  I don’t want to be there personally, but I am there because of my parents and family.

Alexi: Where would you live outside of Denmark?

Mircea: I have not been to Australia, and I have heard it is great!  I wouldn’t mind moving to San Francisco or Florida, where it is warm, there are palm trees, good food and good friends.  But I am still doing my band, so I am sort of stuck between.

Alexi: Tell me a bit about the change in vocalists.

Mircea: Well, right after we came back from the Soilwork tour in the US, we did two festivals; one in Finland and one in Germany, everything was really cool.  All of a sudden, Michael sent out an all band e-mail stating that he wasn’t able to do this anymore.  He was tired of being broke, his girlfriend was pregnant, and he wanted a normal life.  That was a few weeks right before this tour and we really wanted to do this tour because it was a dream come true.  We were almost going to cancel this tour.  I thought about this guy Tony, from Sweden, who played in Transport League.  He fit perfectly in the band; he was a friend, a great vocalist.  He was even asked by The Haunted to join the band after Peter left.  I think it has a lot to say.  We called him and he agreed to do it.  He came down for a weekend, we practiced, and he was ready.

Alexi: How is Tony different from Michael?

Mircea: Tony has more deep vocals.  I don’t want to compare him to anyone really.  He is more aggressive in his vocal style.  How he is going to sound on the new album, I don’t know, but it will be different from Audio injected Soul, because we want something new. 

Alexi: There is a cover by Duran Duran on Audio Injected Soul? Whose idea was it to cover this song and how do you think the song turned out?

Mircea: When I was a kid I saw this video on MTV and fell in love with the song.  I talked about it with the guys and there were tons of suggestions.  Actually, I was not in the rehearsal when it was written.  I did my melody part in the studio and that is it.  It was really the three other guys that composed it.  We just made a metal version out of a pop song.  We didn’t want to cover a metal song, we wanted to take a different direction, which is why we covered Duran Duran.  

Alexi: "Future Fusion Metal." What does this mean?

Mircea: That is actually, what the label called it when we first got signed.  I can see their point, but what can I say?  That is label politics.  What would you call our music?

Alexi: Well, I personally can’t place it into a spot or categorize it with several other band.  It has its own unique style and texture to it.  Sure you can call it a name, but it is really just Mnemic.  Just as Meshuggah is Meshuggah, they have fallen into their own sound.  I would say, just as many writers I know would say, that despite Mnemic are a young band, they have fallen into a unique sound very young in their career, which doesn’t happen often. 

Mircea: Thanks! [Laughter]  When we started out, we all came from different backgrounds.  The bass player has a thrash metal background and the rest, myself included, have a death metal background.  We wanted to do something completely different from that all.  We wanted to take it to the next level and let death metal stay for the girls! [Laughter]

Alexi: Back to an earlier question.  I do see the “futuristic” word coming into play with the music and the artwork and a bit in the production.

Mircea: Well what can I say?  I don’t really consider the production futuristic, because you have so many good producers out there.  Take Andy Sneap for instance, the last two Exodus albums he has done sound futuristic, if you can call it futuristic.  It is the digital era, it is not what it was ten years ago.  We don’t have analog anymore, the technology has been evolving over the last several years.  I would call the concept futuristic, the lyrics futuristic, and the sound just being good clean sound.

Alexi: Would you consider going back to analog and trying that out?

Mircea: It is something we could certainly try.  I want to try it.  I mean, listen to The Haunted Made Me Do It, that is analog and it sounds beautiful.  It sounds clean as hell.  Why not try that?

Alexi: Tell me a bit about the single that was chosen for the album, “Deathbox”.  It was obviously different from what you wanted.  Do you think sometimes people tend to think an entire album sounds like a single?  In some ways, they are told to think of the album as sounding like the single?

Mircea: Well it all comes down to what kind of an album you make.  If it is a classic, you will have a single on every song.  Apparently, we haven’t released a classic, because we only have one good song [laughter]!  Just kidding.  I am not sure, it is like taking the best song from the song, but in my opinion, the single is not one of the best songs, it is one of the most catchy songs so it is easy for the listener to swallow.  The easier the song is to digest, more people will become interested, which is probably why the label chose that song.

Alexi: If you could go back and pick a different song as the single, which would you pick?

Mircea: I would probably pick “Dreamstate Emergency,” which is the first full length song on the album.  It was also one of the last songs we wrote for the album, so it is the most up to date.

Alexi: When does the creative process for the new Mnemic album begin?

Mircea: It has already begun actually.  We are writing on the bus right now and I have my recording gear with me right now.  We are trying to write, but at the same time, it is difficult because we are all exhausted from touring.  After this tour we have the Arch Enemy tour, then we take five days off at home and start writing for real.  We have two songs so far and a shitload of ideas.  We are going to be writing the rest of the new stuff during December, January, and a bit of February.  Then we will go into the studio with Peter [Tägtgren] from Hypocrisy.  Then the record will go to the UK and be mixed by Andy Sneap and after that we will take over the world!

Alexi: At least with the producers and with the path the music is taking there is no way it shouldn’t happen [Laughter]!

Mircea: [Laughter] Thank you, exactly!   

Alexi: What country will you take over first?

Mircea: We are gonna start with Denmark because we have not played there in like two years and people are asking for us.  Our main market is over here in the US and we love the US, so it is perfect for us to tour here.  Well, the first gig we have is in Puerto Rico, we are gonna play an amphitheater there and go back to Denmark for a month and then maybe go to Europe, US, Japan, maybe Australia, we’ll see.

Alexi: You may end up staying in Puerto Rico if you like warm weather…

Mircea: [Laughter] AHH we’ll see!  We will see how the women are down there.

Alexi: Is there a plan for South America?

Mircea: I am not sure yet, if the opportunity comes up, we will do anything!

Alexi: I know that some of the members from Soilwork actually live in the United States.  Will the same thing happen with Mnemic?

Mircea: It is funny because we talked about moving the whole band a year or a year and a half ago.  We discussed moving the whole band to Los Angeles.  That is not gonna happen because it takes a lot of time and money.  What will we achieve if we live in LA?  Will we sell more records just because of that?  I doubt it, but personally, I would love to move here.  As said so long as there are palm trees, good food, and good friends, that is what I need!  But sometimes you can’t have it all!

Alexi Front (alexi@pivotalrage.com)

We'd like to thank Alexi for submitting this article, to Nuclear Blast and to the MNEMIC camp.