Interview with
Welcome back with your new album Smoke, how has the response been so far on the album from media and the M-Squad fan-base ?
MIKE: Fantastic, thanks. We were definitely excited to find such a positive response from both. We put our music out to make it available to those that are into it. So when such a positive response followed this release, we found it totally groovy! I’ve heard tracks are airing on the radio … so a lot of people are getting into it.
MATT: So far, so good! We’ve been getting nothing but positive responses from everybody so far. Mostly from people who are familiar with our first album, but also lots of new fans who are hearing us for the first time. The majority of the buzz has been on the web, but we are making sure CDs are going out to lots of the printed magazines as well.
ELI: Yeah, everyone seems to like it. Things have changed so much in the past few years. It seems a lot more people have caught on to these styles of music. There’s more awareness of the seventies heavies as well.
Take a trip back in time, how was M-Squad formed originally ?
MATT: Back in 1989 or 90 Mike and I played in a band together. It was a straight forward rock band that never got much attention.
MIKE: Yeah, a mutual buddy, Brian Gurl, wanted to sing really bad. So he drafted the few people that he knew, who knew how to play an instrument, to get together every week or so at a studio to jam. We didn’t have a bass player those first few times though. But one day Brian was stumbling across a street drunk and saw Matt coming the opposite way carrying a gig bag. So he says, "Hey is that a bass"? That led to Matt coming into our newly formed band, and we have been playing together ever since. That band was actually a lot of fun and a big learning experience as well. We took it seriously too.
MATT: Then in 1993, Mike was asked to join the Blood Farmers by this guy Russell he knew who was playing bass for them at the time. Then "Bury the Living’ Harvest the Dead", the 2nd demo, was recorded. Soon after, I was asked to join and BF went on to sign to Hellhound for the recording of the self-titled album. Eventually BF dissolved, but Mike and I were still playing together. Then Brian left this other band and it was only logical that Eli fill his shoes. Thus creating the first incarnation of M-Squad, which was called "MushSquad".
ELI: Actually it’s kind of funny how it all happened. In the end, Mike and Matt were not in Blood Farmers any more. There were three more lineup changes after the album came out. It had whittled down to me on bass, and Chris Newman, the bass player on the "Bury The Living" demo who came back on drums. All instrumentals, which I think is the way Dave had wanted it all along. Iin September of ’96, after a few months of this, Dave split and BF ended. I hadn’t spoken to Mike in about a year when he called one day out of the blue. He said they had written a bunch of songs and would I maybe want to put vocals to them. I think he played me some of it over the phone or on the answering machine and I said OK. This was all the stuff on the first album. It had all been recorded and I just did vocal tracks. After that, it was kinda fun so I stuck around.
Compare your old band Blood Farmers to M-Squad, what is the major change in the musical and lyrical direction do you feel ?
MATT: The Blood Farmers was the brain-child of Dave Depraved. BF was a heavy doom band that was based around themes from classic horror films. M-Squad is less spooky, with more of a classic/psychedelic vibe. We hope to hark back to the good old days when rock was true, appealing to a wider audience.
It’s been almost 4 years since your debut got released,it's a long time. What have you been up between the albums ?
MATT: After the first album, Mike Nichols left the band and I took over guitar duties, leaving the bass to Eli. This was an adjustment that took a little getting used to. It took some time to write new material and get it all down to tape. We spent ages perfecting the recording of "Smoke". On a more personal note, I was out of commission for a while because of the surgeries that transformed me into the Bionic Man. A story which will be told on our third album.
MIKE: Well we just started doing more shows after finishing the album when Mike Nichols left the band. And for a bit, we considered replacing him. In that mean time, Matt covered jamming on guitar because Eli knew how to play some bass. Jams got better and better as Matt & Eli adapted to playing new instruments full-time. That new found arrangement wound up sticking.
Looking back at your debut, how was the response to that album ?
MATT: We got a lot of praise for our debut, which is responsible for a lot of the attention we are now receiving.
MIKE: People were really into that release. Thankfully, I can say that I never caught a bad review of it…
The new album Smoke, compare to your debut, what was the major change in the production standpoint on this compare to your first one ?
MIKE: All of the tracking M-Squad has ever done has been at Mushroom Sound Underground with the exception of a few on the 1st album, including "Tractor". As for mixing, the 1st album was done at a pretty good studio on a Mackie board while "Smoke" was mixed at the famed "Electric Lady Studios. The 1st album wasn’t mastered on nearly the same level "Smoke" was.
MATT: We had better microphones for the recording of "Smoke" too. The biggest difference was mixing on two-inch tape at Electric Lady, and mastering with George Marino and Greg Calbi at Sterling sound.
ELI: I wasn’t even around when the music was recorded for the first one. With "Smoke", we spent days and days adjusting and perfecting the mic’s and got the M-Squad scientists to loan us really good mic’s and upgrade our console. We widened our scope, filling it up with tons of overdubs. And mixing with an automated console meant that we didn’t have to have everyone holding two faders each worrying about fucking something up, which happens anyway. It was much closer to being perfect.
Lets move back to Bloodfarmers a bit, you only did one album but you also did a couple of bone-crushing demos previous to that one,how was your following back then and have Bloodfarmers been a good springboard for M-Squad ?
MATT: A lot of the attention M-Squad has received is due to the popularity of the Bloodfarmers too.
MIKE: Yeah, the cool thing is that after people heard M-Squad, and heard the difference, they didn’t rag us because their expectation of M-Squad was of something similar to BF.
ELI: Blood Farmers never had much of a following that we knew of back then. We didn’t really use the internet, and apart from our five friends that would occasionally turn up at shows, the only people we knew through the band that liked us were the members of Grief.
Back
to Smoke…Talking about the colourful album cover that I reckon it's a brilliant,
how pleased are you with the cover and do you feel that it is a good representation
over this album ?
MIKE: I love the "Smoke" cover. And being as groovy & psychedelic works no matter what’s on the album.
ELI: I can’t tell you how much I love the album cover. It’s so perfect. It’s was painted by this excellent, psychedelic artist named Isaac Abrams. The painting is from 1969. It was purchased by Michael Jeffery and stayed at Electric Lady Studio all these years.
MATT: I think the cover is a perfect representation of the band, although the material on "Smoke" is a little darker in mood.
The title of the album Smoke, has it got any significant meaning to it ?
MATT: I like to think of the title as a noun, a verb, and a suggestion.
I find this album a lot more bluesy, more progressive and more psychedelic compare to the first album, there is a strong late 60s early 70s feel in the material, Blue Cheer, Mayblitz etc are quite obvious, also there is a powerhouse production, how much more did you experiment on this album compare to the first one and how pleased are you with the production ?
MATT: The bluseyness on "Smoke" is a result of my influences on guitar, which is definitely 60’s and 70’s oriented. Mike Nichols was more of a modern-metal player. We did some experimentation on the first album and decided to make the Psychedelic section on "Smoke" much longer. We were worried that it might be overkill, but people seem to love it!
MIKE: In the past 6-7 years, I’ve really gotten into a lot of older, obscure bands…Eli has a way of finding such cool stuff. It seems like almost everything we do ends up taking us on an experimental journey. "Smoke" was an incredible one and we’re all very happy with the way it turned out. It is what it is.
More on the production, did you record everything live or did you made tracking ?
MATT: Both! All the basic tracks were recorded live, which is something I feel strongly about, but I think it’s obvious that we also overdubbed many layers of tracks over them. After all, we’re only a three-piece band!
ELI: I overdubbed most of the bass parts. Some songs have three layers of bass. I think "Smokeblower" and "Steps away" and "Before the Grave" are the ones that all have live bass. Back in Time has 40 tracks of drums on it at times. We really went to ridiculous lengths just to see what would happen and how tripped-out we could make it.
MIKE: Yeah, It seems like there’s a track for every little sound on tape.
Talking about the lyrical and musical direction on this album compare to
the first one, what is the main subjects in the lyrical standpoint here
and have you refined your musical direction compare to the first album
to Smoke ?
MATT: Eli handles all the lyrical duties, but musically I think we’ve moved forward. We are all a lot happier with the current line up. The music on "Smoke" is closer to what we’d all like to be doing, it reminds us of a time when music was more honest and more expressive. We have written most of the material for our upcoming album, which we will begin recording soon, and the new stuff is even closer to our true identity. The songs are heavier, and groovier, with plenty of guitar solos, and lots of psychedelia.
MIKE: M-Squad has always been a group effort. No one in particular is a dominant influence. We Mush together seamlessly. But of course with Mike Nichols gone, there is a noticeable difference.
Talking about M-Squad as a live act, you never came over to Europe with Bloodfarmers but what is the main difference between M-Squad live and M-Squad studio ?
MIKE: Not that much actually… Of course we don’t sound exactly like our releases because of the overdubbs & effects. But considering, I feel we do a damn good job. Matt especially, has a great way of blending key elements from his various guitar tracks into one, enough to deliver the guitar parts of a song in full live.
MATT: We do a good job of reproducing the songs, even as a trio. We sound a bit more classic live, kind of like power trios from the 60’s like Cream, or GFR (Grand Funk Railroad- Ed).
ELI: We make up for the overdubs not being there by jamming a lot more too. These songs are a few years old, so in playing them we’ve changed a few things. I’m not able to be so obsessive playing live so we’re a lot more raw as well.
Talking about the gigs you have made both with your old band and M-Squad what is worst/best gig you have made so far ?
ELI: I think our most memorable show was Blood Farmers with Saint Vitus and Internal Void. We played with them twice, but the second time was the last night of the tour and we played on the same equipment they were using, which was way better than what we had. There’s a lot of memories both good and bad about that show.
MIKE: Yeah, that was the NYC show, which was especially groovy. I had a great time.
What’s up in the M-Squad camp at the moment after the release of Smoke, are you planning a tour, an EP, the next album etc, fill us in what your next plans is ?
MATT: We’re working on new material, doing local gigs in and around NYC and would love to do a tour soon.
MIKE: We’ve got a lot of stuff going on. Shows, new material, merchandise coming along as well as the re-release of our debut album and the Blood Farmer S/T. Keep an eye on our web site, msquad.com or primatemedia.com for the latest in what’s going on.
ELI: We’re just about to start recording the next round of songs and finishing writing. This one’s going to be recorded differently from the last one and, hopefully another large step forward. I’m hoping to not have to engineer the entire thing this time too.
Any last words ?
MATT: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to communicate with our fans, and hopefully turn on some new ones. Stay cool, and spread the word!
MIKE: Thanks to all Mushes everywhere. And thank you Gabriel for the interview. Keep up the good work with the site!
By Gabriel Lilliehook
Review of Smoke at rec19.html
Order/Info www.msquad.com
www.primatemedia.com