Mnemic – Denmark's Individual Metallers
Denmark's Mnemic have been a band who's name is hard to miss in the years since their debut album came out. The band's mixture of extreme and complex metal with lighter and more melodic elements has earned them a growing number of fans worldwide. The last period has been a time of trials for the band, with their vocalist leaving and a new album in the works, but they have risen to the occasion and delivered "Passenger", a remarkable slab of metal. We spoke with the band's guitarist and keyboard – Mircea Gabriel Eftemie, about the past, present and future of this excellent band.
Hey Mircea, I'd like to start out with your latest album – Passenger, first, why is it called that, and how does that relate to the cover?
The cover looks like a pirate flag, and we are the pirates and we have come to steal your money & women. Its as simple as that. No, not really. The concept of the Passenger album is build on the theme of "philosophy of existentialism". We choose this theme and subject mainly because it's a very wide subject in which we could easily and flexibly subtract our own experiences from. Passenger is the other word for "Individual in Life" as we convey it. All individuals in life go to certain stages, just like a passenger that goes on a journey to a certain destination. In our case, the important aspect is the journey and not the destination. The destination can be seen as death in life, or as an orgasm. Most individuals strive to achieve the orgasm, without being aware of the orgasm is the end.
The most important is how we get to the orgasm and not how it ends – just like in life. Life is all about steps, and we have tried to put our personal experiences within the lyrics, and the things we have gone through as individuals in life. We are not trying to solve the question "What is the meaning of life?" but more trying to give our existential point of view of our life and our steps.
How would you describe the band's music? It seems like a combination of so many different elements…
I would describe it as a good blend of just metal. Yes, it definitely has many elements, but we are 5 different individuals in the band, with very different taste in music. We all listen to everything from grindcore to jazz to techno, but when we write, it just comes natural to us. We know how the sound of Mnemic should be formed because we have our own formula for writing.
Who produced, why did you choose them, and what do you think each of them brought to the album?
The album was produced by two talented individuals, Warren Riker and Tue Madsen. Warren Riker is a really cool producer and an awesome individual and we mainly chose him because he’s done some great albums with Down and The Fugees. As I said before we listen to a lot of different music. Tue Madsen which is one of our closest friends, and who’s been with us from day one, mixed the album. He is a great and very talented guy. By now he’s worked with a ton of bands, including the Metal God himself, Rob Halford.
How did you get Jeff Walker and Shane Embury to guest on the album, and why?
Its quite a funny story. Actually for about 1 year or 2 ago, I was on my way to the US and I was at the main airport in Copenhagen/Denmark, when I saw this short guy, with short hair and beard, in which I thought looked a lot like Jeff Walker from Carcass. It was weird, cause at that time you didn’t hear about Carcass, the only member you knew of was of course Mike Amott who had his thing with Arch Enemy. Anyways, I turn around and stalk him for a bit, and quickly realize that it really is the one and only, Jeff Walker from disbanded Carcass. I walk up to him and say "May I shake your hand, you are Jeff Walker from Carcass, its an honour to meet you!" and he says "Hey mate!" and from there on we went to the bar at the airport, quenched our thirst with some beers and talked old Carcass days, and sort of became friends. When he and Shane where in Los Angeles, and had some shows with Brujeria, I called him up and they both came out to the studio, and I asked if they would be interested in laying down some vocals for a song, and it wasn’t a problem at all.
I remember, I was standing in the same recording booth when Jeff was recording his vocals. It was a very cool experience, one of those you will never forget. I mean, Rune, Brian and me come from Death Metal bands, and have grown up on death metal. At that time Rune and Brian where playing in bands such as Sudden Death and Exhume and I was in a band called Feticide. Check out the band names, and you will know if you are a true Carcass fan.
How was Meaningless co-written by Roy Z.? Why was it chosen for a first single?
We had a song which we couldn’t finish because of writers block, and we kind off pushed it and saved it to the last minute. When we had to re-work on it we where still stuck, so I eventually suggested we should send it to Z, and we could do a collaboration, because he is an awesome musician and a really good friend of the band. The single was chosen by the record label, cause its one of the softer songs, which could go well on the radio.
Now some history, how did you guys start out, and where did you play before that?
Basically me, Rune and Brian come from the same town (Aalborg), and when we grew up, we all played in different death metal bands. I think it was back in 1996 or 1997 when Rune introduced me to 2 very important albums. One of them "Destroy Erease Improve" by Meshuggah, and the other one "City" by Strapping Young Lad. When I heard both of those albums my whole perspective on death metal changed. From that moment I got very inspired and almost hungry to write something just as good or even better than those albums. That’s how it works for me when I get inspired; always try to do it better. So basically we all more or less had the same musical vision. We found a singer, and went into the studio with Jacob Hansen, and recorded 2 songs, which landed us on a French compilation CD. After some time, when we became more serious about the band, we found another singer and recorded our 2nd demo that brought us the deal with Nuclear Blast.
To what extent were SYL and Meshuggah an influence on the band?
Those 2 albums, where simply the catalyst for Mnemic’s birth and evolution. We where deeply inspired by the originality those 2 bands displayed. We wanted too to make something original, something that combined more than just growls and grindparts, but more melody and brutality never heard before. The two bands where extremely inspirational to us.
What does Mnemic Mean?
Its taken from Greek Mythology and it means "regarding the memory".
What do you think is the difference, and the progress, you've made though your albums, leading to this one?
Well, I am happy that we have climbed and survived all the challenges we’ve been through as a band. I mean, we lost a key member when our last vocalist, Michael, left the band. We had a lot of ups and downs, and we’ve been through many things together, good and bad. It was definitely not easy finding the right singer, and it's been a struggle as well.
Also, it was definitely not easy writing and recording the last album. First of all we had to write without a singer, and we had to audition singers at the same time we where working against a deadline. Then going into a different recording environment made it very tough for us. Next time we will definitely stick to our guns, and the things we are used to do back in Denmark.
The band has been getting some incredible vibe from around the world, what do you think is it about you guys that archives so much media praise?
Well, in humble opinion I don’t think we get an incredible vibe from the media. We definitely get an awesome vibe from the fans, but as far as the media, I think they have a lot of other bands who they praise way more. We are just a small fish in a big pond, filled with way too many big fish.
Why is Michael no longer the vocalist?
He basically left because he had a girlfriend who was pregnant and a family to run more or less. Other than that he had to take over his dads business, and couldn’t go on tour. There was no money in the band and he had to put food on the table. Its as simple as that.
How did you recruit Gillaume Bideau and what do you think he added to the band?
When we where auditioning singers from all over Europe I got a call from Dirk’s wife (Scarve/Soilwork drummer), who is a really good friend of mine, and she told me about Guillaume. At first I was not into the idea of bringing in a guy from another established band, and especially a French guy, haha. I told her that we still had other people to try out and that I couldn’t really see this guy making it into our band, since he already had his own thing going on. A couple of months later, I started receiving emails from Guillaume, who wrote in a terrible English language haha. We kind of went through each and every singer we auditioned and still didn’t feel that we’ve found our guy. I mean some of the vocalists we auditioned, had really good vocal skills, but no stage presences, no touring experience and so on, which made the whole process harder for us. As the last man, we flew Guillaume to Denmark, brought him into the rehearsal pad and rehearsed the 4 video songs, in which he did amazing, and took us by surprise. We then went into a studio and tried out his vocal abilities and started to record on our pre recorded demo material. From there on, Guillaume impressed everyone in the band. I remember, sitting behind the mixer console, looking at everyone and everyone was smiling. From that moment we knew he was our guy. He could sing his ass off, new and old material, he had touring experience and loved the same music as we did, and that was perfect for us, because everything fitted so well on the personal level.
You've toured with such heavy hitters as Fear Factory and Soilwork, how well did those tours go for you? Did they contribute anything to the band?
Those tours where all big tours, and the bigger the band, the bigger the tour, means only one thing: more people to the show! Which again equals to mass exposure for the band. We have toured 3 time with Soilwork by now, and last tour we actually did with them was a bit bad. It was the last tour for their last album, and they had been touring for a while, so people had already seen them, and they weren't that big of an attraction. But all in all, those tours where very important, because these days, if you want to sell records you need to be touring 12 months out of the year.
Playing the kind of complex, odd time signatures music that you do, how different is that from playing traditional metal?
I have now idea what traditional metal is – our music isn’t that complex in my opinion, its very light.
What guitarists influenced your kind of playing? Is it more metal or jazz oriented?
It was definitely Fredrik Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom from Meshuggah.
What kind of touring did you do since Passenger came out?
Well, at the beginning of the year we did a US tour with God Forbid, Goatwhore, Arsis and The Human Abstract. After that we went to Europe and did a tour with the Deftones, and then we did a headlining tour in Europe with Nightrage and Slowmotion Apocalypse and in 1 week we will be heading out doing a UK headlining tour, coming back to Denmark to play with Metallica and then we will do another tour in Portugal, plus festivals here and there.
Any last words for your Israeli fans?
We hope to come and play for you all very soon!
