По части концертов:
6. Dezember 2006. Heidelberg
http://www.starlight-magazin.de/mesh_2.html
Замечательные фотки, сайт вообще забит классными фотками различных групп - рекоммендуется к обязательному просмотру.
На том же концерте они играли "Not Prepared" вместо "You Didn't Want Me".
География фанатов Мешков расширяется: на первых 2 концертах в Германии был фанат из Израиля, но не Ореховский.
Случайно натолкнулся на интереснейшее интерактивное интервью.
Questions for the band
08/2006
Zach (USA)
Do you start out writing all of your songs acoustically (i.e. on guitar or piano)? How do you come up with the vocal lines?
Sincerely,
--Zach
Mark: There is a split between Rich writing music and me writing acoustically or on a computer. On the last two albums we have written many of the songs with an acoustic guitar and we’ve then taken them to the studio to program them up. The rest were written by Rich giving me some music and me writing lyrics to them. We then take that demo and strip it back down using the demo vocal as a guide and build it back up again. Near the end the vocal is usually re-recorded and the final touches are put on it.
Writing the lyrics is a lengthy process sometimes. I find it helps to use a nonsense guide track – just a vocal line that establishes the timing, the rhyming pattern and the melody – it doesn’t even have be real words – just sounds. Sometimes by playing this track and listening carefully you can start to hear ideas and 'real' lyrics coming back at you. The problems usually come after the second verse – that last verse is always the one that takes the longest because you’ve usually run out of ideas by then. I think this is why the old 2 minute songs from the 50’s got it right – there only needs to be 2 verses.
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08/2006
Antonio (Spain)
Hi guys, have you ever decided the sound orientation for the next record? I’m a bit worried cause I’m beginning to listen to a lot of guitars on some tracks. I just heard 'Document' (the whole of it), impressive but the bass line seems a guitar, doesn’t it? As you already noticed I’m not fond of them.
I think you are the best band in the world at making "dark - melodic - epic finals mid tempo electronic songs" ('In The Light Of Day', 'Safe With Me', 'State Of Mind', 'I Can’t Imagine...', 'The Trouble We’re In', 'Room With A View', 'Can You Mend Hearts' - guitars again -, 'Needle In A Bruise', 'Document' - despite the guitars, 'Shatters', 'Confined', etc) and I’d like you to pursue on that path. Is there any chance for the new record to mainly have this kind of orientation? Thanks.
Mark: We continue to use guitars as we have always done I guess. I think the mixing on the last couple of albums has pushed those elements to the front a little more than they were, but possibly only because we are getting better at playing them and are more confident in what we do with them.
We don’t really plan anything in that much detail beforehand – it’s as much of a mystery to us what an album is going to sound like as it is for the fans – even once the album is recorded, the mixing plays a big part in how the final record will sound.
We do use each instrument in context – it always adds something to the sound or it wouldn’t be there. Every sound and texture is thought about at every stage of the song writing so you can be sure that if there is a guitar in a chorus, the song sounds better for it being there. Our attitude to music it not one which limits what we are able to do because we’ve a limited palette of instruments. There should be no rules.
All that said, I don’t think the world is likely to get a mesh thrash metal album any time soon.
Rich: I think the guitar has become quite an important part of Mesh’s sound. Right from our first recordings the guitar has been incorporated into the songs. It is a very expressive instrument and can transform a programmed piece of music into a very energetic and frantic track. A lot of the time we underpin the chorus with power chords to lift it. Most of the time we process them heavily, so they are unrecognizable as guitars. On 'We Collide' there was less processing resulting in a more raw and edgy sounding guitar.
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08/2006
Steve (UK)
Hello guys
Having been to my first Mesh concert in Bristol in June, I was wondering whether any of the gigs on this tour have been filmed and if so whether a DVD release is a possibility?
The Bristol gig, with Client, was superb but the highlight for me was the final song, 'From This Height', and the awesome instrumental which followed it. I would just love to relive that moment again or at least be able to get hold of that as a live audio recording.
Steve (UK)
Mark: Thanks for the kind words! It was good playing in Bristol again – in fact the whole UK thing was something special for us – it’s reassuring that there are so many people here that still love what we do.
So far as a DVD goes, we are starting to gather together some broadcast quality footage from the tour in general although nothing was recorded in Bristol specifically. It’s quite a task to set up multiple broadcast cameras and multitrack audio recording at smaller shows unfortunately. We are hoping to get some more on the second half of the tour in December.
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08/2006
Saga Johansson
1. Do you have girlfriends/wives/families?
2. Do you have any pets?
3. What are your passions besides music?
Sincerely yours
Saga Johansson
Mark: I have a 'partner' – I’m not married – something we should get around to really, but the idea of all the fuss around it scares me a little. I have two children – a boy and a girl – and a rabbit – a massive French floppy eared rabbit that roams free around the garden eating everything – like a big locust with fur.
I love my family and doing stuff with the kids, my car (a bright yellow 380bhp Audi S4), my racing Kart (although I haven’t used it so far this year) and my Downhill mountain bike (Santa Cruz Bullit).
Rich: I also have a partner, we have been engaged to be married for years but never actually done it (terrible really) I have 3 kids Boy, Girl and another boy in that order. Pets? Well my kids have pets, 1 rabbit and 1 guinea pig.
My other interests apart from music is cars, I own a Focus RS. After a few modifications it now produces 260 bhp. Mark and I have this "My car’s faster than your car" thing going on.
When I was younger (and more stupid) I used to race Moto-cross, so I still have an interest in that. Downhill mountain biking is as close as I come to that now.
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08/2006
Zach (USA)
Hello,
I play a lot of guitar and I am always trying to figure out Mesh songs. I have a few in my acoustic arsenal that I am positive are correct, but would you ever consider posting chords or tabs for any of your songs? Also, any plans on a release of an acoustic album. I love the acoustic version of 'So Important' and the Buskers mix of 'Trust you'! I'm hoping to hear more like it. It's really inspiring to hear how these songs develop. Thanks for everything and I'll keep my ears to the ground for more.
--Zach
Mark: If I was honest, we’d love to publish chord tabs but we are a little lacking in the knowledge to do it! Most of the songs we can play acoustically but myself and Rich play by ear and by working out how each can be played after we have programmed it up. I guess the exceptions to this have been with the last two albums where most of the stuff was written acoustically and THEN programmed. Even for these tracks there is nothing written down – it goes into the computer and we work on it by ear.
It’s shameful really. Perhaps if you have the tabs of the ones you have worked out, you could send them to us?
I’m not really joking...
A collection of acoustic songs might be a possibility in the future – we have been thinking about some new ways to present some older tracks, but then again it may just be new material. It’s a nice thought either way.
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08/2006
Zach (USA)
Hello,
I have been waiting for a USA tour ever since I first heard your music! I have seen you once in Toronto, Canada back in 2002, but my needs are not fulfilled. Please tell me you will be touring the states sometime in the near future.
--Zach
Mark: We have been trying to get a US tour organised properly for years, but it has never really worked out. The task is a big one and our record distribution has always been a bit on the poor side so we’re not sure whether it would be viable. I guess it has never seemed like the right time.
I know we have a lot of fans all over the US and we are starting to put some thought into it again. We have had a couple of good offers of support slots which may make things easier and perhaps turn the idea into reality. We’d really love to come over and I’m certain it will happen in the next 12 months.
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08/2006
Nicole (Germany)
Hi Mark!
I read once in an interview that you think a song has to be sung by the writer himself, as he knows best how to express the emotions while writing the lyrics. And so it is with the mesh stuff (except 'Waves'). Now you've done the wonderful version of Assemblages 'Document'. How was it for you, to do this cover version, especially to sing it. Is it more difficult to interpret someone else’s lyrics than to put emotions to your own verses?
All the best
Nicole
Mark: The cover of 'Document' was a nice project for me. I had been talking with Tom Shear over a festival weekend and had somehow got this tune in my head. I was singing it on the bus and all the way home. A couple of days later (still with this tune in my head) I put the music down and found the lyrics from the cover of the CD. I did all of this without playing the song at all – I couldn’t actually find the CD at the time so I was just going with the feeling of how I thought it should sound and how the timing of the words should be. When it was finished I sent it to Tom and he really liked it. We kind of sat on it for over a year until the 'My Hands Are Tied/Petrified' single came up and we needed a B-side. We then took it into the studio and tidied it up – we used the vocals from my original demo which had the right feel. It was only after it was pressed and I’d listened to our version a 100 times that I managed to find the original Assemblage 23 version – that was cool because it sounded so different – even the vocal timing was different from what I’d done, yet it had the same feel – the spirit of the song was there in our version.
‘Document’ was an easy song for me because I can identify with the lyrics. They are about leaving a mark on the World, about leaving some trace that you were ever alive. I guess anyone who writes music or books or even a diary is trying to do this at some level. Tom writes some very moving lyrics – they are sometimes hidden in the energy of the music, but it is worth spending the time listening to them.
А это точно будет интересно всем, особенно Cheri:
http://www.mertensaudio.de/mesh/meshfan ... cials.html
http://www.mertensaudio.de/mesh/meshfan ... /xmas.html
Дерзайте.