Mage are known as a damned tight and heavy doom / stoner band since its founding in 2010. Born in Leicester, England Mage recorded two albums “Black Sands” (2012) and “Last Orders” (2014) and then slowed down their activity.
One
of the band’s features was twin guitars sets performed by Woody and
Ben, and when Ben passed away in August 2015, the band was on a verge
of disbanding. However they took their time and this comeback with
third full-length album named “Green” has became some sort of
surprise.
I
got in touch with Mage’s vocalist Tom to discuss latest news from
the band.
Hi Tom! How are you? What's going
on in Mage's camp?
Hi!
I’d have to say it’s busy. We had a bit of a break over Christmas
and New Year’s but then it was back to working on the last bit of
the Pledge Music campaign and getting ready for CD production.
Mage was almost disbanded some
time ago, but after hiatus you're returning with new a album in your
hands. What did motivate you to continue?
A
band member passing away certainly makes you consider if you can
carry on but we all agreed pretty quickly that we had to try. For the
sake of Ben’s legacy if nothing else. So the only real difficulty
was figuring out how to carry on. I would say that finding our sound
again and discovering that we could still write has been the biggest
motivator to continue.
One
of band's features was bundle of twin guitars. How did you solve this
situation on Green?
Well
we’ve always had multiple layers of guitars on our releases. All it
meant this time was that Woody had twice the work to do than before.
So hopefully the album sound isn’t too different. The biggest
challenge has been playing the tracks live. But again, our live sound
has always been different from our recording sound, so we don’t
worry about it too much. I recommend anyone who has only heard our
recordings should come and see us live for the full Mage experience.
How were these new songs born?
Did the process differ from the work over Last Orders?
Our process hasn’t changed too
much really. We’re quite laid back about writing. We just tend to
jam a riff until it evolves naturally or until we decide it can’t
go anywhere.
By the way, why is it Green?
Because “Green is where I want to
be”?
Mage - Green
How far did you go with new album
from the band that you were one year ago?
The
biggest difference on the new album is the addition of guest vocals
by Raging Speedhorn’s John Loughlin. We’d thought about it for
Last Orders but I knew there were tracks on the new album that would
definitely benefit from his more aggressive vocal style. Thankfully
we managed to make it happen this time and we couldn’t be happier
with his contributions.
Another
difference on Green is the themes. I’ve kept Mage fairly whimsical
until now. Sticking to exploring things like sci-fi, fantasy,
religious and good old fashioned stoner concepts. But, probably not
surprisingly, some more personal content came out on the tracks
written since Ben passed.
Did you try something new in
studio this time? Indeed Green sounds like if you continue right from
the point where it ends on Last Orders.
The recording process was very
similar to Last Orders. Personally I put a lot more emotion into the
vocals and experimented with a few different ideas as we went along.
What are your requirements to
Mage's sound? What are its necessary components and how would you
like to evolve it?
Our recording and live sounds are
not the same because of the layers we put on a recording but volume
and depth are our main aims for both and I think we achieve that.
Why did you decide to share it
through pledge music?
We
are essentially a self-funded band. We’re not signed, we have no
management and any money we spend on recording, merch and gigs comes
out of our band fund and our own pockets. Pledge Music is a crowd
funding site which was initially set up to help musicians like
ourselves be able to get into a studio and release their music, as
well as connecting with those fans that pledge in a new way.
As
we wanted to do the best job we could on the new album, we thought it
was worth a shot and it paid off big time. We reached our goal in
less than a month and we’ve managed to produce an album that we
really wouldn’t have been able to without that support. We’re
extremely grateful.
Do you already have a date of
Green official release? And do you have label for it?
We
have an album launch show at Firebug in our home city of Leicester on
March 18th,
which is our official release date for the album.
What are the closest Mage's gigs
you could announce?
We’re
supporting Crowbar in Birmingham on March 16th
then it’s our album launch show on the 18th.
After that we have something most months. In June we’re doing a
mini tour with Garganjua. Just four days up and down the country. It
will be our first time doing a run of more than two days.
How usually you do organize gigs?
What do you care about?
Being an unsigned, nonprofessional
band we are pretty much just accepting offers of gigs. In a few cases
we pursue them (like the Crowbar gig and festivals) but with work and
families we don’t have the luxury of playing every show we’d like
to.
Also how far did you get with
Mage? Can you tell that it's demanded as live band?
Things have definitely taken off
since Bloodstock last year. We’ve been very grateful to be
inundated with gig offers. We’ve not been able to accept them all
but we hope they keep coming and we’ve been able to book a nice,
steady flow of shows for the rest of the year.
Okay, thanks for your time and
answers Tom! How would you like to resume our conversation? What’s
ultimate message of Mage for 2017?
I would just say thanks to everyone
for all the support, especially in the last two years and we hope to
see you on the road sometime soon.
Green
is now up for pre-order on Mage’s Bandcamp:
https://mage.bandcamp.com
Links:
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