By: Tommy Rehbein
Mourner is a new Minneapolis hardcore band. Their 4-song EP, which was made available for free download recently, is receiving a lot of positive feedback both locally and out of town. I sat down with them for a little while to talk about what they’ve been up to.
Brian and Joel aren’t here but go around and state your names and what you do in the band.
Josh: I’m Josh, I play drums
Jim: Jim, I scream
Steven: I’m Steven and I play bass
For the record, Joel and Brian play guitar (as deductive reasoning would imply).
When you started Mourner, did you have a particular vision you were going for as far as your aesthetic, sound, lyrical content, etc.?
Josh: Um, I don’t know. I think we had some vague ideas in mind but we mostly just wanted to do something a little different because there were a lot of stock hardcore bands out there and we just wanted to do something that was a little non-conventional, I guess.
Jim: Originally I wanted to avoid writing about myself all the time but it just kind of ended up being that way anyway…
Steven: …because you’re…
Jim: …because I’m “giggle fats” (everyone laughs) I’m trying to steer away from that, though, and write about other things I don’t like and other people I don’t like, like Steven.
One thing that I dug about the EP is that a lot of other bands out there tend to just sing about generic issues or do a lot of sloganeering, as where you turned inward and a lot of it is pretty dark stuff. The bleak nature of the lyrics are one of the things that stood out to me. Do you care to elaborate or share why you decided to write that way? Is that a natural process for you or did you have something in mind that you were aiming for?
Jim: I don’t know. It’s kind of my way of dealing with stuff. I’m not complaining and saying I have a really hard life or anything because I don’t. I have a lot of friends, a descent job, and whatnot. It’s a lot of stuff from my past that I never got off my chest that I finally got to in the band. Every other band I’ve been in, it’s never felt right to do so. I’ve always just felt like singing about other stuff [in past bands].
I think that’s legit, though. It doesn’t really matter what walk of life you come from, whether you’ve had it easy or not. I think everyone has personal demons. You don’t have to be living in the slums to be dealing with internal issues. One thing that got my attention and a lot of other peoples’ attention is when your EP came out, there was a huge buzz overnight. I’m sure you were shocked to find you had a large number of downloads the next day when you’ve never toured. Weren’t there like 500 downloads?
Josh: I don’t know if it was quite that huge (everyone laughs)…
I heard numbers thrown around…
Josh: The response has been awesome because, like you said, we haven’t worked very hard [touring]; we’ve played three shows so far. We put out the EP online for free in February. We wanted to record some music that we liked and we didn’t really care if people liked it or not, which I think was what was important to us – that we liked it and that we were able to do what we wanted live, and do what we wanted to as far as putting music out, the way we recorded it and everything. We didn’t really care about any of that [touring, marketing] and that’s why we’re not touring a lot – because while the positive feedback is good, it’s not any sort of goal for us. We just want to do stuff that we really enjoy.
That makes it more organic in every aspect. There are a lot of paint-by-number and crowd pleaser bands who might connect the dots correctly. But there are 8,000 of them doing the same thing.
Let’s talk about your recording approach. There’s a lot of stuff coming out lately that is pretty slick sounding and you guys went for the polar opposite…
Josh: Are you saying our recording doesn’t sound very good, Tommy? (laughs)
No! I’m not saying that…
Steven: That’s pretty messed up, Tommy!
Jim: Originally we were going to go with Jordan Schmidt [records pop bands] but that fell through.
Steven: That’s a lie.
I think Steven Henningsgard did a kick-ass job. What I’m saying is it’s a very organic recording. It’s not really palatable to someone who isn’t accustomed to your style; as far as tones and stuff, it’s very brash. It sounds awesome and it’s not very doctored up.
Steven: I think that was sort of the point. Something that we shopped for is we didn’t want to end up with a very overproduced sound with our recordings. We wanted to preserve some of that straightforward, brash kind of feeling and communicate that through the songs.
Josh: Honestly, part of it was time crunch and when we accepted the fact that, “Oh wow, we only have three days to record these songs and we can’t perform them that well, anyway,” it was just like, ‘screw it’. The aesthetic of our band is just kind of in-your-face and harsh. We didn’t play to a click track at all. We doubled some guitar parts but the focus was getting really heavy, gnarly tones. For the bass tones, we used a few different amps and pedals to get dirty sounds that we mixed together. We recorded it in our practice space over a weekend and Steve [Henningsgard] did an awesome job. He was really good at focusing our energy where it needed to be focused. He did put a lot of effort into mixing, which helped a lot. He also convinced us to shell out a little extra money to get it mastered, which helped a lot, too.
Since you’ve stated you’re not really interested in touring all the time or getting on some big label, what would you say your goals are as a band? What do you want to present to people or make people think about?
Jim: I think our main objective is to create. Just keep creating. Keep making something that we’re proud of for sure and that we can look back on someday when this is all said and done and be able to say, “I was proud to be a part of that.” That it actually meant something to me, and it was with people that I actually gave a shit about.
It really seems when you get together there is no objective to make people think about certain political things or any kind of agenda. It seems to be an internal band, so if you get success it’s because people connect with what you’re doing and latch onto that.
Josh: Exactly. At least in the writing process, the song is just totally personal as to what we enjoy. We do analyze them part by part and figure out what would make this sound heavier, more dark, what would give this song more contrast, depth, dynamic, and so on. It’s just a personal think, you know? We just get together and hang out and have fun. Sometimes we’re exhausted and don’t want to be there and sometimes we’re super stoked on something that’s happening at the moment. It ebbs and flows and changes and our goal is just to have fun with and ultimately have a product that we really enjoy and that we’re able to share with people in a free way.
Crowd reaction has been really positive…
Steven: Going into our first show, I wasn’t really sure if people were going to like it because our back yard is more…
(Joel walks in.)
Everyone: “Hey Joel!”
Steven: (continues)…more used to a more standard type of song structure…
Four on the floor mosh parts
Steven: Yeah, “Clear the floor! Let’s bring the pain!” kind of stuff.
Jim: Nobody moshes when we play.
Josh: Maybe we’re just too loud for them!
The couple shows I’ve caught of yours, it seems like you intentionally played with your backs to the crowd. Was that kind of a Fuck You to posturing and such?
Steven: That was more or less just to be sure we could hear ourselves. The venue we were playing at made it a little hard to distinguish [the parts].
It seemed intentional because you guys were wearing stocking hats and poker faces.
(Everyone laughs)
Joel: I think I turned around at least once!
Steven: That first show…for me, anyway, it was like I spent maybe four or five months with these songs, so it kind of turned into my baby, so I just wanted to focus and make sure that I was playing right and make sure that the sound got across. It wasn’t supposed to be an ‘F you!’ to anyone at all.
Josh: Yeah, the intent was to make sure the songs were coming across correctly and not to do The Running Man or fucking, like, moshing. It wasn’t about anything other than throwing our songs out there. We just wanted to songs to come across and they did.
When will you be playing?
Jim: We’ll play here and there on weekends, but we all work a lot. Josh is a doctor, Joel is a bicycle, Steven is a weight, and I’m an insurance policy. Brian is on a date with a boy (that’s what he gets for not being here!)…
Josh: We’re heading out of town on some weekends, though. We’re going to Moorhead and play with all the sweet kids up there. We’re going play a fest in Milwaukee in June. We’ll see what happens.
It’s pretty clear that you’re an internal band aesthetically, but if there is one thing you hope people get out of experiencing Mourner, what is it?
Josh: I guess, just, keep an open mind when you’re listening to music. Try to expose yourself to different emotions and different things when you listen to music. Don’t let other people dictate what you listen to.
Jim: I still talk to my friend that I first started going to shows with about bands that we used to go and see. It’s kind of cool because those are the bands that still bring me back to that time in my life, so I think it’d be cool if we were one of those bands for some people and they can say, “Oh, remember this band?” and their friend can go, “Yeah, that band was sweet.” Like, we actually meant something to someone, I guess. Like, when Steven tells me about seeing The Real Enemy or something… (in a toughguy voice) “When I used to go see Holding On at the Foxfire!”
(Everyone laughs).
I totally know what you mean, though. There are still bands to this day that I remember going to see when I was fifteen years old and certain shows/bands/zines changed how I view music, and really, my worldview.
Joel: My answer in poontang.
(Everyone laughs)
Joel: So for all you single ladies out there… No, what Josh said, opening people up to different genres whether it’s because we’re playing with bands of different genres or by mixing some drone parts in with hardcore parts [in our music]. Just, you know, keeping kids interested.
Steven: Um…
(Everyone whispering “Mango juice” and giggling)
Steven: Mango juice.
(Everyone: YEAHHH! High fives and laughter)
Steven: I consider myself lucky to have been able to see bands like Holding On and The Real Enemy on a regular basis and all the great touring bands that came through back in those years when all those bands were still in operation. They changed my way of thinking when I started going to shows. As corny as it sounds, I always think about – if I didn’t start going to hardcore shows I probably would have just walked the straight line and kept my blinders up and not gave a shit about what was going on around me. Going to shows made me rethink my moral status, when I was being told to sit down and shut up, all that kind of crap. Going to shows wasn’t just about bringing sick mosh, it was finding…
Joel: Let’s be honest, it was about that part of the time! I got hit in the face by you once and I think you were bringing the sick mosh!
(Everyone laughs)
Steven: We’re all guilty of the sick mosh!
Jim: First time I ever saw Steven was at a Terror show and he knocked the wind out of me. So, I walked up to him and went, “Dude, you knocked the wind out of me,” and he went (in a funny toughguy voice), “It’s a fucking Terror show. Deal with it.”
At this point the conversation spiraled downward into snickering, hi-jinks, and yucking it up. We got derailed, but that is how the evening went, so I just figured this was a good place to leave things be. I think each person got his point across.