MINSK is one of those powerful, spiritual bands that hail from the inspirational nebula, at the core of which lie extraordinaire artists such as Neurosis. Amidst their ranks stands amazing producer Sanford Parker (Unearthly Trance, Pelican, etc.) and even though MINSK do not play metal in the strict sense of the term, both their albums - the debut “Out Of A Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive'” as well as the recent “The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment” - will appeal to fans of intelligent, atmospheric, heavy music. In order to fully comprehend the band’s trip, we spoke with vocalist Tim Mead.
- Your new album is more laid back/atmospheric and less heavy than your debut. How did this transition happen?
+ I suppose in a way, one could say that the new album is “less heavy” than the last. I don’t think any of us believe that, though. In a sort of overtly metal way that could be the case. I guess we see this new album as a natural progression. We were trying to do what any artist does, progress, move forward. We put forth something on the last album that moved us. And now, we’re putting forth something that moves us where we’re at now.
The word “heavy” could mean so many things to so many people, and if you actually delve into the issues we’re dealing with and the way the music and the ideas on “The Ritual Fires of Abandonment” coalesce, the way they feed and play and dance off of one another, I’d like to think we’ve succeeded in creating something that some people will consider to be heavier than the first album. But it’s something people will have to dig into to understand. You mention atmospheres, and I think there are definitely atmospheric elements of the new album that are heavier than the first. There are personal matters that are heavier. There is an honesty here that has wounded all of us personally, changed us as people, and reflected times in our lives that are heavier than anything we’ve ever made public before.
The new album may not kick you in the face right off the bat like the last, but we’d like to think that it has the potential to dig into your brain and affect you in a certain way. I wouldn’t like to think it’s more “laid back” at all. The transition was just a natural process. We’re growing as individuals and musicians, and we all sort of naturally moved in this direction together, in a way that we‘re all very excited about. I don’t think this album is a complete departure from the last in any way, but we’re definitely working with elements that we could not have handled on the last record. It’s more organic, more musical, with melodic elements that were beyond us before.
Hopefully fans of the first record will recognize that we can still kick in your face when we want to, and we do so many times on this album… but we can also play with a musicality that juxtaposes those differing elements to bring about an emotional side that makes the heavy even more heavy. If you hit someone over the head repeatedly, they become numb. If you put them in a trance and then hit them, they really feel it. I’d say that’s a pretty adequate analogy for the way we view the dynamics of this album.
- Does the fact that some people associate you with the ongoing post-rock trend annoy you?
+ I don’t think it annoys us. I don’t think it’s easy to categorize or pin down, but people need that from the press. It’s a natural thing. It’s definitely post-something. If it’s a trend, then that’s fine. But it’s funny that some people seem to think of progressive heavier bands as a trend. With the exception of the really brilliant bands that change everything or create new genres that others try to emulate, everyone is chasing something. Every band has its influences and bands or trends that seem to make sense for people to associate them with.
For us, we’re just trying to make music that moves us. We’re trying to use the musical vocabulary that we have and the creative ideas that we want to convey , to push the envelop in our own way. If it helps people who could potentially be into what we’re doing to find us, then group us with whomever you wish.
If people are going to write something off simply of associations or labels, then they’re probably not going to enjoy what we’re doing. If they want to give it a chance, they will. A lot of the bands that we consider peers or that make us excited about going to shows or still caring about heavy music after all these years get that same association. Hopefully we’re doing something that will eventually be able to stand on its own without the titles, but for now it doesn’t really annoy me.
- Did you choose your bandname in order to give an exotic overtone?
+ The name came about due to a fascination with a certain part of the world that seems very foreign to us, living here in the States.
For us, that part of the world seems to slip by most of the usual ways that Westerners categorize people and places. It’s remote, it’s in that grey area that isn’t quite simply Western and isn’t quite simply Eastern, too much of one thing and not enough of another. It’s a city with an amazing history full of stories of wars, and invasions, and destruction and re-growth. Our history books tell us that it’s been burned to the ground and rebuilt on several occasions, associated with the Phoenix that rises from its own ashes. There is a perseverance in the way that we see its people and its history. There is a depth and a past that people living in a country, like ours, that is only 200 years old can’t really understand. We can’t really understand that sort of a history. We can’t really grasp this place that is so foreign to us, here, and we were drawn to this.
If it gives it an exotic overtone, that’s cool. People often comment that our music almost seems geographical in nature, or that it takes them places, and so having a name like the one we do seems like it was a good idea. In actuality though, it came about more because of our guitar player’s (Chris Bennett) fascination with Russian history and less because we were trying to sound “exotic.”
- You must be Neurosis fans. If you had to contribute to a tribute album, which song of theirs would you cover? What do you expect from their new LP?
+ Yeah, of course we’re fans of Neurosis. Who isn’t? Seriously one of the greatest groups ever, a band that inspired so many people and bands, created something that was novel and will be remembered as long as heavy music continues. If I had to choose a song to cover, I don’t know, maybe something off “Souls at Zero” or the title track to “Through Silver in Blood”. I can’t speak for everyone though, the others might have ideas for something more obscure. Personally, when “Through Silver in Blood” opens up, I feel like the apocalypse in upon us. I don’t know what to think about the next album. I expect something a bit different from the last couple of albums, but it will still be Neurosis. I’m sure they’re still a step ahead of all of us who would try to speculate.
- Was the saxophone that you used in tracks#4/6 spontaneously improvised or something planned?
+ Bruce Lamont, of Yakuza, is a great friend of the band, and we’d worked with him on a song for the last album. We definitely liked the way that came out, and so it seemed obvious that we would have him contribute again. He’s such an amazing sax player, that we didn’t really have to work too much to get out of him what we wanted. He was able to hear some rough mixes of what we were doing, but basically what you hear on the album is him improvising, creating, and basically just doing what he does so well. He came in, threw some stuff down, and we were sold right from the get go.
- Do you consider that the presence of Sanford Parker amidst your ranks has helped to get extra focus on Minsk from the industry and the audience?
+ Well, one of the down sides of being in a band, for me anyways, is having to do business. From a business perspective, it never hurts to have a name in the band. Sanford has been a friend of ours for quite some time. We were fans of his older project, Buried at Sea, and his recordings, and we actually had worked with him on a song for a compilation a year or so before we decided to have him do the first full-length. Having him join up with the band has been nothing short of awesome. I’m sure there were industry types who paid more attention to the band once he became a part of it, and we recognize that.
From the whole idiocy of having to sell yourself, everyone has to take advantage of the breaks they get. Sanford has produced some pretty amazing records over the last couple of years, and he deserves every bit of credit and respect that he’s getting these days. When he joined the band, during the recording of the last album, we were all thrilled. Working with him and incorporating him into the core of the group has worked out very well for everyone. He now has a musical vehicle that certainly doesn’t hurt his reputation as a producer, and we got a great bass player who understands what we want to do and artistically fits with the mix… And if his name garners any more attention for the band, so be it. You won’t hear me complaining.
- What kind of reaction did you get from your debut album and how did you end up in Relapse?
+ “Out of a Center…” was received very well, actually. It surprised us all a lot. We were still sort of trying to figure out what we were doing, trying to learn to write songs together and sort out lineup issues during a lot of the writing. Then, you factor in taking on a new member, who is also a producer, during the recording process once everything was already written and we were actually trying to record it…. And we were just happy that the thing turned out the way it did. The press was very generous across the board, and that album opened a lot of people’s eyes to what we were doing. We got great responses from fans and writers from all over the place. As for Relapse, it was early in the year last year when they first approached us. A simple phone call, “What do you guys have coming up…Could we talk?”…that sort of thing. After that, we hammered it all out and went from there. Not a really interesting story, per se, but so far it’s been awesome working with them.
- Is that a coincidence that both you and your labelmates from At a Loss Records, Rwake also got signed at the same period?
+ Yeah, it really is a coincidence I guess. We joke with Joshua from At A Loss about Relapse stealing all his bands. He’s still putting out stuff that blows our minds, and the fact that he was the first one to give us a chance is something we’ll never forget.
In some way, we’ll always be an At A Loss band, as will Rwake, I’m sure. Rwake put out their album on At A Loss before we did. They were already pretty established in a certain way when we came along. We got to play a few shows with them in the last couple of years, and just fell in love with what they’re doing. They’re unbelievable to play with or see live, and a bond definitely was formed early on. They got their offer from Relapse a little before we got ours, but we were sort of going through that process of negotiations and writing our new albums at around the same time. It’s really awesome that our albums are coming out on the same day, and we’re going to be touring with them in April. We were both really excited for each other when the contract stuff was all said and done, talked about how awesome it was that we might have more opportunities to play together, etc., and right off the bat our albums are coming out together, and we’re hitting the road together.
If you want to talk about the real chain of coincidences, though, here is the story. Same producer did both of our last albums, both albums came out on At A Loss, both signed with Relapse around the same time, same producer for the new albums, both albums are coming out on the same day, and both albums are exactly the same length, to the second, and that wasn’t planned, at all. Creepy.
- What kind of experience is it when the producer is also a member of the band? Is there a tendency to overproduce things?
+ It definitely can be a challenge, but it can be the best thing in the world too. When most bands get ready to work with a producer, they have to demo ideas, feel the person out, and try to catch them up to speed on what they want out of their recording. With Sanford, he already knows what we want, it’s his vision too, and he’s really driven to get exactly what we need from ourselves. He already knows our strengths and weaknesses, and we know his. I think having him produce our own stuff has challenged him as a producer. Obviously, the tendency can be to over think everything, and our own sort of self deprecating tendencies create specific challenges, but I think we handle it pretty well.
We have to be conscious of when enough is enough and just let things go, but we also have the luxury of recording in a place where we’re very comfortable and with a person that we trust and are familiar with. Being produced by someone who feels passionately about what is going on is a definite plus. Sanford would be the first to admit that he’s had more than one late night freak out over our recordings and second guessed himself way too many times. This was the first album that we actually wrote with him in the band, so the whole process of start to finish was a learning experience. Hopefully, we didn’t think things through too much or cross that line in a bad way, but it definitely allowed us to explore things in the studio in a way that most bands never get to.
- Why decomposing in the last song’s title the word “ecstasy” to the two greek terms of which it was originally formed?
+ My understanding of the roots of the word ecstasy is that it comes from the Greek meaning roughly EK, or out, and STASIS, or static, stationary, simply “center.” So the roots of the English word have a sense of movement about them. A moving out, a going forward, a being taken out of something. In a certain way, this word study shows an affinity to the English word, existence, which is Ek and Sistere, which also means something like “center.” Both of these words are very powerful notions in the English language, and etymologically both hint at a certain existential situation of movement forward or out of a static stationary place. Whether it’s the idea of existence as a moving out of self or a movement out of something solid, the ideas for the title incorporate a way of thinking about life and experience as a movement, a going forth, something not nearly as stationary and solid as a typical Western understanding of self as some sort of real, solid, objective “thing.” This was something an old professor of mine would talk about, and it’s pointing toward something alive and moving, almost an understanding of existence or ecstasy as a dance.
- Why calling the third song “Mescaline Sunrise”? What’s so special about this drug ? Are you fans of the movie/book “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas”? What are the lyrics about?
+ The title for that song actually came from a review from our last album by a writer named Erin Fox. The writer described the album as being “akin to a mescaline sunrise” and it just sort of struck a chord with us. I think it fits the mood and the tone of the song very well, almost as if you could imagine this lonely, contemplative, state at dawn where the song is being written or performed. The drug itself is well documented as a spiritual tool of reflection and teaching, and it’s a very important part of the paths of certain peoples’ seeking of understanding or religious practice. For us, it just made sense to use it in the title. As for “Fear and Loathing…”, Thompson doesn’t need me to say anything at all. The work speaks for itself, and we are all fans. Lyrically, Chris’s guitar speaks for itself. We didn’t need to say anything at all.
- Half of the album’s songs clock in at around 14/15 minutes. Do you perform them live?
+ Yeah, almost everything on the album has been or will be performed live. 15 minute songs make for a challenge when putting together set lists, but we manage alright. A big part of what we do is balancing the recorded song with the live version. If the mood fits, we might play a song longer or shorter than its original version, launch into a tangent, or just dismiss the set list altogether and do what feels good. The more we play together as a unit, the more we feel comfortable reacting to each other and allowing room for improvisation or new creation during the live set.
- What will be the next moves from MINSK?
+ We have a song on an Eyehategod tribute album “For the Sick” coming out soon on Emetic Records, and we’re working on a split 7” of Roky Erickson covers with Unearthly Trance from New York for Parasitic Records. It’s definitely going to be a busy year, but we’re super excited to get moving on things.
- The end is yours.
+ Thanks a lot for the interview. Hopefully we’ll be over your direction before too long. See you soon.
www.thesoundofminsk.com, myspace.com/minsk
This interview was originally conducted for a feature which has been published in Metal Hammer Greece (www.hammer.gr). Used with kind permission.
morethansounds.net/ October 2007