Transcript
Speaker: Hey everybody, Alan here from Hauntology. Just wanted to butt in here before this interview with Mind Prisoner and let you know that you can find Mind Prisoner's latest album along with a bunch of other cool extreme metal on hauntologyrecords.bandcamp.com. We've got Witness, their new album, you can pick it up. Aosist's EP, you can pick that up. There's tapes for that.
Speaker: Mind Prisoner, of course, Liminal Animal, Pull the Strings, Gnashing Teeth, Icy State and Fall Like Lightning. Lots of cool extreme metal for you to check out over there. We really appreciate your support that you've shown to this label a lot. It means a lot.
Speaker: We're doing this because we love it. We don't make money from this, really. So again, thank you for your support. And if you still are buying physical media and merch in this economy, then you rule.
Speaker: Thank you so much. That's all. Let's get into the interview now.
Speaker: Well, hey everybody, welcome to Dissonant Echoes, the official Hauntology Records podcast. um' My name's Alan, and we have Adrian, the label owner, here with us. Today we're interviewing Mind Prisoner. We've got members of Mind Prisoner with us here today, which I already fucking forgot your names, so there goes ah that.
Speaker: all just Yeah, what's up? I'm Griffin. I'm the vocalist and guitar player of Mind Prisoner. I'm Thomas Knight. I do some clean vocals and other stuff.
Speaker: Perfect. Sorry about that. It's just the nerves got to me right there in that second where I was trying to remember. But with that said, Mind Prisoner is a band from Portland. We have done ah some tapes and lathe cut vinyl with them for their recent album, The Color of Ruin, which came out. When did that come out again?
Speaker: came out. it cameno Yeah, it came out at the end of December. a YouTube channel kind of forced us to release it a little earlier than. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Kind of fucked us over a little bit there, but in a way, it was like a relief to just get it out there, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, sitting on unreleased music can be painful, so um it's kind of a double-edged sword there. yeah but Yeah, for sure. You also want to have things go according to plan, too, so...
Speaker: That's true. I mean, we spent a lot of money recording that record, but I mean, still to this day, I mean, I'm really proud of it. You know, I wish that, you know, maybe as far as like streaming and things like that, it would have gotten a little bit more buzz, but we're working on new music as well. So I think the plan is to just kind of start promoting it now ah before we kind of ramp up and start putting new music out there.
Speaker: Yeah, it's ah it's a really great record. I know Adrian thinks the same thing, and we'll we'll talk a little bit about that for sure. Thanks. But I think, ah Adrian, why don't you get into a little bit about just band history and whatnot, first of all.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, I guess we could start from the beginning. like How'd you guys meet and how'd you get started writing together? Yeah, so I kind of started floating around the idea of starting a metal band in 2020, maybe 2021.
Speaker: ah Thomas here has a project called Nightsister, which is more like post-punk. And he was kind of working on music for that. and um I contributed guitar for maybe one of those early Night Sister demos.
Speaker: um And then I kind of just had the idea to mix those elements into a blackened death metal band. And that's kind of how we got started writing together.
Speaker: Would you say that's accurate? Pretty much. Yeah.
Speaker: Sick. So you you guys are neighbors now. How long have you known each other, though? Yeah, I feel like we've been really good friends for about 10 years now. Sick. Ever since Force Awakens came out.
Speaker: Yeah, we we were both a couple of Star Wars nerds. So we met in line, actually, for the premiere of Star Wars Episode VII, if you guys are familiar. line?
Speaker: We did. Yeah. It's kind of a crazy thing. And this was before we lived in Portland. We actually relocated here from Central Oregon a few years back.
Speaker: Oh, that's pretty crazy. Yeah. Been a good friend of mine ever since too. Hell yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm in a band with one of my old friends, you know, coming up on a decade and it's a, it's a cool thing for sure.
Speaker: It's, uh, you know, it's just makes me really proud, you know? Yeah, that's awesome. And friendship is a really important thing. And you know when you can make it work collaboratively, that's always nice as well.
Speaker: i Honestly, I feel like without this guy right here, i wouldn't even really know what I'm capable of musically. In a lot of ways, I discovered that working with Thomas here between Nightsister, which I was a part of for several years, and Mind Prisoner.
Speaker: Yeah. So like you got started kind of collaborating together. When did mind prisoner like finally come together as like, this is what the band's called. This is what we're doing. So I want to say probably like summer of 2021, I had already put a few demos together at the time. um The project was kind of more influenced by some hardcore and some death metal and black metal as well.
Speaker: But we didn't really find that initial sound actually until we started working together and partnered up with Scott Elliott from Chernobyl Studios.
Speaker: He actually has a YouTube channel as well and yeah does a lot of mixing and and shit. And um yeah, he really kind of showed us what we were capable of. back in those days.
Speaker: I think it was like 2023 that we put out our self-titled EP, which was produced by him. So we had been writing from, I want to say, midway through 2021 up until that point that we started recording the EP in 2023. Awesome.
Speaker: Well, I mean, the the first question on my mind, other than band history, is really just it's a creative question, you know, as somebody that is constantly writing music myself, I just want to know like what drives the creation process for you guys.
Speaker: I would say for me, it's just a lot of desperation and needing a place to put my emotions from my personal everyday life.
Speaker: I go through phases all the time where I'm not writing music. I mean, even this new track that I sent Adrian, don't know if you had a chance to listen to it. um I had a lot of those ideas.
Speaker: like a year ago, but really just didn't sit down and put it all together until yesterday. um So writing music for me is definitely like a coping mechanism for things that I deal with in my everyday life and something that I find myself a lot happier when I'm writing music.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, Adrian has his own take on this, but I mean, for me, it's the only way I can stay sane because of just the fact that, you know, I am bipolar and i have all this extra manic energy all the time. So I have to put it into something creative yeah or or else I'll just ruin my life essentially. So making music is like my outlet.
Speaker: Adrian, I know you compulsively made music for a long time. You've kind of stopped doing that now and you're trying to trying to be more deliberate with it, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I went kind of crazy for like a year or two.
Speaker: Just wrote so much music, but ah definitely started to take more my time, be a little more patient with it. Yeah. Yeah, and it's interesting that you say that you're sitting on on ideas for like over a year because, i mean, I usually ah usually kind of spontaneously write as I'm recording in the DAW. That's how I work usually. Like a doll it all comes out and then I'll like,
Speaker: develop it over time after it's like demoed out. So to just have the riffs in your mind, like that's, that's crazy to me. Yeah. I mean, I want to say I'm probably sitting on like five or six songs worth of material just in terms of like riffs and shit goes.
Speaker: um But yesterday was really the first time that I actually committed to sitting down and fleshing something out. And I'm ah really proud of how it's turning out. Um, but I have been, i've been working on music for like, I don't know, six months or so. I'm in a band called psychic guilt, which is like post-punk dark wave type shit here in Portland.
Speaker: Um, I've also been a guitar player for Dylan or Thomas and his other band night sister. Um, We just finished recently an EP together, but I've kind of decided to step away from that project just so I can focus more on psychic guilt and mind prisoner once again.
Speaker: But I think where I was going with that is just that Post-punk, at least for me, is just a lot easier to write. um just you know its I don't have to go to that emotional place that I would for Mind Prisoner put that music together.
Speaker: So it's almost more satisfying in a way to bounce back and forth between two different projects that are very different in terms of tone and style. Post-punk is a lot more fun for me to write than atmospheric black metal, I'd say.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, how long have you been playing guitar? I've been playing guitar really since high school, I want to say. But I don't think I really started taking it seriously until I started Mind Prisoner back in 2021. Yeah,
Speaker: yeah I mean, Adrian, you can speak to this. you When did you start playing guitar? How many years ago now? For me, I don't know, it's like eight years ago, nine. So like not that long.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. and you I know this is, we've, we've covered this before, but you didn't even have a computer or know how to record music until you started making music in 2022, three.
Speaker: So, I mean, if you, if you are like driven to do something, you'll get good at it fast, which is, you know. Yeah. Right on. I'm kind of in the same boat. Uh,
Speaker: I feel like I've kind of just been writing music with my guitar since day one. I've never really learned how to play other music or anything. Oh, OK. Well, that's that's cool Yeah. Yeah. That that's, that's a transition for a lot of people. You'll go from just being a guitarist who learns songs and riffs um to a songwriter.
Speaker: And then from a songwriter to like, you know, a full blown artist, those are like transition periods that you go through for most people. But to just start out, so just start out with songwriting is definitely one way to get a very unique sound.
Speaker: I'm curious how you both approach writing music. Because for me, ah think I tend to write music a lot in my head. And then I'll just sit down and try to play it and you know record those riffs in my DAW. I actually record in Reaper for the most part.
Speaker: I intend to start ah learning how to use Cubase here in the near future. Hell yeah. But i I would say I write music in my head for the most part.
Speaker: Yeah. What about you, Adrian? I tend to have like kind of an idea or a theme or just kind of like a sound in general. and i have't ah like the The first thing I do, I try to lay out the drums, kind of how like that that seems to set the energy for the song. And then I try to record the riff that I kind of have in my head.
Speaker: And then I i just do parts. And then I try to just like, I kind of like it's a similar structure for a lot of my songs, but ah that's mostly how I write. Like it just drums, guitar, and then I have the stuff based in vocals after. Yeah.
Speaker: For the most part, I just kind of have an idea of the song. And then it kind of just depending how it flows, like based on the riffs, that's kind of like where I move on next. But that's usually how I write.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah, I would say I have a pretty similar process. I don't know how you guys feel about drum programming, but God, it's just such a fucking pain in the ass. Like even with that track that I wrote yesterday, i almost got discouraged at one point just because I didn't really feel like sitting there and, you know, programming those those MIDI notes one by one, which is a huge pain in the ass in Reaper, by the way. Actually, yeah, Cubase is is a little bit better for that, I would say. If you're goingnna if you're going to be learning Cubase, it's got um a little bit better MIDI editor, especially the... um the functions that it has to where you can like the way you can humanize the drums and stuff are just a lot better in Cubase. So can't wait.
Speaker: Yeah. But actually it is tedious. It never gets less tedious. It just gets a little bit easier. I bought Cubase last summer, ah but I've just been honestly like too scared to commit to learning that program.
Speaker: It's like a steep learning curve. Oh, really? But is Reaper. So, I mean, you yeah i can do it. Yeah. I've been using Reaper since high school because it's just so convenient and basically free.
Speaker: I mean, obviously, there's that there's that fee that they ask. $60 is basically free even if you do pay. Right. Yeah, exactly. um But even for the post-punk stuff that I do with Psychic Guilt or even Nightsister, a DAW with more complex capabilities like Cubase, especially for like electronic music, I think will be a lot more convenient for me than Reaper.
Speaker: Definitely more convenient once you've got it under your belt, I would say. But Reaper is extremely powerful and extensible as well. So it's it's just kind of you can make anything work. This kind of goes back to what we were talking about with getting started on guitar and immediately learning how to write songs is, you know, if if you're driven to do something, you can make it work for sure. so as long as it's not like audacity, I think you're good these days.
Speaker: but Yeah, I definitely enjoy this. Audacity has some improvements lately. Oh, cool. I was just going to say, I really do appreciate the simplicity of just, I don't know, getting a session loaded up in Reaper and just writing the song.
Speaker: yeah um I'm not super interested in audio production, but using it as a songwriting tool is by far like just essential for my writing process. That's kind of how I've always done it.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, people used to just record onto like eight track recorders and stuff, and that's as simple as it gets. You just hit record. So like removing all the bullshit and being able to get your ideas down is pretty essential, I would say.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Well, I got a question about The Color of Ruin, your recent album, which is the the which was the first song that you actually wrote for that So the title track for that record was the first song that we wrote for it. It was actually intended to be for a side project that we had at the time that was going to be called Color of Ruin.
Speaker: And we put the demo version of that song out. Originally, it was called The Well. um but After some time and contemplation, we kind of just decided that merging the two things into one idea just made the most sense, just less work than having like two different projects. um And after we did that first EP, I was super inspired by Post Punk and kind of wanted to put those elements into atmospheric black metal.
Speaker: And it just like shaped the whole direction of the record from there. So that so it was that song is when you kind of knew that you had a direction, you had an album that you were going to work on. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And there's still kind of some death metal influence on the Color of Ruin as well, just because we didn't want everything to feel one note.
Speaker: We wanted everything to be as dynamic as possible. um But exploring atmospheric black metal was definitely the goal of that record for us.
Speaker: What do you think?
Speaker: I mean, you also got that influence from the cover we did too. That's true. Yeah, we before we ended up committing to that sound for The Color of Women, we recorded a cover of a song called In the Fog by one of our favorite post-punk bands called Fearing.
Speaker: And I want to say that cover that we did, ah which originally was just, it was like a bonus track for the cassette version of our self-titled EP. That's what really inspired the sound for the record that followed.
Speaker: Sick. Yeah. I mean, I definitely hear the like combination of influences you're talking about on the record. It's, it's not one thing. It is very multifaceted musically, which is really cool.
Speaker: It's definitely one of my favorite things about it. It's like, how would I describe the way it makes me feel? It's like,
Speaker: this this is a very overused term, but the album feels like a journey. you know It's got like different um scenes to it kind of thing, which is really cool. um you know I mean, there's nothing wrong with having a monotone album if it's all like you know still engaging and whatnot, but this is more cinematic than that, I feel like, which is really cool.
Speaker: Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Honestly, we owe a lot of the production and sound design to Scott Elliott, who really pushed us in new directions and kind of showed us both what we were capable of, but also how we could explore these different sounds for a record.
Speaker: um The Color of Ruin was actually the first album that I had ever written, obviously with Thomas here. um it It kind of coincided in a way with Part of Me, which was Nightsister's first album. We kind of finished the two albums hand in hand with each other, which was really cool.
Speaker: And if anything, kind of helped kind of blur the lines between post-punk and atmospheric black metal. So definitely owe a lot of that inspiration to writing songs for Nightsister as well.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a really cool sound that the that the record has. it's you know I listen to, i wouldn't say everything, but a lot a lot of the stuff that would be in the same genre categorization, you know and it's definitely got a unique sound.
Speaker: Thank you, man. So I wanted to get into a little bit of the themes on the record. If you want to talk about that at all, just, you know, what it says on your band camp about themes about loss, obsession, unraveling of identity, anything you have to say about that?
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, I think the record really explores a lot of things that I was going through at the time. Um, a lot of things that I kind of just want to keep vague and keep to myself for personal reasons, but, um,
Speaker: Trying to think about how I can give you some kind of answer here for that that's not so vague. That's already an answer. So anything else is just like, you know, what's it called? Fine print. Bonus.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I would say the album for me kind of represents letting go of my past self and pushing my life forward. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah, that's a, you you know, I mean, there's no better way to get it out than with extreme music. So that's awesome. For sure. You know, definitely. i mean, the album, actually, what were going to say?
Speaker: No, I was just going to say, well, actually I was going to change gears a little bit for me. I don't know. This may just be me or a subset of musicians, but there are certain instruments that just inspire me to write differently.
Speaker: And I was just curious as um as a gear nerd myself, if there was like a guitar or anything in particular that inspired this record in any way, not particularly because I'm constantly broke and don't really have money for fancy gear and shit like that. I mean, even with, uh, writing the songs and Reaper, I'm kind of just like a preset guy. Like I just pick some presets that I feel like set the tone and the mood that I'm after.
Speaker: um I'm not really much of a gear snob, to be honest. I think all that stuff can be little annoying. Like, uh... you know how about we just focus on writing a good song and then we can kind of obsess about gear and that kind of thing after the fact.
Speaker: But also maybe at the end of the day, that's just because I don't really have money to buy fancy shit like that. you know i mean, I've had the same guitar for probably like five or six years. I have an ESP Viper, ah which is probably the nicest guitar that I've ever owned.
Speaker: um But I'm kind of ah i'm a fan of cheap gear at the end of the day, too. Like, I have a Bogara two byte twelve right now that I think does the job for live stuff, at least with what I'm doing with Postpart. Vyper's a cool one. That's like the offset SG for anybody who isn't familiar. um It's a really cool-looking guitar.
Speaker: Six strings? Yeah. yeah I did have a seven string at one point. Actually, there's some early Mind Prisoner demo material that I recorded with a seven string. um But think I ended up selling that guitar to pay for recording that first EP that we did.
Speaker: um And I didn't really have a need for a seven string anyway, because I don't um don't tune very low. All the songs are in drop C sharp for anyone that's interested. I have tuning autism, so that that pleases me to know.
Speaker: Yeah, drop C sharp. crazy Is this one here? Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, I ended up snagging a couple of your tapes from Dead Art Distro a few months ago.
Speaker: oh sweet. Okay, that guy's great. know you've got the shirt too, Adrian, the one that has the the red logo on it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. With our old logo on it. Honestly, I have so many merch ideas.
Speaker: Um, but things just don't sell as well as I wish they did. So it's hard to justify printing more merch. Yeah, it's tough, man. Um, the entire industry is like kind struggling right now with selling merch.
Speaker: So yeah, or the tapes haven't been moving for like any of the projects that we've been putting out recently. don't really know what happened. Everything's just kind of slowed down. Yeah. It's the economy.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. for sure. It's not doing very good, but we really appreciate what you do and we appreciate you both believing in the record and wanting us to be here today to talk about it.
Speaker: Yeah, we we were real excited when we heard first heard the Call of Ruin, so super super pumped that we were able to put that out for you guys. Yeah, and like like we were just saying, you know merch and physical media isn't moving too much right now, so we don't have like unlimited options You know, we weren't able to do pressed vinyl, for example, but what we did put out, I think was really cool.
Speaker: I think it came out great. So yeah. Yeah. And I, I have my copy on the wall here. So thanks for great artwork. And, um, you know, we're both super, we're both super thankful that you did that for us.
Speaker: Yeah. You're welcome, man. I'm glad I'm just really glad I was able to do for you guys. Yeah, and we'll have to we'll have to talk a little bit more once Thomas and I finish these new songs.
Speaker: We've got one instrumental recorded at the moment, and I have ideas for several more. um But I'm kind of thinking about probably just doing an EP. I don't think I have a full album in me at the moment.
Speaker: I don't know when I will again, as far as black metal goes. Yeah. um Just kind of takes a lot out of me to commit to recording this type of music. Whereas post-punk is just a little bit more ah fun of an avenue for me to explore, if that makes any sense.
Speaker: It's less yeah stressful. Yeah, for sure. it's um When you have a project, you know, maybe not even like every album that you do with a band, but it can be that way. But when you have a project like an album or an EP, that's really just personal to you and takes a lot out of you.
Speaker: um You know, whenever I've been involved in stuff like that, feels like there is ah there is definitely like a recovery period until you get ready to do another one of those types of things. So definitely understand that.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm not the greatest lyricist. I hate writing lyrics for black metal so much. I don't know why, I just have such a hard time with it.
Speaker: um But it's really easy for me to just continue to write about the same things. Sure. Whereas with The Color of Ruin, um ending that record on the song that's called Nothing Comes After for me,
Speaker: was kind of supposed to mark really the end of me writing about these very specific themes that fueled the journey behind the record. um So, i mean, needless to say, I'm definitely trying to explore new themes on what we do moving forward.
Speaker: And luckily I have this guy too, who's a much better lyricist than I could ever be.
Speaker: Yeah, lyrics are tough, but it's a muscle like anything. So I feel like just just constantly doing it is one way to make it a little bit less painful. But, you know.
Speaker: Yeah. and so Also, there's the aspect to it where it's like you don't ever want to force it. you Lyrics especially. you You want it to come just in the flow state. That's very true. Yeah, I mean, um what kind of inspired me in the first place to have Thomas here ah be included in Mind Prisoner in some way was my fascination with industrial music at the time, which was kind of something that we tried to explore a little bit with our first EP, just with samples and things like that. But obviously, it's not very innovative or new for death metal or black metal.
Speaker: um But finding more ways that we could explore that on the Color of Ruin was interesting as well. um I think we have one track on there that we kind of we tried to go full industrial for like 30 seconds or so on the track.
Speaker: And that's definitely an a that's an idea that I hope to explore a little bit more in the future. Sick. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely plenty of room for more like noisy stuff in the music you guys make. If you ever feel like doing that, I know that I would be super into that. So that's awesome.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah, that's definitely a goal for us. And I just don't want things to feel one note. um I'm inspired by many other genres than metal.
Speaker: Neo folk, I think, is a really interesting genre that kind of has industrial elements inside of it. um And we're kind of trying to pull some influence from from that on the next thing that we do as well.
Speaker: Awesome. So you guys want to talk about your other projects some more? So ah my band Nightsister is just about to release our EP Chill Times in Hell, which was originally kind of like a joke on my part. But Griffin here liked it, so it just kind of stuck.
Speaker: Oh, well. But um we also have a show coming up on Thursday with my guitar player, Devin, who was also in a local band called Ruby Luster until they broke up last year.
Speaker: So we have that coming up and just been kind of getting ready for that really this week. And for those that aren't familiar with Night Sister, what kind of music is it? It's like post-punk dark wave kind of thing.
Speaker: Really depends on which song I'm currently working on, on what genre it is. Yeah, that's a super cool combination, it sounds like. I'm going to check it out absolutely after this.
Speaker: Sweet. Yeah, I was in Nightsister for, I mean, basically since the beginning you started the project in 2021. um But recently I decided to step away from that project and focus more on my other band, which is called Psychic Guilt, which similarly enough is post-punk and Darkwave.
Speaker: um Thomas here in a way might as well just be in that band. Uh, cause he's been helping us record and, uh, write synth parts and shit like that. Um, did vocals on one of the songs too. That's true. Yeah. he did do some vocals.
Speaker: Um, so I think the intention, even if I'm not in night sister is to just continue collaborating basically no matter what, but I just wanted to focus more on my band with my girlfriend.
Speaker: Um, a but also start writing more music for Mind Prisoner as well.
Speaker: Well, you've already teased a little bit about some stuff you're writing, but I just wanted to ask if there's anything else you can share about what you've got next. I don't think so because it's just a little early on. I mean, i only just recorded one of the songs yesterday. Right. um But I would say there are funeral doom elements inside of the music. There's atmospheric black metal elements um and hopefully more industrial elements as well.
Speaker: We'll have to see what this guy can come up with.
Speaker: Awesome. Real excited about what's coming next, man. but the The track you sent was killer. So really excited about it. Much appreciated for sure.
Speaker: Well, it's been great to talk to you guys. It's been good to meet you face to face and looking forward to working together on future projects perhaps and Either way, we'll be ah you know in touch and we'll be interested in what you're doing.
Speaker: Thanks, guys. Thanks. All right, guys. Thanks for stopping by. We'll see you on the next episode. Thank you so much, everybody, for stopping by again for another episode of Dissonant Echoes.
Speaker: And to end this episode, I'm going to play you out with the song The Color of Ruin off of the same named album by Mind Prisoner. Enjoy.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Drinking these memories Dreaming of pain My last time Drinking my emotions free
Speaker: um
Speaker: distant
Speaker: You see hope for vision
Speaker: Hey!
Speaker: you
