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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Mt Desolation
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 9 September 2010
Mt Desolation are an alternative country band formed by Keane’s Tim Rice-Oxley and the band’s live bassist Jesse Quin. With the help of friends from various other acts including members of The Long Winters, Mumford & Sons and Noah And The Whale, the band set out to record their debut album with producer Emery Dobyns, with the aim to record as much of the LP live as possible in true country style. The band kick off their tour of the UK tomorrow which runs through to the end of September, and are all set to release that eponymous debut album on 18 Oct via Island Records. We put the Same Six to the band’s Jesse Quin.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I can’t speak for Tim but for me it was my friend Amy Gibbons teaching me how to play a drum beat at the age of seven. I was completely hooked from that moment on. I guess I’m one of those lucky few people in the world that never felt worried about what to do with their life. I couldn’t do anything other than music anyway. Had a bar job for a while. Just ended up drinking too much. You can’t really play too much guitar. I hope.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
It’s Mt Desolation’s first record and I think the main inspiration behind making it wasn’t necessarily other bands as much as the desire just to make some music with friends that we don’t usually get to play with. It was just for the sheer fun of it. It might sound like bullshit but we weren’t really even thinking that it would necessarily be released. It feels almost more like we went on some kind of retreat for a month just to help us to advance in the rest of our musical endeavours. That sounds pretty cheesy, doesn’t it?
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Tim and I both wrote a bunch of songs and recorded demos of them that made it to various stages of completion. Then everyone set up a load of drums and amps and stuff at Eastcote in London during those snowy few weeks last January and off we went. That’s pretty much all there was to it, I guess. Again, I can’t speak for Tim but it’s only when I listened back to the finished article that I realised how much had really gone into the songs lyrically and melodically. The actual recording was very emotionally charged too because there wasn’t a lot of overdubbing so I personally felt like we all got into the moment a lot more. It’s pretty rare that you get covered in sweat in a recording studio. We just started playing and didn’t stop until we got kicked out when the engineer wanted to go home. It was pure joy.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Well, I think we were vaguely aiming at something quite traditional to begin with, but it kind of lost its way in a good way. I was going through a slightly uncool but incredibly passionate phase of pretty much only listening to ‘Band On The Run’ by Wings and ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac. I kept pushing for that really thick, dead drum sound. I’m sure it annoyed the hell out of everyone. Especially Fimbo, whose drums it was that I was messing with.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Be patient and bear with it. Ha ha. Well I’d probably ask them to kindly turn it up nice and loud. It’s the kind of music that sounds good loud. Especially the softer ones on the album. Emery did a really good job mixing it.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Well, our ambitions are definitely humble ones. It would be nice if we could sell enough copies that the record company would let us make another one some day. I think if I’m completely honest, a few really nice reviews to show the grandchildren would be enough to keep me satisfied.
MORE>> www.mtdesolation.com
