“For us, it’s really, really important that we have deadlines because otherwise we will sit and tinker with things forever. So for us, in a lot of ways, our deadline is sort of our producer,” Of Mice & Men‘s vocalist and bassist Aaron Pauley tells the JJO Discover New Music Podcast about the band’s newest self-produced venture Another Miracle, due to be released this coming week on November 14th (as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net). While self-producing was born “out of necessity during the pandemic because everything closed” and the band still had “to make music,” Of Mice & Men‘s third self-produced record is self-assured and heavier than ever.
Pauley explains further, “So we just wanted to figure out a way of doing it to where our fans could still enjoy it, ’cause, regardless, we would still…I don’t know. Even if nobody was listening, we would be getting together and making music. We’re addicted.” And it’s a pretty fair statement to make, considering the band pop out a record almost every two years for the last six like clockwork. Of Mice & Men had guidance throughout the beginnings of their careers, before they kept production in-house, allowing the band a certain kind of freedom and understanding for the craft now. With people like David Bendeth, Howard Benson, and Josh Wilbur offering their expertise both during the band’s time working with them and after, Pauley says that “every single one of them taught us invaluable lessons and made themselves available to us even when we started self-producing.”
“It’s just something that we really enjoy. Like I said, we really love the process. It’s a definite challenge when you take the reins for yourselves,” Pauley continues, “But there is also a lot of creative freedom and just freedom especially with regard to time, when it’s your own project. For us, doing it all in-house, if you can’t sleep one night and it’s 2:30 in the morning or something and you wanna wake up and put an hour of work in, you can do that,” hence the band’s need for deadlines, as anyone with a hobby or craft knows they will continue to refine something for as long as time lets them. Pauley elaborates that when working with a producer, you have a limited amount of time, and “there’s always this feeling, especially with regard to experimentation, like, ‘Well, I don’t wanna waste too much of this person’s time experimenting with an idea.'” And a band’s studio experiences can vary, depending on their budget and how much they’re willing to pour into recording, but regardless there’s a feeling when recording with an outsourced producer of “‘Oh, I should have been more prepared so I could just come in and record my parts.'”
So, when there’s not only an independence in time but creative freedom awarded when Of Mice & Men self-produces, it’s a no-brainer, “But when you’re sort of doing it yourself, you’re sort of left to your own devices, which then is a perfect avenue for problem solving, which is a perfect avenue for growth and learning,” allowing for what people are hailing Of Mice & Men‘s heaviest record in years. “The feedback has been that this record is one of our heaviest in a long time. Some of the songs, I think, are our heaviest songs that we’ve ever dropped. And then I think it sort of takes the experimental nature of Echo with some of the melodic nature of Tether, but then it dials up the intensity.”
And Pauley reveals that because of their little creative and little constraints the band can start writing the record whenever they want, “We started working on this basically shortly after releasing Tether, because — I don’t know — we’re just crazy. We always just start working on new music immediately. We really like the process. We love the process of getting together and making music. So once the record’s done, we’re, like, ‘Okay, well, let’s just start making music again.'”
Yet, this record doesn’t feel tired. Many artists would feel fatigued from two records in four years, let alone three in five. But, Of Mice & Men are at their most energetic, and arguably make their best music, is when they’re fresh off the back of touring, with Pauley explaining that Tether served as a blueprint for them in their newest venture, saying that they were in a position “where we did a significant portion of the writing, recorded a little bit of it, went on tour, and then we still had that sort of stage energy fresh in our minds when we went back into the studio. And this record was very much the same thing.”
Of Mice & Men will be heading out on a short European and UK tour within the next month to celebrate the release of Another Miracle, and will be home in time for the holidays, but in the meantime, you can pre-save Of Mice & Men‘s upcoming record here, have a gander at tour dates below, and check out tickets for those shows here.
November
27th – Hamburg, DE @ Docks
28th – Berlin, DE@ Hole 44
29th – Leipzig, DE @ Anker
30th – Prague, CZ @ Meet Factory
December
2nd – Warsaw, PL @ Progresja
4th – Munich, DE @ Backstage
5th – Cologne, DE @ Essigfabrik
6th – Solothurn, CH @ Kulturfabrik Kofmehl
8th – Paris, FR @ Bataclan
9th – Tilburg, NL @ 013
11th – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
12th – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
13th – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Electric
14th – Glasgow, UK @ The Garage
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