Mercurial Rage are an electronically inclined outfit hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota who are part Depeche Mode, part New Order all filtered through the smooth intentions of Michael McDonald with a touch of Morrissey‘s emotional wanderings. They are also preparing to release their self-titled EP on June 7th.

Sharing a mutual love for all things right and proper in this world, bassist and all around good guy, Christopher Church decided to sit down and talk about the new EP, his influences and why he thinks Michael McDonald is a silver fox.

Involved in making music since he was a teenager, Chris was involved in more rock orientated bands prior to Mercurial Rage.

“I’ve been playing since I was 16. I started off writing lyrics, and making up songs for my friend’s punk band. He wanted me to start a new band with him and be the singer/front man, but I couldn’t sing on pitch to save my life. I got demoted to bass right then, and have been there ever since.”

Mercurial Rage have been making music since 2004. Lead singer Michael Di’Greggario and Chris worked together a coffee shop where they spent many hours listening to the records which would form the foundations and influences that would typify Mercurial Rage’s output.

“We spent a lot of time together, listening to records and selling coffee you see, so we would get all wired and excited about certain bands. We had both been in straight up rock bands before, and we thought it would be fun to try going entirely electronic.”

Performing their first live show in 2005, Mercurial Rage encountered certain image problems from providing an entirely electronic musical experience without any “real instruments” to distract the gibbons.

“Our friends encouraged us to do a live show in 2005, but all we had were fully sequenced tracks that we sang to. Seriously we would just be two guys singing to an iPod. We figured if we were going to do this live we needed a little more, so that’s when we added Brock Landers on keyboards. We played as a three piece for about 3 months then we added Butch McQueen on guitar, at that time I started
playing all the bass parts live.”

Mercurial Rage began with a series of live concerts, mostly centred on a feeling of unabashed good will, continuously vibrating through a sequence of well worn pre-Nirvana grooves. A list of inspirations that saw The Smiths alongside New Order and Depeche Mode; the band would display their abilities to meld these sometimes innocuous motivations with more incendiary components to good effect.

“In the very beginning people loved it. Michael is a really good front man. He cavorts all over the stage and really can bring out the dance party in an audience. Of course there were people who just hated us because they thought we were “cheating” somehow by not playing “real” instruments.

It seems like everybody loves electronic music, but it’s hard to get a scene going. And sound people at clubs sometimes just don’t understand that you don’t have a drummer. Sometimes they get mad at you. It’s like somehow we are upsetting their perfect view of the world. You can get some horrible mixes, when you rely too heavily on sequenced tracks, which is one of reasons we have continued to add more live elements, just to get it to sound better. Electronic music has been around for forever, it’s not new, but it seems like more and more electronic bands add live elements to their shows.”

The introduction of live instruments was a “natural evolution” for Mercurial Rage.

“I think it’s possible to do electronic music and make it entertaining (in a live setting). You could have an elaborate stage show, some dancers, nudity I suppose. It does take the audience some time to get used to the fact that there aren’t people playing guitars. It probably wouldn’t be so much if we were in LA or New York, but Minneapolis has a big rock history, and that has affected us. But also once we added a little guitar, we loved it and wanted more. I want to be able to do both extremes, and play a show where there are some songs fully electronic, some songs with a full band, and some songs in-between.”

What strikes you first about Mercurial Rage’s self-titled EP is how it manages to ride
its influences, calling you back to (not quite so) shameful enjoyment of Everybody Wants to Rule the World, while remaining steadfast in its assertions of being a product of today. Ballsy and self assured, Mercurial Rage deliver something that will no doubt divide, but will no doubt entertain in equal amounts. Sure, there is delicious 80s cheese at the heart of this collection of tracks but hell, there’s just as much of Catch off of The Cure’s 1987 breakthrough offering to the American mainstream, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

“I love Kraftwerk. I grew up listening to The Cure, and New Order. I came at it from that angle. Also to tell the truth, I spent a summer listening to a lot of Dr. Dre productions.”

Apparently not happy with the fairly disturbing relationship he has with actor and all-round berk, Steve Zahn, Chris has settled into this Robert Smith fascination with a canny eye to the stars and an ear to the ground. Name dropping in a song or two is nothing compared to Chris’ unabashed example of adoration which led to two people receiving impromptu embroidered flesh wounds in the shape of The Cure’s head honcho.

“I name drop Robert Smith in one of our songs. People have tried to get me to change it but I won’t. I want Robert to hear it and call me. I once started a blog which was titled, “I want Robert Smith to call me.” I’m not usually the obsessive type about celebrity, but Robert Smith is different.”

How hard is it though to be heard amongst the thousands of Myspace based hopefuls?

“It’s tough. We put out an EP last year completely independent. We even had to make up fake press to be able to send it places unsolicited. But through that we got real press, and with this release we are on a local label called MPLSLTD. The label does help in sending it out.

Still, I’m not even sure how to get widespread distribution, and even if you send it somewhere there is no guarantee they will listen to it. So I figure we will just keep playing, and putting stuff out until we can’t be ignored. Maybe I can make a plea to the people. Buy our records, and make me famous so I can move in celebrity circles. Only them will I be able to slap Steve Zahn.”

For future reference, it is important to state that Michael McDonald breathes life into lifeless forms with his smooth mumblings. Christopher Church held this point as high-factoid and picturing himself as that man in the convertible in the awesome video to Ride Like the Wind, he laid some of that flavour on all you Yacht Rock loving people out there.

“The second song on the record, Moonlight. I wanted that to be smooth. I was listening to a lot of Bee Gees and Michael McDonald. The demo I gave the band had me singing it in my Barry Gibb voice. The rest of the boys kind of made some of that go away, but I still think there is smoothness to the track.

When somebody first hipped me to the Yacht Rock on Youtube, I thought they were making fun of me, because I genuinely like all those artists.”

The recording process involved heading into the studio last summer at Flower Studios in Minneapolis. Aided by local producer Ed Ackerson, the band went about putting the four new tracks contained on this EP to task, working out the kinks and adding texture.

“Ed has a band called Polara and he has worked with quite a few musicians of note. You can check out his stuff on www.susstones.com. Anyway he was great to work with. He was really good at helping us find places to add texture to the songs. Our music because of the electronic nature is largely recorded before we go into the studio.

We just dump the track we have into pro tools and then the producer sorts them out, adds texture, and changes tones. Then all we have to do is track the live instruments and vocals. It’s actually a pretty fast process because of all the preproduction work we do before going into the studio.

Basically we demo every new song. We have to have a good demo because it becomes the basis for our live sound. After we demo a song we learn to play it live in the rehearsal space. So by the time we go in the studio we have worked out most of the bugs.”

The Internet has had a major effect on bands like Mercurial Rage being able to afford to record and release their music.

“The entire music industry is dealing with the effect the Internet has. Actually it’s on of the reasons we have put out EP’s. We are just trying to put out more releases, because so many people are buying things a single downloads anyway. We are still pretty unknown outside of Minneapolis, but we do actually get some people buying our stuff from the internet. The Germans seem to like us, but we don’t make much money. Everything is put back into spending more time in the studio.”

A challenge facing any up-coming musician is how to deal with a crumbling Record Industry and the onset of illegal downloading. Chris is not concerned by this, as he told me.

“I’m small potatoes, so I don’t care if people illegally download my stuff. I just want to get it out there. The big bands will still make most of their money on the road, selling merchandise. You know I buy music from iTunes all the time, not because I am against downloading illegally, but because I’m too lazy to look for it illegally.

We could always get it for free. Most of my music when I was a kid was free. I just made cassettes of the stuff I wanted from my friend’s records. But if it was something I felt was particularly important, I bought it, just for my need to complete a collection. So if the Cure put out a new CD, I won’t download it I will have to own that. So I can have something to hold in my hands. I have downloaded a record before its release, just so I could hear it, and then went and bought it when it came out.”

Chris is not averse to using Mercurial Rage’s music in advertising.

“I have no problem whatsoever with selling out. I’m actively trying to sell out all the time. I even have alternate lyrics for most of our songs. sometimes I crack up the other guys by dropping in product names randomly during practice. Hey what can I say, I’ve got mouths to feed.

Give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up for Taco Johns. That one usually goes over well.

You know if you are as huge as the stones you can afford protect the sanctity of your art, but in the real world we are all just trying to live our lives as best we can. If selling songs to advertisers means I don’t need a day job, then that is worth it. But yeah, I wouldn’t do a PSA for the KKK.”

Mercurial Rage will be performing in concert on 7th June at the Fine Line in Minneapolis to coincide with the launch of their new EP.

“It’s a medium capacity club. It gets its share of national and international acts. It’s a great venue with great sound. That will be on June 7th. 6-7-08, get it? We had a big party on 6-6-6 by the way. Jon (Hunt) was there, and Diablo Cody did a set, anyway, off the track.”

The CD release party will see The Mood Swings, White Light Riot, and The Alarmists sharing the stage with Mercurial Rage.

“All of the other bands are bigger than us, and have a bigger draw, so it is great that they are sharing the stage with us on our big night. We have been very lucky. We seem to be a band that other bands like. If we’ve earned any credibility and respect as an actual band despite our beginnings, it’s the fact that other musicians seem to “get” what we are doing. I am extremely grateful an honoured to have the support that we do.”

Details on how to purchase the EP which is released on June 7th and general concert information can be found at the band’s Myspace.

Bugul

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