We were lucky enough to catch up with Austin Carlisle and Valentino Arteaga from Of Mice & Men a couple of months ago when they were on tour here, check out what they had to say!
A: Whats up Im Austin Carlisle
V: Im Valentino,
A: Were from Of Mice and Men
Q: So hows the Australian tour going so far?
A: Australia is awesome so our Australian tour is great! Its day 3 or show 3 of 5 today, the tour Is going really well.
V: Awesome. Huge shows and awesome turn out, great fans, great bands. Its great.
Q: We hear youve got a new record in the works, what can you tell us about it?
A: Were actually just about done recording the new record, its being mixed right now. We were in the studio from like the start of June to the end of October. Right before we came here and its great were really excited about it, its really out there and we cant wait to hear it when its mixed.
Q: How do you think it will differ from the previous album?
A: The new record kind of stays on the same track with all of our albums, I feel like were constantly progressing. I feel like from the first album to The Flood, it all changed. We havent recorded an album in two years so thats a lot of time for the band and we wanted to take the sound of Of Mice & Men and kind of expand on that.
V: Weve included lots of melodies and stuff thatbecause were working more melodically, and theres a lot more melodies in there and a lot of people just think because were Of Mice & Men as a heavy metal band or a heavier band or heavier rock but you know expanding on our sound is cool and Im excited for us.
Q: What have you guys been listening to lately?
A: Ive been listening to a lot of hip hop lately.
V: Yeah lots of new hip hop albums came out. Drake and Jessie J and
A: Ive been listening to a band called The Silver Horse too
V: Ive been jamming to the new Avenged Sevenfold album Hail To The King baby, that thing goes hard. Asking Alexandrias awesome, the new Bring Me The Horizon obviouslybig fans of those guys. Lots of good things are going around right now. Of all times, we dont discriminate.
Q: Whats the best gig youve ever been to?
A: Thats a tough question
V: I went and saw Sade live in San Diego, one of the best nights of my life for sure. Im a huge Sade fan and just the show that she put on. Like we said we dont discriminate with music and so I love all kinds. Ill go and see a show that like was very, very powerful. So that was definitely in my top concerts that Ive been to.
A: This tour has been amazing. Ive been watching from front of house and this tour man, its been good. Other than that I havent seen a show in years, which kind of sucks.
V: Because we perform in so many all the time, we tend to not always go to shows. Were home for two weeks, the last place we want to go is to a show
Q: Whats your favourite or least favourite part of touring?
A: My favourite part of touring is getting to see the world. I had never even left the country, never even went to Mexico or Canada before the band so in the last two years weve been to Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Asia, everywhere. Its really cool that music is taking us to this so Im a lucky guy.
V: I would concur with that and that would be my enjoying tour but being away from home and I know people say that all the time but really, missing family and stuff like that, and close friends, thats always difficult but being in a different city every day kind of helps you not think about it too much cause youre always doing something. It can be better or it can be worse, it can go either way.
Q: So do you guys have any guilty pleasures?
A: I dont think I have any guilty pleasures, Im proud of everything I listen to. Musics music. I listen to Pantera to Brad Paisley, I dont care. I like country music, I listen to hip hop and folk, any kind of music. If I like the song then I listen to it.
V: We dont call them guilty pleasures like I said we dont discriminate but well jam Britney Spears every now and again and have no problem with it
A: Or Backstreet Boys
V: We dont have a problem with it, its good music. A good song is a good song.
Q: Are you guys fans of horror movies at all or cult movies?
A: Cult movies. Friday the 13th
V: I like Halloween. That movie goes hard. You know whats funny, I actually like a lot of the re-makes of a lot of the older movies. I know a lot of people bash on and some people are like ohh they dont do it justice! but honestly, I think its pretty bad-ass to see like crazy special effects on a story line that I already know. I think it makes it even cooler. Im down for like the new Texas Chainsaws and Halloween and Friday the 13th and stuff its cool. Its actually kind of scary whereas the older stuff its kind of moremaybe thats what makes it the cult.
Q: What about TV shows that you guys are watching on the bus?
V: Breaking Bad! Boom!
A: They forced me to watch it! They tied me to a chair and were like lets watch all 1900 seasons!
V: We caught everybody up on Breaking Bad. Its a huge epidemic thats sweeping the nation and we watched all of them. We like TV shows. We watch Breaking Bad, Dexter, mainly things that are a weekly thing.
A: We watch a lot of sports. We love bumpers. And Family Guy! You can always turn on Family Guy. American Dad, Southpark
V: Those are kind of always on
Q: What makes you a Maniac?
A: Im crazy about music
V: Yeah I was just gonna sayhave you seen me on stage? Whipping my hair back and forth and Im going crazy
A: A bit like Willow Smith up thereMines music as well. It better be, thats what Im doing. I wish I could skip everything else and just do music.
V: Thats something that everyone in our band shares a passion for and it makes us allwe dedicate our lives to it. If were not playing music for a crowd, then were creating music for ourselves.
A: Thats what we do all day long. I just wanted to say, to all the Maniac audience, our new album comes out early next year, please go check it out. Were really proud of it and were very excited so go check it out.
V: Very exciting times.
