The Mighty Nimbus Interview

Minnesota's own brothers of all things heavy, The Mighty Nimbus. Fresh from the US Candlelight Tour and ahead of the recording of their second album, Andy Campbell laid down all the news.


Hey Andy, how are things with you and the rest of the band?
Oh man it's good! Right now we are taking a break and finishing up writing songs for the new album coming out hopefully early 2006. We are going to head into the studio here is July in the same spot that we recorded the last one. We're getting Nico form Entombed to produce it. We've got a lotta new stuff and it should be good. We're also working on a European tour for December 2005 / first part of 2006.
The band has gone through a number of line up changes since the recording of the album, could you confirm the line-up as it is today?
First off the line-up was always myself, Peter and Dinis. It all came about when Pete was asking Dan and Erik if they would like to play with us, and with different things coming up Dan couldn't be with us anymore and that's fine. We then had to recruit and we went with Alex Petrovic who was our second guitar player with us until Dan couldn't do this last Entombed and Crowbar tour. So Alex stepped up and did the vocal duties, which he did a phenomenal job. So with Erik gone doing his ATP (Alabama Thunder Pussy) touring, the band is me, Pete, Alex and Dinis. But really we couldn't ask for a better line-up really, all the song writers are still here. I mean I don't think Erik wrote one riff on the last album and the only thing Dan did was write lyrics. It's really the best line-up we've had talent wise.
	So Dan is now gone as a full time member, can you share any of the reasons for his leaving?
	There were some personal reasons with him going through some troubles at home, that meant he couldn't get away to do touring. He said on numerous times he would love to record on the album, but he couldn't tour. For us we had already gone through that twice so it wasn't really fair to us or the fans to say that we would put one crew on an album and tour around with another crew. We weren't going to hang with that. We had had numerous people come in and say "Wow Dan sounds great up there", and we were like that's not Dan, but Alex. Alex has this uncanny knack of sounding like Dan. It's really kinda weird as he idolizes Dan aswell. It really makes for a real good mix.
	The band plan to head back into the studio in July to record your second album. Will Erik be part of recording process for this album?
	We parted ways as it really became to much of a hassle to get everyone together. ATP has really taken off right now, we feel we are on the verge of doing our thing over here. Everyone has to do their own thing, and we wanted to try and keep the band close instead of being all spread out. Alex lives in Canada, but he comes here all the time. It just makes for a better line up.
	So how are preparations for the new album coming along? Is everything written and finalized?
	Yeah, rehearsals are going great. Right now we have probably got about 10 tracks and we will come up with 2 or 3 more, we're working on a couple of covers. It's going to be a little more of a lengthier album, but not overly long, probably somewhere about an hour. Super heavy, we're really going for it. There will be a theme this time, I don't know what it will be just yet, but we're trying to make all come together. It's definitely going to be a great album!
	Going back to the debut album which has been out a couple of months now. What has been the reaction to the record?
	So far it has been extremely positive, especially in Europe where they have always been more receptive to our style of music. They have always been into the Vitus, the doom sound that
has been lost for so long. The European audiences really dig on it, the American audiences when we went out with Crowbar and Entombed liked us and we had nothing but positive feed back, but no one had heard of us before. Were as in Europe, we get far more people have heard of us before they come to the show. But with the Americans we have had to dominate, you know? Come out and put out a real powerful performance which is how we like to portray ourselves, we give it 110%. People really feed off that. Powerful drums, powerful guitars and a vocalist that is 6 foot 3, that when he gets into it.....we call him the fucking Yeti because he is so big. I mean you can't even see me behind the drums and I'm 300 pounds! We really have an agenda to come out with the next album and really just solidify what we do, and rock out.
Going back to the first album is there anything you guys would like to change if you had your time over again?
Yeah, we'd probably do it all differently. The songs we play live from that album are almost completely different that how we recorded them. We did a lot of writing when we recorded that album, so it was like we would get half way through a track when we recording it as we were like "well lets try this, or add two more of these or lets go back to this riff". So it was a lot of a lot of spontaneity at the time. Were as with this one it's not going to be "lets have two of these or lets go back to this riff", it's more of a case of jam on this riff and then come back. It is more of a structured approach, which it has to with me, Pete and Dini being more centralized and not have to count on people from different states to have to come in and help out. It's defiantly more tight and more solid.
So has the more stable line up helped in developing the bands sound?
Yeah for sure. The Mighty Nimbus has always been Peter, Dini and myself and the other two guys came in and helped us out. Lent their names so to speak. I've done a lot of interviews where it's been, lets talk about Sixty Watt or ATP. But people say you sound nothing like them. Yeah but neither of those guys wrote the songs, you know? We're all waiting for the day when it is The Mighty Nimbus featuring The Mighty Nimbus. Not The Mighty Nimbus featuring Sixty Watt and ATP. That's what we are looking for with this next album. We couldn't do the last album without Erik and Dan, those guys and friends and brothers of ours. We'll support them and they will support us, but they're moving on and we're moving on and the future is going to be great for all of us.
With this new full time line-up, do you think you guys will get rid of this part time project label?
Correct. That's really what we are kinda hoping for. Really Pete is the only Sixty Watt member, and he was their drummer. Where as he's our guitar player. So really there is no part time people left.
The bands sound has been labeled many different things, Stoner, Sluge, Doom. How do you best describe your sound?
I would say Stoner Metal, but when I say that to people they go "what the hell is that"? I've always hated classification but when we write we're like, we can't write that because it's too Death Metal or that's too Stoner Rock. Fuck it, we're going to write what we write and play what we're going to play. So classification has always been a limitation for us, we're just going to to go out and do what we do.
The album was released through Threeman Records in Europe, how did you guys decide upon Threeman?
At the time we had an eight sound promo that we sent to multiple records labels all over Europe and the States, and I'd say about 90% of them cam back and said "na it's not what we are looking for. It's to hard or it's not fast enough". We've been Entombed fans for Christ for over a decade, so when Threeman came back and said that this is what they were looking for. We were just ecstatic. All those guys have been great, so when we hooked up on this last tour it was like we'd know each other for 20 years.
Ahead of the album release, The Mighty Nimbus went out on the road in the US with Entombed, Crowbar and Pro-Pain. How did the tour go for you guys?
That tour was probably the best tour I have been a part of. These guys showed up and it was like we'd know each other all along. Just one of those things, were it was cooler to hang out that it was to play shows, you know what I mean? The first thing we'd do was get out have a chat or have a beer whatever, it was just a fantastic laid back atmosphere the whole time. I couldn't have asked for more. The crowd response was a little small, I think the tour was a little over booked perhaps thinking that thousands and thousands of people would show up. When in reality 200 or 300 showed up. It was a shame, I mean shit dude, Entombed and Crowbar sharing the same venue, sharing the same stage. Christ! We couldn't have asked for anything more, I mean we are in the works of trying to hook up with those guys again. We made some friendships that will last a long time
Do you think that perhaps the problem is that the US public are sometimes spoilt when it comes to music and the bills they have the ability to have access to. Yet choose not to support the underground?
Yeah Americans are totally spoilt. I think that the radio tells them what they need to listen too. The only people who showed up to the last Candlelight Tour were those who had been around for 10 or 15 years and know what these bands are. Of course they didn't know who we were because we are not on the radio and we are brand new. You don't hear hear Entombed, Crowbar or Pro-Pain on the radio, it's totally underground. The US audience will go and see the Linkin Park show and sell out 30,000 people, but when they have a chance to see Pro-Pain or Entombed, only 200 or 300 people make the show. That is why we are so excited to go to Europe. The package we are working on now it will be a great tour. We are looking to be over for about 4 weeks. With the names that are being thrown around at the moment, it could be a bill of 3 or 4 bands; super heavy.
The debut album includes the bonus track of the St Vitus classic "Born To Late", why this song and how did it come to find it's way onto the album?
With "Born To Late", we ended up doing that way post recording. After the recording sessions were said and done. we were talking to Dan who is co-owner of Threeman Records and he was like, "I want you guys to do some sort of bonus track for the record". So we decided to do Vitus. Pete brought it too us and really slugging it out. It was Peter, Dini and myself who recorded on it in a real small studio, and we were like "lets see if we can get someone to do guest vocals on it"? So we asked J Sandstrom (ex-Entombed & Grave) if he wanted to do it and he was more than happy to help us out. So we ended up sending out our track to Sweden, he recorded on them, they mixed it out there. The rest is history I guess. We talked to Wino before we did it and he gave us his blessing, wished us the best of luck. When we finally played it for him, there was nothing but hugs. When we played "Born To Late" on the last tour we had Uffe from Entombed come up to play guitar and we got Kirk of Crowbar come up and sign with Alex.
Enjoyment appears to be a big part of your music. Do you feel that the enjoyment factor has gone out of the music industry?
I think so. It appears as though everyone is looking for that one big hit, that one song that is gonna make them money. And that's when everything turns to shit. That's why you get a lot of debut albums that are really good and then the second album is so so, because they are trying to make that money. That's not what we are about. As I said the thing we enjoyed about that last tour was the hangin' out with everybody and then playing music. It's not about making money. Shit we're not even registered, we don't make anything, we just go out any play music. Pete's my brother so, I get to go out with my brother and play music. And Dini I've know him for 25 years, so we just get to hang out and play music. We're gonna go out to Europe and hang out with our good friends, basically that's what it about. It never used to be about money.
On the subject of money, how do you find it juggling band commitments with your personal life?
Oh it is tough. I'm at the University finishing up my degree, so for me to find time, I had to take weeks off to just go out and do that last tour. It's tough man! Dini works full time, I'm a full time student. But you know we approach it that, we're going to record an album once a year. We're going to try and get out an tour Europe once a year and we are going to try and do something big in the States once a year. That's the bulk of what we can do. If we can go out and make enough money that we don't have to work and just tour and make music that would be the American dream right there. But we find time, juggling stuff, it also means we don't get burnt out on it either. We're not sat in a room saying we gotta write songs! We have to practice! Now we all look forward to practice, we all show up at one central spot and we are all like "I've got this riff" and "I've got this riff, what do you think about this"? Everything is fresh, everything is hot. It's a good time!
On the subject of rehearsals, how do the band overcome the great distances geographically between you all when it comes time to write and rehearse?
Well as I said Pete and I are brothers, and Dini grew up down the street from Pete and I. So we have known each other for that long. So basically it's weekends or for me right now it's summer vacation. I don't have school. Pete and I pretty much play all day at his house, then we go to Dini's house in the evenings to write stuff. It finds it's way of working out. We all kinda jam with different people, so we keep our chops up. But when we get together it just kinda happens, it's not like a plan or anything.
You guys have also just shot your first video for "Raising The Mammoth". How did you all enjoy this experience? How did you come to decide upon this song to do the first video?
Oh man that was the craziest thing I've ever seen. I sitting there playing drums, and I've only been playing since the beginning of the recording of the last album, I'd never touched them before. So this tour was the my first big tour, I'd never gotten up and done that sort of stuff before. Then to have a dude sat on the side of the stage with a camera, one guy sat in front of you with a camera, then there are 3 guys in front of the stage with camera's, Jesus Christ man! I'm there thinking, just don't fuck up, just don't fuck up! It was an experience! We recorded 3 songs, we're going to post them strategically over the coming months.
What music out there now are you guys tuned into?
Lately I've listening to (Grand) Magus. They are good friends of ours, they produce some of the best music I've heard in a long time. Witchcraft, which I really really like. And then just friends we meet along the way. You know the old stuff too. Entombed, Crowbar, Clutch...I just got the new Spiritual Beggars album that rocks. Then just some of the older stuff, Cream all that sort of thing. Just because there isn't all that much new shit out there that's any good. It's like that old car you just can't seem to get rid of because it gets you form point A to point B.
Any message to your fans?
Keep your ear to the ground, as that's were all the good shit is comin' from. I really think that there is a Heavy music revival that will go on, much like Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Nirvana all came out. I can feel a wave just from that last tour. With the insurgence of COC, Clutch, Down especially in the US there is an underground revival going on. Just be ready!