1.Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?
1. Right now the band is finishing up tracking a new album. Last year was a busy year for a lot of us in our personal lives. That on top of the giant difficulties we had getting the Rabble Rousers album done left us with little time to get our set where we wanted it and play out as much as we hoped. So we decided to make the best of what time we had and start writing. We aren't sure when the new album will come out, but with our end of it done we will be able to focus on some shows and with any luck a video.
2.How would you describe the musical sound of the newer album?
2. We always just describe ourselves as a rock band. That's a pretty vague term, but we've never felt that we fall fully into one sub genre or another. There's some Southern, some blues, some stoner, some classic, shades of doom, psychedelic in a song or two, pretty much almost any category that ends in the term rock, you'll find on it. Then we tune down to B and turn up the gain. We write as a rock band and present it with a bit of classic and 90's metal sounds.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you explore with the newer music?
3. Lyrics have always been a huge pain in the ass for me. The goal was never, and still isn't, to come off as goofy or silly, but I've never done well trying to be overly serious either. It always feels pompous or pretentious. So when I started, the only advice I was ever given was "write what you know" which in my case was bad jokes and pop/counter culture references. It's turned into me just singing about stuff I like, books, movies and tv, a lot of sci fi and old campy horror stuff, comics, stuff like that. There's plenty of ideas and thoughts on cultural trends and social issues, political commentary type subjects, but I keep most of that fairly buried. I have no interest in telling anyone what they should think. So the subjects to the songs end up being whatever you want to get out of it. The effects of social media on today's society, the need for instant gratification created by technology in our culture, the problems of extremes that have become the prominent voices in our politics, or pun filled Star Trek jokes, sci fi silliness, and poop jokes; whichever your inclined to gravitate towards.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Mississippi Bones'?
4. Mississippi Bones was a hobo drifter who I believe strangled a few people. Dusty had already done a few home demos under that name when we decided to write some music. Being from Ohio we have confused some people who think it has to do with the state, but when we started, it was suppose to be a 1 and done Ep so we never gave that any thought.
By the time it came up we felt it was probably too late to change it.
5.What are some of best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
5. We don't get out a lot but have been fortunate that most of our shows have been with bands we really dig. Last Aug we played with Brimstone Coven, Neon Warship and King Bison. That was a pretty rocking show. All great bands that everyone should check out. Gudger and Dune was another show that was cool, they are both Ohio bands as well, great sound to both of them. Playing with bands you really like always makes the night even better. One of my favorite shows was in Ada with a band called the Death Rays. They play old black and white sci fi movies on a screen behind them and do a really cool light show using an over head projector and colored oils, very psychedelic. Our stage presence is probably what you would expect from listening to the album. We don't have an certain image we are trying to convey so its some dudes and a lady drinking some beers and playing some rock, and a lot of bad jokes. The songs are tight and the flow is loose. No matter how big the crowd or the stage is it should always feel like getting together with some good friends to have a good time rocking.
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
6. We've never been a touring band so a full fledge tour is not something that we have on the table right now or are perusing. The new album should be tracked within a week or two so we are starting to look at what shows we are going to line up through summer and fall but as of yet nothing to report. One hope we have is to get an annual Bones Barbecue Bash going every summer so we are looking into that. Our drummer has a Barbecue food truck called Pig Eaters and makes the best pulled pork and brisket around. We figure the one thing great rock shows are missing is ample supplies of smoked meats so there is a hope to get that incorporated in soon.
7.Recently 'Kozmik Artifactz' issued your album on vinyl, what are your thoughts on the final product?
7. We haven't seen the final product but we are beyond excited to get our hands on it. This is the first vinyl release any of us have had so it's pretty cool to us. The album art for it was made just for the fact it's going on vinyl. Album art these days is usually viewed on a phone or tiny thumbnail on a computer screen so there isn't as much of the intricate overdone style stuff there use to be. I personally was really excited to have an excuse to do a giant complex album cover. Hats off to Eeriette for the work she did. We had the concept and after I started talking to her about it it just kept growing. In the end she killed it. Can't wait for it to come in.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal and rock?
8. The feed back has been incredibly positive. Like I said earlier this whole thing was supposed to be a 1 and done, the reason we were able to a second and third album was because of all the support. The first album was recorded mainly on free studio time, I think all together we had $200 in it. A deal like that doesn't come often, if people wouldn't have bought it, I think we would still have written Tracks, we had a lot of fun making the first album, but it never would have seen the light of day. Which means Rabble Rousers would have never came out either. We hear from a lot of people in the UK, Greece Brazil, it's crazy how small the world is anymore.
9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
9. I don't see any huge curveballs coming, we explored a bit deeper into our stoner and doom influences on the album we are working in now. As a whole is a bit slower, and a bit heavier. Not all of it is, but it's tipped more that way. One thing I enjoy about not falling into any one specific sound is at any time we can switch gears and not feel like we are changing the bands sound. There's a bit more freedom that way.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
10. One we hear people say a lot and wouldn't deny is Clutch. They are a bit of a common ground among everyone. We all have some pretty drastically different tastes but that's one of the few that's all around. We don't hide our influences so it's probably no shock to hear bands like Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, Down, all kinds of Classic Rock, 90's metal like Pantera, Crowbar, Soundgarden. There's some odd stuff too, sometimes when we are writing I'll listen to a lot of George Clinton, or James Brown for some old funk or R&B grooves. The song The Real Housewives of Alpha Centauri VII was written after rocking some Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. So we can be all over the place. Again, anything that is rock is fair game. Personally, lately I've had The Sword Apocryphon, The Great Khan, Ghost Meliora, and Monolord in a lot. I recently got Toro Blanco's Ep in the mail and have had that in as well. They are another Ohio band from up in Cleveland.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
11. Outside of music you can pretty much tell what I'm into from my lyrics. Apart from spending as much time as I can with my wife and daughter, I read a lot, usually horror and sci fi, I've recently discovered a Bizzaro author, Carlton Mellick III. He's crazy. If you like insane surreal stuff I recommend his stuff. I've been trying to find some people to play magic with, I never really played before, but it's to hard to get everyone together for DnD these days so it seems like the next best option. I've been writing short fiction stories lately. Music has always been the large part of my interests so everything else takes a back seat. I've got 3 or 4 Eps scratched out on my laptop waiting to be tracked, a bluegrass thing I cooked up, a super low and slow doom ep, a rock a billy project called Governor Grimm and the Ghastly Ghouls has a follow up ep to our first one almost written, and then a death/grind project I do with a friend call Burdens of Misanthropy has a follow up ep that's half done. So usually if I'm not working on Bones music, my interests are normally something else to do with music.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12. Yeah, I really want to thank everyone who's been so supportive of Mississippi Bones. Whether it's the people who buy the albums, people who play our songs on the radio, people who have written reviews, or even Kozmik Artifactz who are releasing our stuff and getting us heard by more people. You are the only reason we get to keep releasing them. I know I've said it a few times but this band wasn't suppose to still be going. We just had some much fun, and you guys kept listening we found no reason to stop. 6 years later we are finishing up out 4th full length album. I can't thank you enough for that. That's from all of us. Oh, and also, I'm really trying to name a song on the new album, Robot Kiaju Hullabaloo, and Dusty hates the name. Go to our Facebook and leave a message telling him how awesome that name is. It's got everything, robots, Kiaju, hullabaloo, and good on you if you got the curious George reference. You'll have my gratitude.
1. Right now the band is finishing up tracking a new album. Last year was a busy year for a lot of us in our personal lives. That on top of the giant difficulties we had getting the Rabble Rousers album done left us with little time to get our set where we wanted it and play out as much as we hoped. So we decided to make the best of what time we had and start writing. We aren't sure when the new album will come out, but with our end of it done we will be able to focus on some shows and with any luck a video.
2.How would you describe the musical sound of the newer album?
2. We always just describe ourselves as a rock band. That's a pretty vague term, but we've never felt that we fall fully into one sub genre or another. There's some Southern, some blues, some stoner, some classic, shades of doom, psychedelic in a song or two, pretty much almost any category that ends in the term rock, you'll find on it. Then we tune down to B and turn up the gain. We write as a rock band and present it with a bit of classic and 90's metal sounds.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you explore with the newer music?
3. Lyrics have always been a huge pain in the ass for me. The goal was never, and still isn't, to come off as goofy or silly, but I've never done well trying to be overly serious either. It always feels pompous or pretentious. So when I started, the only advice I was ever given was "write what you know" which in my case was bad jokes and pop/counter culture references. It's turned into me just singing about stuff I like, books, movies and tv, a lot of sci fi and old campy horror stuff, comics, stuff like that. There's plenty of ideas and thoughts on cultural trends and social issues, political commentary type subjects, but I keep most of that fairly buried. I have no interest in telling anyone what they should think. So the subjects to the songs end up being whatever you want to get out of it. The effects of social media on today's society, the need for instant gratification created by technology in our culture, the problems of extremes that have become the prominent voices in our politics, or pun filled Star Trek jokes, sci fi silliness, and poop jokes; whichever your inclined to gravitate towards.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Mississippi Bones'?
4. Mississippi Bones was a hobo drifter who I believe strangled a few people. Dusty had already done a few home demos under that name when we decided to write some music. Being from Ohio we have confused some people who think it has to do with the state, but when we started, it was suppose to be a 1 and done Ep so we never gave that any thought.
By the time it came up we felt it was probably too late to change it.
5.What are some of best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
5. We don't get out a lot but have been fortunate that most of our shows have been with bands we really dig. Last Aug we played with Brimstone Coven, Neon Warship and King Bison. That was a pretty rocking show. All great bands that everyone should check out. Gudger and Dune was another show that was cool, they are both Ohio bands as well, great sound to both of them. Playing with bands you really like always makes the night even better. One of my favorite shows was in Ada with a band called the Death Rays. They play old black and white sci fi movies on a screen behind them and do a really cool light show using an over head projector and colored oils, very psychedelic. Our stage presence is probably what you would expect from listening to the album. We don't have an certain image we are trying to convey so its some dudes and a lady drinking some beers and playing some rock, and a lot of bad jokes. The songs are tight and the flow is loose. No matter how big the crowd or the stage is it should always feel like getting together with some good friends to have a good time rocking.
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
6. We've never been a touring band so a full fledge tour is not something that we have on the table right now or are perusing. The new album should be tracked within a week or two so we are starting to look at what shows we are going to line up through summer and fall but as of yet nothing to report. One hope we have is to get an annual Bones Barbecue Bash going every summer so we are looking into that. Our drummer has a Barbecue food truck called Pig Eaters and makes the best pulled pork and brisket around. We figure the one thing great rock shows are missing is ample supplies of smoked meats so there is a hope to get that incorporated in soon.
7.Recently 'Kozmik Artifactz' issued your album on vinyl, what are your thoughts on the final product?
7. We haven't seen the final product but we are beyond excited to get our hands on it. This is the first vinyl release any of us have had so it's pretty cool to us. The album art for it was made just for the fact it's going on vinyl. Album art these days is usually viewed on a phone or tiny thumbnail on a computer screen so there isn't as much of the intricate overdone style stuff there use to be. I personally was really excited to have an excuse to do a giant complex album cover. Hats off to Eeriette for the work she did. We had the concept and after I started talking to her about it it just kept growing. In the end she killed it. Can't wait for it to come in.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal and rock?
8. The feed back has been incredibly positive. Like I said earlier this whole thing was supposed to be a 1 and done, the reason we were able to a second and third album was because of all the support. The first album was recorded mainly on free studio time, I think all together we had $200 in it. A deal like that doesn't come often, if people wouldn't have bought it, I think we would still have written Tracks, we had a lot of fun making the first album, but it never would have seen the light of day. Which means Rabble Rousers would have never came out either. We hear from a lot of people in the UK, Greece Brazil, it's crazy how small the world is anymore.
9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
9. I don't see any huge curveballs coming, we explored a bit deeper into our stoner and doom influences on the album we are working in now. As a whole is a bit slower, and a bit heavier. Not all of it is, but it's tipped more that way. One thing I enjoy about not falling into any one specific sound is at any time we can switch gears and not feel like we are changing the bands sound. There's a bit more freedom that way.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
10. One we hear people say a lot and wouldn't deny is Clutch. They are a bit of a common ground among everyone. We all have some pretty drastically different tastes but that's one of the few that's all around. We don't hide our influences so it's probably no shock to hear bands like Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, Down, all kinds of Classic Rock, 90's metal like Pantera, Crowbar, Soundgarden. There's some odd stuff too, sometimes when we are writing I'll listen to a lot of George Clinton, or James Brown for some old funk or R&B grooves. The song The Real Housewives of Alpha Centauri VII was written after rocking some Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. So we can be all over the place. Again, anything that is rock is fair game. Personally, lately I've had The Sword Apocryphon, The Great Khan, Ghost Meliora, and Monolord in a lot. I recently got Toro Blanco's Ep in the mail and have had that in as well. They are another Ohio band from up in Cleveland.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
11. Outside of music you can pretty much tell what I'm into from my lyrics. Apart from spending as much time as I can with my wife and daughter, I read a lot, usually horror and sci fi, I've recently discovered a Bizzaro author, Carlton Mellick III. He's crazy. If you like insane surreal stuff I recommend his stuff. I've been trying to find some people to play magic with, I never really played before, but it's to hard to get everyone together for DnD these days so it seems like the next best option. I've been writing short fiction stories lately. Music has always been the large part of my interests so everything else takes a back seat. I've got 3 or 4 Eps scratched out on my laptop waiting to be tracked, a bluegrass thing I cooked up, a super low and slow doom ep, a rock a billy project called Governor Grimm and the Ghastly Ghouls has a follow up ep to our first one almost written, and then a death/grind project I do with a friend call Burdens of Misanthropy has a follow up ep that's half done. So usually if I'm not working on Bones music, my interests are normally something else to do with music.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12. Yeah, I really want to thank everyone who's been so supportive of Mississippi Bones. Whether it's the people who buy the albums, people who play our songs on the radio, people who have written reviews, or even Kozmik Artifactz who are releasing our stuff and getting us heard by more people. You are the only reason we get to keep releasing them. I know I've said it a few times but this band wasn't suppose to still be going. We just had some much fun, and you guys kept listening we found no reason to stop. 6 years later we are finishing up out 4th full length album. I can't thank you enough for that. That's from all of us. Oh, and also, I'm really trying to name a song on the new album, Robot Kiaju Hullabaloo, and Dusty hates the name. Go to our Facebook and leave a message telling him how awesome that name is. It's got everything, robots, Kiaju, hullabaloo, and good on you if you got the curious George reference. You'll have my gratitude.
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