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Mute Math Interview Part II

by: Travis | Monday, February 11, 2008 | 1 comment

In this installment, Paul talks about the unglamorous, yet very fulfilling, making of the Transformers theme song. We also discuss recording for the upcoming album, keytar lessons, why skateboarding is pretty much off limits for the band and how their very own etnies signature jean came about.

How long have the Mute Math guys known each other?

For about 10 years now.

You met from playing in bands?

The guys all came to New Orleans for various reasons. Roy came to New Orleans for college and we ended up meeting in a little jam session at this club on Bourbon Street. At the time he wasn’t even a bass player, he just played guitar and drums. But we ended up doing a lot of instrument swapping, so one time Roy picked up the bass and the heavens opened up and it was like, holy hell dude, why are you not a bass player? I started playing keys and after that things started clicking.

Have you ever had any keytar lessons?

Ha, no. I’ve never seen lessons for keytar in the classified ads. Maybe I should put an ad out to see if I get any kids wanting to learn to play keytar.

If you put a classified on the Mute Math website you would probably get tons of kids taking lessons. You could also have a keytar contest where the winner would receive a keytar.

Now you are thinking. We need some keytar tutorials on the Internet.

How is the new album shaping up? Is there going to be as much keytar on the new album? Is it going to fall in the same lines as the last record?

That’s kind of hard to say. We are still in the experimental mode, which is what we normally do while looking for song concepts, melodies and chords. The vibe of the record is still open, but we are definitely pushing beyond anything we have accomplished before. One of the things that started this band was the freedom to create, it wasn’t about forming song ideas into formulas, it was about making something we like to listen to and play every night. The temptation going into this next record is the idea that we already have a handful of songs that have made some waves, so let’s write another one of them. That would be the easy way out. Anything goes right now and I can promise that the next record will be better than the first. I won’t put it out unless it is. It has to be better.

Is that the way with everything Mute Math has done?

Yes, because you want to keep improving as a songwriter and as a musician. You also want to keep tapping into inspiration; that unsaid feeling of why you became a musician in the first place. We are flirting with greatness right now, I know that I will see to it that the next album comes out great and I can’t wait for the world to hear it!

How do you feel about skateboarding? Do any of you guys shred the local skate park?

I had a miserable jaunt at trying to skate when I was a kid. I have no talent with skateboards. Roy is the skater, he likes to travel around with one when we tour. He’s the only one with enough balance to do a few tricks and enjoy it. The rest of us need to stay off skateboards for the sole purpose of remaining on tour and not breaking any bones.

We are doing a collaboration denim jean with Mute Math. Did you have any part of the design of the jean?

Yeah, we got to have a little input and I’m really happy with how the jean turned out. It was the broken key design right? It’s been a while since we designed the jean. The broken key design was from the first night I broke the keys off of my keytar. One of the crew took a photo of it and Roy had the idea of turning the photo into a T-shirt, but when the thing came up with etnies the design ended up on a pair of jeans.

Would you wear the jeans?

Yes I would. You didn’t ask if I would wear it out in public, but yes, I would wear them around the house at least.

I know you guys wrote the theme song for the Transformers movie but all I want to know is did you get your own Transformers Mute Math figurines?

It’s funny, when people ask us about the Transformers soundtrack they have these grand illusions that we are part of it, like Spielberg asked us himself to be a part of the movie and we are getting these huge royalty checks. When Transformers came out we weren’t even aware of it. It was about as unglamorous of an event as possible.

So how did you come about getting the gig then?

The movie was done and they were trying to put the soundtrack together so they wanted us to give the theme a shot. We locked into a studio for a couple of nights and emailed them the track when we were done and that was the end of it. They didn’t make us any Mute Math action figures or keytar Decepticons or Atari Autobots. There were no incentives. But we had a blast making the song. It was actually really challenging because... I will be honest... it was a childhood obsession of mine. I collected Transformer figures for a while and if someone were to go back in time and tell little Paul Meany that he would sing the theme song on the soundtrack for the Transformers movie it would have been a very happy day.

But when we tried to recreate the stigma that was the Transformers, it was difficult. It took a few beers to be able to reach down within and sing with no inhibition about Autobots and Decepticons. There was a point when we needed these laser noises and Darren obliged by putting on the headphones. He just got all five-year-old Darren. He poured his heart out into these laser noises and he kind of lost himself. I was watching him do the noises and started laughing hysterically and ended up on the ground crying from laughing so hard. But yeah, we had a great time making it.

- Check in next week for the next installment of the Mute Math interview