News
Mithun’s Band The Mediocres Going International?
04.30.2010 Mithun, Noteworthy
OLÁ AQUI É RON DOS MEDIOCRES E VOCÊ OUVE ROCK HISTÓRIA NA CRUZEIRO FM. [translates to: "hi, here is Ron The Mediocres and you are hearing Rock Historia on Cruzeiro FM"]
Mithun’s in-house band, The Mediocres, isn’t exactly a house hold name in the rock-n-roll world, but international exposure might not be that far away. Ron van der Veen, drummer and manager for the band, received an email last month from a radio disc jockey in Sorocaba, Brazil, requesting an interview. Ary Andrade is the producer and DJ of a popular radio show on Cruzeiro.FM called "Rock Historia". Here is a transcript of the interview for Rock Historia:
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- How many people in The Mediocres. Names and instruments. We have 6 band members. Bill and Jay are our guitar players. Bill usually plays rhythm on both the acoustic and electric guitar, while Jay is our lead guitar player. Uwe is our bass man and is originally from Germany. Cristina and Stephanie are our singers. Cristina is our lead singer and is from Spain. She lived in Galicia so speaks a small bit of Portuguese. Stephanie is our back-up singer, but also leads some songs. I am the drummer and the manager. I hate the management part, but everyone else is too lazy to do it. Pete is our sound guy and road manager. He also makes sure we stay happy and don’t kill each other. We used to have a full horn and percussion section, but we had to fire them because there were too many people to manage and the gigs didn’t pay enough.
- About song, influences. Well, we consider ourselves a very eclectic band and each one of us brings a variety of influences. Sometimes we make a great music stew together with all the different ingredients. Sometimes it is inedible. Bill and Stephanie are really into the softer songs that highlight the tight harmonies. I grew on R&B and soul so I love to get the heavy groove going. Jay is our resident band punk rocker. Uwe is a classic rock and roll blues man, and we are still trying to figure out what Cristina is.
- The rock and roll in USA – tell us about it. Keep strong or the r&b and rap have more success. For example, here in Brazil r&b and rap all day on radios and MTV. Others radios in my city have, sertanejo (brazilian country), samba, axe music,brazilian pop rock, MPB. * Wow, how much time do you have to answer that question? At the end of the day, it all comes down to Rock for me. Styles come and go, bands come and go, hits come and go, but Rock is timeless. My 16 year old son listens to just about every new kind of music, but he LOVES the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and he just discovered ZZ Top. When he listens to too much new music I always say to him, “at least listen to music that is played by real instruments!” So much of the new music around the world is created by a guy on a lap top pushing buttons. Wow, I sound like a rock-n-roll grandfather, don’t I?
- The Mediocres know Brazilian music or Brazilian rock? Now Americans love the Brazilian music-and women. We don’t hear it much on the radio, but it has really influenced soul music, disco and jazz. We actually sing several Latin songs in our performances. Not exactly Brazilian but close! Now you might throw tomatoes at me for saying that. It’s funny because sometimes Cristina forgets the words to our Spanish songs and just makes stuff up, but only a few of us can tell. The audience certainly can’t. Brazil is such a rich place for music. Some of my favorites are Gilberto Gil (of course), Jobim, Mamonas Assassinas, Skank, Roberto Carlos and a bunch of others I can’t spell or pronounce.
- How many places, u played? Cities and countries. Well, if you can get us a gig in Brazil, then that makes 2 countries so far! We have played here in the states, and our music gets around because of the internet, but we are really more local. Anyway, we are all married and our spouses would divorce us if we went on the road too long. And we can’t leave the country because the US government might not let a mediocre band back in!
- Tell us about the new album. We recorded that album in the old school method. We did very little overdubbing and only did a few takes for each song. We also did very little engineering. We wanted it to sound fresh and raw, like we are. There are actually small mistakes that we can hear when we play it back. It makes me cringe, but then again, that is what a live performance is like. You just keep going. We have so much new material that we need to get into the studio again. Heck, I just bought a new drum set so I have to hear how it sounds recorded!