Mime Game’s Dillon DeVoe (second from right) hangs out with his fellow bandmates after a recording session. Expect to hear the band’s debut album to drop in March 2013. (Photo property of Dalton Gomez and Mime Game)
By: Jacob Elyachar
One of the hottest new bands that you need to keep both an ear and an eye on is Mime Game.
This Georgia-based band wants to change the way people feel about music and is so far gaining a following through Facebook, MySpace and SoundCloud and just released its debut EP Mountain.
I had the chance to correspond with the band’s lead vocalist Dillon DeVoe and for a quick interview and he shared with me Mountain’s recording process and what fans can expect from the band in 2013?
Jacob Elyachar: How long did it take to record the EP?
Dillon DeVoe: The EP was written over the course of a few years technically, but that is misleading because i have just been writing tons of songs over the past couple years. Our studio has been under construction so we have been working around that too. Most of these songs had rough versions of them recorded last March and are now being done with new drums and guitars, only saving some of the vocals and horn parts. It has been a really weird process as far as albums go, but these three are just meant to give you a taste of what is potentially coming in March.
JE: The first track on your EP is “Lonely.” What was the inspiration behind the track?
DD: My friend and I were in her apartment a couple of summers ago and she sang me a little ditty about being lonely and the song stuck with me. When I was writing the track at the time, “Lonely” always stuck out to me as this lonely girl’s anthem. She does not even know she helped me write it, but i hope to surprise her with a nice check when you guys make that song a hit.
JE: If your fans listen closely to “Mountain,” there were several different musical elements from different periods of music from the synthesizer riff of the 1980s to the “Blink-182/Green Day”-like sound on the chorus. How did you guys choose the music that went on the track?
DD: It started as an acoustic track, like all my songs do, in the bedroom of this dilapidated house I was living in Kansas City. I had decided, after talking to my friend Quinton, that i needed a song that was more about my vocals and less about the instruments.
I guess when Kory produced the track, the song had all these other different elements because of the awesome way he could bend sound. I knew when I had written the track that the choruses were a lot more poppy than some of the stuff that I have been writing, but again, I knew it was supposed to be a more vocally and lyrically straightforward song than some of my more Alternative/Indie rock tracks. This one wanted to be a hit ever since the minute that it rolled off my tongue and fingertips.
JE: The last track of this three-song EP is called: “Young Husbands.” It was not posted on your SoundCloud page or any social media page. Why did you guys wait until the EP’s release for viewers to listen to it?
DD: We wanted to give people who tuned in and listened to “Mountain” and have heard other versions of “Lonely,” something to chew on that was a little different. “Young Husbands” is a song I started writing last year while I was going through a lot of big life changes. This song is sort about the proposal of marriage, but in a sardonic and somber kind of way because a lot of young loves do not work out, even when they’re based in marriage.
JE: How have you grown as an artist since the beginning of the year?
DD: At the beginning of this year, January 1st, I was driving back from Denver to start over again in Kansas City. I remember the sunset on I-70 E when I was driving back New Year’s Day, so my first day of the year was spent driving, and when that sun went down with what I knew I was leaving behind and what I knew in my heart I had to do and it was very cold.
I was chilled to the bone and to the core of my being. I knew i had to really step up my life because I knew my son was going to be born in July and I knew that I was going to have to work very hard to do that. I guess what I’m saying is that the beginning of this year was roughly about getting on my feet before my son came, but what resulted from that was a whole lot of success in music because my little man inspired me to really give it my all again, something that I’ve been hard pressed to say since my Josephine Collective days.
JE: What can fans expect from Mime Game in 2013?
DD: Mime Game in 2013 will be the band to beat. It will be the words to know and the words that will be on the lips of every rock music fan. We plan to be touring and releasing an album in the early part of the year. Hopefully, we will have some overseas shows to help promote the music and our peace, love and party attitude that we have. We really hope to be on top of the world by the end of 2013.
For more information about Mime Game, visit their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/mimegameand to grab the album, click here: http://mimegame.bandcamp.com/album/mountain
