When I first heard "Songs From the Drain", I knew I was going to want to interview Millenials. As a music journalist in 2013, it's a lot easier to find contacts for bands than it once was when I first started doing this. Helpful Hint: Most bands emails can be found on their Band Camp pages or Facebook pages, if they don't have an official site. Millenials has no official site, no Facebook page and no email address listed on their Band Camp page. So I had to email them through their contact form on their Band Camp page, which for all I know could get sucked into a black hole and sent to outer Mongolia. Luckily, I got a response and then it all went down like this.
1) Honestly, I wanted to
interview you because I don’t know a lot about you but can’t seem to find an
official site or Facebook outside of your Band Camp page. Do you
have anything like that going on?
2) You are from Michigan though, how is that
working out with Detroit filing for bankruptcy and all? (Sufjan
Stevens has an album about that state though)
3) You have a song called “Jesus Saves”, which is
in a crude summary about religion being similar to a cult, or the
brainwashing. When I was a kid, up until Grade 5, I went to
Catholic school (Though I was never Catholic) and could see how it was like,
baptizing babies to make them one of them and it just felt very cult-like. Is this song in some way about
that?
4) Do you believe there is a God?
Would “Jesus Saves” just be more about the annoying Jesus freaks or do
you worship the Satan or take the lazy way out and be agnostic?
5) I’ve listened to your album “Songs From the
Drain” a lot and I think it’s really good. Would you say that your
sound reflects that of a band like Local H, where it’s kind of grunge but
not?
6) Do you have any plans on
releasing “Songs From the Drain” on cassette or vinyl?
7) “Songs From the Drain” is easily one of the
best rock albums of 2013. Are there plans for a follow up next
year?
8) Final thoughts, shout
outs, etc.??
1.) No, not really. I was drawn to the simplicity
of Bandcamp and the orientation towards putting your music out there in a
multitude of ways that people can enjoy. I’m not really into self-promotion too
much other than to say “here we are, take a CD/download/etc.” and let the music
speak for itself.
2.) Sufjan Stevens is great, I really enjoy his
work. As for the Detroit bankruptcy, I recall someone saying that “everyone saw
it coming but were still surprised” or something to that effect. I think the
frustration is palpable in Michigan right now. I’m about an hour from Detroit
and even so, you can feel the tension. "The Drain" is a nickname for my
hometown, Adrian, because everything here seems to be going down the
drain. I try
to be involved in the local music scene – though less so than my bandmate, Chris
Francoeur – and it’s not surprising that you see this frustration bleed into the
music. I can’t say I’m exempt from that either.
3.) Yeah, it’s not so much a condemnation of
religion as a condemnation of indoctrination. It’s more personal than that as
it’s about my own experience with it as a kid (my grandfather is an apostolic
preacher) and trying to get over that, but I think it’s a pretty universal
message. Let kids be kids, let them come to their own conclusions. It’s really
the only straightforward “political” thing on the album, Commercial Whore is
kind of tongue-in-cheek, but I don’t think it’s too radical an
idea.
4.) I take the even lazier
way out and say I’m apatheist. I don’t think god exists, but even if he/she/it
does, you should live life according to your own set of values and morals. If
people want to be religious, more power to them, but I don’t think it matters in
any ethereal way and it’s not relevant to my life other than by the
actions/beliefs of others.
5.) You could
say that. I wouldn’t go so far as to call us “grunge.” Songs is supposed to be a
representation of 3 years, over the course of which our sound has changed a lot,
and I think you can see that in the variance of the work. Grunge was definitely one of the more
prominent influences: POND , Rein Sanction, and Nirvana, among others, really
contributed to how I write music. I guess we can just be called whatever, I’ve
never been one to be a real stickler on genres.
6.) Oh I wish.
Detroit isn't the only one strapped for cash. Maybe someday.
7.) Thank
you. Hopefully, we’ll be putting out a full-length
later this year. We’ve been working on it since January and we’re almost done.
It’s a bit of a different style, but I think it synthesizes the work we’ve done
in the past. If I can ever be satisfied with it, that is.
8.) Everyone should check out Thought
Industry, they're criminally unknown/underrated.
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