Mercury Rising

Mark gets to meet up with Grasshopper of US band Mercury Rev...

Cork City's Mark McAvoy talks to Mercury Rev lead guitarist and founder member Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak about Mercury Rev's career to date and future plans.

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Your last album Deserters Songs was extremely well received. Did you expect such a reaction and did you set out to make such a break-through album?
Grasshopper: No not at all. We just made a record and we thought it would be our last one so we just did the best we could and really that's all you can do when making any record. We didn't really expect it to be a breakthrough album into the mainstream musical world.

Did you feel under pressure making the new album All Is Dream after the success of Deserters Songs?
Not really at least not from the outside world but a little from ourselves. Every record we sort of feel pressure to get things right and to get the particular sound that we're looking for. And we are happy with our new album.

Jonathan's lyrics on the new album All Is Dream and on the last album Deserters Songs have been described in the press as paranoid lyrics. Would this be an accurate description?
Well paranoia is a weird thing I think William S Burroughs said, "A paranoid person is usually right." I think a paranoid person is a person who has an insight into how things may become. William S Burroughs did influence us a lot making the new album and I suppose in the way we write lyrically. Paranoia can be seen for instance in "Tides of the Moon" on the new album and it is a big theme for us.

Why did your keyboard player Adam Snyder who had a sizeable input on Deserters Songs decide to leave the band?
He was going bald and he decided he wanted to go solo.

The departure of David Baker your old lead singer who sung on the first two albums "Your Self-esteem," and "Boces." Why did he leave?
When we were making Boces we had already started writing songs for "See You on the Other Side" and "Deserters Songs" and so there was a conflict there. Basically we were going in a direction that David did not want to take and he just moved on it's a simple as that.

Why did you decide to call yourselves Mercury Rev?
Well Jonathan came up with Mercury, I think because he studied science at college and I came up with Rev. The name means nothing but it means a lot to us.

What would you describe the band influences as?
I don't know, I like a lot of different stuff. I'm more influenced by films as in soundtracks and also in books. I think that's reflected in our music a lot. We all love film soundtracks. I loved a lot of punk rock in the past and the Velvet Underground but then these days I listen to a lot of classical music country and blues. I think your tastes develop as you get older but will all influence you at some stage.

At the end of your career what would you like to me remembered for?
My spaghetti sauce cause it's really hot and Jonathan can't eat it cause it's too hot for him.

What next for Mercury Rev?
Well we are going to tour the album and then make a soundtrack for a new French film.

Interview by Mark McAvoy

Check out the CLUAS review of Mercury Rev's album 'All is dream'