The Mass Interview

When regional music scenes become oversaturated with the same type of sound for a prolonged period of time, distinctly different sounds are bound to begin to emerge. The Mass certainly care not for adherence to trends, not even for many rules at all. When you discover they're an Oakland, California band, you certainly might be inclined to think that the group may be seven-string totin', backstreet rappin', Puma wearin' hustlas, but their persona is vastly different than one might expect. Brandishing a style that favors substance over similarity, The Mass are prone to erupt into just about any type of music imaginable and do so with an edge that gives the whole affair a phenomena-like quality. Tyler Cox was gracious enough to speak with The Gauntlet about the innovative assembly's happenings.

The Gauntlet: Your musical approach is decidedly different. When The Mass formed, did you intentionally set out to become musical innovators?

Tyler Cox: Not at all. I've heard people say that our music is innovative, and I am flattered by those kinds of comments, but we just set out to make music that is satisfying to us. This is a constant process. When we started the band, we found that everyone had such different styles and musical backgrounds, and it was a challenge to bring all those styles together into something cohesive. It really took a lot of work and now, almost five years later, we are still finding interesting ways to bring it all together. Our sound keeps changing over time, which keeps the band an interesting and challenging experience for us.

The Gauntlet: What were the respective band members doing before the group got together?

Tyler Cox: I had been just sort of fucking off with my life. Experimenting with shit like living in a rainforest in Brazil, surfing, not really making money, traveling by bicycle, shit like that. This was after getting a college education and getting really burned out on 'normal' life or society. I wanted to see what alternatives there were for survival and happiness. What I found was that over time, I was obsessing over music and I knew that I had to start taking it seriously. I had played guitar and drums for many years, but never worked very hard in a band situation. In 2000 I decided it was time to give it a shot, and The Mass became my outlet. Tom (guitar) had been living outside of Chicago, where he grew up. He went through some really difficult shit and he decided to get a fresh start in the bay area. We met via craigslist when he moved out here and started making music together. Matthew (bass) had also been through some hard times... I won't go into specifics and speak for him, but he had moved out here from Omaha originally, and many other places in between such as Chicago and New York and Montana, and he came here for a very specific reason which was to create a better life for himself. Although I should say, he did not intend to stay in California permanently, or even probably as long as he has. He started another band, From Monument to Masses, which is an instrumental post-rock band that uses a lot of hypnotic, post-rock guitar and quieter approaches. At the same time, he joined our band because he wanted an outlet for more aggressive music. I know for a fact he wasn't planning on taking it as far as we've gotten with it. But now he is an integral part of our sound and he knows we will stop being his friend if he quits. Since we are his only friends, he is kind of screwed. Matt (sax/vocals) moved out here from Colorado at about the same time as all of us. He had been playing music out there but I guess he wasn't finding what he was looking for. He moved out here and lived in West Oakland for a while, which is really rough. We all met up through craigslist. We had all converged upon this area at the same time, looking for similar things, and without knowing each other we started this band. It's really a trip to think about how it all went down. We're like brothers now. I fucking hate those guys.

The Gauntlet: What is the main source of inspiration for you as an artist?

Tyler Cox: For me personally it is my life experience. We all go through a lot of dehumanizing and degrading shit on a day to day basis. It builds inside you and needs to find a way out. I mean, just turn on the TV or radio if you want to get treated like a fucking idiot, quick. Life is intense on all levels, and creating original music is just one way to express some of the feelings you have about the human experience. You can express your frustration and anger at things that are shitty, and you can express wonder and amazement about the beauty of it all. It's a way of taking control of your life. I can't imagine not making music, I'd go fucking crazy. Anyway, to answer your question, more tangible inspirations are books, art, music, traveling... I see a lot of bands, and I'll get inspiration from them. If they present an idea that I like, I'll try to employ it in our band. Or twist it somehow. If they do something I think sucks, I'll try to think, what should they have done instead? You can get a lot of ideas from watching anyone play, regardless of their skill or creativity. Watching shitty bands can be very inspiring. It can also make you want to run a spindle of barbed wire in one ear and out the other.

The Gauntlet: How do you manage to fit so many different themes into a track, yet remain cohesive?

Tyler Cox: That is something of a goal. The band members agree that we were more successful at this on the new album than on City of Dis. Not that we dislike Dis, but we made more of an effort to create songs that have their own identity on Perfect Picture, instead of each song going in 100 different directions. We really love Charles Mingus, who was the master of this kind of thing. His songs would take a few simple themes and run them through many, many permutations. I think one of the things he was showing people is that musical form is overrated - you can take a musical idea and display it so many different ways, but what is really important is the basic idea itself. We really enjoy what we do, we get a kick out of it. It is fun to try and stretch a theme as far as possible without pulling it apart altogether. And to combine really heavy, grim music with melodic jazz and such.

The Gauntlet: How does the new record contrast to your previous effort, "City Of Dis?"

Tyler Cox: We spent a lot more time on the songwriting process. City of Dis shows us kind of us finding out what we could do together. We didn't know how it would come out, so we threw in as much blind aggression and lunacy as we could. For the second album, we felt that we wanted to have more cohesion in the songs, to have them build and breathe more, and feel like the arrangements were leading to something tangible, like an apex or a moment of misery or whatever. Something you could put your finger on. Also, some force compelled us to write more midtempo, headbanging rock stuff this time around, and to take the "epic" aspect of the music further than before. So there are a lot of 8,9 minute songs. What caused that, I have no idea. We focused more on the vocals this time, and I think they came out much better on Perfect Picture than on anything else we have recorded. Matt spend a lot more time on the lyrics and phrasing, and his singing voice has gotten better as well. Finally, the overall production on Perfect Picture is much deeper, and we are a lot more stoked about it. There's a huge bottom end and the tones go really deep. It's very organic sounding, very old school.

The Gauntlet: How did the record deal with Crucial Blast come about?

Tyler Cox: Pretty simple really, I was playing drums for another Oakland band called Totimoshi last year, and their bass player Meg passed along a recommendation to Crucial Blast, who had released their 2nd album a few years back. The label really dug what we were doing and we all decided it was a great fit. We couldn't be more pleased with the effort and support we get from the Blast.

The Gauntlet: Do you feel that the new album has brought your career to a new level?

Tyler Cox: I feel that the album may bring us some better exposure. We'll see how that goes in the next few months. As for our "career," if there is one, it is just beginning because we are just now seeing the first hints of national exposure and interest from people who don't know us personally, ha-ha. Career is a funny choice of word. I'd love to call it a career, but right now the whole experience is a financial catastrophe. We all have to keep day jobs and make huge sacrifices in our lives in order to make this happen. It is a money pit.

The Gauntlet: How did "Cloven Head" come into being?

Tyler Cox: That particular song was mostly written by Matthew. It was the last song written before we went into the studio. In fact, we finished writing it at midnight the night before we started tracking the album! Matthew came in with most of the riffs and a basic structure. We hammered on it for a while and brought it through various forms of life until we found the one that made sense. Most of our songs go this way, although this one stayed closer to its original concept than the others, which tend to end up getting beaten and bruised into something nearly unrecognizable. This song actually features a set guitar solo, which is unusual for us, and a really nice headbanging middle section. We were trying to keep a cohesive theme throughout. It's one of my favorites on the record.

The Gauntlet: Why did you decide to make saxophone such an integral part of the band's musical arsenal?

Tyler Cox: We just tried it out and loved the sound and possibilities it presented. Tom has a somewhat metal way of playing guitar, but sometimes his guitar is almost piano-like, in the sense that there are a lot of open-picked and unusual chords... it's definitely not all ham-fisted power chord stuff. He uses a lot of dissonance and diminished-sounding chords, so it seems to make perfect sense to have a melodic instrument like sax on top. I also think that wailing sax over pounding, heavy riffs sounds awesome. I can't believe more bands don't employ this kind of thing. It can be a very punk-sounding instrument, very abrasive, but also very melodic and beautiful.

The Gauntlet: What are the three words that best relay the overall sound of the band? Why?

Tyler Cox: Best. Music. Ever. I choose this because we represent the apex of the western 12-tone scale in musical history. No seriously, I can't answer this question, I am sorry. How bout, Waste Of Time. Or maybe, Grow Up Losers or Get Real Jobs. Stop Playing Music. Give Us Money.

The Gauntlet: That's hilarious! Who does the songwriting in the band? Do you find it difficult to come up with music that everyone can agree upon?

Tyler Cox: Usually Tom or Matthew will bring in some riffs, and we'll go from there, at which point it becomes open game and anyone can and will contribute to or veto anything. The process is very collaborative. We do have a lot of musical discussions and disagreements, but that's part of the fun. A song is not complete until we are all satisfied with it. It must have its own life and reason to be. If not then we just drop it and move on.

The Gauntlet: What was one thing that you learned in the studio that you hadn't come across in the past?

Tyler Cox: We learned to experiment with different sounds and equipment. The first record was mostly recorded with the same gear throughout - it has a very homogenous sound. This time, we used a lot of different guitars, different amps, and recorded some of the vocals different ways. You can really hear the layering on Cloven Head, where there are different guitars coming in and out of each other for the rhythm parts, some of the melody stuff and then the solo. We're still pretty new at the studio experience. Because of money we can't spend a lot of time there.

The Gauntlet: What's next for the band?

Tyler Cox: We're touring the USA in September 2005, and then Monotreme (UK label) will be releasing the album in Europe/UK and we're planning 3-4 weeks of touring over there for October. After that, we'll see how things are going and formulate a plan for 2006. Ideally I'd like to do some more touring the spring, and start working on another album. Hopefully get a new one out before 2007! I want to keep this ball rolling. We've got everything we want now: good distribution, label support, booking and tour support. Now it's up to us to get out in front of people and make a name for ourselves.

The Gauntlet: Sounds pretty cool. Have a lot of fun with it man, we wish you much success. Check these guys out, people!