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CLAIRE VOGEL
I t's not easy to define New Orleans-based
band MUTEMATH's hybrid of alt-rock,
Southern soul and synth-pop. When the
band is at full-blast onstage, there's an awful
lot going on all at once. If MUTEMATH used
to get maximum mileage out of high-powered
dance beats and chilled-out atmospherics, the
group veers into new sonic territory with its
latest effort, Odd Soul.
Led by charismatic singer/keyboardist
Paul Meany, the band independently produced
the new 13-song collection earlier this year.
It's due for national release on Oct. 4. It
rocks with more grit and blues than anything
they've ever released.
“This is the first record we've self-pro
duced," says Meany. "We had a pretty clear
idea of how we wanted this record to sound,
and we knew how to get there. We've recorded
enough and learned enough about our band to
feel confident about it. We locked down in my
house in New Orleans and went for it."
Meany and his bandmates—bassist/guitar
ist Roy Mitchell-Cardenas and drummer Darren
King—were eager to dig deeper into their
musical roots. They avoided the distraction of
label and financial affairs and concentrated on
playing and writing.
"We were trying to amplify it all more than
before," says Meany. "There are some elements
of what we came up from in New Orleans. The
songs 'Odd Soul' and 'Blood Pressuie' have a
touch of soul. They're all cut from the same
tree. These are songs we are honest about,
and we unearthed a lot of themes that we've
wanted to talk about for a long time."
Some touched on spirituality and reli
gion-topics Meany has dealt with since his
days in the 1990s and early 2000s as a mem
ber of Earthsuit, a New Orleans-based contem
porary Christian rock group.
"Much of it is about our experience growing
up and what I'd call eccentric Christianity,"
Meany says of the new songs. "Darren and I
were in the throes of all that during the late
1980s and '90s. We've gathered a lot of stories
and anecdotes over the years. It's the central
theme of this Odd Soul of ours."
While they prepared for sessions last year,
MUTEMATH found themselves dealing with a
major adjustment in the lineup, too. In April,
the band announced that longtime guitarist
Greg Hill was no longer with the band. Hill
had actually given notice last fall.
"Greg left the band last year, right as
we started recording this new record," says
Meany. "We were certainly in a head-space
where we all needed a change. Things couldn't
keep going the way they were. I think [2009
album] Armistice took a toll on us. Greg was
ready to go. I think changing up the scenery
was good as we went into a new record."
MUTEMATH carried on with studio work as
a trio, with Mitchell-Cardenas handling most
of the guitar duties. They wanted to focus on
creating a vibrant new set of songs.
"It wasn't a vast change for us, after all,
but it certainly was an ex-factor," admits
Meany. "The guitar became a new instrument
for the three of us in a lot of ways. We didn't
have the opportunity to pick up a guitar and
express our ideas like this before, so it was a
new method. Roy played most of the guitar,
but we all participated."
MUTEMATH enlisted Todd Gummerman as
the new guitarist for the band, just in time for
a quick summer tour of Japan. Gummerman's
technique and performance style fit nicely
into the group's sound and stage show.
"We prefer to perform as a four-piece," says
Meany. "Todd's such a great musician, so it's
worked out great. I'd like to think that this is
an important new chapter for us."
Compared to previous works, the new songs
on Odd Soul are less hectic. On Armistice,
electronic effects and ambient guitars played
a large role in the sound. The upbeat tune
"Spotlight" scored big with fans. Critics com
pared the music to Radiohead, Muse and New
Order. Old Soul bypasses some of the familiar
dance-rock and pop elements. There's new
found energy to the music. Maybe it's a collec
tive step into a new maturity.
"I think this record is probably our most
high-spirited album we've ever done," says
Meany. "It's very dynamic and energetic. We
certainly didn't talk ourselves out of much in
the studio, which was a big change. We played
around a lot more. I think the music benefited
from that. We had to create something that
was moving us now. We wanted to cut to the
chase and play the music we're most moved to
play. Anything that popped up and came close
to sounding depressing got nixed. We just
weren't interested in that. I don't feel we're
very good at being dark, so we didn't waste
any time being dark. We wanted to make
something that was glaringly bright."
T. Ballard Lesemann
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SEPTEMBER 7,2011 • FLAGP0LE.COM 15
