Almost two decades ago, Mutemath vocalist Paul Meany and drummer Darren King were sending each other rough cut demos up and down the Mississippi River.
By 2002, King had joined Meany in New Orleans and together they got to work on an electro rock project simply called Math. However, after three albums with Warner Bros., the band that had become Mutemath fell on hard times.
“We were dropped from our record label, so we had to start our own label, Wojtek Records,” King explains. “We lost our long-time guitarist, Greg Hill, around that time too. Paul, Roy [Mitchell-Cárdenas, bass] and I really had to go back to basics and work on repairing the band from the ground up, and try to remember why we started the band in the first place.”
In the summer of 2011, Mutemath announced that guitarist Todd Gummerman would be joining the group, and soon after both King and Meany welcomed their own new additions into the world. “We became dads,” King says, “and then suddenly, a year and a half or two ago, the clouds parted and we started to see the fruits of our labour. You could say it came to fruition. I’m sorry, that was a terrible dad joke!”
It’s not surprising that King is in such high spirits – he’s currently on a massive world tour for Mutemath’s incendiary fourth studio album, Vitals. When we speak, he’s having a night off.
“The tour so far has been amazing – we’re having a great time. We’re in Los Angeles on a night out, so right now I’m about to make that all-important decision of, ‘What do I eat?’ Do I go all out and treat myself, or am I just going to get something cheap, be fiscally smart and save up – or just splash the cash?” he laughs. “I can’t decide, but I’m learning towards ramen – there are some good ramen places here.”
All of a sudden I hear voices, and what sounds like a scuffle on the other end of the phone line. “Oh my God! I just got accosted by all my bandmates – they just tackled me, and they’re rude!” King laughs again. “They’re going on a hiking trip to the Griffith Observatory right now. They’re my buddies, and they’re my bandmates.”
With the release of Vitals, Mutemath sound bigger, brighter and more in tune with one another than ever. So what’s their secret? King says it all boils down to their relationship away from the stage.
“You can’t be in a band for over a decade unless you have mutual respect, and we get along great. They’re all really good guys. I have a lot of respect for them as musicians, as fathers, as friends – and they work hard. Paul in particular: he’s our leader, the lead singer, but he’s crazy. His work ethic is absurd, and his ambition is really something to see.”
Determined to push their limits and give Vitals a truly personal sound, Mutemath decided to produce the album by themselves, something they’d never done before. “Self-producing is wonderful if all four of the guys in the band are up for it, and you have enough mutual respect – otherwise it can get really dangerous,” King says. “It can be frustrating even when things are going well. The frustrating part is that you have to do all the engineering, and sometimes the engineering is a day’s worth of work. By the time you’ve expended that energy you have nothing left to give, let alone be creative.”
Vitals is evidence that Mutemath aren’t afraid of hard work. Even with all the turmoil of the past few years, they’ve managed to visit Australia three times since they first met audiences Down Under in 2012. When I mention this fact to King, his response is no suprise.
“Yes, that’s right! And I’m looking forward to eating as much as I possibly can while I’m in Australia. But the thing I’m even more excited about – and I certainly didn’t know until I got there – is how incredible you guys are at coffee. It’s better than here, and everywhere else. I was not expecting Australia to be the coffee-snobbiest country that I’ve ever been to – I love that!”
King adds that when Mutemath arrive here next month for Groovin The Moo and a string of sideshows, they’ve got something special in mind alongside their disco-tinged synths, thumping basslines and always-impressive light show. “The new thing we have is that I do a high-five electronic glove solo. It just occurred to me one day when we were in rehearsal. I put these things on – they’re called drum triggers, these little Presario microphonic triggers inside of a gardening glove – and then I plug them into my sampler. Whenever someone puts the glove on and I give them a high five, it makes a snare drum sound. We also have other gloves that make the kick drum and a couple of other sounds.
“So there’s an addition in the set now – my new high-five solo. Then we took it one step further and we thought, ‘These gloves need to light up.’ So for the last two shows me and my buddies in Nashville who do all our lighting came up with a way to light them up. They built a circuit, so now the drums light up when the gloves light up, and that’s my high-five drum solo. It’s a very positive, affirming solo. I don’t know how many high fives you hope to get in a day on average, but you will certainly get your vital daily dose at our shows.”
Vitals is out now through Wojtek. Mutemath perform atMetro Theatre on Wednesday April 27; and also at Groovin The Moo 2016, Maitland Showground, Saturday April 23.
