THE BEAST

Have any of you played in other bands?

Yes. Tati and I play at the rock band The Velvicks, and Headbind which is an industrial punk band. We released two albums with both projects, “Run” with The Velvicks and “Going Nowhere Fast”, definitely check it out

What are your names? / Who plays what?

Ed Marson – Guitar & Vocals
Tati Turin – Bass
Donnie Hogue – Drums 

Have you had other previous members?

We played our first show at the Arlene’s Grocery in NY with Vinny Silva on Drums. Vinny is an incredible guitarist (Drums is his second instrument); his band Vicious Clay was playing on the same night, and back then we didn’t have a drummer, so he jumped in and helped us out greatly. That night we met Donnie Hogue, who was also playing drums with Vicious Clay, then long story short, a couple of weeks later Donnie became our official drummer playing live with Mockcharge for the first time at the Lucky 13 saloon, and he KILLED IT. Right after that show we knew the trio was complete.

Where are you from?

Tati Turin is from NYC, and Donnie Hogue is from Atlanta. I’m (Ed Marson) is from Franca, Brazil (300 miles from Sao Paulo). The band is based in NYC. 

What year did the band form?

The band started in mid 2019. I was working at the IIWII Studios in NJ, used my studio “downtime” to record and develop my own music. Recording the songs myself, playing guitar, bass, drums, synths and vocals; mixed, mastered and released Mockcharge’s first three singles: “Creature of the Underworld”, “Darkside” and “Bloody Days”. Right after Creature of the Underworld release, Tati joined the band and brought a new energy to the whole project; I remember when she said: “We need to be heavier, we need to be more metal”, that’s when I
knew, this is gonna be dope.

What's your style of genre?

We play mostly thrash metal, but we like to navigate between many styles of metal in our songs, like black metal, groove metal, punk and industrial. Sometimes we even transit through many styles in the same song.

What inspires you?

I get a lot of inspiration from internal and external experiences. When somebody tries to get you down, gives you a reason to fight back. Also playing live shows, when people are digging the songs, it gives you so much inspiration to keep writing. We get a lot of inspiration by playing and rehearsing together; when we get out of the stage after a dope show, it gives us so much energy to keep doing what we’re doing.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?

We consider a booking agency the most important thing a band can have, if you have shows and tours being booked constantly, you have everything Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that?
We’re open to have a label on our side yeah, that would help a lot. We’ve been doing everything ourselves and sometimes it can be a lot so, if a label can help us to get things done, that’d be great!

What are your songs about?

Our songs are about life experiences from tough times, dark places we’ve been through, loneliness, death, betrayal, addiction, . Writing about these issues always take me to a better place, it’s like an exorcism.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics?

We composed all of the songs together while rehearsing. We get inspired by simple riffs and develop from there. I’ve been writing most of the lyrics, but Tati and Donnie always help me with the lyrics.

Do you compose in a certain environment?

We compose songs thinking about what would be fun to play and what we would like to hear that’s not out there yet. The songs are made during rehearsals for a show. Once we had a show at the Lucky 13 and we wrote 3 songs for it. We get inspired by where we’re going to play and what would be fun to play.

Have you done any covers live?

We have only played originals so far, but we don’t discard the option of playing covers, we’re working on it.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs?

Usually around 20, 30 people. We haven’t played for a huge audience yet, but of course, it’d be awesome.

What ages are most of your concert attendants?

Usually between 21 and 35ish, but we have a lot of people up to 65 years listening to our songs on Spotify, which is freaking awesome 

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary?

We vary a lot. It all depends on where are we going to perform, then we put a set list for the place. Sometimes we even compose songs thinking about what would be cool to play at some venue.

Do you have a regular place you play live often?

Definitely Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn NY. It’s where everything started for us, it’s just a great place to play metal.

What was your first gig like?

Our first gig was at the Arlenes Grocery in NY. It’s a great venue to play live, they have this audio engineer, Kenny Lienhardt, he is the best live engineer out there, so thanks to him we didn’t sound as bad as we could heheh. It was challenging, I think it was the first time I sang infront of an audience, we were freaking out a bit. Back then we had just a few original songs, no official drummer yet, we were improvising a lot, but after that show, the band officially started. I think we delivered a good performance, the main focus was, get on stage, and headbang as hard as you can, and we did that. Right after the show, Kenny told me we sounded like Venom,
that was one of the best things I could ever hear heheh.

What was your latest gig?

Our latest gig was a live streaming show from Battalion Studios, raising funds for the Lucky 13 Saloon. We might do it again soon.

Where have you played live this year?

Bunch of places in NY; Lucky 13, Kingsland, Hideout till covid hit NY. New York got hit by this virus pretty hard, and there’s no hope for live shows in the near future, but now we’re focusing on release our songs and maybe do some live streaming shows here and there.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale?

We sold around 100 shirts at our first shows but got sold out pretty quick We are designing several styles for our next batch Gonna be out soon at our website Mockcharge.com

Where can people buy your merchandise?

At Mockcharge.com Coming soon!

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays?

I think people will always find a better and cheaper way to get what they want. I lived through both phases, when I was young, I used to save money to buy records, usually 20/30 bucks for a cd. So when I knew I could get it for free, of course I went that way cause back then I was young and broke heheh. BUT, the downside was: when you download, especially when you download songs instead of the whole album, you don’t get that experience of listening to the album set list, the art cover, flipping through the pages reading the lyrics etc. That’s what I miss the most  about the physical cd’s and vinyl. I think the most important thing is that people are still listening to music and music is still one of the most important things in our lives, like, I never heard anyone telling me “I hate music” or “damn its been months I haven’t listened to music” hehehe. It’s almost impossible to oppose to downloading or streaming at this point; in my opinion we just need a better system that pay the artists for their work. All of the streaming services nowadays are paying a ridiculous percentage for every play; it helps you to get your music out there but doesn’t help artist make rent and pay their bills.

How do you think the music industry has changed because of this?

Now we have so much more access to bands and music from all over the world thanks to streaming services, that’s the upside of it. But for artists, it’s getting harder and harder to get paid, so, the industry shifted its focus to live shows, merch, licensing and synch. The darker side of all of this is; it has been easier for huge companies to influence their trends and force shitty music down people’s throat, paying huge amounts of money to obnoxiously get their artists on every single radio, playlists and etc, and kinda makes it harder for independent artists to get their music heard. But the hope is that I’ve seen more and more people not falling for it.

What do you think of my work?

I think your work it’s pretty solid!

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business?

I think this interview will give the audience to know us better, how we got started and how are we creating music. This also might inspire other musicians out there as some interviews had inspired us. We don’t get this opportunity very often, this is the first time we are telling our story, it means a lot.

Do you have any role models or idols?

Roy Cicala, the legendary audio engineer who I had the luck to assist for years. He was one of the most badass people I’ve met, taught me so much about music and life. Every time I had a gig he used to say: “Just look them in the eye, and play in tune, in time and with vibe”. He always taught me a lot about originality, to do what no one is doing, to always try to bring something new to the table, he was a great influence in my life.

Why do you think that they exist?

We’re always working our asses off to get to the point that we can make music full time; play shows, be at the studio recording or jamming. Idols prove that it’s possible to go thru a lot of shit and get to the point where you can do what you want and find some real purpose in life, I guess.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?

I think both. There are some great bands in the scene nowadays, it pushes us to compose better music and play better shows. The old bands inspire us on how they got there, and some killer performances they did in the past and how they changed throughout the years.

What have been your biggest obstacles?

Well, first of all, 2020 hehehe. This year has been a huge challenge for everyone, but we’re still standing. In general, the biggest obstacle has been composing better and better songs. If you got good songs, I mean, real banger songs, its just a matter of time to get there.

What advice would you give other bands or artists?

Have fun, do not worry about what people think about you and your music and don’t take shit from anyone. If you’re not having fun with your music, change it, find a way out. I remember when I used to work on shitty jobs, if I had a show with my band on the weekend, everything made sense, it gives a purpose to the whole struggle. I just got into a point that I’m happy with my music, I’m excited about it, about the next show, every step working for your music and your art is not a wasted time. Another great advice I got from an established musician once was to try your best to learn about audio engineering, learn how to record yourself, learn 
photoshop for your art covers and flyers, learn how to make your website, how to book shows and how to publish yourself etc, to have as independent as you can to not get stuck in the process.

Do you have any new material?

We have 9 new songs to be released as singles every 3 weeks.we’re always posting part of our live shows on social media, there’s a lot of cool stuff coming soon so stay tuned!

What are your web sites?

www.mockcharge.com

Do you have something to add?

We’d like to thank everyone for listening to our songs, feedback and support. 

LINKS:
Website: www.mockcharge.com
Spotify: https://bit.ly/mockcharge
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg0SvnIZnOwdVkL5vRdEhCA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mockchargemusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mockcharge/
Bandcamp: https://mockcharge.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mockcharge

MOCKCHARGE interviewed by Robex Lundgren Musik Blogg!
http://ghgumman.blogg.se/