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ABOVE
Josiah
performing with Light FM at The Echo.
Photographed
on February 8, 2010. |
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What
were the names of those bands, I'm curious?
JM: One of them was called
Kiva, and the hardcore band I don't even know if it had
a name. Our biggest gig was opening for ALL, I think it
was people from the Descendants. That was our biggest gig.
One
of the things I love about your music is that it's unabashedly
pop music. But when I was growing up pop music was so bad,
were you listening to pop music as a kid?
JM: Growing up in Boston
I really liked a lot of pop and new wave music that was
coming out like The Cars and Gary Newman, Tears for Fears,
I'm not ashamed, I really liked Duran Duran growing up.
I
guess it's a bit different because I'm younger than you,
but I feel like there was this time when pop music and good
music were running parallel to one another but that that's
no longer the case, that the gap has widened between pop
music and music that's well written and thought out. There's
still some overlap but not as much as there once was.
JM: I think I was swayed towards more indie
rock and shoegaze in the 90s, like My Bloody Valentine and
Ride the Lush. I kind of ignored what was going on in pop
music for a good long time, but I've been returning to that
and I think that a lot of the music scene here has returned
to those kind of roots.
How
do you feel about pop music that's being produced today?
JM: I don't listen to it
at all, my wife did make up for Lady Gaga, I enjoy the performances
and the theatrics, I can respect that and Lady Gaga is innovative
in that respect, but I think the music that's coming out
these days is kinda rubbish in the pop world. It's unfortunate
too because it's thrown at you 24/7 on the radio and there's
no other options. There's KXLU and other good college radio,
but you definitely have to turn to the internet to get turned
onto some good music. All the pop music, I don't really
relate to it at all.
I
find Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas impossible to listen
to.
JM: It's unfortunate, but
I think the days of radio are numbered. Indie 103 was such
a great outlet, especially for local bands and I miss Indie
so much. It's too bad that's gone. Kat at KROQ is pretty
cool about promoting local bands but it's just one hour
a week.
It
seems like it's even a battle for her to just keep that
show on the air.
JM: I know, I know.
If
I worked in a record store I'd stock you're records in the
pop section, but it's so different because there's a quality
of thought and musicianship put into your music. It doesn't
feel over produced or leave the same taste in your mouth
as what's on the radio.
JM: Yeah totally. I guess
I've always wanted to find a happy medium between, I never
wanted to be mainstream, but find a happy medium where there's
innovation and there's experimentation melded with classic
song structure and classic pop formula. I've always been
playing with that. I guess I want my music to be accepted
and popular but at the same time I don't want it to sound
regurgitated.
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I'm
not a musician, but when I listen to a more traditional
rock band–guitar, bass, drums, etc.–and they
play a song I can sort of dissect it, hear each part, and
guess how the song was constructed. But your music has so
many parts and so many different instruments I can't fathom
how you put a song together. Can you speak to your song
writing process and how you work?
JM: I don't know, I guess
I do it in layers. I usually start out with a demo, I'll
play the drums to a click track and then I'll play the bass.
I have a bunch of different ways I work, sometimes a drum
pattern reiterates the structure of the song and sometimes
I'll just get a melody and hum it into my iPhone and it
will end up negating the structure of the song. I just like
to build layers and try to introduce interesting sounds.
I just try and keep the listener interested at all times
by throwing curve balls and throwing in interesting sounds
at all times so it's like, "woah, how did you get to
that melody?" It works.
I
do write a lot on the acoustic and if I write a basic song
on the acoustic and it sounds good and flows I do that as
well. I can play all my songs acoustically.
Did
you play all the instruments on your latest record?
JM: I did, with the exception
of a few songs. Harry, the old drummer, played drums and
Kim, the old keyboardist, played on a couple songs.
You
put the record out yourself. When was that? What's your
plan with it?
JM: Last October. The name
of the album is Let There Be Light FM cause I almost killed
the band. I've been going under that name for ten years
believe it or not and I was like, maybe I should just give
myself a fresh start and change the band name. My bass player
was out of town and nobody was around when I was writing
this record and I felt very alone and isolated. I do kind
of feel that way. But I was like, I'm just going to make
this record and throw it out there and see what happens.
Did
you tour at all with it, are you going to?
JM: We did play SXSW last
march and drove all the way to Austin just for that, which
is a long drive. This year I'm going to try and book more
than just one show. So we're going there and we're going
to play San Francisco and Fresno in February and try and
do a little West coast tour. [With my band, their position]
is that they want some normalcy in their lives because [in
the past] they've always quit their jobs to go on the road
so I have to really make it worth their while.
Well,
do you want to tour? Or are you happy to just write your
music and put it out there?
JM: I really do want to tour.
I'm all self funded, I pay for everything and I'm not a
trust fund kid. I've pretty much put all the money I make
into the band and if I get a placement on a TV show I put
all that money into going on the road or hiring a publicist,
you know. Doing stuff that you should when you put out a
record. I recently signed a publishing deal so I'm hoping
I can use that money to fund the band on the road. I've
actually had a lot of interest as of
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