interview with Martyr de Mona
Have any of you played in other bands? Martyr de Mona is the only original band I've ever played in. Josh W was in Bullitstorm and Ash was in Dead Utopia before joining MDM.
How is it that you started playing music? My brother got me into heavy metal from an early age and by listening to Maiden and G N' R I was inspired to pick up the guitar.
What are your names? / Who plays what?
Louis Hale - Vocals / Guitar
Josh Jones - Guitar / Vocals
Joshua Wooldridge - Bass / Vocals
Ashley Leatherland - Drums
Have you had other previous members? Just a few! We've got through our fair share of guitarists, bassists and drummers over the years!
Did you make music even when you were young? I probably wrote my first song when I was about 12 but I look back now at some of my lyrics and it's laughable!
Where are you from? The Black Country!
What year did the band form? It was November 2006 when the band took on the name Martyr de Mona but we've changed a hell of a lot since then.
What's your style of genre? I would say we're a metal band but there's grunge and progressive elements to our sound too.
What inspires you? For me, it's playing live that gives me the biggest buzz.
How often and where do you reherse? We practice 2 or 3 times a week at our lock up in Wolverhampton.
How have you developed since you started with the music? I think I've just become better at everything and so has the rest of the band. If you compare our first EP to our latest album Impera, the musicianship and songwriting has improved immensely.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? I don't do much outside the band apart from work. Most of us have full time jobs but we're all about the music in our 'spare time.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? We're working closely with FATangel Management who are booking shows for us. It's great to have a team who know which are the best venues to play and have experience of organising successful tours.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? If we get lucky and a major label comes in for us, then great. If not, we're happy to carry on down the DIY route. We've had our fingers burnt by a Mickey Mouse label before and we've learnt our lesson!
What made you decide to make this music? We just write what comes naturally. We don't necessarily try to write in a certain way although our influences certainly have an affect on what we produce. If anything, we've moved away from the sound of the first album with Impera which proves we have no set formula.
What are your songs about? A variety of things. A couple of the songs from Impera were inspired by the break-up of the previous line-up. Sometimes our lyrics can be slightly political or based on or inspired by films or real life experiences.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? We all contribute to the music but lyrics are usually left to me, the vocalist.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Usually music but on the odd occasion lyrics will come first.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? For Impera, we all had musical ideas which we'd composed at home and we brought them into the practice room and turned them into songs. I always write lyrics at home on my own.
Have you done any covers live? We've done a few over the years! The Wicker Man and Wrathchild by Iron Maiden, Lifer by Down, Them Bones and Would? by Alice In Chains, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by you know who!
What language do you sing in? English
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? 5 and 800!
What ages are most of your concert attendants? I would say between the ages of 20 to 40.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We like to vary the set and tailor the set to the venue and crowd.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? The most regular places we've played are probably the O2 Academy in Birmingham and the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton.
What was your first gig like? It was a decent gig as in we got a good response from the crowd but the sound was terrible.
What was your latest gig? We played at Breaking Bands Festival last weekend.
Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes a few times.
Where have you played live this year? So far we have played Birmingham, Leicester, Wolverhampton and Breaking Bands Festival.
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We have shows lined up in Coventry, South Wales, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Norwich and Evesham with many more to be announced.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We got serious about merch when we released our first EP. We have several t-shirt designs available along with all of our EPs and albums.
Where can people buy your merchandise? At gigs or from www.mdmstore.bigcartel.com
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays? I do both but I much prefer having a physical copy of the CD. Downloading from iTunes or wherever is good if you only like one or two tracks by a particular band. However, as a DIY band who pay our own recording and production costs, it's a bit of a kick in the bollocks when you see your music available for free download on a Russian torrent site. That's not right and shouldn't be allowed.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? I think bands are more reluctant to do albums because why should they spend thousands of pounds on an album if it will just get given away for free on a torrent site?
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Hopefully it will get us some exposure in Sweden.
Do you have any role models or idols? For me it has to be Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. He's up there with the best songwriters who have ever lived, he's a brilliant bass player and Maiden is his baby. He's a real driving force and he lives and breathes the music.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Older bands I guess because they've all got a legacy and a history to be proud of.
What have been your biggest obstacles? It's always difficult replacing band members and we've had to do that a lot over the years.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? I would just say be very careful what you sign!
How do you get psyched for a gig? I don't need to get myself psyched for a gig, as soon as I plug in I'm psyched. The day I can't get psyched for a gig is the day I will give up.
Do you have any new material? We have just re-released Impera so we'll be touring the record for a while longer before we release anything new.
What are your web sites?
How can people reach you? Through our website or on any of the main social networking sites.
What are your plans for the future? Josh Jones has recently joined us on guitar so we're getting him up to speed with the tracks and we've already played a few gigs with him. We're planning a tour for September / October time. We release Impera as a single on 22nd June.
