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MNEMIC interview by Damjan

A lot has changed in the Mnemic camp since their last album. They replaced a vocalist, then replaced him again - such a blitzkrieg double-switch might seem a Spinal Tap moment, but in contrary turns out to work perfectly: not only does the newcomer Guillaume Bideau take over with vengeance, but the band gets heavier than ever, providing yet another bunch of major league cyber-thrash missiles. Plus, you get to hear Jeff Walker and Shane Embury as guests on the CD. Thus, here we give you Mircea (guitars) with lots of cool info on the Mnemic’s new album, “Passanger”...

On “Passenger” you’re getting really aggressive, with lots of subsequent technical wizardry in your playing. However, even if less accentuated, the direct melodies stay an important element of Mnemic’s sound. Do you find it hard to maintain such a musical balance, or is it something that comes naturally to you? From such a rising level of brutality I would expect the melodies to suffer a bit, but - as I see it - it didn’t happen.

It's always been natural for us to combine melody with brutality. One can not exist without the other in our manual, when writing songs. I mean I am the guy in the band that loves the more brutal oriented music, but for instance in a song like "Nothingness Black", I wrote a really melodic chorus which everybody seemed to enjoy, which is really cool. We need melody in our music, cause that to us is diversity and catchiness.

You had a long, forced pause caused by a search for the new vocalist. Did it, in a way, allow you to redesign and rethink your music?

Not really. We didn’t really loose an important music writer but lost more of an image kind of thing, when the singer replacement occurred. I mean we didn’t change anything, the same people who wrote the music on the new album, are the same people that wrote for the last two albums - so nothing has really changed, except for the lyrics. Michael, first singer, used to write 90% of the lyrics, and wasn’t too happy when people contributed with lyrics. This time around I wrote 40% of the lyrics, and Guillaume took over when he got into the band.

After Michael Bøgballe left the band, you worked for a brief period with Tony Jelencovich. What caused his unexpectedly quick departure?

He was a retard to work with… ha-ha! Not really, just kidding. He was and still is a cool guy, but not someone you want to be in a band with. I mean, he had his vision and we had our vision. We have a certain goal with this band, and that is to go all the way, 110% at no matter what speed or cost - he was of a different opinion, and that’s why we had to let him go.

With Guillaume Bideau you seem in perfect harmony. How deeply was he involved in writing, or to put it more loosely, creating of the new album? Would “Passenger” go in the same direction with Jelencovich or Bøgballe?

Yes, it probably would have. I mean Guillaume actually wrote one song on the new album, which fitted really well with the rest of the songs, and wasn’t that different at all. I would say it's pure luck.

In Scarve, Bideau was used to work as a part of vocal duo. Was it hard for him to take over all the vocal duties and stand out as a “sole frontman”?

Actually not at all, he recorded all the vocals by himself in Paris, which is quite weird, cause we were kind of sketchy to begin with. He had to go back from L.A. to use his own studio in Paris, and when he was done with everything, we where “woaaa” - that’s amazing! Ha-ha… I cant really tell you something else, cause that’s how it all went down.

Your first single, “Meaningless”, was co-written by famed Roy Z. On a first glance, it might seem an odd combination, Roy and Mnemic, but it really worked good. So, how did this collaboration happen? Whose idea was it?

We had a song which we couldn’t finish because of writers block, and we kind off pushed it and saved it to the last minute. When we had to re-work on it we where still stuck, so I eventually suggested we should send it to Z, and we could do a collaboration, because he is an awesome musician and a really good friend of the band.

Also, for the first time ever, you have guest appearances on the album, that being Shane Embury (Napalm Death) and Jeff Walker (ex-Carcass), both on the song “Psykorgasm”. Was the song written with them (or, generally, with guest appearances) on your mind, or did the thing evolve into such collaboration later?

It's quite a funny story. Actually for about one year or two ago, I was on my way to the US and I was at the main airport in Copenhagen/Denmark, when I saw this short guy, with short hair and beard, in which I thought looked a lot like Jeff Walker from Carcass. It was weird, cause at that time you didn’t hear about Carcass, the only member you knew of was of course Mike Amott who had his thing with Arch Enemy. Anyways, I turn around and stalk him for a bit, and quickly realize that it really is the one and only, Jeff Walker from disbanded Carcass. I walk up to him and say “May I shake your hand, you are Jeff Walker from Carcass, it's an honour to meet you!” and he says “Hey mate!” and from there on we went to the bar at the airport, quenched our thirst with some beers and talked old Carcass days, and sort of became friends. When he and Shane where in Los Angeles, and had some shows with Brujeria, I called him up and they both came out to the studio, and I asked if they would be interested in laying down some vocals for a song, and it wasn’t a problem at all. I remember, I was standing in the same recording booth when Jeff was recording his vocals. It was a very cool experience, one of those you will never forget. I mean, Rune, Brian and me come from Death Metal bands, and have grown up on death metal. At that time Rune and Brian where playing in bands such as Sudden Death and Exhume and I was in a band called Feticide. Check out the band names, and you will know if you are a true Carcass fan.

The cover artwork is very simple, but graphic and eloquent, almost like a symbol that was always here but we failed to see it up to now… How would you describe the cover concept?

It’s a pirate flag, and it kicks balls. That’s about it.

Given the strength of the new songs, they might pretty soon become highlight points of your live shows… Will you be including lots of new stuff in the setlist?

We already are including two of the new songs into our current setlist. We are in the US right now touring our asses off, and playing some new and some old material. Everything is peachy.