After 14 years apart, Mineral has reunited. I was able to talk to Chris Simpson, the lead singer and vocalist of the influential indie rock outfit about their reunion, how it felt to be playing again, what influenced them as a band and what lies in the future for the band. Mineral will be playing at the Fest on Sunday, November 2nd at 8 Seconds, their set is at 10:30 PM and it’ll be their first show together in Florida in 16 years.
What inspired you guys to get back together, like, what events took place to get the ball rolling and to get a tour going?
I think in general sense, I started thinking about it, just the fact that it was 20 years since we started the band, so that number sort of factored into that, I was thinking that if there was a time do something now would be a good one, you know? And then Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World, I was hanging out with him last fall and we were sorta both talking about how it’s been 20 years since we started our bands, and he ended up asking if we might consider doing a show with them and some other bands, a sort of 20th anniversary show and I hadn’t talked to the other guys about it, so I talked to everyone else and see if they’d at least be interested in getting together in the rehearsal room and seeing what happens, you know? So it’s really like we just kinda agreed to get together and see how it felt, or see if we could feel it out and see if it was something we’d be interested in doing. But at the time we were thinking about doing one show, then it just kinda grew from there. We ate breakfast and started getting back into the material and started getting reconnected with one another again. It was kinda time in all of our lives where a lot of us were in transitional phases, between different things we were doing work wise and school wise and family wise, and what not, so it just sorta worked out, like all systems go.
So we have a good friend who’s been hassling us for a while about doing something with Mineral, they’re sorta involved in the music world and they offered to manage the affair and put things together for us, and so we green lighted it, and it kinda blew up.
20 years ago is this something you ever thought this is something you’d be doing, like did you ever think this was something your band would do?
Definitely not, although 20 years ago, I probably thought we’d still be around, which I guess we are, but in a different way then I would’ve imagined at that time, I was very much career minded at the time, I didn’t really see any reason why Mineral wouldn’t be around now.
Seeing how influential Mineral and your second album became, do you ever wonder what it would have been like if the band stayed together and produced more records?
Sure, yeah, it’s easy to wonder about that. Obviously, Jeremy and I went on to The Gloria Record, you could say that Mineral would’ve gone a little more of that direction, stylistically, but not that those influences aren’t there, but because Mineral was a democratic band situation, like all 4 members were vital to the direction things go. Just the way we play together and the chemistry, I’m sure it would’ve been different than that we all individually went on to do after Mineral. But yeah, it’s easy to wonder what would’ve been. In some degrees still, it could be, like what would new Mineral material would sound like, ya know?
Do you think it would’ve been something like the shoe on the other foot with Jimmy Eat World, like would you guys be asking them to do a reunion show?
Haha, well I don’t know, I mean I’m glad they’re still together, ya know? They’ve been working hard for 20 years, so.
It’s hard to imagine it’s been 20 years.
Yeah, I don’t know, though. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like if we were still together. It’s all guess work.
When did it become real to you that you were back together? Was it during that first practice? Or that first show in Austin? How did it feel?
It was the first show, we played a warm up show in Austin, and yeah, the first show and like really the New York shows, it all felt real once you were on stage in front of people, having to actually perform. It became increasingly real as the rehearsals went on, but definitely something about actually performing in front of people. I guess it felt real, real, real when the tour dates were announced and the tickets were getting sold and at that point it was like, “There’s no turning back now, we’ve got a tour going on.”
We’re so excited to have you guys at the Fest, are you at all familiar with Fest?
I’m really not at all, actually. I remember seeing some people I know were there last year, and seeing pictures on facebook, like at Fest and I think that was the first year I was like, “What is this Fest thing that happens in Florida?” But, uh, I haven’t really been familiar with it over the years. But I’m definitely excited to come play.
Yeah, it’s definitely kinda religious Mecca experience, at least for us in town, just the whole vibe of the town changes when it comes around, I know for me and my friends that’s about all we’ve talked about since the success of last year’s Fest, we’ve sat around and planned our schedules out basically since the announcement of the lineup which is awesome this year.
Yeah, it looks really cool.
Are you guys going to try and catch a few shows while you’re here for Fest?
We’ll see how much time we have. we’ve all have families and kinda have a lot responsibilities at home, I think we’re playing Sunday, the last day, and we’re gonna try to get in the day before, so we’ll see.
Do you think this reunion will inspire new music from Mineral?
Uh, that’s been a popular question for sure, I think our take on it, has been that we’re certainly open to it, but there’s no specific plans in the work. I think that’s something that would take a little more time to develop, as of right now we’ve kinda, we have our hands full just getting ready for the tour, preparing and relearning the material and all learning the gear, the technical aspect together. I think we have the next leg of the tour to be addressed, and then we have quite a while off before we got off to Europe and Japan in January. So I guess we’ll see what happens, we’re definitely not closed minded to the idea, nobody is thinking, that we should definitely not do that, like I said, there’s just no plan other than the tour dates we have planned right now.
Life is probably different now that you’re all domesticated and grown up and have things other than the band, where it’s not as natural to write new material and you guys haven’t been playing this material for 17 years, so I imagine it takes a little bit to get back into it.
Yeah, for sure. Not so much the first record, because even though it’s been so long, we’ve played that material so much for like 3 years of constant touring there’s still some muscle memory involved, whereas the second record we didn’t for the most part play that material live, so took a lot more look to get back into that material, even though we love that material and feel really strongly about the second record so, we still have fun with it and getting to play that material live.
And having so much time between that album and this tour, hopefully everyone in the audience that knows you guys, will know those songs and will be screaming them back at you and I’m sure that’s a pretty amazing feeling to see the audience react and geek out about your music especially since it’s been so long since you guys have done anything.
Yeah, it’s so amazing, like the audience, I mean obviously just having an audience that’s there and interested, amazing. It’s surreal for sure, and then like singing the tunes back, but it’s really a no brainer, it’s like a win win for us to get to go out and play to a crowd larger than what we were used to and to have them know the material already and have them be so passionate about it, and excited to scream it along with you there’s so much energy created
What were your influences back then that inspired those two albums, and do you feel those influences would be relevant still now if you were to make new music, or would something else influence the new music more?
That’s a great question, I think, interesting we did not come from a hardcore background like most people, I think assume, we were really into guitar rock from the 90s, like Smashing Pumpkins and Shiver and Buffalo Tom and Dinosaur Jr., things like that, I think are kinda into Green Day, like their earlier records, those sorta earlier indie bands that were arriving in the 90s, so that’s where we were coming from. But also, I was obsessed with U2, along with our guitarist, so there was kinda a vast amount of stuff we were feeding off of, but this record I would say for myself, I was much more mellower music, I was really into the Red House Painters and Woe, so there was definitely some different influences coming into the second record. If we were to make a record now, I would think, I don’t know, what I listen to know is much different than what I’ve mentioned, but I’m not sure, I’m sure it would influence new Mineral music to a degree, but it would still have to make sense as Mineral music, it would be informed more by our past and the two records that we’ve already made to a large degree. It’s tough to say, I don’t think the influences would be the same, but we certainly would be influenced by the sound of our previous records.
Did you say you were obsessed with U2 back then? How did you feel about their newest album just showing up in on people’s iTunes?
Just showing up in my inbox? Um, I listened to about 14 seconds of the first track and remembered I don’t love U2 anymore, haha, but with that said, I think it’s great, I think it’s hilarious the backlash, people being pissed off that they were given this free record, if you don’t like it just delete, don’t complain about it, if you really don’t like U2, why would you give them more press by complaining about it? I think it’s a brilliant idea, I mean, when you’re a band like U2 and you’ve done what you’ve done and you’re as big as you are, it’s hard to do something unique. Like, I think when Radiohead released their own records, ln Rainbows, that was a big band shocking the music world by doing something out of the box. So I guess when you’re that big you have to think of ways to do things differently.
What band do you find will always be relevant to your life and music in general?
I think of bands like The Velvet Underground, I love and still listen to them all the time, obviously not being around in the 60s, I discovered them after the fact, but I think a lot of the music I feel that way about now is more like music from the 60s and 70s, even further back like a lot of jazz and Louis Armstrong, those people who I think really kinda were catalyst for large changes in music, I always think of people like that, like The Beach Boys, I know a lot of people feel that way about the Beatles, I really enjoy the Beatles, I’m not like a Beatles freak, but I love a handful of Beach Boys records, I feel that way about them, I feel like they’ll always be relevant to my life.
My first album I ever bought myself at 12 years old was a Beach Boys album and I’d say they’re a huge influence on me, I feel like any music I listen to or create, you can trace back to them.
Yeah, for sure, I feel like, I guess that the reason so much of that came from the 60s and 70s because in a lot of ways that was the birth of rock music, a lot of things would be able to trace back to that.
How do you feel about this term “Emo Revival” that’s being thrown around, and did it influence the reunion?
I think for us, because we’re not plugged into that at all, I didn’t really hear that term until we announced that we were playing shows again and people were writing about us playing shows again, I think that’s when I started to hear that phrase. I’m not saying, I understand it was a long before we did that but I don’t think we were aware of that, I don’t think it had anything do with our thinking, or whether we saw it happening, but it’s definitely cool that it’s happening for us in the sense that people-
Anytime there’s a catch phrase like that means people are talking and writing about it, and Mineral kinda fit right into that.
It was more of a happy coincidence then an influence to reunite for you guys then?
Yeah, yeah I would say that for sure, a happy coincidence and I think it’s great that’s its working for people
And I can definitely sense that in your attitude about it cause most older bands when you bring up that term, they’re like, “Oh, it was always here, you’re just now noticing us! There was no revival going on we thrived without you guys!”
Yeah, I don’t feel that way, I just think I’ve been sorta disconnected prior to the Mineral reunion from the landscape of “Emo”, it’s something that I haven’t been following.
Is it exciting to plug in though and see it thriving and see new bands influenced by you and the bands you were with 20 years ago?
Yeah for sure and it’s cool to see more and more bands doing shows, and our friend Bernie who ran Caulfield Records, his band is doing a one show in Lincoln, Nebraska, their hometown, so it’s cool to see other bands coming back and playing shows.
That’s all I’ve got, there’s a lot people excited to see you at Fest and thanks so much for chatting with me.
Awesome, we’re definitely excited to come one down, Florida was always a good place for Mineral, we definitely played some of our biggest shows in our initial run in the 90s in Florida, it’s always been a place that’s embraced our sound and we’re excited to come down.
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 10/9/2014]
