Metal, post rock, modern jazz, psychedelic band MIND SPUN has an EP and an album out, with newer music in the works currently. With some shows in the works coming up in the next year. The band talks about it all right below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
The band Mind Spun was established in Lausanne, in 2016. Matthieu Grillet (guitar), Jonathan Hohl (guitar) and Léo Juston (drums) started a tribute to the post-metal band Animals As Leaders as a study project. Through this project, they had the opportunity to tour for the DKSJ in Switzerland. Following this event, the band started growing and playing original songs.
In early 2017, Lucien Leclerc (bass) and Leo Fumagalli (Saxophone) joined the band and the quintet spent the year to compose their first EP which was released on May 24th, 2019. The EP garnered positive feedback and the band got to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival that same year.
Mind Spun released their brand new album on October 21st, 2022. They also announced their new collaboration with the swiss label "Ronin Rhythm Records" lead by Nik Bärtsch.
During that release tour, they won the “JazzContreBand” Festival contest. This means that they will perform a show at Jazz A Vienne next year.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
It’s actually the first song we played all together. At first we tried to add the bass and the saxophone to the tribute to Animals As Leaders, and to find interesting melodic or rhythmic patterns to develop further our sound. Mind-Spun (a song written by the band Animals as Leaders) was the first song we build with this mindset. We quickly wrote our own songs after this, but this is our first try as a band, and the first glimpse to our personal sound!
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
The band is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. We all gathered here because of our studies, and most of the musicians still live in Switzerland (but move a lot ; the drummer Léo now lives in France, near the boarder with Switzerland, Matthieu lives in Lausanne and so does Lucien the bass player ; Jonathan lives in the USA but regularly comes back to Switzerland, and Leo lives in both Paris and Lausanne).
We don’t really fit in only one category. On one hand, we can be considered as a mathrock, post rock, Kraut rock or even instrumental metal band. On the other hand, we could also fit really well in a jazz festival, like we already did in the past when we played at Montreux Jazz Festival.
Local bands are hard to recommend, as Switzerland doesn’t host so many professional bands. We think about Pollen, hubris.,
4. How would you describe your style?
Our style is a blend of all musicians personal tastes and sound. What gathered all of us together is the same love for metal, rock, psychedelic, produced and instrumental sound, and because we all play in different other bands and learned from different genres, we all bring our personal identity to the final result. We work as a band, so we discuss a lot together about our choices, and we write in a participative way (we send our ideas to each other, and everyone is free to write or modify anything). In the end, we would say that our style is an instrumental band, flirting with metal, post rock, math rock, modern jazz and psychedelic.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your work?
So far we released an EP (2019) and an album (2022). Until now, we did everything at home, from the recording till the final product, so our album are quite honest on what we can achieve without any external help or support. We’d say that you can expect a very produced, rock sound, with a bit of surprises!
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
Yes, we constantly write music and send everything to the other members of the band. Sometimes in takes months to finish a track, sometimes it’s done in only a few days, it really depends on each other calendar, inspiration, and on the needs of the band!
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Yes, this is our main concern at the moment, because we just released a new album a few weeks ago. We won a jazz contest (Jazz Contreband), and the price is a touring support (6 gigs and a show at Jazz a Vienne). In addition, we have some famous venues expecting us. Our next tour is planned for April, 2023. We are also trying to build a tour for July and October 2023, so lots to come!
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We really want to develop our sustainability as a touring band, we would love to play as a support band for one of our idols (Covet, Plini, Animals as Leaders, etc). We are starting to learn on how to plan a successful and sustainable tour, so our goal is to get better and better at this task! We are also constantly working on some new music, and new videos and pictures. We would like to grow and expand our name to be able to tour internationally and get the band where it should be!
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to our band on Spotify, Bandcamp, Mx3, Soundcloud, or any other streaming platform. You can also buy our CDs on our website or order them by writing us an email. We also sell some merch, such as T-Shirts, Posters, signed albums, etc. We are developing more and more our products, because we have the chance to work with gifted illustrators and we love to make their work shine! Everything can be find on our Website : https://www.mindspunmusic.com/.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
We would love him to feel surprised, to sing the melodies, the energy, and to get curious about how the band sounds when it plays live! Another specific point that we defend is the good vibe, the warmth and the generosity of the musicians. We don’t want the listener to feel that he’s listening to a dark, manish band, we would like him to feel good, as if he was part of us!
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