Interview with Josh Rheault from Mercies

27 September 2012 No Comment

So how’s the tour been thus far?

Um, good. Really surprising actually. Some shows better than others, as expected. We’ve had really good shows, so you can’t ask for anything more for the first full U.S.

So what’s been the highlight of the tour thus far?

I think our best show was in Costa Mesa, California. It was really kind of a weird venue. Well the venue was cool. It was just that it was in a shopping mall and it wasn’t what we’d expect. But a lot of people came and people were loud. And we had a lot of friends there so it was kind of the highlight for me.San Franciscowas really nice. We’ve been looking forward to the west coast this whole time.

That’s great. So what’s been the part of the tour that has not been the best? Have you guys been having any issues with the van or tour bus or have had anything break down?

We had a blowout in Tennessee that took about four hours of our day away from us, and a bunch of bucks, but other than that it’s been smooth.

Yean, it always seem that there is one place within the tour that something is going to go wrong with a vehicle.

Yeah our tires, we probably should not have left on these tires, but we did anyways. It was so hot, and so much weight going on with the trailer, that one of them just kind of gave out.

So I’m really curious about The Barn. I was reading about that. Is it something that has been in the family for a while? How did that come about?

Um, I guess technically it has been, but it was never really looked at as a functional space. It’s just been right by my house; this old barn really. It’s what you think of when you think of an old barn, it’s exactly what it was. There is old farm equipment in there, therefore it wasn’t really functional. But we started jamming down there. It not only is kind of isolated, but once we started recording, we were like wow, this sounds exactly like what we wanted it to with a lot of natural reverb and big open sound. We started to do some work on it to make it a bit more livable and transform it into a studio. While we were recording the first record we were getting the barn ready, getting the locks fitted it took the whole length of the record and now it’s pretty awesome. It’s a really nice space. I can’t wait to get back.

So I’ve never really been in a barn. What’s the size of it?

I mean now, it looks like it from the outside, but when you walk in it’s, well we have heat in there now, we poured a floor, we have a bunch of rugs, a little loft up there, a coffee machine, fridge,. It’s pretty sweet.

How long did it take to renovate it?

Probably close to a year. It was pretty slow. My father helped out a lot. I say he did probably most of everything. He taught us how to do everything somehow! Whenever we had time we worked on it. There is still stuff we want to do, but with just heat in there, that’s all we could ask for.

The simple things in life.

Yeah.

So you guys also have a recording studio inside as well, correct?

Yeah. It’s not really a studio as most people think of it. If you wanted to record pop-punk power sound, that’s not really what we go for. Its big, open reverb, organic sound, so it’s kinda tailored to our likings not like in a typical sound studio. If there are birds in the background and dogs barking, tractors rolling by, we really don’t’ mind it.

What do other artists think of that?

They kinda know what they are signing up for. So everyone’s cool with it.

So you guys are on tour now for Three Thousand Days and The Ballet, how is that going?

It’s really awesome. We are playing a few different songs from both records right now and we just released a cover to that we are playing, so we have a good mix of things going on. But we went from touring with a three piece to a four piece now, which is really cool. So we have more vocals and we got some keys, so it’s a little bit of a bigger sound than it was say two tours ago; which is exciting.

What are plans for after the tour?

Well, we are going to release a 7inch when we get back. We are writing a full length album as well. We will be playing CMJ as well. Um, we have some big shows at the end of October. And during the winter we will be writing.

It sounds like you guys will stay pretty busy then!

Yeah for sure.

Is there anything else you would like to add or let us know?

Check us out! We are on just about every site you can think of. On Band camp we have free downloads right now.

Well thank you so much Josh and good luck on the rest of your tour.

Thanks.

merciesmusic.com

http://mercies.bandcamp.com