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Interviews Only Found Here at MetalCore!
The Missing
The Missing are a killer un-signed band and after hearing the bands cd I just
had to interview them. Here is a interview with leader singer DM.
MC: How did the band form? Were any of you in other bands prior to this one?
DM:Several years ago I joined up with two guys, a guitarist and a bassist.
We started writing some guitar-oriented goth stuff, sort of like early
Siouxsie meets The Cure. We got a drummer and started playing out, but in a few
months we realized that we were headed in different directions, musically
speaking. As it turned out, I was too angry for goth; the two original guys
wanted
to do more mellow stuff, and I was heading for full-out industrial. The
drummer and I left, replaced the other two and got a keyboard player. We spent
some
time tinkering with the industrial aspects, but eventually favored more of a
metal sound. So the band reformed again, with all new members. I’ve been in
other bands before this one, but none as the frontwoman. JJB played guitar
for a grindcore band called OCD for several years and they did very well until
the singer essentially called it quits, ironically enough due to his very
real OCD.
MC: Describe a little bit about each band member and do you all get along
great?
DM: Right now it’s just JJB (the guitarist) and myself, as we’re replacing
two others. We pretty much have a love-hate relationship that I think works
well within the context of the band (although I think more often than not he’d
rather see my head on a stick than anything else). He’s very dedicated and
works as hard at this shit as I do, and that’s saying something.
MC: I have a copy of the CDs you put out. How are you promoting it and what
has the feedback been like so far?
DM: So far, the feedback has been awesome. I’m so pleased that the fans
really seem to be enjoying it. We’re scraping together some cash to launch a
promotional print campaign, but it’s slow going. In the meantime, I just send
the
CD out to websites and ‘zines and try to spread the word the old-fashioned
way. Umm, as old-fashioned as the Internet can be considered, I guess.
MC: What are the goals of the band? Do you think with this CD, you will get
signed to a label? What would you be looking for with a label?
DM: Our ultimate goal is fairly simple: to be able to quit our jobs and make
music for a living. We made this CD specifically as a promotional piece in
the hopes that it would attract some attention from industry, and we’ll be
making a big push to some labels shortly. All we’re looking for in a label is
good distribution and a fair deal. We’re certainly not expecting to make a lot
of money or anything.
MC: Describe the sound of the band in your opinion. Finish this line:
Somebody should buy our CD because:
DM: The sound of the band is sort of female-fronted, Tool-y Manson-ish.
Although our fans seem to hear all kinds of influences in the music, some of
whom
we’ve never even heard of. I think it’s great that people can pull whatever
they feel from the music, it gives us a much wider appeal than I
anticipated. And somebody should buy our CD because we’re really fucking broke!
MC: Tell us what the url is of your website and what people will find when
they go there?
DM: We have all the standard shit, like audio clips, video files, reviews
and photos. I suppose at some point we’ll redo the site, but right now we’re
keeping it more informative and less flashy. We are conveniently located at
_www.themissing.com_ (http://www.themissing.com/) . Go there and waste precious
moments of your life.
MC: How would you rate yourself as a live band? Do you play out of state and
have you done many shows? Do you have a big fan base?
DM: If I may be so bold, we are an excellent band live. Even if you hate the
music, I guarantee you will be entertained by the show. We have a large
local fanbase, but the majority of our fans don’t even live in NYC. I’ll tell
you though, it’s very encouraging to see so many new people sign up for the
mailing list every week! And we do play out of state, but at the moment, we’re
grounded until we replace the missing members.
MC: Any crazy stories to tell about any live shows? Anything funny happen at
one you care to share?
DM: I once knocked myself unconscious during a show. I was beating myself in
the head during some song, and I had this marble-bead necklace wrapped
around my wrist which unfortunately connected with my forehead. I was only out
for
a few seconds, and I awoke to find the guitarist and bassist standing over
me, thrashing their heads and still playing. The audience assumed it was part
of the show and I was just being dramatic, so I got up, hung onto the drumkit
for balance and finished the song. But I had the imprint of the beads across
my forehead for almost a week. Ouch!
#9: I saw some videos of the band and you look like you guys are having a
grand ole time up onstage. Would you as the singer, ever act like a maniac
onstage and run around like a maniac?
DM: I pretty much always run around like a complete maniac. Unfortunately, I
don’t really know how to do anything else. ;)
MC: Do you feel you’re an original band? Is it hard to write songs and
lyrics? How does the writing of a song come about?
DM: Although I feel that I glean a little something from everything that I
listen to, I would have to say that we really don’t sound exactly like
anybody, which is fine by me. Who wants to be a copycat band? It’s very hard to
write songs, but since I don’t even attempt to write anything that could even
vaguely be construed as poetry, the lyrics are somewhat easier. Basically, the
band will write some riffs, or a full song that they turn over to me. I kind
of sink my teeth into it, chew on it for a little while, and spit it out as a
full song with lyrics. Basically.
MC: Do you think it is tough for an unsigned band to get noticed nowadays?
How much time per week is spent on band related stuff?
DM: It’s EXTREMELY difficult to make it in this business, and it’s
EXTREMELY hard to get noticed when you’re not making commercial music. Almost
every
free moment of my life is spent doing band-related things. Yikes.
MC: How did you come up with your cool name and was their any other names
under consideration?
DM: I originally pulled “The Missing” from the Ministry song of the same
name. I was listening to that album a lot at the time. Also, I was thinking
about my brother, who had served in the Gulf War several years earlier. There
were some tense times when we wondered if he wouldn’t come home. So “The
Missing” was changed to all lowercase letters and a colon was added to make it
seem more like an unfinished list. As in, “Among the missing:.” We started life
as Three Teens Kill Four, but after a few weeks we were sick of it already
and made the switch to the missing:.
MC: Do you all have regular jobs and if you do what are they?
dm: I work as an Emergency Medical Technician for the Fire Department as
well as a private ambulance company. JJB works as a freelance art director. His
one job pays more than both of my jobs put together. It’s very sad.
MC: What merchandise do you have for sale?
DM: None yet (aside from the CD) but we’re working on shirts and stickers.
MC: Any last words? Thanks for being part of my website.Yes, go check out th
ese female-fronted metal bands that I think kick ass: Crisis; Hydrovibe;
Mahavatar; Spider Rockets; Bottom and Tang. You can find links to all of these
bands on our website, www.themissing.com. And thank *you* for the interview.
Rock on!