Listen to “Don’t Try,” from Meridene’s Daytrotter session on November 26, 2010.

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Meridene is a thing of constant progress. Something Like Blood, the pop-rock powerhouse’s second full-length, improved upon every aspect of the band’s repertoire. Everything from the album’s melodies and lyrics to its recording quality represented a growth for the band.
Since its release in September of 2010, we’ve eagerly awaited new Meridene recordings, knowing full-well how drastically important they can be in progressing the band’s material. With a new EP expected this summer, lead singer and guitarist Trevor Ives fills us in on some of its details. We learn the six-song EP’s name, Awful Mouth, and find out about a few of its songs and how and by whom they were written and recorded.

 

Andy: When is this thing coming out?

Trevor: It will be out this summer. We are hoping to have it out some time in July.

 

Andy: When and where did you record it? Are you still working on it?

Trevor: We recorded it with Jamie Hansen. The initial drum tracking and guitar was done using Jamie’s mobile studio at Dave [Power]’s house. We did overdubs and vocals at Jamie’s new studio and will be going in to finish up tracking in May. Then all we have to do is mix/master and we can get it out.

 

Andy: Who is involved? Any other players on it besides the normal band? Who recorded it?

Trevor: Jamie Hansen recorded the songs. We worked with a full horn section as well.

 

Andy: What songs are on it? How many new? How many reworked songs?

Trevor: The EP will be six tracks. Two of those tracks will be re-workings of old songs and four will be brand new songs. The title track is “Awful Mouth,” a song we have been playing out for nearly a year that appeared on our Daytrotter session. We will also have a new song that we have been playing out recently under the working title “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” And a couple of new songs we haven’t played out yet. So it’s got some familiar stuff and some brand new jams.

 

Andy: Why the reworked songs? How is it beneficial to the band to continue working on older songs?

Trevor: The two re-worked songs that are going on the EP are “Don’t Try,” and “Stay Alive”. As we grow as a band, we have started writing songs together as opposed to me writing them by myself. The re-workings started as an exercise in co-songwriting really. Using the original chord progressions as a loose outline, we molded some of the older songs that had gotten stale for us into essentially brand new songs that were much better than the source material. When It came time to record, we decided to include the re-workings because of how well they had matured compared to the original arrangements, and also as an interesting way to compare and contrast against the older incarnations.

 

Andy: How does the EP progress Meridene? Is there anything drastically new/different on it? Or anything you’re particularily proud of?

Trevor: I don’t know if I can call the EP “progress,” as far as the growth of our sound. We kind of stayed within the song stylings of Something Like Blood, but wrote almost all the material together. That is the main progress for us on this recording. The only song not co-written was the title track. I think the most interesting thing about the sound of these recordings is the tonal avenues that Jamie took us down. In the past most of my guitar tone was kind of “Strokes-y,” over-driven, with some reverb and delay. With Jamie we explored more fuzzed out and heavier tones. It’s something I had been moving towards in my personal taste, and this was our first attempt at applying that to the Meridene sound. I think it’s turning out very well.

 

 

– Andy Plank (April 25, 2011)