MESH

Anders: You have been doing this band – Mesh – for more than ten years. Do you still have the same fans at your gigs or has the scene changed a lot? What do you see when you´re on stage?

Mesh: We do see the same people but we also see a lot more people every time. I think we´re quite lucky and the people have sticked with us and it seems to get bigger and bigger every time we play. But it´s still a lot people we´ve been seeing for the last 10 years.

A: Do you have many fans since the beginning?

M: Yeah, people are still with us since the early days and that´s great! When you do shows in certain cities you already expect to see some familiar faces. Some people are actually older than us and that´s cool.

A: Are you also popular in England or mostly outside England?

M: Mostly in Central – Europe because in England we haven´t had distribution – CDs and so in the shops. So it has been a little more difficult. Things started to happen in Central – Europe and we concentrated on building up the fanbase there. So in a way we have never really bothered about England. We did build up a reasonable size fanbase in England but it didn´t get much bigger. Well we do play shows in England with lots of people. There are still people who are finding out and joining mailing list. It´s still good, but we tend to come to Europe to play really. That´s where the record company is aswell.

A: Are you still under Home Records?

M: Yea, you´re right.

A: And before that was Memento Materia?

M: Yes, in Sweden

A: So what happened? You just changed your label?

M: Yea, it was just an opportunity to get a bigger record deal really, to make a career rather than what we were doing – spending time. We could stop working and do music all the time. From Sweden to Germany. Ultimately it made a lot of difference. We had to do it really at the time, it gave us a lot of opportunities. We did sell a lot more records aswell. But you do get a different kind of frustration. You know, sometimes with a small label you think they´re not doing enough but then you get the same problems with the big label aswell.

A: But why don´t you have any deals with some major labels? Your music is quite popular, really radio-friendly. Still you´re not so popular in the whole scene. We can´t see your videos on VIVA or MTV. Why? You do have many hits.

M: Yes, exactly! Why?! It was really a label problem. I think we´re a too small band so they weren´t that interested. They´re more interested in Shakira and so. You get more money from the bigger labels but when you´re small band... So it´s a bit difficult to compromise. When you´re with a big label the label starts to tell you what to do. A small label doesn´t want to control that much. We just deliver the album, no discussion.

A: When will your new album come out? Produced by Gareth Jones, right?

M: We kind of produced it ourserlves in our studio but Gareth was involved with some of the mixes and did some work in London aswell. Just to say the half of it was mixed by Gareth but we produced it pretty much.

A: When is the release date?

M: We´ve got this big problem with the record label because they´re looking for a new partner – Sony, Universal, Virgin or that sort of thing to work with. They are talking to a few people at the moment but it seems to take forever. Our album is still waiting so it´s hard to tell the exact date but we hope it´s later in this year. We keep pushing the label. We can say it´s fantastic, you really should hear it, the best album of the year. No, we´re very very proud of it. Sure we´re very proud of anything we´ve done though.

A: What will be the title?

M: We don´t know yet. We do have a couple of ideas, but we´re not sure yet.

A: Are you also going to release some singles before the album?

M: Yes, we´re talking about certainly one single, maybe two even.

A: Are there already some remixes done?

M: Not yet because we still have to make decisions of what will be our first single and what the second but we started talking to the label about that. We´ve been thinking about that and had some people approaching to us aswell. We´re not actually into the `50 remixes of one track on one CD single` kind of thing. Usually there are too many mixes and it´s too boring to listen to mixes, it takes days. We would like to have a b-side though.

A: What kind of style do you think yourself you´re playing? Is it futurepop? Synthpop?

M: Don´t know really. It´s changing aswell. It´s certainly not futurepop. More a rock kind of thing with electronic sounds we grew up listening to. We also use a lot of guitar in our music. If it sounds good, we´re going to stick to it. It´s difficult to cathegorize. If you´re not purely electronic you sit somewhere in between. Our style changes a lot on the albums also so one song may be a bit more electronic, other one more organic.

A: You have done some acoustic versions, too. Haven´t you thought of making a whole acoustic album? Maybe you could find many new fans, female fans perhaps

M: Well...we play guitar. It´s a couple of tracks on our new album that have got some elements of that but not completely. Just maybe one acoustic track and then the next one electronic.

A: What kind of music do you listen to at home?

M: All kind of stuff really. There´s no particular type of music. I don´t think it comes across of what we do and write and what ideas we run into.

A: Where are your roots? What was the band that made you think „I want to do it, too!“?

M: I think that would probably be an electronic band. I was into Tubeway Army, OMD and of course the obvious Depeche Mode sort of things, kind of excited me at the time.

A: It´s also quite interesting that your band´s look is very different from others. It´s not just pure black or gothic. You´re more like hip-hop or nu metal style. Isn´t it a problem for your fans?

M: They don´t seem to care. We´re very proud of that – to have a slightly different audience. If you do many shows and a lot of people are there just for dressing up, it sucks. People come to see us, not the way we look. We don´t really dress up, we just do what we do. It´s a kind of honesty thing – we are how we are. We respect everybody who´s in the scene and we´re very proud to be a part of it. We´ve got a lot of friends in other bands like Icon of Coil, VNV Nation etc. We know them and we respect what they do. So this is our thing. That´s what we´re like in England. We don´t dress up when we come here.

A: Have you also seen this picture where Robbie Williams is wearing a Mesh T-shirt? Does he really like your music? Do you know him personally? Or is it some Photoshop trick?

M: I think he had a time when he was going with lots of electronic bands. And then he did this last album which is completely electronic stuff. I don´t know how he could do it but he has got a big record deal so I guess he can do whatever he likes. It´s a bit strange. We had a show in London and my sister was selling merchandise. He came up to her and said: „I want to meet the band!“ Then we were just sitting in the backstage when he came in wearing this shirt and said: „Hello, I´m Robbie.“ It was pretty surreal.

A: You come from Bristol. There´s a very big trip-hop scene there. I can remember Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead, Up, Bustle & Out etc. Why is there so much trip-hop and downtempo coming from this town? Is there some special atmosphere there?

M: There´s a lot of different music there.

A: Are there any other bands like Mesh there aswell?

M: Not really. When we started then there was a few. More electronic bands, the dance scene was bigger. Many bands are playing trip-hop also a lot of rap and reggae, black music. But there´s also jazz and rock music, lots of different styles. There´s one more respectable style and it has its time and attracts people to the city. Afterwards it sort of labels the city. There are lots of studios in Bristol aswell.

A: What did you know about Estonia before you came here? Do you have any familiar fans here?

M: Not much. People write to us from all over the world.

A: Did you know that there are many people here waiting just for your show?

M: No. We´re not sure. It kind of surprised us, the invitation to come here to play especially when we saw the line-up...like are they sure they´ve got the right band here? Maybe they thought we are some punk band or something. So it was a bit unreal for us. We´re quite different from other bands here so we´ll see when we go out there. What I´ve said: you can only be who you are and do what you do and this is what we do. So please no spitting.

A: Do you have many gigs now that you´re releasing the new album?

M: We will. We don´t know the date when the album comes out so we have to save the new songs for when it comes out. So in a way we don´t do any shows until we know what´s happening. But it´s hard not to perform in a festival every now and then because there are so many people there and hopefully new people aswell

A: Will you play any new songs today?

M: A couple of them.

A: What about bonus tracks?

M: Well – well. Depends on the noise of the crowd.

A: But do you always play the same bonus tracks on your gigs or are they different? It is so with some EBM bands that if you have seen them two or three times you will already know what they will play.

M: No, we always try to change it. Sometimes different versions of one song aswell.

A: Thank you. It was very nice to meet you, guys.

M: And you aswell!