Blind-Summit
THE GUITAR PLAYERS COMMUNITY

Hi Mendeed. Firstly, many thanks for taking time out to speak to us.

Thanks for having us.

For those that might not know you - could you introduce yourselves to our readers?

We’re a heavy metal band from Glasgow, bringing JAG to the masses!

Before forming Mendeed in summer 2000, how did you come to know each other?

We all met at school in our home town, Dumbarton (classy place).

You’re currently on the "Ignite The Flames UK Tour", how is that going?

It went well, we’ve been getting a great response basically since August, everyone seems to be into what we are doing, real metal seems to be on the rise in the UK, its been fantastic.

Your latest single "Ignite The Flames" from the "From Shadows Came Darkness" album is amazing. Talk us through what is was like to make your second album.

Its actually our first mini-album, we’ve had a pervious EP released but it was shit and we were very young.  It was great making "From Shadows…" we recorded the drums and piano pieces in Chapel Studio, Lincolshire.  Its a converted chapel and the acoustics were amazing, the drums are totally acoustic on the album so the room helped us to achieve that sound. We then went down to New Rising Studio in Essex to record everything else, its always great to go there, its a very relaxing setting and you can concentrate on the job in hand.

I have read on your site that there is a new mini-album in progress. When can we expect that to emerge?

Yeah we’re actually in Essex right now writing the next mini-album, we have 5 songs completed and we’re aiming to get around another 5 and pick the best 6. We’re on an island that only has one house! And we’re stuck on here for 10 hours everyday because of the tide, its a good vibe though, the place has a really spooky charm to it.

We’re recording at New Rising again in February/March time and we’ll probably release the next album in the Summer.

What else do you have planned for Mendeed in the new year?

Theres alot of stuff going on just now that we’re really excited about it, we cant really say much just now on any of it tho.  However we’ll be doing a short tour at the beginning of February to break in the new material before we record the next record.  We’ll also be releasing "Act of Sorrow" as our next single around the end of February, so we’ll be doing a video to go along with that, then straight back out on tour in March.

You have been likened to St.Anger era Metallica and Pantera. How would you describe your style of music?

Thrash definitely has been a big influence on us but there’s alot more to our music than that, we take influence from everything from hardcore to power metal.

Are you infulenced in any way by other artists?

I think everybody has a band that gets them into music and makes them want to play an instrument or sing, but when we write we dont sit down and try to sound like another band - infact we probably do the opposite.

Moving on, can you give us a basic run through of your gear setup, and how you define your particular sound?

[Nixon] I use a Peavey 5150mkii head and Steph uses a JCM 2000DSL head, We both use Marshall cabs.

[Kev] I use pearl double bass drum kit, Zildjian cymbals and an Alesis DM5 for triggering the bass drums live.

Both Steph and Nixon use Ibanez guitars, RG series if I am correct? - have these always been your weapons of choice?

[Steph] Yeah, the thin necks allow you to play faster, we both have a couple of them and its the type of guitar we feel most comfortable using.

Many people choose to be self taught at playing instruments. What advice would you give to those people just starting out, or thiking about taking lessons?

[Kev] Listen to as much music as possible, different genres.  Getting lessons is always a good thing, the more you can learn the better musician you will be.

For people out there trying to play your style of music, what would be a "signature" riff?

[Nixon] A signature riff would probably be one of the pedal riffs we play for instance the opening riff to "ignite the flames" or the verse in "glory be they name" we also use alot of harmonies like single note melodies or trem picking runs.

As a band, how often do you get to practice and write new material?

We practice as much as we can, since August we’ve pretty much been touring constantly and that is the best kind of practice,  we havent had much time to write new stuff though, thats why we’re on this island!!!

Leading on from the last question, how do you go about writing a new track? Who does what?

Everyone is involved 100% the music is laid down first, then we’ll record it and I’ll write the lyrics.

Any last words to the readers?

Keep listening to REAL metal and hopefully we’ll see you at one of our shows.

Guys, many thanks again for speaking to us. We wish you the best of luck for the future.

Thanks