For a band that's heavy and considered hardcore, There Were Wires' singer, Jaime Mason, is actually pretty soft spoken. Fans have been anticipating their latest album, Somnambulists, for some time now. Mason is actually quite soft spoken and hasn't seemed half as angry as many bands I have spoken to in the past. While hard bands often shriek about what's pissing them off or politics, Jaime's lyrics resembles his spoken word, fascinating. He plumbs his depths without sacrificing anything that made the band what they are today.
Check out the website for There were Wires.
Daniel Robert Epstein: What's was the hold up on the new album?
Jaime Mason: The release date just getting pushed back and back. We just got it back.
DRE: Everyone in the band is artist besides being musicians. Did you all work on the art for the front and inside cover together?
JM: My roommate and our bassist Jebb [Riley] took care of most of the art. But we all sort of put our own ideas into it. We all crowd around every couple of weeks and make changes. But everyone is very particular about the artwork. It can be a good thing but it's debatable whether or not we should do it ourselves. The artwork has always been a problem with this band because we all have very different ideas artistically and aesthetically. So when it comes down to the wire someone always wants something changed. We try to keep everyone happy but it's hard. We try to keep the creative output of the band in the band.
DRE: What made you name it Somnambulists? Were you up all night or is it a reference to the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
JM: A lot of it comes out of the feel for the music and other stuff comes out of my life. The lyrics and most of the songs are geared towards family situations, relationships I've had and there is somnambulism in my family as well. It's also an interesting title and phenomenon. It's kind of an eerie creepy thing. It's always interested me and I'm glad everyone was into using that as a title.
DRE: It's interesting that you freely admit that this album is about your family. Especially for your kind of music not that it's never about anything.
JM: I try to keep most of the stuff I write about vague enough so it's not like one would notice that I'm writing about one particular thing. But I guess I try to write about things that are important to me. It's been a rough year as far as my family goes. I changed a lot of stuff during the writing process just as crazier things happened with my family.
DRE: Was it a death in the family?
JM: Not so much a death but there is a lot to explain. A lot of it has to do with grandparents, my aunt and my mother. It would be a three hour story if I got into it. It generally comes down to a family not functioning properly. It's something I've always wanted to write about since I was younger but it never seemed appropriate to write about until now. It can still relate to other band member's families as well. Not everyone comes from the greatest of families.
DRE: Who does?
JM: [laughs] See everyone's got family problems and situations that come up with situations that they think are unique to their family. That's one aspect of the lyrical content.
DRE: People are saying that the new album is a definite departure from previous albums. It will have to be because your previous album is relatively old by now.
JM: Some of those songs are close to four years. It's pretty different in that we take a lot of time off in between writing. We're not always the most fully functional band and not even a full time band when it comes right down to it. We have school, work and girlfriends that sometimes take precedent over our time to get together. Like we said this album has been a long time in the making because we had some lineup changes. Most of this record was written before [guitarist] Thomas [Moses]. A lot of it was us spending time talking about what direction we wanted to go in after our last release which was a split 7 inch with this band Moment which Thomas played guitar with. The new album is definitely different. Back then we wanted to be a chaotic hardcore band like Unbroken or Groundwork. We all sort of grew up a little bit and now we just want to play in the style of the stuff you listen to. None of us even listen to a lot of hardcore nowadays but we're influenced by bands like Neurosis and Isis. The bands that are slowly, throbbing, heavy and down tune. A lot of new stuff seems to be heading in that direction.
Some of us can't even listen to the older stuff at all let alone play it. I do still think there is a lot of good stuff on that album. I like it for what it is. But we are really excited about the new material and we can't wait for it to come out. Then we can start writing more because we're ready to.
DRE: The press notes said something a bit strange. How does There Were Wires' true power come from the center of five individuals coming to terms with life, love, and their own happiness?
JM: How does it? [laughs]. I guess we do it when we have time. We do this band when we have time and as much as we can. It's a passion. As much as we would love for it to be a full time thing our lives aren't all about being in a band. I think that's with a lot of bands. We're just people who have problems and issues. Everybody does.
DRE: Will the new album be less of an assault on listeners?
JM: Yeah there's definitely slowed down in a way and not quite as frantic or chaotic. It's recorded much better because we took our time. There's more melody. I think it shows we took time writing our songs because previously we were like we can't play this part or riff too long. We were scared to death of boring people. This time we took some time with the songs and let them go where they were taking us.
DRE: How tough is it to find beauty in the scream?
JM: [laughs] It can be beautiful. Some people do it better than others. I never thought I was that great at it. I think it came out of my lack of ability to do anything else. When we started this I had never taken singing lessons, I didn't know how to sing and I had never sung a note. Its one of those things where someone asks What are you going to do over this part? I'm going to scream. That's all I know how to do. It makes me think of the song Bigger and Better things from the old CD. It's an acoustic song I screamed over. That was our drummer's idea which we did last minute in the studio.
DRE: Where did you find the two-piece horror-themed band Zombie that you're touring with?
JM: I had never heard of them until John from Daughters told me about them when we first touring. We had discussed just jumping on a bunch of their darts that they had been doing with Zombie. They're pretty interesting. Our other guitarist Don [Belcastro] listened to some MP3s and said it sounded like soundtrack films to horror films like Dawn of the Dead. I'm pretty sure they're from Rhode Island which in and of itself is interesting because everything that comes out of there is pretty crazy.
DRE: How did There Were Wires first get together?
JM: Our drummer Ryan [Begley] had met at Martha's Vineyard one summer because I used to go there and work in my aunt's restaurant. Ryan had grown up there and we had a lot of common interests including hardcore music. We just started a band with a couple of locals as a joke to pass the time. Every summer I'd come back and do it more and more until it got to the point where we were playing fairly decent stuff. Now we're in Boston where it's much easier to get together rather than a tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts.
DRE: How did Boston change the band?
JM: It's always been great. I'm originally from New Hampshire but I never too spent too much time here. I was in Chicago for a bit. I liked Chicago but the music scene was pretty dead. There didn't seem to be a lot of support and it was hard to get anything started. There seemed to be a jaded tone to the whole city. In Boston the kids are younger and more supportive. We've been really lucky to have as much support as we have. Most of the kids we see at the shows you see over and over again. It's a cool thing.
DRE: What's your day job?
JM: It's sucking the life out of me. I work as a dispatcher for a company called Dining In. It's a restaurant delivery service.
DRE: I was a driver and a dispatcher for one of those.
JM: It sucks but its right down the street from my house and so convenient.
DRE: I read you have a tattoo of a skateboarder above your heart.
JM: Yeah I got a bunch of ridiculous things. I grew up skateboarding. It was just one of those things when I was in Chicago I was talking with a friend of mine about true love tattoos. I was like fuck it skateboarding is my true love. So I found this funny font and got it done. Then I got some friendship tattoos and some other stuff.
DRE: What's your favorite kind of pornography?
JM: The real non-airbrushed kind. I don't like really buy pornography and I only have a computer at work. Its funny pornography has always been this big thing with punks but I feel that I like tasteful porn. Anything where the models are 100 % comfortable is cool.
DRE: Did you check out suicide girls?
JM: Yeah my roommate has a subscription. I'd be lying if I said I didn't check it out.
by Daniel Robert Epstein.
Check out the website for There were Wires.
Daniel Robert Epstein: What's was the hold up on the new album?
Jaime Mason: The release date just getting pushed back and back. We just got it back.
DRE: Everyone in the band is artist besides being musicians. Did you all work on the art for the front and inside cover together?
JM: My roommate and our bassist Jebb [Riley] took care of most of the art. But we all sort of put our own ideas into it. We all crowd around every couple of weeks and make changes. But everyone is very particular about the artwork. It can be a good thing but it's debatable whether or not we should do it ourselves. The artwork has always been a problem with this band because we all have very different ideas artistically and aesthetically. So when it comes down to the wire someone always wants something changed. We try to keep everyone happy but it's hard. We try to keep the creative output of the band in the band.
DRE: What made you name it Somnambulists? Were you up all night or is it a reference to the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
JM: A lot of it comes out of the feel for the music and other stuff comes out of my life. The lyrics and most of the songs are geared towards family situations, relationships I've had and there is somnambulism in my family as well. It's also an interesting title and phenomenon. It's kind of an eerie creepy thing. It's always interested me and I'm glad everyone was into using that as a title.
DRE: It's interesting that you freely admit that this album is about your family. Especially for your kind of music not that it's never about anything.
JM: I try to keep most of the stuff I write about vague enough so it's not like one would notice that I'm writing about one particular thing. But I guess I try to write about things that are important to me. It's been a rough year as far as my family goes. I changed a lot of stuff during the writing process just as crazier things happened with my family.
DRE: Was it a death in the family?
JM: Not so much a death but there is a lot to explain. A lot of it has to do with grandparents, my aunt and my mother. It would be a three hour story if I got into it. It generally comes down to a family not functioning properly. It's something I've always wanted to write about since I was younger but it never seemed appropriate to write about until now. It can still relate to other band member's families as well. Not everyone comes from the greatest of families.
DRE: Who does?
JM: [laughs] See everyone's got family problems and situations that come up with situations that they think are unique to their family. That's one aspect of the lyrical content.
DRE: People are saying that the new album is a definite departure from previous albums. It will have to be because your previous album is relatively old by now.
JM: Some of those songs are close to four years. It's pretty different in that we take a lot of time off in between writing. We're not always the most fully functional band and not even a full time band when it comes right down to it. We have school, work and girlfriends that sometimes take precedent over our time to get together. Like we said this album has been a long time in the making because we had some lineup changes. Most of this record was written before [guitarist] Thomas [Moses]. A lot of it was us spending time talking about what direction we wanted to go in after our last release which was a split 7 inch with this band Moment which Thomas played guitar with. The new album is definitely different. Back then we wanted to be a chaotic hardcore band like Unbroken or Groundwork. We all sort of grew up a little bit and now we just want to play in the style of the stuff you listen to. None of us even listen to a lot of hardcore nowadays but we're influenced by bands like Neurosis and Isis. The bands that are slowly, throbbing, heavy and down tune. A lot of new stuff seems to be heading in that direction.
Some of us can't even listen to the older stuff at all let alone play it. I do still think there is a lot of good stuff on that album. I like it for what it is. But we are really excited about the new material and we can't wait for it to come out. Then we can start writing more because we're ready to.
DRE: The press notes said something a bit strange. How does There Were Wires' true power come from the center of five individuals coming to terms with life, love, and their own happiness?
JM: How does it? [laughs]. I guess we do it when we have time. We do this band when we have time and as much as we can. It's a passion. As much as we would love for it to be a full time thing our lives aren't all about being in a band. I think that's with a lot of bands. We're just people who have problems and issues. Everybody does.
DRE: Will the new album be less of an assault on listeners?
JM: Yeah there's definitely slowed down in a way and not quite as frantic or chaotic. It's recorded much better because we took our time. There's more melody. I think it shows we took time writing our songs because previously we were like we can't play this part or riff too long. We were scared to death of boring people. This time we took some time with the songs and let them go where they were taking us.
DRE: How tough is it to find beauty in the scream?
JM: [laughs] It can be beautiful. Some people do it better than others. I never thought I was that great at it. I think it came out of my lack of ability to do anything else. When we started this I had never taken singing lessons, I didn't know how to sing and I had never sung a note. Its one of those things where someone asks What are you going to do over this part? I'm going to scream. That's all I know how to do. It makes me think of the song Bigger and Better things from the old CD. It's an acoustic song I screamed over. That was our drummer's idea which we did last minute in the studio.
DRE: Where did you find the two-piece horror-themed band Zombie that you're touring with?
JM: I had never heard of them until John from Daughters told me about them when we first touring. We had discussed just jumping on a bunch of their darts that they had been doing with Zombie. They're pretty interesting. Our other guitarist Don [Belcastro] listened to some MP3s and said it sounded like soundtrack films to horror films like Dawn of the Dead. I'm pretty sure they're from Rhode Island which in and of itself is interesting because everything that comes out of there is pretty crazy.
DRE: How did There Were Wires first get together?
JM: Our drummer Ryan [Begley] had met at Martha's Vineyard one summer because I used to go there and work in my aunt's restaurant. Ryan had grown up there and we had a lot of common interests including hardcore music. We just started a band with a couple of locals as a joke to pass the time. Every summer I'd come back and do it more and more until it got to the point where we were playing fairly decent stuff. Now we're in Boston where it's much easier to get together rather than a tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts.
DRE: How did Boston change the band?
JM: It's always been great. I'm originally from New Hampshire but I never too spent too much time here. I was in Chicago for a bit. I liked Chicago but the music scene was pretty dead. There didn't seem to be a lot of support and it was hard to get anything started. There seemed to be a jaded tone to the whole city. In Boston the kids are younger and more supportive. We've been really lucky to have as much support as we have. Most of the kids we see at the shows you see over and over again. It's a cool thing.
DRE: What's your day job?
JM: It's sucking the life out of me. I work as a dispatcher for a company called Dining In. It's a restaurant delivery service.
DRE: I was a driver and a dispatcher for one of those.
JM: It sucks but its right down the street from my house and so convenient.
DRE: I read you have a tattoo of a skateboarder above your heart.
JM: Yeah I got a bunch of ridiculous things. I grew up skateboarding. It was just one of those things when I was in Chicago I was talking with a friend of mine about true love tattoos. I was like fuck it skateboarding is my true love. So I found this funny font and got it done. Then I got some friendship tattoos and some other stuff.
DRE: What's your favorite kind of pornography?
JM: The real non-airbrushed kind. I don't like really buy pornography and I only have a computer at work. Its funny pornography has always been this big thing with punks but I feel that I like tasteful porn. Anything where the models are 100 % comfortable is cool.
DRE: Did you check out suicide girls?
JM: Yeah my roommate has a subscription. I'd be lying if I said I didn't check it out.
by Daniel Robert Epstein.