Interview with MINDRAZER

December 15, 2023

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

My parents were musicians, and a lot of my earlier childhood was actually me trying to get away from music and more into science and history. Growing up around it, I always had an ear for the nuances of melody and rhythm, but I only started playing an instrument after discovering metal through Metallica. I picked up a bass because using a pick felt weird at first, but eventually started playing guitar as well.  Music is still only one part of my life, and I’m currently on track to start teaching secondary social studies next year.

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

As a band, we actually share a lot of common interests that come out as lyrical themes for us: Horror Movies and Literature, History, Politics, and Dungeons and Dragons. Personally, I also love to read philosophy, which influences the way I think about what’s important in a song.  For me, the mark of a great song is that it communicates something that can’t be expressed in words alone.

 How long has your band been around?

We’ve been around since 2017, beginning as a three-piece called “The Upside Down.” We took the name Mindrazer in 2017. However, I only joined this year after our previous lead guitarist was let go due to conflicting commitments.

 Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

Nick and Weissman are based in Hackettstown, so we consider that our hometown. There’s not much of a scene in Hackettstown, so we gravitated to North Jersey venues closer to New York. We really consider ourselves to be in the tradition of East Coast Thrash. Specifically, Overkill has been a big influence on not just our sound, but also our image; where they have a bat-skull and an association with green, we have our skull-wearing “mindrazer” and a purple theme.

 How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

After deciding that “The Upside Down” was a sub-par name, Nick wanted to name the band “Mind Flayer,” based on the Dungeons and Dragons monster.  Mind Flayer is trademarked though, so he renamed it based on the Magic card “Nekusar, the Mindrazer,” and we’ve made some changes to the “lore” behind Mindrazers too. Our mascot, Khøwyrd, is a free agent who bows to no elder brain.  

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

Personally, I have the fondest memories of my first show with the band and our record release show.  My first show was at The Alternative Gallery in Allentown, and the crowd just gave us an incredible reaction despite us being pretty much an unknown opening act in the area.  The set for that show was also particularly heavy on some of my favorite tracks, including “The Misanthropist,” “Entombed in Time,” and “Extractor.” Our record release show was great for so many reasons. First of all, the lineup was crazy. We had 3 legendary touring bands: Venom Inc., Satan, and Ringworm, plus tight local support from 72 Legions. We broke our personal record for bringing in a crowd and got a great reaction. It makes sense because we pulled out all the stops on our performance, from a dancing Khøwyrd to Nick’s Friday the 13th Jason Mask. Overall, it was just a moment that culminated years of effort with this band, and I was honored to be a part of it.

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

Dingbatz always treats us particularly well, has good sound, and a great crowd, so it’s been the band's main haunt for some time. I was also very impressed with The Alternative Gallery, because it was just such a center of community and all these different artistic pursuits together in one roof. I loved the art gallery and the fans had great energy. We are looking into expanding into venues in Connecticut and Delaware soon.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

I think we have come to an agreement that if a genie comes by and asks one of us for this, it’s gotta be with Blind Guardian, Trivium, Megadeth, and Iron Maiden. But I think I’ll personally sneak Voivod in there for my own personal satisfaction.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

First, understand that success in playing music is more about networking than music. Make sure you can find a drummer, or better yet BE the drummer. Risk being annoying to talk to everybody you can about your stuff, but make sure you lift them up and help them while you help yourself. Bug all your friends. Expect rejection.

Practice consistently and don’t allow frustration to get the better of you. When you practice, focus on playing things in your Zone of Proximal Development - hard but not impossible. Play with a metronome, start way slower than you want to play and work your way up. Don’t waste much time playing parts of songs you aren’t struggling with. If you play guitar/bass, and learn scales and theory, they make you more creative, not less.

Maintain professionalism and commitment at all times. Focus on finding bandmates who are good, reliable, passionate people that you get along with; musical ability is secondary here. It’s much easier for a person to get better at their instrument then for them to change their habits or personality.

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

For Mindrazer specifically, I would have told myself to start focusing on lead guitar much earlier and would have told us to talk to our current promotional agent earlier. I also probably would have told myself to buy Bitcoin and then Dogecoin so we wouldn’t have to worry so much about funding. However, in broad strokes, I think we need to hugely regret anything we have done.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

Of our released songs, I have the closest personal connection to “In the Corner of Your Eye,” because I co-wrote it before I actually joined the band. I’m really happy with the melodicism and the build-up structure in that song, but at the same time, I don’t necessarily think it’s our very best. Really, I think the best is yet to come from us.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

My favorite to play is our closer: “Crusader.” That song is easily our most technically challenging, and all of its diverse parts come together to tell this epic story that perfectly ends our set. The main riff is also an incredible earworm. The crowd loves it too, but I think we get the most love for “Entombed In Time” because we selected it as our lead single, the first track of the album, and our first music video. And I’m not complaining either, “Entombed In Time" is not only one of our best but also one of our most meaningful songs, with Nick’s clear-headed focus on the shortness of life and the importance of living in the present.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

It generally all starts with riffs. Nick and I actually have the same habit of writing musical ideas alone, late at night when we are stressed and procrastinating from doing something else. I guess all of our anxieties and our solitary thoughts somehow get transmuted into musical ideas. I’m not sure how Zack and Mo came up with their initial ideas, but I know that once one of us has either the skeleton for a song or some free-floating riffs, we typically start collaborating. There are a few songs that are just Nick, but more typically it’s been Nick plus whoever the other guitarist is going back and forth: filling in empty parts of a song, refining ideas, and suggesting changes.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

A lot of our lyrics concerned with history and horror focus on confronting the darker side of humanity. We might not be “Misanthropists,” but we have to acknowledge where feelings of disillusionment with humanity come from. We have a few more political songs, but there’s some diversity in our views; as a band, we run the spectrum from liberal to libertarian. Therefore, we tend to focus on issues we can agree on, mainly the importance of civil liberties and the rejection of groupthink and collectivism. We also like to break up the serious stuff with sheer fun - our more fantastical and whimsical songs.  Overall, I think we want people to be aware of the dangers of the human condition, but be able to face them and still maintain the integrity of their inner child.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

We regularly meet and talk things out on a consistent basis, and always try to present our case rationally. Ultimately, things come down to a majority rule, but not before extensive discussion. We are also close enough friends that we can see that if one person has a particularly strong feeling about something, we try to either compromise or at the very least spend a lot of time considering their point of view.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

We have a few shows already booked in the North Jersey and New York area, and you can find more details about those on our Facebook or Instagram. If you are near Queens I would definitely highlight Phthalo Fest in Stone Circle Theater, which you can buy tickets for on our Bandcamp. In the coming year, we are also looking to play in Connecticut and Delaware for the second and first time respectively, so stay tuned for that. Finally, we are already hard at work on new material, so expect to hear some songs that aren’t on the record in live sets soon.

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