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Flick of the Switch
An interview with Marc MacDonald of
Mercury Switch
By Bob
Ignizio |
Although their press materials describe Mercury Switch
(Mark – guitar, Sam – vocals, Luke – vocals and synths, Eli – bass, and Jon
– drums) as “metal core”. As far as I can tell, the only reason the term
"metal core" even exists is to allow lame bands who try to mix emo with
metal (possibly an even worse idea than mixing rap and metal) to sell
records to the white belt and girl pants crowd because real metal heads
would laugh their shit off the stage. Mercury Switch, on the
other hand, sound to me like straight up, ass kicking thrash metal with an
adventurous streak. Sure, the lyrics are a little more introspective
and personal than typical metal fare, but we all need a break from Satan,
serial killers, and sword fights now and again. Besides, it’s the music
that matters, and on that front Mercury Switch definitely delivers. This
New Hampshire based band started in 2001, releasing their debut album ‘If
You Love Me You’d Take Me to the City’ in 2003 on Indianola records. The
band toured extensively and went through several bass players before
recording their follow-up for Indianola, 2005’s ‘Time to Shine’.
Utter Trash: What is a mercury switch, and how does it
relate to the band?
Marc MacDonald: It’s a little tricky gadget that’s in
a lot of heater thermostats. The mercury "switches" when it reaches a
certain temperature. It’s also in a lot of bombs I guess, which is cool. It
doesn’t really relate to the band too much other than it’s a cool name. Even
though I like to pretend we go off like a bomb.
UT: You guys have been thrown into the marketing niche
of “metalcore”, even though you’re more adventurous than most bands I’ve
heard under that banner. Are you happy with that label, or do you have a
better way to describe your sound?
MM: I think adventurous metal core is a pretty sweet
description for us. We try to be a different sounding and somewhat original
metal band so we are cool with that label. But it’s always fun to just call
us a HEAVY METAL band!
UT: What bands influenced your sound the most, and if
different, what bands inspired you to start playing music?
MM: Meshuggah is key for most of us. Also Extol,
Blindside, Every Time I Die, Unearth, Living Sacrifice, The Red Chord,
Between The Buried and Me, Van Halen, Stryper, Guns And Roses, Motley Crue,
Further Seems Forever, Smashing Pumpkins, and MC AWESOME. Bands that
inspired us to play music are different for every one of us. But most of
those bands cover us wanting to play the style we play.
UT: What’s the deal with the revolving door bass
players, and do you think you’ve found “the guy” to handle the low end from
now on?
MM: Ha! Yea it’s not so much a revolving door as a
problem we used to have. We have definitely found "the guy" now and we are
square. We just made that section of the web site because for a bout a year
we had a bunch of different people playing with us and it was kind of funny
to think about. We actually got the idea off of the old Refused web site.
They had the same problem having a ton of bass players.
UT: What are your plans for touring behind ‘Time to
Shine’? Is everyone able to get away for a lengthy road jaunt, or do
regular jobs get in the way?
MM: Regular jobs definitely get in the way. Otherwise
we would tour waaaay more. We don’t make much money with the band so
we work our jobs to pay our personal bills. We just got off a sweet
tour with our buddies Life In Your Way (Indianola Records). We had a great
time hitting up the east coast with those guys. And we are now planning our
next tour, so stay tuned.
UT: Aside from music, what sort of things do the
members of the band like to do? Are you politically active at all? Any
unusual hobbies?
MM: We have an amazing group of friends around our
home area. We all hang out a whole bunch and chill as hard as we can. That’s
what we do the most. We also like playing Texas Hold ‘em poker a lot. Some
of us like ping pong a lot, and we shoot pool sometimes. And do normal stuff
like go out to eat and go to the movies and stuff.
UT: It seems like a lot of heavy bands are coming out
of the New England area these days. Any thoughts on why your part of the
country is such a hot bed lately?
MM: The 'scene' is huge here. Too big, if you ask us.
You have to be really really good or else no one will even gives a rats
care. But indeed some AMAZING bands are from around here. It sucks because
our completion with shows sometimes is beat. But, it’s also good because we
get to see a whole lot of good bands all the time.
UT: What do you hope the future holds for Mercury
Switch?
MM: Signing to a bigger label and getting like 47
million dollars. And then touring a whole bunch, especially on the west
coast.
UT: Anything else you want to add that I didn’t ask
about?
MM: To all the peeps reading this, please check out
our new record ‘Time To Shine’. Cheers!
Visit the Mercury Switch
website.
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