MxPx – Mike Herrera
Posted on May 30, 2009 at 8:00 am by Luke

MxPx

A good couple hours before Bremerton, Washington’s punk trio, MxPx, made their journey over to Asia for a quick tour, I had the chance via phone to talk with vocalist/bassist/songwriter Mike Herrera. He was pretty excited over on the west coast to be hours away from taking the trip, which was fortunate for me as he was in the mood for a good conversation. We discussed topics such as the bands latest “On The Cover” installment, his brand new solo project Tumbledown, plus spending time on a major label. MxPx has been around since the early ‘90’s so we definitely had plenty to talk about, enjoy!

WayTooLoud!: What influenced you into music, what made you want to pick up the bass and sing?

Mike Herrera: Well I was just hanging out with a lot of local musicians in punk bands in Bremerton, Washington, where I grew up, at parties, and I would always gravitate to wherever the bands play at the parties, so I’d always watch the bands play. I was into skateboarding as well, but it kind of seemed like the band was the center of all things; that kind of interested me so I started tryna get a band together with my friends and it eventually ended up being MxPx. That’s why we started so early, right out of high school.

WTL!: Unfortunately I haven’t received your solo effort, Tumbledown, yet, but I know it’s in the mail and on it’s way!

Mike: It’s not hardcore or anything…

(Laughs)

WTL!: I have checked out your myspace and heard that it’s more acoustic and a little country?

Mike: Yeah, little bit. We actually did a split 7-inch with a Canadian band called Yesterday’s Ring, a side project of The Sainte Catherines, and I don’t know who else is in the band, but yeah we just released that late last month and it’s just available online and at shows, from Anchorless Records. It’s kind of funny, a band from Washington and a band from Montréal, doing a nice country thing.

WTL!: Have you always been into country music?

Mike: Not always. I’m a huge fan of the Stray Cats and stuff like that and more of the traditional type country stuff, and rockabilly of course, a derivative of that, and punk rock, of course a derivative of rock and roll. As a punk kid I was into Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, stuff like that, and I hated country (Laughs), but once I started listening to a broader style of music, and as a songwriter I was just craving something different, craving new ideas, so I got into Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and of course all the old classic rock bands, and country was sure to follow after that. In ’99 I started liking country songs, the basics of country, like Johnny Cash, Lee Haggard, stuff like that. Then fast forward ten years and I got this band Tumbledown which have songs that never made it through to a record, it just took me a really long time to actually put something together ‘cuz I’ve been in MxPx for so long, so I finally just thought “Ok, I’m gonna do this!”.

WTL!: This solo effort has always been in the back of your mind then, and have you had songs just waiting to be released?

Mike: Yeah, I’ve had songs over the years and have just never put out a record.

WTL!: I’ll be certainly looking forward to hearing it! Actually, as a punk myself who’s seeing a girl who only listens to country music, we don’t listen to anything when driving in my car, so now with Tumbledown we can both be happy!

(Laughs)

Mike: A little punk, a little country… the funny thing is I’ve tried to listen to modern country every once in a while, but usually it ends up I just can’t! I just turn it off. But I’m okay with… as a songwriter if it’s a good song then it’s a good song, but most of the time it’s not a good song; horrible lyrics they’re writing or a path of least resistance, very mediocre to me. When you hear “country” a lot of people freak, modern country or that kind of thing, so usually I don’t even say country band, I say we’re a kind of a traditional, Americana sounding rock band.

WTL!: Let’s head over to MxPx, you guys just released “On The Cover II”, what sparked the idea for a second covers album?

Mike: Well we have a message board for our band and people always say “you should do this, or this”, and we say “okay we’ll work on that, or that no way that’s ridiculous”, I mean some ideas people have… the second covers idea was an idea the fans kept asking about, ‘cuz we always do covers at our live show and most of them of which weren’t on the original “On The Cover” album. [We do] Bryan Adam’s “Summer of ‘69”, the people love it, but for the most part we’ve started doing new covers like “500 Miles”, The Proclaimers; “Should I Stay or Should I Go”, The Clash; so we thought “let’s do another covers album, it’ll be fun we can pick some new songs, song that we can do live”, and it ended up being a harder, not much harder, but definitely a harder process than recording a full-length album. For one we’re recording our own songs [when recording a full-length], we can do whatever we want to them, but with covers it’s a different process, so a little bit harder.

WTL!: How did you guys decide which songs to cover this time around?

Mike: Well we started out with way too many songs, we actually practiced a few, recorded the drums for a few, but they never made it. Once we started we needed a theme, [we thought] a lot of the songs we’re doing are from the ‘80’s, even though there weren’t many songs, there were the punk songs, the pop songs, straight rock songs and even metal songs kind of as a joke, so it was ‘80’s sounds. There’s one song on it that originally wasn’t gonna be on [the album], it was gonna be a Japanese b-side, the Queen song for Japan, but it ended up being so good that we put it on the actual record. Incidentally, there’s a Japanese band called The Blue Hearts, they’re kind of like the Sex Pistols of Japan, very popular, very big, and we did a song by them, “Linda, Linda”. We’ve never even heard the song, we just got the song by our label in Japan and thought “Oh that song’s great!”, and we ended up doing it. For the Japanese release we did it all in Japanese, on the American release we [just did it in English]. I guess it wouldn’t be the American release, it’d be the every other country release…

WTL!: The non-Japanese release!

(Laughs)

Mike: Exactly, there’s a Japanese then there’s everybody else! Why is Japan so special!

(Laughs)

WTL!: Now you can sing “Linda, Linda” when you head over there!

Mike: Yeah, definitely! That’s what we’re gonna be doing! We gotta practice it more though, relearn the Japanese words.

WTL!: You had to learn them for the album version, right?

Mike: Yeah! Basically I pulled up the video on YouTube and played it and paused it line by line. (Sings the first line) I sang it for pronunciation rather then performance first, I went through the whole song and sang it how it was pronounced, then I got the vocals on track, then I’d do another track with how I think the vocals would be, and I’d listen to how I sang and I’d record myself over and over again and listen to each track, then from that I’d take the best one from the attitude, good pitch, and also pronunciation. So the process was so much longer than the normal English track! Crazy!

WTL!: Were there any songs that didn’t make it to the album that you wish could have?

Mike: It’s funny, we did like three Descendents songs, just for fun, and there’s only one of them on there, hopefully we’ll release the others one day, put ‘em out for free or something. Once we started working on the tracks and focusing on the tracks, those were the ones [we wanted], we didn’t really work on anything after that. I guess if we finished one of the other Descendents songs, we could put it out there right away, but it’s not finished. There’s “Major Tom”, which is a b-side, it’s available on iTunes, but it’s not on the actual CD. There’s a commercial now [that’s out], and it’s a little electronic version of the song, “Major Tom”, … why didn’t they use us!? (Laughs) … they probably didn’t know, the world is so small yet so big!

WTL!: Exactly! So off the top of your head, if there ever were a third installment of “On The Cover”, which theme do you want next?

Mike: We did ‘era’, so we have to move away from ‘era’ and go for songs… maybe party songs. Yeah maybe party songs, ‘cuz that way we’d just have to do the choruses and the versus we could just mumble… “na na na na na!”.

WTL!: Then you could just use lots of lights and the crowds will stay happy.

(Laughs)

Mike: Exactly!

WTL!: How did you guys hook up with Emily Whitehurst for “Heaven is a Place On Earth”?

Mike: Oh yeah! Well we’ve met a few times over the years, especially on Warped Tour, and we thought “I wanna do this song, but I don’t wanna sing it”, ‘cuz we’ve already done a few songs by the ladies on the record, so we just thought it’d be something interesting and something we’ve never really done before, having a female lead sing as guest vocals. So we basically emailed her and asked if she was willing to do it, and she said “yeah, great!”. I think she did a great job, it sounds really great!

WTL!: There’s a whole bunch of other artists who are featured on “On The Cover II”, how did you manage such an all-star lineup?

Mike: We just thought who would be good for the part and who do we know. All the people we know, obviously, we didn’t have anyone appear that we didn’t know, so they’re just friends really. Myself, I do a lot of guest vocals on peoples’ records, even if it’s an old song, just backup vocals. [So for our record] it just gave it a little diversity in the sound and instruments, like having Matt Hensley (Flogging Molly) come in and play the accordion, we thought it’d be a cool sound to have on that song, “Punk Rock Girl”. We just do what we can do, then if we can’t do it we go to our friends and say “hey, help us out!”.

WTL!: Do you have a personal favorite track on the album?

Mike: “Punk Rock Girl” is one of my favorites, “Vacation” is one of my favorites, you know I just really like the bass lines, really upbeat!

WTL!: MxPx’s last proper album, “Secret Weapon”, has been out for almost a couple years now, have you guys been writing at all, what’s next for the band?

Mike: Yeah I’ve been writing, and of course we were touring for like two years on that record, and finally we’re off the road and were like “we have to finish the covers album ‘cuz we started it”, so that took ‘til the end of January, then it came out, and then I’ve been doing Tumbledown, so Tumbledown has been taking up a lot of my time as well, so between those two I’ve been busy, but I have written a few MxPx songs, probably an EP’s worth of songs. We’re actually planning on an EP release next because we have so many other projects, we’re just thinking that we don’t know if we can do a full-length record in time ‘cuz we don’t want it to be so long in between releases. We did the record, a picture disc, vinyl, we did, of course, “On The Cover II”, we did a DVD, “Triple Threat: Three Live Shows”, I mean we’re still working on projects, it’s just not a full-length album. So I think we’re just gonna do an EP next and get some new material out there in the world.

WTL!: You just mentioned a DVD, can you tell me more about that?

Mike: We filmed it pretty DIY, we just had people come out and just do it, it’s all live, the audio, there’s no overdubs, nothing was really mixed as it was mixed on the spot. It doesn’t sound bad or anything but it’s not like a lot of bands that come out with a record that’s overdone and all that stuff, we decided to do that ‘cuz we’re so used to YouTube videos nowadays, hearing the little tiny videos of bands. We figured one day that if we have a decent product and have a bunch of cameras, it’s gonna be good! Not worried about spending a bunch of money on a soundtrack. We were pretty stoked, we just went for it and tried to do as many songs as we could, there’s like over sixty songs on the DVD I think, but it’s three parts, three different shows. Then there’s features like acoustic warm-ups, backstage singing random songs.

WTL!: Has it been released yet, or is there a date coming?

Mike: We actually released it just literally on our website, we don’t really have a distribution for it, we just decided to press it and put it out on our website. It’s on some punk retailers, you can get it through there. So just got to the MxPx website or our MySpace and the links are right there.

WTL!: How has the writing process changed since MxPx’s early days?

Mike: It’s definitely changed due to the fact that I’ve got so much goin’ on that I have to concentrate inside and be like, okay I need to write some songs. So I just need to make time to write, that’s one thing that’s definitely different. At the same time, writing for me is something that I enjoy, something that I don’t feel is like a chore, something that is like almost extra for me even though the songs are the basis of everything else that happens. So I just have to allow myself [to write], and make sure it’s organic, and if it’s not happening, like I don’t like what I’m [writing], I just put the guitar down and come back to it later. It’s also a lot of when inspiration strikes, everything comes so easily, so why bother on another day to force it!

WTL!: MxPx has had the same line-up since almost the beginning, how have you managed such a stable relationship for all these years?

Mike: We all have the same goals, to work hard and play music. It’s easier with three people rather than five people, you can just get along, and even if you don’t get along you can work through problems easier. Usually if you find four or five people, the odds of someone being unhappy with the situation go up with each person. But I think we just got lucky with who we have, and we have an understanding that we are who we are and we’re not tryna be a shredder type, super tight, cool band, we’re pretty straight forward, old school, punk rock and roll! As long as we do that, we’re gonna be fine!

WTL!: Did you guys record “On The Cover II” at your own Clubhouse Studio back in Bremerton?

Mike: We recorded a little bit of it there, we actually started recording the record, then we went on tour for a long time, and in that time I built my own studio, called Monkey Trench, and it’s a much bigger and much better place. So we kind of had to wait a little bit as I was finishing the studio, building it. I had guys working on it when I was gone, and every time when I was home, even if it was for a day, I’d be there helping out on the studio. So we finished [the record] at Monkey Trench, the new place. We turned our old studio, which was more of a glorified garage type, into a storage for all our gear. So now we’ve got a proper studio!

WTL!: Is that something you’ve always wanted, your own studio?

Mike: Yeah, we’ve been recording for ten years, that’s how long we’ve had The Clubhouse, and just spending hours and hours working through problems, learning new techniques, and just trying new stuff, and of course it comes from wanting to record my own band. We started doing more bands, local bands, and it started feeling like a space of my own, my studio, I can bring other band members and not have to worry, there’s a bathroom and a kitchen and all that, ‘cuz at The Clubhouse we had to go to an outhouse across the yard, there was no sink in there. (Laughs) It was pretty bad! So now I have my own place, the Tumbledown record was recorded there.

WTL!: What about creating your own label?

Mike: We actually have our own label already that we’ve released a few things on in the early ‘90’s. We kind of stopped doing stuff with it, it’s called Rock City Recording Company. We put out our side project called Arthur on [Rock City], a CD called “Loneliness is Bliss”. We had indie distribution at the time for a little while, now it’s just mail order. So I guess if we did anything on our own again, we’d probably use Rock City. In fact, I think the new DVD has the Rock City imprint on it.

WTL!: After a few stints on different labels MxPx is back in Tooth & Nail Records, what made you guys decide to go back to where it all began, and how did the label experience help the band?

Mike: Definitely with Tooth & Nail we got our start and got a lot of publicity and three records later, we did three records with them, it was time to move on, trying to get better distribution. At this point it was a completely different time and space in the music business, we went to a major label and we were there for seven years. The first release was great, and every time though, it seemed like they would say one thing and not do it, so we were kind of disappointed with our big experience on a major label, kind of feeling like [we were getting] the runaround and not being let go, like if we were let go earlier we could have done some different things. But we learned a lot. Then we went to SideOneDummy [Records] after that, when we got out of our contract with A&M [Records], and we released “Panic”, that was great, it didn’t really go over any more or any less, I guess, then the major label releases, ‘cuz all of our major label releases sold really well, they weren’t platinum or anything (Laughs), but it was good to get off. If it’s not platinum, for a major, then it’s a failure, but if you put that record on an indie [label], then they’re gonna be really happy! That’s what we wanted so that’s why we went back. Then we went back to Tooth & Nail, I mean we loved SideOneDummy, it was great, but it was just a one album deal. We went back to Tooth & Nail mainly for business reasons, it wasn’t because we didn’t like all those other indies. We might move around again, I think, now that we’re done with “On The Cover II”, but then we might put out another record with Tooth & Nail, you never know! We’ve done it before, could happen!

WTL!: I’ve read once in an interview that you guys said you wanted to get back into the Christian market, what do you mean by that and how has it been working?

Mike: I don’t really know, or remember, saying that. (Laughs) It’s not really happening at all, I guess.

WTL!: I know Tooth & Nail deals in the Christian market.

Mike: Yeah, which is why we might have had that idea, which is fine. I mean there’s so many bands out there that are sort of straddling the idea, we’ve always been shunned by both in a way. (Laughs)

WTL!: You guys have toured with many bands over the years, what do you think about touring with bands that have a direct conflict with your beliefs, and have you guys had any good talks about religion with any of them?

Mike: A little bit, I don’t care if they don’t believe, half the time I don’t even know exactly what I believe. I’m still growing as a person, just ‘cuz I wrote a song about something fifteen years ago doesn’t mean I necessarily believe the same thing right now. That’s fifteen years, I don’t think anyone believes exactly what they believed fifteen years ago, new ideas come to life, you know. Just being open to new ideas.

WTL!: Does anyone in the band have any other projects currently on the go?

Mike: Tom [Wisniewski - guitar] started one then it fell apart when the singer moved to Denver. Yuri [Ruley - drums], no, I don’t think so, unless he’s doing something behind my back… so I guess it’s just me with Tumbledown.

WTL!: What have you been listening to lately?

Mike: A lot of old records, Boxcar Willie… me and my wife go to garage sales as much as we can and buy old antiques and old records and it’ll be cool ‘cuz we’ll come home and be “Oh, let’s play that record!”, and we’ll put it on and do whatever were doing, during the day. Just a hobby.

WTL!: You like old records I see, you collect vinyl?

Mike Yeah, definitely! Tumbledown’s first release was a two-song picture disc, 7-inch, and it wasn’t even available, even for download! Eventually I got the songs available for download. Then our second, well if you count iTunes, our “Atlantic City” EP up on iTunes, but our official release is the self-titled full-length, also out on vinyl.

WTL!: Who would you like to tour with who’s both feasible and not obvious? MxPx first.

Mike: Taking Back Sunday would be fun and cool. We’ve toured with Rancid, but another tour with them would be great! Bands that we tour with a little bit would be fun to do a full tour.

WTL!: Okay, same question but minus the feasibility, so if you could pick any band from any time?

Mike: The Who; Tom Petty, which is still around; The Beatles, obviously; U2, be a good show; Aerosmith. Just thinking in terms of I wanna watch their show, but also keep the crowd. (Laughs)

WTL!: Now with Tumbledown?

Mike: Feasibly, Social Distortion, Stray Cats, Old 97’s, Wilco, White Stripes.

WTL!: Is there anywhere in the world you’d like to tour?

Mike: Yeah, I’d like to go to all the continents eventually, I still have Africa to go to. I don’t know if you count Antarctica, but I don’t really count that. (Laughs) We still haven’t been to Africa, that would be great! We’re goin’ to China, so that’ll be covered, we’ve been to Russia, we’ve been around Europe, so I guess Africa would be the last on the list.

WTL!: Russia must have been pretty neat!

Mike: Yeah, it was great! Pretty neat, we had really big coats.

(Laughs)

WTL!: For my last question I‘d like to know if you’ve told any good lies about your band name and what it means? You could probably have some fun with a name like MxPx!

Mike: (Laughs) Well I don’t think it’ll offend anyone but “Mongoloid Power” was one, at the time we meant Mongolian Power, and Mongoloid is sort of a term used for Down syndrome people. So that’s probably the best one!

(Laughs)

WTL!: That’s all of my questions, thanks for much for this interview and I hope you guys have a safe trip!

Mike: Yeah, thanks a lot, appreciate it!

MxPx at MySpace
Tumbledown at MySpace

MxPx “Contention”

Tumbledown “Ballad Of A Factory Man”

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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