In 2016, the departure of founding vocalist Austin Carlile left many Of Mice and Men fans worried about the future of the band. Luckily, Aaron Pauley, the band’s bass player, who had previous vocal experience in his band Jamie’s Elsewhere stepped up to the plate.
Judging by the online reaction to the band’s aggressive new single ‘Warzone’, people are loving their new sound more than ever, a response which Pauley has felt incredibly welcoming. “Oh man it’s been crazy!” he exclaims. “Every time we have played, that is one of the craziest songs, the fans just unleash. Being a band that has done a lot of really heavy stuff in the past, it’s kind of cool to go back to a sound that people can be really excited about seeing live.”
With the band currently on tour across Europe with legends Five Finger Death Punch, Pauley reflects on how the bands forthcoming LP, Defy, is representative of their live sound.
“In terms of the albums direction, it’s very live orientated. It’s still a very true Of Mice and Men sound but the songs themselves are very much geared towards a high energy live show,” he explains.
“The big thing for us when we decided to continue with the band was to make it all about the songs and all about the music. We wanted to honour the discography that this band has already created, so for us, we wanted to make an album of songs that we wanted to play live for our fans and it’s been awesome,” Pauley says.
Expanding on the process of writing Defy, Pauley comments, “there was a lot of experimentation for the record, in finding the tones. I even got to play sitar for the first time ever and I played it on the song ‘Vertigo’.
“Initially it was a lead guitar part and I had picked up this guitar sitar hybrid,” he says, “I really liked how it sounded so everyone else told me to plug it in and put it through a couple of peddles to see where it goes and it worked really well.”
With Defy set to drop early next year, Aussie fans will be treated to some new songs before the band steps out for their huge set at next year’s inaugural Download Festival, which according to Pauley is a huge honour.
“When we first got the offer, before I considered if we were going to play, I just got really happy because rock and metal fans in Australia haven’t had a festival in the last three years so it’s really cool to see that coming back. Soundwave was always such a staple in the scene and a staple for us having played there a few times, so I’m really excited Australia has a viable metal festival again because the fans needed it,” he grins.
“It’s going to be so fun. I said earlier in an interview that if I was a celebrity matchmaker for festivals and crowds I would pair the massive historical legacy and rock linage of Download with an absolutely mental Aussie crowd so I think it’s the perfect match.”
When & Where: Download Festival @ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne – March 24, 2018.
Visit www.downloadfestival.com.au/ for more info.
Written by Alex Callan