INTERVIEW: Catching up with Mt. Cleverest
It was just a few weeks ago that saw Mt. Cleverest unleashing their latest EP, Free, at Indian Ocean Hotel – and since then, live music venues around Australia have shut their doors. With the fall of the music industry in the current crisis, it’s more important than ever to support local artists. Bands like Mt. Cleverest are no different.
Considering these quieter times, we took the chance to get to know the boys better and dive into their EP! (Listen here.)
We’re wondering… Where did the name Mt. Cleverest come from?
Initially, when we made the band we were writing songs and we couldn’t think of a name. For me, I wanted a name that didn’t take itself too seriously. I don’t like band names that are too try-hard. Christian didn’t have that many ideas – and we couldn’t think of anything that stuck.
Our original bass player always liked the name Mt. Cleverest and we thought it was okay, but after a while, it kinda kept coming up and stuck around and it is pretty funny and it will originally become its own thing.
How was working with talented producer Rob Grant on your EP? What did you guys learn while working with him?
Lots of lessons learned from him – the whole process of doing this EP was different than the last one. We live tracked it and did everything analog, which was kind of cool to work that way and capture all of the static noises. It feels all raw, energetic, and you can feel it also while hearing it.
It was very intense creatively and he was really passionate about it and had so many cool stories and great gear. It was a very valuable experience working with him. I use the same techniques when chopping my vocals now that I learned from working with him.
Both ‘Linger’ and ‘Forever’ have been met with success since they were released. What was the decision behind releasing these two tracks as the singles for the EP?
‘Linger’ was always going to be the first single because that was a song that came together so naturally and easily for all of us and it was the exact sound that I wanted it to have. It goes straight to the groove and thought it would be a good single because there’s no warm-up – it just hooks people in right away.
We went with ‘Forever’ because it shows more of the hip hop side, which the EP has various genres. We wanted to select a song that had rapping in the verses and it has a good, catchy chorus. I’m really happy that we went with ‘Forever’.
Is there anything you guys are most proud of with Free? What do you think your fans will take away from this release?
I thought that we explored our sound a bit further. The first EP we were kind of figuring it out and with this EP we pushed it in the direction that we wanted. The title track ‘Free’ is a really cool song and it is a song that I’ve always been so proud of and have so many parts that flow and work well together. I thought it came together really well and thought it was a giant climax of everything coming together.
Music Injection stated that “Mt. Cleverest has the potential to make it big time”. How do you all handle that praise and what does it mean for you all?
It’s always nice when someone believes in you and anything in the arts – there’s no guarantee you just do it because you love it and are passionate about it. When someone you don’t even know says something like that it’s very validating and it feels good to have that support.
Your track ‘Money’ was selected by WA listeners as the #5 song of the year for triple J radio. Did you expect that song to garner the popularity that it did?
Not really! It was one of the two songs that I remember when it came to me. Initially, I thought it was way more mellow in my head but then it became a lot more intense and high energy.
It will always be a meaningful song to me – then my boss gave me an ultimatum and told me that I would be successful in whatever I put my mind to and that I needed to decide what I wanted to do. I went home that night and wrote ‘Money’ then quit my job the next day.
Who were your musical influences growing up?
The main bands we bonded over were Arctic Monkeys, they were our main inspiration for creating our band and what we aspired to sound like. They were very special to me. My idol is John Frusciante and his songwriting.
Catfish and the Bottlemen with their punchy choruses and simple, big rock sounds. We love Foals and their upbeat, alt-rock sound. Also, more recently The Strokes.
Who are your current favourite artists in Australia?
Spacey Jane are blowing up and I thought that they were insane – it’s great to see a Perth band get what they deserve. Death by Denim we used to play with and saw each other all of the time and really like as well.