Gareth O’Malley vs. MEN

I had a brief chat with Brooklynites MEN last week. Here’s how it went; along the way, such subjects as inspiration, travelling, album leaks and (of course) forthcoming debut ‘Talk About Body’ showed up.

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MFM: Hello. How have things been going recently?

MEN: Well hello there. Things have been going pretty well. We are really excited for the record to come out. Really excited to step up the stage show and really happy to be moving forward with all our dreams coming true.

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MFM: The album’s out in a few months, but you’ve been living with it for a while of course. What’s your favourite song on the record?f

MEN: My favorite song changes a lot. Usually based on how the crowd responds on any given night. Sometimes I love ‘Life’s Half Price’. Sometimes I love ‘Who Am I To Feel So Free?’. Sometimes I love ‘If You Want Something’. I guess it just depends on the day.

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MFM: What’s the album about? Where did you get the inspiration for the lyrics?

MEN: The record is about us. It’s about queers. It’s about how we live in the bodies we live in. It’s about how we move. How much money we need and how much money we lose. How our country is falling apart but our community is somehow surviving. 3 of the tracks’ lyrics were written by our collaborator, Emily Roysdon. She wrote ‘Life’s Half Price’, ‘Who Am I…’, and ‘Boom Boom Boom’ along with us. It was great to have her writing be a part of the process and incredible to make them into songs.

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MFM: What was the best part of creating ‘Talk About Body’?

MEN: The best part of the process has been all of the places we have traveled to and all of the new spaces we have inhabited on our way to here. So many changes but we are just here.

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MFM: Where do you stand on album leaks, just out of interest?

MEN: I think album leaks suck. but probably don’t matter that much in the scheme of things. Nowadays they can track it down really easily though and i heard that someone recently got waterboarded for leaking.

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MFM: What bands are you tipping for 2011, if any?

MEN:Cissy from Leeds.

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MFM: Have MEN got other plans next year, or are you focusing on ‘Talk About Body’ for the foreseeable future?

MFM: We plan to do some amazing collabs next year. Write a new record. Tour the world. Go to a couple Phish shows. And upgrade upgrade upgrade.