Photo: Press
When we meet Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper in the lobby of Shoreditch’s achingly cool Ace Hotel, they’re clearly navigating a fog of jet-lag, but the two influential musicians are in good spirits, nonetheless. There's a spritely new lease of life to Mercury Rev in 2015.
Watch our video interview with Mercury Rev below
Both of the musicians have been consistently active in the music world during the band’s hiatus, but the release of The Light In You next week will serve as their first studio album in seven years. There's an infectious energy, with the two clearly eager to speak in detail about the process of recording this extensive, atmospheric record.
“We don’t talk a lot in the studio. We’re really quiet…and we do a lot more listening than ever before.” Donahue goes on to explain that the process if far more natural and never calculated. “There’s no way to figure out [what people may enjoy], the songs seem to want to reveal themselves.”
Watch our video interview with Mercury Rev below
With a number of shifts and member switch ups since their beginnings in 1989, Donahue and Grasshopper found that they were the only two key members available for this record due to scheduling issues. After everything the band has been through, this seems quite fitting. Donahue explains the situation perfectly. “You feel like the last two kids on the playground at dusk, in the sandbox climbing around. He and I have been there since ’86. I never count heads on the playground anymore."
The band have always been heralded for their ability to create lush and rich soundscapes which drag you into varying sonic worlds, the band's new leading single 'Are You Ready' being no exception. Jonathan provides an interesting insight into how the concept of creating other worlds through the band’s music actually began.
"Making soundtracks to movies is actually how we began. We were playing to nature films. We’d see the polar bear going across the ice caps, and we would just play along for an hour.”
Mercury Rev release The Light In You on 2 October.
