Interview with M.I.GOD.
Tell us about your latest release: the main concept; what fans should expect; what were/are your goals with it:
The main concept is about a middle aged man that lives a mental rollercoaster ride. From one day to the other he gets torn out of balance because of strong vertigo. All medical tests were inconclusive. While he is suffering from horrible nightmares at night and vertigo at daytime he treads on different paths in order to find help… every step he takes brings him closer to fear, uncertainty and a drastic physical downfall. At a certain point in the story he gets to know his problem: he lost a beloved person and never got over it. After knowing that he tries to get out of the dark he slipped into, but the barriers of reality and fiction got lost and no one knows what is really happening. The story is built like a movie and has also a few twists you are not able to foresee… it’s a psycho horror trip with a lot of suspense!
The goals with this concept are to entertain the listener on a higher level than just listening to songs. If he lets it happen to get drawn into the scenery of the story he will be feeling inside of it and not just observing the whole thing. We hope the fans get an album that feeds for a long time. J
Did you have a specific sound in mind when you formed the band, or did that grow and evolve as you played together?
M.I.GOD. has always been a band with multiple influences and it still has. In the very beginning bands like Fear Factory, Nevermore and Dream Theater had a strong impact on the band’s songwriting. Later there were Korn and Sevendust added. And over the years many others have influenced us too, like every other musician that is not just focused on himself. From our last album “Floor 29” in 2012 we evolved more than just a bit. The sound got heavier and a lot more sophisticated. And because of the fact that press and fans couldn’t find a suitable genre box for us to put us in, we decided to create a box ourselves: Sophisticated Metal.
How does your writing process normally work out?
I guess it’s not so different to most of the bands… Someone has an idea, records it in our own studio if it is an instrumental idea, and if it is a melody or a riff by me, I sing it to my cell phone and explain it to my colleagues… both versions work absolutely fine for us.
What are your ambitions and how far do you want to push your band?
Of course we have ambitions to become a well known and popular band, even if it won’t be a level where we can live from. But I guess every serious musician is interested in getting his music out to the world and gain as much attention as possible. And right at the moment we try to promote our current album and play everywhere the people want to see us.
What are your influences/musical references and the impact those same influences had in your sound?
You can’t really say it is this or that band which makes us creating our music… If you just take a look at me and my musical taste, there are all kinds of genres I consume, from Metal to Pop, Rock and Prog up to Technical Death Metal and Movie Scores… and that is just me. The other guys are pretty much the same open minded when it comes to music… a good song is a good song! And the essence of what we like influences our own creations. A very simple and natural process I’d say. J
What’s next for you?
We will play the rest of the year 2019 and hopefully the summer festival time in 2020 with “Specters On Parade” and we try to find some space in between to start writing on tracks for the second part of the concept.