Music interview: Mezko are honest
On Friday, Red Bull Sound Select will head to the iconic Lansdowne Hotel in Sydney. Curated by I OH YOU’s Johann Ponniah, the June instalment will feature performances from The Peep Tempel, Sloan Peterson and Sydney’s dark synth pop duo Mezko. We had a chat with Mezko a while ago. Check it out:
Hi and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us at Something You said. After your release of Steady On in 2015 you have been chipping away not just in playing gigs around town but also fine tuning your sound and style. What is different between Mezko of 2015 to Mezko of now?
So much changed in 2016. It was a slow start thanks to a few hurdles, such as Kat breaking her hand that required two months recovery, but an incredible experience to step back for a little while and really think about what kind of music we wanted to create. Our influences have grown and we have become a lot more honest in the way we write.
Every duo has their own dynamic, how are your roles defined and what do you each bring to the table?
We often joke about how the two of us make one functioning person. Where one of us lacks the other picks up the slack. We don’t really need to define it, we know when either needs to kick in more.
With such an electric style of your own, fusing all manner of beats, vocals and punk riffs, it begs the question what inspirations do you draw from when you go crate digging?
Our pasts musically are pretty different but they cover a lot of genres that naturally merge, we have a deep respect for anything that resonates and usually we like the same thing. Our early years came from slightly different angles with Kat loving grunge and shoegaze while Laura was a metal head. We both discovered electronic music around the same time and now tend to enjoy a huge range of inspiration from soul to electro.
Your live shows are renowned for their energy and intensity. What acts did you catch when attending gigs as a punter that made you think… yes this is how a live show should look and sound like?
The first festival experience we had together was Harvest when Fuck Buttons and the Chromatics played. That moment hit us both pretty hard. Combining our band background with the electronic elements and performance was the beginning of where we wanted to take things.
Not that we were fortunate enough to be there, but Daft Punk’s Coachella 2006 set would have to be some kind of ultimate pinnacle of live music experience. There was a documentary last year called ‘Daft Punk Unchained’ that is all about it. Really inspiring.
Your single Trust is an awesome track. Equally the video clip is a hypnotic and engaging piece of work. Who did you bring on board for the clip?
Thank you, and thanks for the thoughtful questions. We actually did it ourselves, with the help for some friends, a torch with a strobe setting and a whole lot of glitter. We spent a night pouring sequins and glitter into speakers (that are now destroyed) and had to make a quick exit from a public location that we flooded with pink smoke… ooops… filming and editing is another thing we enjoy so we like to do it ourselves.
Did you right from the get go have the concept in mind or was it a case of fleshing it out as you went along?
We went through a few concepts before we landed on this one. It’s hard to know what kind of video best represents a song, particularly when you’re trying to do it with whatever resources are at your disposal. Once we got down to the basics of how the song felt it all came together in a furious, glittery mess. We know what we like so we’ve figured we should just stick to who we are. Makes it easier lol.
Catch Mezko next Friday June 30 at the iconic Lansdowne Hotel in Chippendale. Here’s the Facebook event page. RSVP for mega cheap entry: https://www.facebook.com/events/1545610322146804
Keep up to date with MEZKO on Facebook.
Interview by Courtney Dabb. Photo by Tim Da-Rin
