Q&A With Aaron Pauley (Of Mice and Men)
Of Mice & Men
Scene Daddy recently sat down with Aaron Pauley of Of Mice & Men about their upcoming EP, Bloom. Bloom is part of an EP series the band will release throughout the year and displays new sounds and surprises that fans have not yet heard. Here is what listeners can look forward to soon:
What made you guys decide to make a series of EPs instead of releasing an album?
Even before the pandemic happened, it was something that we’d always discussed doing. Just the thought of creating shorter pieces of work and being able to release them in a more timely manner with our fans is exciting. It takes a long time to write and then create an album and get all the marketing done on the back end and get it ready for release.
By the time that art is in the world, it’s not old to you, but it’s not the same conversation you’re having. If you’re able to create smaller bodies of work and share them, then you’re able to have more of a continuous conversation with your fans because music is a language.
“Music is a language.”
Because it is an EP, did you feel as though you wanted to make songs longer or expand them further?
Maybe a little bit of both. Part of it was us chasing whatever excited us the most rather than nailing down a three-and-a-half-minute radio spot. The more we’re able to experiment, because we are self-producing and doing everything in-house, we are able to push our own boundaries a little bit more and we have more of the time and space to do so. It’s been fun.
You guys touched on some themes in the songs, including the death of a family member. Did this resonate with you guys specifically or was it more about how Covid is affecting families?
I lost my mother-in-law and Tino had lost his mom. I’ve had friends who have lost their parents recently and that just sort of echoes throughout the pandemic. The shared human experience of the last year with a lot of people, so it was kind of pervasive, unfortunately.
Part of recording is personal experience and the other part is observing and reporting collective experience. I think it becomes more powerful when you can share in the collective experience even if it is a terrible experience. It’s specific because it resonates.
How do you choose which song will be released as a single from the EP?
Personally, for this one, it was the one that encapsulated what the story or the common thread of that second EP is. Sometimes when picking singles, for instance “Obsolete” being the first single from the last EP, that was chosen because that song has a similar feel to our other songs; it’s sort of like a bridging song.
A song like “Bloom,” where we can release something that’s deeply personal but sonically and musically push our boundaries, we can give our fans something new and exciting from our band. That’s why we picked “Bloom” to be the single for this EP.
What was it like recording and working on the EPs over Twitch and Zoom?
It’s funny because the process is very similar. We’re always huddled around one person’s computer sharing ideas and collectively demoing and stuff. Now we are interconnected on Zoom, we’re able to share project files back and forth.
I have a vocal booth set up behind my computer and my bandmates can be on Zoom and hear me working, which is kind of cool. It’s a way of keeping it exciting so that you don’t necessarily feel like you’re sitting down by yourself to work on something because music is most beautiful when it’s collaborative.
It’s helped keep us sane over the last year or as sane as we can be.
“Music is most beautiful when it’s collaborative.”
Are you looking forward to touring and how has it been producing this record with SharpTone?
We don’t have anything on the books this year and we are looking at touring either in spring or summer of next year. For us, we are going to keep working on music. We want to keep steadily releasing music, whatever that looks like. Whether it is in EPs or singles, it’s a new era or age of music where you can get away with that.
SharpTone has been amazing. They have been a huge collaborative and creative partner. Not just allowing us to do smaller format EPs, but actively helping in the creative process and having us tell a bunch of short stories into a larger narrative once the full album is out and together.
You have said before that this album is focused on creating music for the listener through their headphones but also focusing on circle pits and live shows. Do you think that these songs will translate well now that live shows are coming up?
With these records, we knew we weren’t going to play live in their immediacy. That pushed us to experiment more in different soundscapes, like how the song feels or how the record feels in headphones when you’re listening to it.
I know personally in the mixing, it was something I really focused on and not necessarily thinking about, “How are we going to pull off this song live?” You’re able to do a lot more creative things that you will then have to figure out. It makes for good art.
Do you have a preference of making EPs versus longer records?
I have really enjoyed the process of working on smaller projects because everything is it’s own little, contained ecosystem. It’s kind of like a birdhouse. Building a massive birdhouse once every two years vs building smaller birdhouses every couple of months.
It’s a similar process, but it’s much less daunting and allows for a little bit more bravery in artistic expression. There is a lot more riding on putting out an entire record that your fans don’t like vs putting out an EP that your fans don’t like.
I am currently working on the final mixes for the third EP and they just keep getting better and better.
Are you excited about getting back on the road? Are there bands you’re looking forward to touring with?
Oh yeah, definitely. There are a bunch of bands that I want to tour with. I’m honestly just looking forward to reconnecting with live music fans. I feel like we all have an intangible thread through us and I tend to find we are all similar people. It’s always nice to get back to that sense of community. And I want a really loud PA just blasting me in the face. I want to feel that knock of a kick drum.
As we continue to move through the year, is there anything you want your fans to know?
Follow us on the socials. We are going to keep creating music. We have been collaborating with a lot of great artists. We have been working with Derick Hess for the album artwork and we have been working with Frankie Nasso and his team for the music videos with Derick’s artwork. It’s been amazing and it’s really cool to see it resonate with our fans after all this time.
We are hugely appreciative. We have not forgotten about you. We are making as many awesome songs as we can until it is fully safe to tour and until we get on the road with some awesome band. I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we are getting close.