Having been born in Transylvania, in central Romania, to parents that looked down on his dreams of playing the guitar, it’s safe to say that Liv Mircea has come a long way. Now based in the UK, the singer/songwriter, producer and podcast presenter has his musical fingers dipped in all sorts of pies, from his punk rock meets metal personal project through to a poppier band and bits of EDM.

Liv has released a handful of singles from his personal project, which is how we first came across him earlier this month. And the latest track he sent through to us is Nuco Woods, which is towards the more punk rock spectrum of his music.

It opens up with cool punky guitars, which are joined by some vocals then continue under Liv’s intriguing vocal delivery through the verse. A wild guitar solo kicks in under the chorus vocals, then funky high-pitched vocals take over in an edgier verse. It’s an intense track with unrelenting punky guitars and driving drums under Liv’s engaging vocals. Give it a listen below:

We chatted to Liv to get some insight into his musical influences and inspirations. Read on below…

GR: Who is Liv Mircea? And where are you from?

LM: “Hi all, thank you GigRadar for this opportunity, really appreciate this. Being born in Transylvania from parents who broke my first guitar, endlessly repeating ‘The country needs engineers’ certainly gave me a much-needed boost to my early music career. After finishing that ‘much needed’ Civil Engineering Degree I started playing live with my first band Reflex, playing covers of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple etc…

“I didn’t spend too much time in that part of the world. At the start of the new Millennium, I was in Toronto, Canada, working for Wallace Avenue-Film Studios. I met Lisa Saunders and Rob Wozny and played a few gigs in a band called Leave You Tomorrow. I moved to the UK in 2008, and in 2013 started an online collaboration with Lisa called Ashes and Dreams, which is a UK-Canadian pop, down-tempo chill band. We released three albums and The Dream House Podcast (deep house chill music) and also our new rock project Sunset Army, of which the first album will be released in a few weeks.”

GR: You just released Nuco Woods – it sounds really cool! What should people be expecting from the song?

LM: “Nuco Woods is part of the newest solo project Arrant Muck after spending so much time in other amazing musical zones. I never was a huge fan of punk or punk rock, until Ace of Spades… and funnily enough, totally forgot this until I finished Nuco Woods. Then I wanted to delete it, then changed my mind…

“When I started this project I planned to spend the minimum number of hours with each song, as sometimes I tend to waste myself in details. So here is Nuco Woods, a track about trees, dark, mystical places, about being in places that you love and hate, but this is what you are and where you are and learning to accept good and bad in life.

“There are things other than poetic, green, lovely leaves that are happening in these woods. You don’t want to be in these places, but you belong to these places… Well, it’s like there’s no black or white – there is black and white. Nuco Woods is a nightmare… or is it?”

GR: How would you describe your sound to people that haven’t listened to you yet?

LM: “Punk rock. I don’t know. Being such an eclectic musician and with all of these zillion genres and subgenres …well, I think Nuco Woods – and more or less all the ARRANT MUCK project – has a bit of rock, punk and metal in it. A sweet old mess stained with contemporary jitters, a bygone noise splashed with pop pulses? Imagine an old punk exiting the facelift clinic.

“And finally, I have to quote a friend of mine: ‘Mate, this is a foursome marriage between Motorhead, Green Day, Misfits and Foo Fighters.’ Yeah, I wish.”

GR: What influences you to write music? Any key themes or topics that you write about?

LM: “Discipline. Nothingness. Time passing without creating something makes me sad and you don’t want to be in places. And multitasking. I really like cooking, imagine me commuting from the kitchen to the studio a zillion times a day… reading Stephen Hawking’s books…

“The thing is, you’re born like that: whatever you do life is taking you here or there, so many things are happening with and around you. But there is one thing that is always there, wherever you, there is one place you always go back to and call home. I like to write about love, hope, helplessness, simple things – like bees, nature, and hate, violence, frustration, and above all about us, being simple visitors on this planet.”

GR: Which bands/musicians are/have been your strongest musical influences?

LM: “Genesis, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, Pink Floyd, AC/DC. The bands or musicians you like is similar to what comes out of your oven: sometimes high temperatures give you mixed and surprising outcome, and there are different slices of time governed by different gods.”

GR:- What have you got coming up through the rest of 2019?

LM: “My solo project ARRANT MUCK is an ongoing war between me and myself and probably will never end. So, as usual, one or two songs will be released on all platforms every month. My band Ashes and Dreams is launching their rock project Sunset Army with their first album: Lamb in the Wolf’s Den. With enough soldiers, Sunset Army might get some gigs so I’m very excited about that.

“I’ll also be producing the monthly podcast The Dream House Podcast with Ashes and Dreams, as well as a new album with Ashes and Dreams and some collaborations if enough time. I love it when it’s busy. Some say ‘are you too busy to have a life?’ and I say ‘No, I’m so busy I have a life.”

GR: Anything else you’d like people to know about you/your music?

Liv Mircea: “No, instead, if I may, I’d like to give a bit of advice to all young talents: Keep doing what you doing, there’s no easy way out of this… disease. Make music every day – at least 3 hours a day for 10+ years, and then do it again and when, at the end of the day, you’re happy with that riff or that song, or you’re jumping up and down when you have 3000 plays on Soundcloud, well, consider it your pay.”

You can follow Liv Mircea on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out his music on Spotify and YouTube.