The 50thirdand3rd Interview With – The Mystery Lights

I just want to spend a few words here thanking The Mystery Lights for taking the time while touring to answers these questions. Their debut Album from Wick Records is one of my most played albums of 2016. I think The Mystery Lights are one of the coolest new bands in years . Without a doubt their debut Album will be on my list of top 10 Albums of 2016.

The 50thirdand3rd Interview With – The Mystery Lights

For those unfamiliar with your history, can you tell us how you decided to give this whole music thing a shot?

This is just what we’ve always done. We’ve played music since we were real young, and now it’s become something that we are able benefit from financially which is a dream since it’s something we really enjoy doing.



Who would you list as your musical influence?.

We have many musical influences, it’s real difficult to list them since there are so many that have heavily influenced us. We grew up on a lot of fuzz- driven 1960’s garage rock comps like “Uptight Tonight” , “Nuggets”, “Back From The Grave”, etc. We’ve also been heavily influenced by artists like Billy Childish (everything he does), The Kinks, Dead Moon (everything Fred and Toody does), Richard Hell, Television, Velvet Underground, Blind Willie Mctell, Sun Ra, Country Joe and the Fish, Them, Country Teasers, The Fall, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Neu!. We listen to everything really. Genre’s that extend far and beyond blues, jazz, hip hop, soul, punk, psych, rock n roll, country, etc. etc. Our influences know no bounds. We like music that feels honest and music that is weird and improvisational.



How did your signing and becoming the 1st release for Wick Records come about?

They came to a gig of ours last summer or the summer before that, cant quite remember. After the show, they approached us and invited us to check out their studio in Brooklyn. Being huge fans of everything Daptone does, we immediately accepted the invitation. We went to the studio and bonded heavily over our extremely similar taste in music, particuarly garage rock. Real raw, soulful, fuzzed out, nasty tunes, mostly from the 60’s. We listened to tons of records and talked alot about why we like what we like, seeming to all have the same opinions,likes/dislikes. It felt right. So they told us about this idea of starting a rock n roll subsidiary, and asked if we wanted to be the first on it and make some records together. We said yes with no hesitation of course. Now we are family, and plan to make lots of records together ! We feel very honored to be working with them, and look forward to a long road ahead with the Daptone family.



Whats the coolest thing that’s happened to you as a band since you started up?

Connecting with Daptone and playing a part in the creation of Wick was definitely a highlight. We had finally found our musical soul mates to release records with, which was huge since we didn’t really feel connected to anyone else at the time.

Any thoughts on the next album? Have you written any new songs that you want to tell us about?

We have tons of new song ideas and absolutely cannot wait to get into the studio to begin working on them. Heavily looking forward to the next album. We’ve got about 7 brand new songs completed that will definitely go on the next one. We plan to begin sussing this out September/October and get back into the studio around November to record ,hopefully have finished by the end of the year.

What are some of your favorite albums from the past few years?

Yeah there have been a few great records that have been released in the past year or so that really stand out to us. To name a few:

“Champagne Hollocaust” by FAT WHITE FAMILY

“ Songs for Our Mothers ” by FAT WHITE FAMILY

“Nothing More To Say” by THE FRIGHTNRS

“Exploded View” by EXPLODED VIEW

These records are all amazing. Also the new stuff Tim Presley has been releasing sounds real good as well. I’m sure there are many others we’re leaving out these are all ones that immediately popped up as some of our favorites.

That new Frightners record plays on repeat multiple times a day.

Do you see any real use for social media , or is it all just a pain in the ass to keep with?

It can be a pain to keep up with but it’s a gréât way to keep people informed on upcoming shows, parties, releases, situations, etc.



Do you pay attention to reviews or comments from people about your music or do you just turn that noise off.

If we come across it, we’ll read it for sure. No matter what people think, we are going to do what we do so it really doesn’t matter in the end, but a good review is always nice to read of course.



If you could tour anywhere in the world , where would you want to go.

We have a few places we are really wanting to go right now. Australia being a major one, and Mexico being another. Really cant wait to get out to thèse two territories as soon as possible. Few things in the works, so hopefully sooner than later.

Any last thoughts for your fans?



Don’t take things too seriously, have fun.

play louud..

The Mystery Lights by The Mystery Lights



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