Michael Patrick Brady

When I first met Menomena’s Danny Seim back in 2006, I thought he was an exceptionally nice guy. It was the first interview I was doing for ALARM Magazine; the only other interview I had done at that point had been three years earlier for another publication, and was such a bad experience (largely due to an uncooperative subject) that I’ve excised it from my portfolio and refuse to acknowledge it. But this time was a lot different, largely due to the friendliness of Danny and his bandmates, Justin Harris and Brent Knopf. I left that interview genuinely thrilled and feeling really great about Menomena.

Here we are almost four years later, and I’ve been lucky enough to get to speak with Seim again for ALARM about Menomena’s new record, Mines. The short profile will appear in print several months from now, but for the time being, enjoy these quick audio clips lifted from our phone conversation. In the first, Seim talks about what it’s like to be in his early thirties and performing for audiences much, much younger. In the second, he discusses the song “TAOS” and how his bandmate Justin Harris has grown as a singer and songwriter. The third is about discovering that Mines leaked to the internet two months prior to the release date.

On the perils of having an audience half your age

On bandmate Justin Harris and his song “TAOS”

On having your album leaked on the Internet

Mines comes out July 27th, and it’s truly excellent, a great follow up to Friend and Foe that demonstrates a lot of maturity and progress.

Update: The feature on Menomena is now live at ALARM Press.

Buy Menomena’s Mines at Amazon.com