AD: For the benefit of those who don’t know about Meyvn, can you tell us what you consider to be your trademark style?

(Ken) An aggressive form of prog metal, with shredding guitars and bass, pounding drums and powerful vocals.

(Drew) If I had to apply a label to Meyvn, I’d call us “Progressive Metal” because we have a lot of different elements in our music. We have the musicianship and complex song-writing of those kind of bands combined with the power and aggressiveness of classic American thrash bands. The music is primarily guitar-driven with powerful vocals – it’s fast, intense, and heavy, but still melodic and catchy in places.

AD: What atmosphere are you seeking to convey to listeners of your music?

(Drew) We want listeners to feel what we’re feeling when we play the music – we want them to run up and punch someone on the fast aggressive songs and hang their head in despair on the sad songs, and so on.

(Ken) Live – we want our listeners to know we’re having fun and really enjoy playing our music and that our performance and music comes from our hearts. The live atmosphere is always about having a good time, performance wise. On CD – we can take the time to polish the vocals and really get the lyrics across, sometimes dark and gritty, sometimes not so much. I don’t think we strive to for any particular mood, we don’t want to pigeonhole our sound and style to create just one type of atmosphere.

AD: How has your style developed since the band was formed in 2003?

(Ken) We’ve gone through 3 drummers and added a guitar player since the band started playing live in 2003. That alone has changed the style quite a bit. Our current drummer, Reuben, is much more aggressive as a drummer and having 2 guitars has added to the shredding, solo wise and harmony wise. We’re still a young band so our style is still changing and growing, again we don’t want to pigeonhole to anything specific. Our songs have grown more complex over the years, and our song-writing process has become more open. I think a lot of our new songs will be heavier and somewhat darker than on Splintered Skies.

(Drew) Initially we had just one guitar player, so adding Jon Simpson on guitar in 2005 really helped us “heavy up” the sound and allowed us to have more complicated parts, harmonies, etc. Other than that, our song-writing has been consistently improving year after year – it seems like every new song we write now is better than all the ones before it. I think we’re slowly learning what we’re good at and what makes a good song.

AD: Your live style at ProgPower Europe was noticeably heavier than the recorded version on your album “Splintered Skies”. What’s the reason for this?

(Drew) We hear this a lot! We play with a lot of energy at live shows and everything is louder (especially the guitars!), so it usually comes across as “heavy”. On the album, the focus is on making sure everything is clearly audible and that nothing is covering anything else up in the mix, but live it’s all about power and kicking ass.

(Ken) For me personally, the amount of energy I put into a show is probably 10 times that in the rehearsal studio and even greater than in recording. During this recording process, it was one at a time so I couldn’t feed off any energy, it was just me and the recording gear and the tracks that were already laid down. We’ve always been heavier on stage than on recordings, Reuben’s drumming would be a big part as far as Splintered Skies is concerned. He was not the drummer on the album, and he hits harder than the previous drummer. I also think we didn’t do the best at capturing our sound, which is something we’ll work on when we record our next album.

AD: I sense there’s a lot happening on “Splintered Skies”. This is what I heard in it: an undercurrent on heaviness on numerous tracks, 70s prog (Jethro Tull?) on “Seize”, jazz guitar on “One World”, Latin-style acoustic guitar on “Furnulum Pani Nolo”, technical guitar work throughout and an epic quality on “Arise” and “Let Loose the Dogs”. Who decides on what the Mevyn formula should be?

(Drew) We don’t really have a formula per se. All the different elements in Splintered Skies come from a combination of our influences. Some of us are into the 70s prog like Yes and Jethro Tull, some of us are into the 80s shred stuff like Racer X and Yngwie Malmsteen, and some of us are into Latin and Jazz styles of music. I think the way we add these different elements to our prog/power metal style makes us unique.

(Ken) I think we all agree that there isn’t really a Meyvn formula. We all bring ideas to the table. We throw out things that don’t sound good, not things that “don’t sound like Meyvn.” Whatever it is, if we wrote it and play it, it sounds like Meyvn. We don’t need to play 1000 miles an hour all the time or shred all the time. We do what we feel is necessary for each song. I don’t think any of our songs follow any “normal formula” and the formula from song to song definitely varies.

AD: What do you consider to be the main selling points of “Splintered Skies”?

(Ken) Isn’t it like 70 minutes or something? Man, talk about bang for the buck. That’s a long album, some bands have to sell 2 albums to get that kind of length. But besides that, I think you’ll get a great dose of prog metal, songs that don’t all start sounding the same by the third song, and an album you can listen to all the way through without it losing it’s momentum. A lot of other albums start great and get a bit boring about half way through. I think Splintered Skies can hold your attention, bring you some great music, and show you collective and individual talent.

(Drew) Most of the songs are pretty different – it doesn’t sound like one song all the way through and there’s something there for everyone. We always ask people what their favourite song is on the album and I think we’ve had every song on there mentioned at least once – all the songs are good!

AD: The lyrics of “Splintered Skies” seem to contain a mixture of resignation, fighting spirit, optimism and pessimism. Is there any central theme running through them?

(Rick) Not really a central theme, all the tracks were written at different times and the lyrics were essentially a reaction to what I was feeling/seeing around me at the time. “Arise” for example was written after I watched the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and wondered just how terrifying it must have been to have been trapped in the attic of a house that was slowly filling with water. And on the flip side I had a friend who was coming out of a severe depression when I wrote the lyrics to “Seize”. As for some of the other tracks – I won’t get too specific but they were in essence my own personal feelings on the complete mess that seems to be developing around us as a global community, but in doing so leave them open enough I’d hope for an individual listeners own personal interpretation.

AD: How would readers in the UK get hold of a copy of “Splintered Skies”?

(Drew) You can order the album online at a number of websites, including Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.com), The End Records (www.theomegaorder.com), or through our label KillZone Records (www.killzone-digital.com).

AD: What sort of bands and styles do you have in your own cd collection?

(Ken) My main styles of bands that I have are more of the older 80s-90s metal like Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden. Some of the “newer” 90s metal like Pantera, Tool, Machine Head, Fear Factory. I listen to some Prog like Dream Theater of course, but not as much as some of the other guys. My cd collection is somewhat diverse though. From Alice in Chains to Weird Al Yankovic, with some hip-hop and rap like Busta Rhymes, Beastie Boys and Bone Thugs. I’ll listen to most anything, jazz, classical, blues, pop, older country like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams even.

(Drew) I spend way too much money on CDs – I buy all kinds of stuff. I listen to mostly metal, but also some Jazz (Pat Metheny is one of my favourites) and classical music. For metal, I listen to just about everything from prog metal to death/black metal to thrash and so on. The last couple of CDs I bought were Turisas, Blotted Science, and the new Symphony X.

AD: How diverse are the musical interests of the band members?

(Drew) Very. Everyone is into metal, that’s what draws us together, but everyone has their own secondary musical interests. One of the great things about this band is that we’re able to incorporate a lot of those secondary interests into our songs, which is challenging but adds depth to the music.

(Ken) From my point of view, it seems me and Rick have more of a similar taste, while drew, Jon and Reuben are more into the proggy and technical bands and musicians out there. Having been in more Pantera-esque aggressive bands in the past, I feel I bring a bit of that into Meyvn. I know Jon’s big into blues like Stevie Ray Vaughn, you can hear the blues in some of his solos. I think all of our tastes are very diverse. To have written the kind of songs we’ve written I think you would have to be. AD: Apart from yourselves, is there a Prog metal scene at all in Texas?

(Drew) There is, a little bit. The band Watchtower pretty much started it all in the mid-80s – they’re from Austin, same as us. Right now there are several very good progressive metal bands from Texas, like Outworld, Stride, and Fair to Midland.

AD: What are your immediate plans for writing new material and recording?

(Drew) We have been writing for our next album for the past few months and are just about done. In December/January, we will be recording some demos and hopefully we’ll start recording the next full album soon after that.

AD: How did you get involved with ProgPower Europe?

(Drew) They actually asked us to submit some material for consideration – apparently a few people suggested us to the promoter and he liked what he heard. I had heard of the festival before and had attended the ProgPower USA fest, so naturally we jumped at the chance to play at ProgPower Europe!

AD: What did you get out of attending ProgPower Europe?

(Ken) A great trip, some new experiences and some new friends. I think I can speak for everyone when I say we had a great time. Hopefully it won’t be a once in a lifetime experience.

(Drew) We got some exposure to the European market and experience – this was our first European festival. We had a fantastic time, met a lot of new friends, got to try some wonderful beer, and learned a bit about Dutch and German culture. Hopefully this experience will help us get booked on another festival so we can come back to Europe next year!

AD: Do you have any further plans for concerts outside the USA?

Not at the moment – after we complete our next album, we hope to come back to Europe for another festival or two and hopefully a short tour!

AD: What are your aims as a band?

(Ken) If we could make this a living that would be great. None of us have quit our day jobs though, we know how hard it can be to make it in this business. My short term and smaller goals would be to have great crowds whenever we play and to sell our cds to as many people that want to listen to it. Not so much for the money, but for the exposure.

(Drew) We just want to make the best music we can and perform it for as many people as possible. As long as we’re writing and performing the music we want, how and when we want to, we feel that the band is a success!

AD: And finally, is there anything else that you’d like to say to the readers of our web site?

(Ken) Support the music you love, not the crap that the media is feeding to you. We appreciate everyone who has supported us in the past and those of you who will do so in the future. Thanks for reading the interview.

(Drew) Thanks for listening! Drop us a line at our website www.meyvn.net or www.myspace.com/meyvn!

Thanks very much for your time. It was great to meet you in Holland and we look forward to seeing you again. Good luck to you all for the future!

Interviewed by Andrew Doherty
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