The Mysterines are an oddity. Rarely does a band ooze assuredness and charm quite as well as the Liverpool quartet, especially one whose music is filled with rapturous emotion.
This is meant as no jibe to half the members of The Mysterines (I’m sure bassist George Favager and guitarist Callum Thompson are swell chaps) but having the pleasure of seeing two real yin and yang musical forces in Lia Metcalfe and Paul Crilly was a joy. The introspection and ability to abstract from lead singer and songwriter Lia fused perfectly with the ceaseless energy of drummer Paul Crilly, who admitted he was even getting restless during our chat, and struggles to focus on much outside of music.
If you haven’t already, go and listen to them, and enjoy in full their new album Reeling when it’s released on Friday. You’ll know why we wanted to interview these Scousers. Such an accomplished, confident sound, a rebirth of Patti Smith and No Doubt on the banks of the Mersey.
Paul, Lia, George, and Callum are THE MYSTERINES (Credit: Steve Gullick)
There’s a real multipolarity to your music. What other artists and mediums do you draw inspiration from?
Lia: Songwriters. I really liked Paul Simon, when I was growing up and listened to a lot of Simon and Garfunkel. My mum and dad were quite young when they had me and were in their prime during the early 2000s, so I grew up hearing a lot of The Strokes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Verve. The 90s as a decade massively influenced the band.
In terms of films, I love the surrealist director Alejandro Jodorowsky. The Holy Mountain’s one of my favourites, and Santa Sangre. I love David Lynch too – I tried to show Paul Mulholland Drive once.
Paul: I think I fell asleep! We’d had this really heavy weekend and she put that on and I woke up to the most bizarre scene I’d seen in my life.
Lia: Oh yeah you did fall asleep. Then he had a nightmare about the film. A fever dream. I took him to Mass once as well when he was horrifically hungover. I wanted to go and purge my soul, you know, after the weekend, to get rid of all my sins!
Paul: I had to leave and lie down on a bench outside.
Lia: Well I had a great time. I’ve been back since, got some friends there now.
(Credit: Steve Gullick)
You’ve all known each other for a long time, since you were teenagers. Who met who first?
Lia: I was with my mum in Home Bargains when I was 14 and spotted George, our bassist, in there. I thought his jacket was nice, a green parka, and I’d just watched Quadraphenia, so I was enthusiastic about the mod subculture. I half-knew the person he was with an so stalked him on Facebook and asked him if he could play an instrument. He said he could play bass, which was a real rarity back then, and things just took off from there.
Your album, Reeling, is out this Friday, 11th March, what’s behind it from a songwriting perspective, Lia?
Lia: Without getting too spiritual, I channeled all this emotion, energy, influence into songs hidden behind characters. The best example’s probably ‘Old Friends Die Hard’. But in essence it’s supposed to be a funny story, I hope people don’t take it too seriously!
Our aesthetic’s simple – we chose red, black, and white for everything because everybody agrees on it. The overall tone of my songwriting darkened and became more introspective years ago when I started to write more and more and started listening to Tom Waits. I suppose I could really relate, as a 17-year-old girl from Liverpool, to a 50-year-old whisky drinking man from Detroit!
I could identify with the exploratory nature of him, not so much his direct sadness, or his theatricality, but his playfulness. The character manifestation and description. Artists like PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, they all do the same thing.
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You’re about to embark on a big American tour. Are you all prepared?
Lia: I don’t think we can prepare for it, which is the exciting part and the scary part.
Paul: We’ve done our job now. The album’s done, we’re giving it to the people, and there’s nothing left to do but go out and tour it. Obviously there’s a bit of nerves and apprehension but that’s normal. Most of all I’m looking forward to it.
Have you been through any scrapes which you know to avoid when you’re out there?
George tried to climb into the oven in my mum’s kitchen. He was having so much fun that it did become slightly scary, but he’s quite flexible and can fit into small spaces really well. That was pretty hair-raising. He nearly got all the way in as well!
How tall is he?
Paul: Four foot!
Lia: He’s okay and he’s out the oven now, ready for the tour!
Reeling is available to stream and download from Friday 11th March.
