Hailing straight from Atlanta Georgia comes one of today’s most unique rock bands. Formed in 2004, the band mixes grunge, doom, prog rock, psych rock and stoner rock to form a sound all of their own. I was recently able to speak to vocalist/guitarist Miny Parsons via phone. We spoke about their new album Wick and her views on the labeling of the band’s sound.
Can you tell us a bit about your new album? I hear Josh says it’s pretty different?
Yeah it is pretty different. I’d say all our albums are different. We are a pretty different band then when we started in our early 20s as we are now in our late 30’s. We have been at different places with our writing abilities and how we view the world. We never want to make the same over and over and I feel being different on every album is what naturally will happen if your band is always moving forward.
What made you guys decide to call it Wick?
It comes from the idea of staring at a candle’s Wick and wondering where is the fire I need to light this candle. I feel people spend too much time having good ideas but never doing anything with them. They need to realize they have that fire inside to create.
Besides the fact that it comes out in April what made you decide to use “April Showers” as the main single?
That was just a random choice by the label. They felt that song had most of what the album offers. The title of course fits our April release date. The song itself is a reference to the saying “when it rains it pours”. A downpour of shitty shit in life.
How is the tour doing?
We have been traveling a lot. We are in Europe and I expect this tour to be really fucking great. We used to tour a lot more but after we released Crooked Doors we didn’t tour much sadly. We are back on it though and it feels good. This is what we plan to do for the next 2-3 years. Just really intense touring.
I heard you and Josh were once in a Christian cult can you tell us about that experience? Did it effect your songwriting at all?
I looked at it as a part of my past that is completely over. I don’t focus on it and I never will. I sing about things that go on in life and move on. I push it away mostly. I think of it like someone I used to date. I don’t know where he lives or if he has kids. I just don’t give a shit, I been with you, we fucked, onto the next one. That is how I feel about that experience.
You guys get labeled as all kinds of stuff. What would you personally say you guys are?
It was never really important to us. We just do what we want. People call us doom and I don’t agree with it but it doesn’t bother me. I say we are alternative rock not that name seems to mean anything now. When we play venues and the bartender asks us what we play I saw we play rock, just rock.
