Take a Dip in Madina Lake
It’s a rather gray day in St. Louis, MO as we browse the “hippie shops” along the strip next to Vintage Vinyl, a small second-hand record store that’s playing host to an acoustic set by Roadrunner Recording artists Madina Lake in less than one hour. Upon exiting the shop not even the rain could dampen our spirits as a familiar voice calls out to us, “Hey guys! How are you doing?” Matthew Leone, the band’s bass player, has remembered us from another show a week and a half prior and runs to greet us with hugs and smiles. “What are you doing here? How far did you drive?”
The answer was “love and four.” A four-hour drive for the love of the music and some of the most sincere and talented rockers you could ever hope to meet. Somewhere between a radio show, an acoustic set, and a soundcheck for that night’s show, Matthew and the band’s drummer, Dan Torelli, managed to sneak away and grant me a very last-minute interview…
Interviewed by: Debie Patton | May 2007
Bass Player Matthew Leone in white and Drummer Dan Torelli in Green
Yeah…
I’m ambivalent about it. It was horrifying to do those things, but it was like, Nathan and I don’t really care about much so it’s kinda funny. And that’s the whole reason we did it, was just to be funny. We thought we’d get kicked off by girls in the first round and then our friends would laugh at home when we watched it, and that was gonna be the extent of the experience. But then we wound up winning the first stunt, and we’re like, “Well, since we did it… That first one was so horrible and we’re still in it so we were still trying to win.
You were both rich instead of just miserable, you know?
Yeah, exactly!
Yeah, we did. That gross stunt where we had to swim through a trench filled with dead cows parts and um, then drink...er, eat meat off cow’s jawbones, grind it up and drink it, so...that stunt...we got nicks on our knees climbing over the...these obstacles in the trench and we got a bacterial infection in there--everybody that did it did--it was like a flesh-eaters disease.
We were in the hospital for like 5 days, near death, but...whatever.
Yep.
Yeah.
It’s awesome!
I think the first thing is that like, you don’t really...it’s not weird...like...like, day-to-day kinda stuff because you don’t know...lwe’ve never met, I don’t think, any other band. We’ve met Dragon Force once. It’s like on a record label, you don’t like “hang out” with the other bands on the label or..there’s nothing like that going on.
It’s not like you show up to work and everybody’s there.
So you don’t really know...you only know the couple people from the office that you talk to everyday. You tour pretty much with other bands in your genre or who have the same agent or the same promoters. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the label, persay, or for us it hasn’t at least..maybe that’s because we’re not metal..
Yeah.
But it hasn’t been strange on a day-to-day basis. There’s a lot of Roadrunner, like hardcore Roadrunner fans that love metal, and only metal, so I guess they’re a little weirded out by the Black Stone Cherries and the Nickelbacks and the Madina Lakes or whatever...But it’s been pretty...cool.
Well the thing that’s cool is that all the staff there are all totally huge music fans, like really passionate about music. It’s not a corporate environment at all. When you go there, they’re blaring music the whole time in the office. You can talk to everybody all the time, get anybody on the phone. It’s fantastic that way. So it’s like a real friend, like a friendly vibe, a symbiotic vibe with them, so it’s really cool.
It’s in print right now so we’re going to get it back in two weeks and we’re going start selling it right away on our website and at live shows, so...in two or three weeks.
Holy crap! Um...oh my gosh...
I would say…
We’ve got like 12 seconds!
I would say, “Don’t buy this record if you’re buying it to be cool or to be part of a scene or for any other reason than being an undying music fan. If you’re passionate about music, then there is something on this record for you.”
And that we hope you really like it because we were passionate making it, and that’s all we really gave a shit about. If you’re passionate about listening to music I think you’ll dig it.
We made it with honesty, so we expect people to listen to it--we hope people listen to it with honesty.
We had a very small budget to do it and Roadrunner wanted to just like, get something out there virally on the internet, to introduce us, because we’re a pretty new band. So, with a small budget of like $5,000 or something we...they took our video treatment ideas, we wrote treatments for how we wanted the video to go and then with the budget they came up with this house that was being demo’d so we could do whatever we wanted to the house. So we got there early in the day and painted it and hacked it up, sledgehammered it, destroyed the walls, the floors, and then we filmed it all in one day.
As a sidenote, though, the people were still living in that house! So, they had three weeks...they weren’t supposed to move out for three weeks after that, so we annihilated their house, filmed the video all day, and as we were leaving at like 11 o’clock at night, they...came back...and like, all their shit was still in the apartment, but with pieces of ceiling all over it, and I felt kinda bad at the end but…
Yeah.
I guess they were supposed to be out anyway, I dunno.
Yes.
The second single is going to be “Here I Stand,” and we’re shooting a video on May 31st
Never.
Yeah, I don’t think so. At all. I mean...wow, that’s an easy question.
We don’t listen to any outside sources. We just fuel inspiration among ourselves by enduring the life experience, the human experience, and reading and observing what’s happening. And that’s where we draw our inspiration, from other musicians and other forms of art, things like that. But nothing else affects us, no scene, no people, no what’s popular, nothing like that.
The music.
Typically… Mateo, our guitar player, he’s the one that comes up with a lot of, like, drum loops. But he’ll come up with some loops and some riffs, and then we musically work on it, and Nathan starts coming up with a melody line and he’ll usually sit for a little while and come back with lyrics like a week later or something like that.
Sort of like what--however the music is going, that’s what inspires the theme, lyrically how the song is going to go, so the music sort of inspires what subject Nathan’s gonna write about.
No, not at all. The thing that’s fortunate about this band is that it’s four individuals with no ego and a lot of respect for each other. So the writing environment is very, very enthusiastic and encouraging, nobody feels stifled. We’ll present each other with the most outrageous ideas or the most tame ideas and every--they’re all welcomed and explored--everything goes on the chopping block, and if it doesn’t move us 100%, we don’t use it. But no, there’s nothing...the twin thing doesn’t play into effect at all.
Wow, that’s a hard...I mean it’s like one of those things...I don’t think we’re pioneers. We’re just doing what we like. You can’t say that you’re doing something new because any band that does anything is drawing off inspiration from a bunch of different bands, do you know what I mean? So we all come from different musical backgrounds and love everything so, we’re trying to piece together different things that we like to create something new that we like.
Yeah...also, true pioneers of music are the ones that don’t know they’re doing it or didn’t set out to do it, it just sort of happened, so I think we kind of leave our writing into the stars and into our own energies and whatever happens, happens I guess.
I hope it gets better and goes back to what you said. It reverts back, everything comes in cycles, and some of that shit is so awful right now that I can’t imagine it getting any worse.
(laughing)
The only hope I have is how bad it is now. I’m like, “you know, if it can’t get any worse, hopefully it’ll start to get better soon.” That’s what I think. And that’s not talking about everything, there’s so much good music out there it’s unbelievable, but a lot of the times when you just flip on the T.V., some of that shit you see, it just blows your mind-- you can’t believe people really like it as music.
Exactly!
You refuse to believe that sometimes.
Favorite piece of art outside of music?
Interesting! Good question...
I dunno, it would probably be like, just books...I mean there’s many different ones...
Yeah, literature.
Probably literature for me, too. I’m really trying to get into art as in paintings. It’s starting to spark my interest now more than ever before--I don’t know anything about it but I’d like to. I’ve been dabbling in that, but I think (pointing at Matthew) for you and--well, most of us in the band, we, we all do a lot of reading and I think that’s probably our favorite.
Yeah and, and it’s cool when you kinda think like from an artist’s perspective, you can find art in anything. Like he, (pointing at Dan) he cooks a lot...and there’s even art in cooking! Anything where you can be creative or you can kind of create something.
Make something out of nothing, you have ideas, you try to creatively try to attain what you have in your mind as the end result and use whatever means you have to get there. I mean, yeah.
That’s...another good question.
That’s interesting. That a hard question because I think we all feel strongly about a lot of different things, but I think we’re also afraid to be a band that takes specific stances on specific issues, because then you become branded as that type of band, and everybody has a right to believe whatever they want to. I don’t wanna be a “preachy band”. I don’t want my band to stand for something that’s going to alienate someone else who would typically like the music because that’s what you’re in it for, you want to make people feel good about themselves because of the music you write. So then to take some stand that has nothing to do with music, and preach to people about it is way uncool, because I don’t like it when people preach to me about anything!
And lhuman rights activists, as well-intentioned they may be, I don’t think they always choose the most effective or productive route in rectifying a situation. We all feel strongly about the genocide in Darfur for example, but I think that a lot of aid going there is being distributed or appropriated in the wrong manner, and I think a lot of people’s pockets are getting lined by that--it’s not getting into the right hands, so I think to get involved with social issues is more than just aligning yourself with a group that stands for that. Get in there, get in the trenches and do something and make a difference instead of just writing a check to it.
(laughs)
Yeah, ...that was a line up, but...alright. (laughs)
Yeah.
Yeah!
....clean air, maybe?
Clean air, absolutely...time to be by yourself in your own head, I guess.
Right.
Lluckily we’re all really comfortable with each other, and to just get alone time with the four of us. Or the five of us, including our tour manager. It’s really really nice and relaxing, and that’s it. There is no real “alone time” I think past that, so luckily we all feel comfortable with each other and get along great, because if not...it would be really bad.
Lately, probably my ipod. I go through phases where I listen to it more or less, but lately I couldn’t live without it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah! Exactly. I’m still buying new CDs to load it up.
Mine would be books, probably.
True that!
(to Matthew) What do we lose a lot of?
Earplugs...clothes…
Earplugs! Always.
Gear...yeah, you name it. We lose stuff on a..like...bi-daily basis!
We even leave all our merch bins sometimes at clubs.
Yeah! (laughs)
I don’t think there’s anything stupid or crazy, so far they’ve amazed us with how cool they are! I think, you know what I mean, to still be a new--relatively new--band, and a small band and then touring around and then we’re going to these places and find fans. It makes me feel good and it’s really flattering, There’s kids that like your music but it’s more than that, they like YOU, you know what I mean? I mean, they don’t know us so I guess it’s kinda weird, but they seem pretty deep, you know?
Yeah, they do, that’s what I like about them. They seem cerebral. They’re not just in it for the flash of the pan. They’re in it because there’s something that’s resonating with them. We had something really touching happen - a group of kids from all over the world, they met on our message board and they all sent gifts for the band to one person who was coming to a show, and she came to the show and distributed the gifts to us and…
Yeah, it like blows your mind when that shit happens, it’s like “wow!"
We were so touched by that, you couldn’t believe it, so we love ‘em. And we call them our friends, because we like to make real connections with people, there’s a big dichotomy between the fan and the musician but we want to break those walls down. We’re no different than anybody else. So we like creating real relationships with people.
A landmark… I feel like there’s a lot of those things, they’re just hard to pinpoint on the spot, you know what I mean? Like...
What would you say? I don’t know...
Wait, things we’ve seen that we would declare a landmark?
Like, something everybody should see kinda thing?
Hmm…
Those gigantic crosses!
Yeah..I wouldn’t know I was going the right way because I don’t even know where they are, but… We’ve driven past them a couple of times and they’re like 80 stories tall!
It’s scary.
It is kinda scary!
It wouldn’t surprise me! There’s like three or four that we’ve seen that are seriously like, probably 20 stories high. It’s scary because...whatever...we don’t have to get into a religious discussion now. (laughs) But you realize the power…
There probably is a strip club. It’s weird how everybody competes for “that area"--that controversial area, you know? When you pass like an exit with like 8 strip clubs and then somebody will put up a billboard with a little girl on it that says, “Porn sucks!” or something like that.
(laughs)
And Jesus, can we make this more awkward and weirder...or what?
Thankfully, no...I don’t have many talents, I don’t think...
I can play soccer alright.
Oh yeah, he’s killer! It’s true.
Cell phone, Starbucks gift card.
Cell phone, earplugs, and some loose change.
Interesting...okay… I forget everything. I’ll never forget the first time...I played in a band that got booed offstage.
Aw!
I was thinking of that lately...that sucks forever!
Yeah! (laughs) I’ll never forget the first time that I was submerged underwater.
Ooh! Yeah.
I was...I was pushed off of a dock in a murky lake and I landed on a turtle--a snapping turtle’s head, who bit me in the hand.
Ew.
First time I was ever underwater.
It’s like, “I’ll never forget the first time Mateo...did something?"
Oh, alright.
Yeah, he does a lot of amazing things...daily...that you can’t believe it… What has he done lately, man?
Oh, boy!
You talk about leaving shit--last time we were in Seattle he just left without his suitcase...he left it at the hotel which also had the computer with the hard drive with our record on it before it even came out! It’s pretty terrifying.
Yeah, probably. And you can’t get mad because he never means to do that shit, but it’s pretty mind boggling.
Yeah. The first time we were in London he went to use the pay phone which is directly across the street from our hotel, and our tour manager was like, “Now look, this is the hotel, right here, you can see it. I’m pointing to the phone booth right now,” and he’s like, “Okay, I got it,” and he used the phone...five minutes later he got out and started walking and was lost in London for five hours!
He turned around and went the other way. I’ll never forget that!
What, like favorite quote, or something we would say?
Yeah, wow....crap!
Wow, whatchu got?
Final thoughts… Well, everybody start living in the moment.
True!
Drop...suspend all judgement and be happy.
Relax.
Relax...chillax!
That’s it. That’ll do it.
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