{"id":16427,"date":"2019-04-12T05:30:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T09:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16427"},"modified":"2019-03-20T10:18:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T14:18:47","slug":"mindshapefist-plenty-of-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/12\/mindshapefist-plenty-of-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindshapefist: Plenty of Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Holding a band together for more than a short time is a real challenge, as most musicians will readily admit. But Asheville-based four-piece group Mindshapefist has remained together harmoniously for more than fifteen years. The hard rocking band is currently celebrating the release of Road to Hell<\/i>, its 7th<\/sup> full length album.<\/p>\n

Like guitarists David Rogers and Anthony Brown, drummer Fred Hensley has been with Mindshapefist since the band\u2019s beginning. In fact he and Rogers have been friends\u2014and musical allies\u2014since childhood. \u201cI met David when I was 16 and he was 14,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cSo it\u2019s been pretty much a lifelong friendship and music collaboration.\u201d The group\u2019s newest member, bassist Josh Shook, has been in the band since 2006. That sort of lineup stability reinforces the band\u2019s collective musical vision. <\/p>\n

The members\u2019 motivations for being in Mindshapefist have changed somewhat over the years, though. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in your teenage years, it\u2019s, \u2018Hey, girls like guys in bands!\u2019\u201d Hensley says with a laugh. Today he credits the band\u2019s longevity to \u201ca general love of music.\u201d Noting that even though the members have all played in other bands, projects and hired-gun situations, Hensley says that Mindshapefist long ago discovered \u201ca certain spark or synergy between us as four individuals when we get together, play music and create. That just doesn\u2019t really seem to happen [for us] with anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hensley believes that musicians are always chasing the natural, ethereal high that comes from playing. \u201cAnd finding that has been one of the constants with us,\u201d he says. And as the band members have traveled through life\u2014getting married, having kids\u2014their experiences have colored the subject matter of the songs they write. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of writing the background music, or the soundtrack, to our own lives,\u201d Hensley says. He describes Mindshapefist\u2019s music as \u201ca kind of commentary of how we see things and how we feel about things at different points in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s current concerns, expressed on the new Road to Hell<\/i> album, lean toward the personal. \u201cDavid is the main lyric writer,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cHe\u2019s always been a very smart, well-read fellow.\u201d The band\u2019s lyrics on songs like \u201cHalf a Reason\u201d deal in first-person terms with issues like betrayal. \u201cI know what [our songs] mean to us,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut I think that they\u2019re open and interpretive to the general listener as to what they get out of it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

On most songs, Mindshapefist\u2019s thunderous musical approach underscores an aggressive tone. The rhythm section of Hensley and Shook executes the songs with remarkable precision; the two guitarists lay down a solid slab of chopping, distorted chording atop that foundation. Mindshapefist\u2019s sound recalls Metallica and Mot\u00f6rhead, with the added twin-guitar lead approach favored by such \u201870s heavyweights as Thin Lizzy. But then there are tracks like \u201cWaiting Room.\u201d The opening minute and a half of that Road to Hell<\/i> track features gentle guitar strumming and a lilting waltz melody.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome songs are more emotional, some are more ethereal, some are just more direct rock and roll and heavy groove things,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cThere are a lot of wide and varied influences between us, and if you would come to our houses or listen to our playlist on our phone, I think you\u2019d be really shocked at some of the stuff we listen to.\u201d<\/p>\n

That eclecticism is part of what sets Mindshapefist\u2019s music apart. While Rogers\u2019 lead vocals have a roaring quality, in recent years the group has begun to place great emphasis on vocal harmonies, too. \u201cWe have tried to do more layered harmonies live and on recordings,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved King\u2019s X and stuff like that, where a couple of guys are doing amazing harmonies together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live onstage, Mindshapefist\u2019s sound is a whirlwind of guitars, bass and drums. But the band\u2019s focus on vocals is still a part of the experience. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of what we do on the CDs, and we think they\u2019re a good representation,\u201d Hensley says. \u201cBut we\u2019re definitely a live band; I think that\u2019s where we really thrive. We just really love working with a crowd, putting that energy out to them and getting that energy shot back to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he\u2019s surprised that Mindshapefist has endured since start in 2003, Hensley laughs. \u201cI always told Dave that we would do this for years, but it\u2019s still refreshing\u2014and yeah, a little surprising\u2014to think about how long we\u2019ve been doing it.\u201d He suggests that the band\u2019s collective hardheadedness is a contributing factor to its longevity. \u201cAnd we just really enjoy the musical-making process between us. Sometimes you think, \u2018well, maybe that stream of consciousness will run out at sometime or that source will be cut off,\u2019 but it actually hasn\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s gotten even better and even stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holding a band together for more than a short time is a real challenge, as most musicians will readily admit. But Asheville-based four-piece group Mindshapefist has remained together harmoniously for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,46,49,62],"tags":[237,3784],"class_list":["post-16427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-metal","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-asheville","tag-mindshapefist","cat-41-id","cat-46-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16429,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427\/revisions\/16429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}