Der Mist are the latest band on the Glasgow scene made up of Craig McKissick and Ali Whitty. Find out everything you need to know about them below…
How have you been spending your time during lockdown?
AW: ‘Good question, well funny you should say that Chelsea because we’ve actually got a Youtube video all about being in a band on lockdown.’- https://youtu.be/NdGSi_csdqs
CM: ‘Convenient that.’
AW: ‘To be honest, lockdown’s probably done Craig and I a bit of a favour. We’re constantly on video calls most days, if not every other day and I suppose that’s helped in generating new content. The music industry is evolving all the time, it’s changing every year, how things are done, so this is just another curve ball that we’re going to have to deal with. Especially for musicians and bands and people in the creative industries. It’s going to have a lasting impact on all of us and it’s going to have an impact on the music.’
CM: ‘I think we, like all the other bands, are just going to have to adapt and start generating content to suit and keep you entertained on all the platforms we have available to us. These new videos are certainly a good one to jump in on.’
You are the latest guys on the scene, what made you want to start a band?
AW: ‘We’ve been sitting on these songs for a wee bit of time now and to be honest it’s given us a bit of time to finish stuff off and just start getting tracks and content out to the world.’
CM: “I think it’s given us the kick in the bum that we’ve needed to be honest.’
*Weak Southern American Accents*
AW: ‘Kick in the buuuum..’
CM: ‘Kick in the be-hind.’
AW: ‘Everybody’s just so busy these days and this just seems like the perfect time just to get back to doing the things that you really enjoy.’
CM: ‘With social isolation, it’s given us a chance to spend much more time together over video chat. We’ve been sending each other mix files back and forth and we’ve been making changes and generating a bit of a buzz between ourselves. We’ve been triggered to create our Youtube content because of all this time that we’ve been spending together, all the ideas we’ve had flying about. We’ve also had a chance to network with people over video calls that we maybe wouldn’t have done otherwise. It’s been good to chat with people that are in the same situation as us.’
AW: ’Yeah, I would say it’s definitely given us a sense of purpose over the last few months, I suppose at the end of the day it’s about enjoying what you’re doing and we really enjoy doing this.’
CM: ‘The live shows are on hold at the moment but..’
AW: ‘They can wait.’
CM: ‘Do you know what? There’s so much more to being in a band these days and think we’ve really got to take advantage of that.’
*Best Morgan Freeman accent as Red from Shawshank*
AW: ‘Get busy living or get busy dying’
Do you have a particular writing process and can you explain it?
CM: ‘I usually come up with whatever it is; a guitar riff, a drum beat or a vocal line. And I’ll lay that down on the computer and I’ll turn it into a song as best as I can.’
AW: ‘Then Craig will usually send me through the mixes through the internet, it means I can put down bass and vocals and any other wee sounds that I think should be in there.’
CM: ‘He’ll then send me back the Ali-fied mix…’
AW: ‘Oh yeah!’
CM: ‘At which point I’ll usually reverse half of Ali’s moves on the mix.’
*Ali’s stunned silence*
CM: ‘I’ll think of another part that we can fill the track out with and the process just repeats until we reach a Truxican StandOff.’
AW: ‘A TRUXICAN STANDOFF?’
CM: ‘Have you ever seen The Good, The Band and The Ugly? That’s a Truxican StandOff. At which point we usually send the tracks off to someone to get some feedback on them.’
AW: ‘Trusted people.’
You recently uploaded your first Youtube Video discussing band names, where did der Mist come from?
AW: ‘Well Chelsea, we spent ages trying to figure out a band name that we both liked. The video pretty much explains what we used to try and come up with a band name that we thought sounded good. We both went out of our minds trying to settle on something. Do you know what? It was nice to finally land on a name that we think is good.’
CM: ‘Yeah, I think it suits the feel for the tunes and I don’t think it’ll take long to get up on the google rankings for der Mist.’
AW: ‘Got to be googlable.’
CM: ‘der Mist is rubbish in German, so it’s a slang phrase… in German.’
Who were your musical influences growing up and what drew you to them?
CM: ‘This was a really difficult question to answer. It goes without saying, there’s far too many for us to list in this blog, but if I had to pick someone in particular, I would probably say David Bowie is probably my biggest influence.’
AW: ‘Bowie.’
CM: ‘He had it all, he had the sound, the look, the vision. He reinvented himself so many times over the years, every album was a new look, a new sound, a new art direction and I just love him.’
*Bowie Voices*
AW: ‘Can you hear me Bowie!?’
CM: ‘I love you Bowie. I like the early Bowie and I like the late 80’s Bowie.’
AW: ‘For me, my influences are definitely rooted in the 80’s. But I’m a bit of a sucker for bands like the Pixies to the Kings of Leon. Why am I drawn to them? I really like a crunchy bass line and all sorts of samples and one of my favourite bands of all time, live, are Goldfrapp. I’ve seen them quite a few times now and for me they’ve got everything I want to hear in a song; great vocals, drum sounds, driving bass, synths, keyboards and outstanding vocals.
*Best Cockney Accent*
CM: ‘LOVE IT’
How would you describe your music to first time listeners?
AW: ‘Oooh, this is a bit like the genre question, which is very difficult.’
CM: ‘We’ve been described as Synth Pop but it’s hard to ignore how much the guitar is an integral part of our sound.’
AW: ‘It’s definitely got a lot genre crossovers between the tracks. I would say to a fresh pair of ears, regardless of your musical tastes, give the tracks a listen’
CM: ‘Yeah!’
AW: ‘When the tracks are out, make sure you have the volume sufficiently cranked.’
CM: ‘Turn them up!’
AW: ‘And just enjoy some new music.’
What are your aims and ambitions as a band once lockdown is over?
AW: ‘I think even once lockdown is over, we’ll still plan to keep releasing things. I think it’s really important as a band nowadays to be as proactive as you possibly can. Yeah, so we’re just hoping to be releasing content on a weekly basis, to try and build up an audience. Hopefully we can get back to making live music very soon.’
What would your dream venue to play in Scotland be and why?
CM: ‘Scotland has so many legendary venues, we’re a country really known for our music’
AW: ‘I want to get back to playing venues like the 13th Note and Stereo and Sleazy’s, Broadcast. If we’re back playing those kinds of venues then we know Scotland’s music venues are still thriving and they’ve managed to make it past this quite terrible time for the music industry.’
CM: ‘Even the recent loss of the ABC on Sauchiehall St in Glasgow… that was a big blow for us. We’ve seen so many amazing shows in there, it was an amazing space and I mean, who wouldn’t want to play under Europe’s biggest disco ball.’
AW & CM: ‘Thanks!’
HAVE A WATCH OF THE INTERVIEW HERE – https://youtu.be/LHX2plqSTgg
LINKS
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/der.mist/?hl=en
The Music Files 