Dean Wells - Meshiaak 'Thrash Alliance'
Meshiaak recently released their killer debut, Alliance of Thieves, an amalgamation of several years of co-ordinating four unique talents and patiently creating what we called, "..a stunning debut" in a recent album review. Forming part of the quartet is Teramaze's guitarist, Dean Wells and we spoke to him regarding how Meshiaak came about, what's next for the band and also touched on Teramaze's recent news about a spot on Prog Fest in the U.S.
Dean, thanks for your time mate. I spoke to Danny Tomb, a few years back now, when Meshiaak was first kicking off, he seemed excited setting up the band with yourself and at that stage Greg Christian was on bass.
It never worked out with Greg great guy but he has his own band now.
What about Jon Dette. When and how did Jon enter Meshiaak? I feel he adds a lot to this sound, some really great drumming throughout the record.
When Danny and I started looking for a drummer Jon's name came up from a mutual friend, we sent Jon some tracks and he loved them that much that he wanted to be the full time drummer in the band. Once we started recording in L.A we soon realised we all got along really well, so that made it even better.
Alliance of Thieves, it’s out now of course. Can I say, congratulations, a great debut album, combining all this experience together has definitely created a gem. What’s your thoughts on the end product?
Thanks mate, we are very proud of the album and the end result was really exactly what we set out to achieve. Being the producer of the album I had a lot of control of how things sounded and what was played. Danny and I spent a lot of time really getting the song structures right and the vocal melodies and yeah it came out sounding amazing thanks to Jacob Hansen’s mixing and mastering. We couldn’t be happier.
The recording of the album, it has been a long process, I think 2014 it was first mooted. So from song writing to recording to production, give us a quick rundown how the Meshiaak album evolved.
The song writing itself really didn’t take that long it was a few months of back and forward with the ideas. We had every song pre produced before we hit the studio. The recording process was a fun process but for me it was mentally pretty tough because I was still producing the Teramaze album Her Halo, so I was bouncing back and forward. Was a good learning curve anyway.
Your guitar work on this album is incredible and I mean that in all honesty. There is a definite chemistry between yourself and Danny on this record.
Thanks mate! Yeah Danny and I have very different styles but we both grew up on the some guitar heroes so even though we are very different our chemistry is rooted in the classic’s like And Justice for All, Vulgar Display of Power, Rust in Peace etc. We do work really well together and I think that’s whats made Meshiaak quite unique.
Touring. Will we see Meshiaak hit the road by the end of the year? I mean is Meshiaak something that the band members want to take on the road and become successful?
We are in talks at the moment with management and agents about touring Meshiaak. I cant see us out before the end of the year, but you just never know haha. Yes we are very much wanting to tour this album as much as possible.
I can see this band becoming quite big across Europe etc. with the right exposure. Are the band committed to Meshiaak breaking into the U.S and Europe?
Absolutely mate, our focus is USA and Europe at the moment and Australia , we just gotta get the right tour really to get the ball rolling
The cleaner vocals on Alliance of Thieves was that Danny in some parts or yourself? That kind of harmony, if it was you both, worked superbly.
I sang a lot of the harmonies but the cleans are very much Danny and I do the backings. It was a lot of fun producing Danny vocally because there were no rules that we set on ourselves other than it had to sound great regardless of style.
Your ‘other’ band Teramaze, I see you guys were just named on ‘Prog Power Fest’ in the U.S next year. Congrats, what a great line up, you must be stoked!
Ah mate! Yeah that was pretty amazing for us, we've watched the last few years line ups and hoped one day wed be asked, and it came around this time and we couldn’t be happier. Thanks
Finally give us a few words about each band member, there personality, influences?
Danny Camilleri - a good friend, hard working funny guy and wears his heart on his sleeve.
Jon Dette - an extremely energetic funny dude with a great attitude towards life and simply and amazing drummer.
Nick Walker - solid as a rock great bass player and another close friend of mine who I'm really happy to share this ride with.
Check out the latest music video from Meshiaak, 'At the Edge of the World'...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpJghHSc-NY
