Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Pop-punk legends MEST are back and ready to look back and move forward on the new record Youth. Ahead of the release of their 8th album, frontman Tony Lovato joined TGEFM for a quick roll of the dice for the latest in our interview series. Check it out below!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the upcoming release of Youth! How does this record compare to your previous 7 LPs? What was going on at the time that helped kickstart the songwriting process?
We had released a new record in January 2020 right before the pandemic happened. We tried to ride it out. But I just got to the point where enough time and past and it was time to write a new record. Over those for years a lot of life had happened. I lost a good amount of friends over those years and welcomed a new, beautiful daughter to my life. Separated from my son’s mom and got married. Watching my kids grow up and experience things for the first time reminding me a lot of the old days and that definitely had a big inspiration on these songs.
Mest has been such an influential act that has meant so much to so many of us. Does the high bar you’ve set for yourselves in the past help, hinder or affect your creativity today and to what extent?
First of all, thank you for the compliment. When writing records, I don’t really think I have to wear your compare to other bands. It’s more about the standard. I set for myself. I always want to be able to listen to these songs and records and be proud of them. There was definitely a revival in the pop punk music scene, which is always great for a generational band like us. I just had to do what we do and write a great record and that’s what we did. I believe this is the best record I’ve ever written. A lot of people that have been with us since day one feel the same way. It’s definitely for the people that have been there for the past 29 years but I believe it’s also very relatable to the 15 year old kid listening to us for the first time.
The music world has also changed a lot over the last few years. What are some of the biggest industry changes you’ve come across in your time within the scene?
Yeah, back in the day there was definitely a cycle to releasing a record. You would just release one or two singles six weeks before the record came out. Everything was still on CDs. You could pretty much put out a record if you had a record label. We definitely learned over the past 12 years. Learning to understand social media and streaming platforms. For a band like us with a long history the way music is released now is actually a good thing for us. Being able to run campaign and have the fans help with funding records is a great thing.
You’ve been at this all for a while, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
I don’t regret much because I feel like everything is a learning experience and the best life lessons are the ones that we go through. But years ago when we were recording one of our records, John Feldmann told us to watch this movie called Waiting. It was in one of the little hangout rooms in his house by the studio. He told us if we wanted to have a song on that soundtrack to let him know, I slacked on it and never watched the movie. I watched the movie years later and loved it and my man crush on Ryan Reynolds had started so I was pretty upset that I never put a song on that soundtrack. I would’ve loved to had a song on Ryan Reynolds movie.
With festivals like When We Were Young, your new single of the same name with Jarett BFS or the reformation of so many bands from the early 00s scenes over the last few years, a lot of people have been talking about the rebirth of the scene. I don’t like the phrase “Rebirth” because I don’t think that the pop-punk/emo sound has gone anywhere that it would need to return from, but its definitely felt rejuvenated lately. What do you think has happened to make people so open to the sound again?
Cycles of music have highs and lows all the time. Usually based on the fans of that music age. Life changes in your early 20s some go to college some start jobs eventually settle down start families and that carefree stage of your life comes to an end but after enough time passes people want to start living life again. And when that happens, people start to go to shows again and start reconnecting with the bands and the music they grew up, listening to. There’s new bands writing records that are influenced by all of us, the generation before them. So some of those kids start to discover my generation of bands. I did the same thing as a kid. I would see interviews with the bands that I loved and they would talk about the band and influence them so then I would start searching for those records. It’s a cycle.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
I think some of the older bands like Operation Ivy, Screeching Weasel, the Green Day records on Lookout Records. I think looking into the back catalog of Lookout (if they are younger) they will discover a lot of great music. If it’s people my age looking for new bands, I’d gotta say at least from Chicago there are bands like Knuckle Puck, Real Friends, Rematch. There is always great stuff coming out of Chicago.
Once the world has its hands on this record, what’s next for the members of Mest?
Touring, Touring and then more touring. And then more music.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
I think this applies to the first question, but it wraps up the process of this record.
The drives to the studio were about an hour and 20 minutes long. A lot of my inspiration for this record was found on those drives. I would just listen to all the records that I grew up listening to. Which brought back a ton of memories. It would just put me in another state of mind. The majority of Youth was written up in the hills of Los Angeles where I recorded a bunch of our early records. I would get random flashbacks seeing spots I hadn’t seen in years. But as much as I love all the memories and stories of the past, I’m not one to think that the best days are over. I’m creating new core memories and living my life now, so that in 20 years I’ll look back fondly. The same as I do now. These songs are a cheers to the past with a here’s to the future.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
