Matty Mullins 2

Memphis May Fire’s lead singer, Matty Mullins, has performed in lots of different venues—from large music halls to small church rec centers. No matter where he is, Mullins is clearly an average-sized man with a mammoth-sized voice.

TheCuttingEdgeCulture: “You just returned from a European tour and are about to start a US tour. Are you back on East Coast time yet?”

Matty Mullins: “I’m on no coast time. I barely slept on the flight home so I’m a bit jet-lagged… but it’s okay. This is my life so I’m cool with it.”

TCEC: “What was your favorite stop on the European tour?”

MM: “We had so many amazing shows over there. If I had to pick one, it would probably be London. They were out of control. The show was awesome.”

TCEC: “How do European fans differ from American fans?”

MM: “I think Europe, and the music scene over there, is slowly moving towards what the American music scene has become… In American you see a lot of this [standing still with arms folded] or I don’t want to move because I don’t want to be embarrassed in front of my friends. Back in the day when I was going to shows—like Showbred, Embodiment, and Blind Side and stuff; it doesn’t matter what’s going on; you’re there to rage. I’ve seen some of that in the bigger markets over there… We still had great responses there every night.”

TCEC: “How do you keep motivated going from tour to tour to tour with very little time off?”

MM: “Honestly, I just really love what I do. Our fans are really cool. The band is constantly growing and we’re seeing more and more kids at every show—new faces we’ve never seen before. Kids are writing me on Twitter and on Facebook telling me how my lyrics helped them get through certain things—that’s all just straight motivation for me to keep doing this, not matter how hard it is. I would say our fans and definitely the love of music and touring.”

TCEC: “How does having a hotel room every night, like on the Rock Yourself to Sleep Tour, make touring easier?”

MM: “I think what I lot of people don’t understand, when you have eight, ten, twelve-hour drives between shows, which is fairly often, getting a hotel doesn’t ever make sense because we drive over night. It’s a little bit easier now—we have a driver now; we built bunks in our van… so it’s really comfortable for us to be in vans at night, which is awesome, but what it definitely means is getting to shower everyday. We can go to the hotel after the show, shower real quick, then start the drive—so we’re always clean, which is awesome on tour, a priviledge.”

TCEC: “We recently interviewed Asking Alexandria, who has performed a few times with Sebastian Bach. If you could team up with a classic rock band, who would you choose?”

MM: “I guess Kellen [McGregor, lead guitarist] is such a huge Stone Temple Pilot’s fan, he’d probably love for us to do something with Scott Weiland, which would be awesome. That’s a hard one for me, because I didn’t really grow up on classic rock like a lot of people did. “

TCEC: “I hope Weiland isn’t twitching somewhere because I don’t think STP is classic rock yet. Is it?”

MM: “No, I guess it’s not. It’s just the closest for us. They’re a 90s band, so it wouldn’t be considered that.”

TCEC: “One of your songs borrows lines from a Robert Frost poem, ‘The Road Not Taken.’ Are there other poets or authors that inspire you?”

MM: “That poem just really stood out to me, especially during the time when I was writing. He’s definitely one of my favorite poets. I consider a lot of the lyricists that I love--vocalists, frontmen –I consider them to be great poets. That specific song, I wanted to use older poetry, which is the reason why I used that poem. A lot of my favorite poets and even some of my fellow friends that I tour with can relate to their songs. Some of the bands I grew up listening to…other frontmen mostly.”

TCEC: “If you could pick any song or album to be your personal soundtrack, what would it be?”

MM: “I guess it sounds really cliché but as far as our current lives I think A Day to Remember did a really good job with their song, ‘Homesick,’ portraying what’s like to be in a band—your relationships with friends and family at home, what it’s like to be on the road… for any band that stays out on the road as much as we do… it’s like our anthem.”

TCEC: “You’ve had a song that was a part of the Saw 3 soundtrack as well as a part of Rock Band. Any other plans to branch out in other ways?”

MM: “We have two