MAUVAIS

One of Adelaide’s metalcore favourites, Mauvais, dropped their latest single “I Feel Nothing” last week. I’m a pretty big fan of Mauvais. I’m a massive fan of their new track. Mauvais never fail to deliver and anyone who has seen them live can attest to that. To hear the growth and maturity of the band in this single was a pleasant surprise. Jaycob Page (vocals) was kind enough to catch me up on what the boys have been up to.

You’ve just released “I Feel Nothing” (Damn it’s good!) It’s been awhile between releases what have Mauvais been up to?

Thank you we are glad you like ‘I Feel Nothing’ it really does mean a whole lot. As for what we’ve been up to, we’ve had members finishing uni degrees and starting new careers which lead us to take more or less a break from our play first, ask questions later mentality. We spent a lot of time writing and thinking about what was working for us and what wasn’t. We also sat down a lot and thought about our goals and operations as a band e.g. marketing, merchandise etc.

You worked with Scottie Simpson and Lance Prenc on this single. How was that?

So for this we bounced ideas back and forward with Scottie for a while which was difficult in ways as Alpha Wolf were taking over the world and always on the road but he always did his absolute best to make time for us and for that we will always be grateful. After bouncing idea’s, we set a date to record with him and I’m not sure how to put it into words other than we loved it. He was great to work with, yet firm with what he felt worked and didn’t. He made the whole experience an easy one for us to adjust to. As for working with Lance we reached out and let him know we were working with Scottie on a track and how much we loved the sound he produces, went back and forward on some test mixes and instantly knew we’d made the right decision for our sound.

Mauvais songs always touch on subjects that need to be openly talked about. What influenced this track?

This track is about the struggle of the unknowns that come with anxiety and the mistakes you can make because of this, but it’s more so about owning that blame and acknowledging the situation. It’s mostly all a self-reflection. However, there are counters to this throughout the song as certain memories bring up anger, again the song is about embracing your own mistakes and not everyone else’s. I think it really shows a growth in character overall.

And the big question …is this part of an EP??

I Feel Nothing is not part of an EP. It will remain a standalone single, as it steers the ship towards the new sound and direction. We feel proud with how we have stepped up on the track and have set the goal of topping that with an EP in the not so distant future (hopefully).

Covid has affected the music industry heavily, so it’s been good to see so many bands still go ahead with releases. Do you think the industry will be different post covid?

I overthink a lot, I think the industry will be clearly different in a few ways e.g. internationals and travels, the distribution of music and merch etc to a degree. However, I think there is room for a lot of positives to come out of this all, depending on whether or not people choose to embrace them. Nationwide support could reach an all-time high for Australian artists I feel if people truly decide to come together and fly the flag, however music is also a business and there can be a lot of risk involved.