Interviews: Mountain Dust

In this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Stoner Rock/Rock band Mountain Dust Door from Canada. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

The funny thing about the band name is that co-founder Kevin Keegan (Dead Quiet, Barn Burner) and Pat came up with the name long before Pat was in the band or the band was even formed. They were climbing a mountain and got covered in dirt, or as they called it, mountain dust. They decided together that it was a great band name but while Pat was on tour with his old band (Trigger Effect) Kevin and I started writing songs for what Kevin would soon suggest we name Mountain Dust. After our first year as the original formation (Kevin, Blair, Hal, and myself), Kevin moved back to Vancouver and then Pat joined the band. 

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

It might sound cliche but it was really a natural progression. Obviously, we all love rock n roll, but when Kevin and I started writing the early songs we just wanted to do something heavy but we were writing just the two of us on acoustics so it ended up being very melodic. Once we put the full band together we were sharing duty on guitar and vocals. When he left the band I just stopped thinking about what he was going to contribute on guitar while I was writing, and with the song-writing falling solely on me (at the time) it became all of my style and none of his, of course. The obvious thing that changed as well as the addition of Pat. He came to the first jam with an organ and lap steel. It changed our sound immensely, and we're still getting to know our instrumentation better and better each year.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Kevin and I were close friends and we had both met Hal, I think just once or twice through a mutual friend before we asked him to join, and Hal knew Blair and got him involved. Pat and I had known each other for a long time, we had never really spoken much but we knew each other through the music scene and a bunch of mutual friends.

4. Each band member favorite band?

That's pretty hard to pinpoint...I can say, for myself, as a teenager I might have said, Misfits. In my early twenties, I might have said Harkonen. The late twenties, maybe the Beatles or CCR. These days I've been listening to Thin Lizzy a lot. As for the other guys, I'm sure they'd have similarly undefined answers. I know Blair likes metal, Hal likes funk and Pat like Judas Priest, but that's just me stereotyping my own bandmates.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

I've always liked lyrics that read like a full story that has a timeline, like Up Jumped The Devil by Nick Cave or Spring Break 1899 by Murder By Death, and that's how I've taken to writing about the things that affect me.

6. Where was your last gig?

The last gig was with Dead Quiet and Ian Blurton's Future Now at Turbo Haus here in Montreal, owned and operated by our friends who are continually doing a fantastic job at providing the music scene with a perfect spot.

7. Where would you like to act?

I think we want to do everything everywhere. People all over the place seem to be responding well to what we put out and we're just constantly looking for a way to get to a venue near them.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

If I'm being shameless, being on the same bill as Slayer would be and will be a great experience. We're set to open the day for them at Heavy Montreal this summer. We're pretty pumped!

9. Whom not?

I can't think of anyone I would absolutely not want to share the stage with. At the end of the day, a gig's a gig and the gig must go on.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

Getting up on a stage for the first time ever was a nightmare. It obviously depends on what kind of person you are but I think it's likely to just suck in some way and you'll think back to it the rest of your life and either laugh, or cringe, or both (as is my case), but you just gotta get it over with. But it's fine. After that, you just keep at it because practice makes okay.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

Every band I've ever listened to. Even the ones I don't care for.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

Nothing out of the ordinary but I think I'll always find it weird being asked my autograph. Not that I don't appreciate it and I'm always happy to do it, but for me? I ate cold ravioli out of the can last night for dinner. Are you sure? 

13. What do you think of your fans?

All I can think about now is someone answering this negatively. That'd be so strange. I love our fans. They always have so many fantastic and sincere things to say about our music.

14. What do you think of our site?

I think your site is fighting the good fight, people who help spread music are some of my favorite people.

15. Something add?

We just put out a new video. It's a live performance of our song Stop Screaming shot at Montreal's Corona Theater. You can find it on any of our social media pages.