Mammal - Vibrations and the Art of Dynamismal

On the cusp of the release of their first live album, Mammal’s Ezekiel Ox talks energy, politics, activism.

What are Mammal about?

I would say energy. Energy, momentum, entertainment and politics, I like that. We are really about energizing people and trying to make them realize that life ain’t so bad maybe in a world where it is hard sometimes.

Is that part of the impetus of releasing a live album prior to a studio album?

Yeah, the EP that we put out (Mammal) was recorded basically live so the rhythm section recorded at the same time in one day all five tracks and the guitars and the vocals were done very quickly basically on a four or five take rule and then we hit the road. We hit the road with Cog and with ourselves and just toured and toured and toured to try and break it open… For us [the] first year was us just exposing ourselves to you guys and the audience and saying “Hey, lets not think about this too much, we can all play, we’ve got some good songs and a really good live show and that’s sort of good enough at the moment. We don’t need an image or anything like that, we just want to get up there and paint ourselves stupid colours and have mirror-ball helmets and just really enjoy ourselves and hopefully the audience can too”. I don’t want to grub around the industry and go to parties and tell people ‘Oh we worked with this producer, that producer’ its not about that, its about the artist and the live album is just saying ‘Hey, this is what we do’. [laughs]

Mammal has a great live reputation-how have you coped with the explosion in popularity?

We are pretty hard on ourselves so we just want to get tighter and we’ve probably got our eyes set on a larger explosion. As happy and as thankful as we are to the fans that we have because they are all that we’ve got we are always trying to grow it. It’s about giving everyone in Australia an opportunity to see us so they have an opportunity to form an idea of us. I think we are the kind of band you will either love or hate... I personally would much rather be challenging on that level than be something that people didn’t really care about. I think that we have got a show that no one else can actually come close to for drama and danger and all that great punk rock stuff. Punk’s dying a pretty slow death and we are just trying to revitalize it. Like the idea of going to a gig and thinking ‘Holy shit, what is going to happen next? And is this guy serious, is he really that insane’ and not knowing. And even finding yourself in a moment onstage where you are looking at your band going ‘Shit, this is dangerous, we’re out of control’ I actually quite enjoy that (laughs).

Because your shows are so energetic how do you prepare for that?

I don’t think you want to prepare too much. Zane our drummer is always saying that the body and the mind are just sort of a physical thing and humans have this amazing potential to achieve whatever they want to achieve and they can make amazing feats of strength and prowess so you really want to let your instincts flow and the vibration. So right now we’re talking and that creates its own vibration and my words might influence your vibration to change slightly and yours might do the same to me. But when there is music, which is something so tangible in the air that is literally a vibration, spilling out over other vibrations, which are human beings, you can actually contain the vibration of a room and change it in some way with the music and through performing it. [You can] take yourself to a place that is actually a higher or different level of physical vibration and from there I think that it is really hard to hurt yourself.

How do you consider music as a motivational tool for people to think of the world around them especially considering that this is an election year?

I think it’s ongoing whether it is an election year or not - for me it’s a constant. The good thing about election is year is that people start thinking about politics a little bit more. It raises awareness but it raises awareness to the wrong part of change; it raises awareness to money-grubbing, power-hungry, self-payrise giving politicians who don’t really have any interest of the working class left.

So the answers politically are going to come from unionism, unity within social groups and people first recognizing their power and then acting upon it.

The idea, I throw it up once every two weeks at a gig, ‘So has everyone thought about the possibility that we could have a completely different world?’ because its easy to look around and think this is the only one we could have but its not true.

The history of evolutionary and revolutionary thought keeps popping back up because deep down in people’s lizard brain they keep saying, “Hey this is bullshit. I am sick of war and I am sick of tax and I am sick of having a lack of control over the very things that sustain me and I want to know that people around me are safe and happy and looked after by a social group”. I think that is something that is innate in people.

The kind of music Mammal plays traditionally has a male audience …

I don’t know if I agree with that. I think I would say that Full Scale [Ox’s former band] was a very much a blokey crowd but I see a lot of women coming to Mammal. There is a lot of funk and sex and there is a just a lot of positive energy and respect in [our music]. Testosterone is not a negative thing if it is channeled in the right way. Mammal is not about violence or victory; we are about funk, fun and destroying fascism.

What do you think of the phrase ‘Don’t talk religion and politics with friends’?

I think its bullshit. I would say that if you can’t talk religion and politics with your friends then get new friends.

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