Aaron Pauley discusses self-production, Simon & Garfunkel influences, and why the band's latest risks are paying off.
With their ninth album out in the world, Californian metalcore veterans Of Mice and Men seem borderline indestructible. After line-up changes that would completely derail other bands, they sound as energised and resilient as they ever have on Another Miracle–perhaps even more so now.
Catch up on all the latest features and interviews here.
What exactly is their secret? “At this point in our career, we’re just trying to do what’s exciting to us,” says Aaron Pauley–who joined the band in 2012 as bassist and took over as frontman four years later.
“That’s the ultimate litmus test for us as a band. We feel like we have an understanding of what our audience has come to know so far, as well as what we want to get out of our own music. Our songs are very carefully curated, and we especially like to focus on the feeling. Each album is a journey we want to take listeners on, and at this point I feel as though we’ve really refined that process.”
Another Miracle was self-produced by the band themselves, marking the third record overall where they have undertaken this route, following 2021’s Echo and 2023’s Tether. While it was more a matter of necessity for Echo, given its creation was through COVID-19 lockdowns (or “quarantine” as it was known Stateside), the band took to the process so well that they continued with it even after restrictions lifted. Pauley, for his part, has even taken on both mixing and mastering duties. “We’ve gotten better and better at it with each album,” he says.
“You learn and you glean something new from every process, and you’re always growing and learning how to improve things–which is really exciting. We’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the greatest producers in the world, and I think we learned a lot about time management from them.
“It’s good to have constraints and deadlines, because then you can ensure it’ll actually get finished. It’s on us as a band to see the vision from inception to fruition, and because we work really well together collectively, it’s actually a lot of fun.”
Although he performs solely as the band’s lead vocalist when playing live, Pauley still plays bass on Of Mice and Men’s studio albums. His models of choice are PRS Grainger basses, which he has played since he first started getting into bands.
“I have a four-string and a five-string, both of which I use for different tunings,” he explains. “I split my bass parts into two channels. On one of them, I use the Parallax [X DSP], and on the other one, I use a Dark Glass Vintage Ultra V2 preamp. I blend the two in order to get that tone I’m after. There are a lot of ways of getting what you want to hear coming through, both as a bassist and as a producer, and that’s the fun challenge of it all.”
Of course, it’s one thing to approach an album from the perspective of being a musician– a vocalist and a bassist, in Pauley’s instance. However, it’s another entirely to also serve as a producer, mixer and mastering engineer. By then, you’re a player-coach, which leads one to wonder what one learns from such an involved process.
“It’s funny… You have to overwork yourself to realise you can’t be overly critical of minutiae,” says Pauley. “You can mess with EQ for hours on end, and it won’t change a thing about how anyone else listening will perceive the song. You’ve got to be really cognisant of where you’re expending your energy. Nobody’s there to warn you about burning yourself out. You have to intervene on behalf of yourself.”
Prior to the release of Another Miracle, fans were treated to some key tracks as singles. One was “Infinite”, which closes the album and offers both vintage metalcore riffage and a soaring, emotional vocal from Pauley. He particularly drives home the final lyrics of the song–and, by proxy, the album–by referencing Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 classic “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.
“That’s a really important song to me,” he says. “I used to listen to that album driving around with my dad, and flipping that lyric for this song just made sense to me. Simon & Garfunkel are one of my favourite bands in the world, and I have no problem telling people. People who only listen to heavy music… to me, it’s one-sided, it’s one-dimensional, and frankly, it’s boring.”
Another such song was “Wake Up”, which marked one of the biggest sonic departures in the band’s history. This was something Pauley was acutely aware of when the song was initially coming together in Another Miracle‘s creative process, but he and the band were so taken with the track that they simply didn’t care.
“That started from a loop made by Tino,” says Pauley, alluding to drummer Valentino Arteaga. “He’d been listening to a lot of Alanis Morissette, as well as a lot of shoegaze. He also added in that little acoustic guitar intro, and I was just smitten. We didn’t know how it was going to fit–it’s a far cry from what we’re known for–but soon, conversation turned to whether that mattered. A good song is a good song, y’know? It shouldn’t matter who’s playing it. It’s been killing it on US radio since, which has been such a bizarre phenomenon. We’ve never been a radio band, so that’s been surreal.”
To gain new experiences as a band some 15 years into their career is definitely a surprise–but, then again, with everything Of Mice and Men has been through, it should come as no surprise they’re still finding ways to adapt and evolve. “It’s remarkable that we’re still here,” he says resolutely. “It’s a blessing to still be alive and doing this when a lot of friends didn’t make it. It’s a blessing that it still means something to people.”
Tour dates
Tuesday 5th May: Magnet House, Perth
Thursday 7th May: Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
Friday 8th May: 170 Russell, Melbourne
Saturday 9th May: Manning Bar, Sydney
Sunday 10th May: The Triffid, Brisbane
Catch Of Mice and Men live by heading here.
