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| The three members of Mountains / Courtesy of Mountains |
By Jon Dunbar
The emo-math rock band Mountains currently doesn't exist together in one place, but that didn't stop its three members from recording their latest album, "Old Friends" released June 9, across borders.
"We were actually a remote band before it became trendy," said Joel, the band's drummer since 2018.
Not long after joining the band and releasing the 2019 EP "Midnight," Joel moved away to Vietnam. But the band wasn't done with him, and he reunited with his bandmates Ali and Steve on a tour of Japan before the pandemic hit.
He's since moved on from Vietnam, and for this latest album, he contributed the drum tracks from a studio in Guadalajara, Mexico.
"The whole process of remote-recording definitely takes longer but overall it's worth the time," said Ali, the band's bassist, who recorded his parts in Korea along with his bandmate Steve, the guitarist.
They recorded their instruments in Steve's room in Ulsan, and went to a studio in the city to lay down the vocals using more professional equipment. Then the recordings were sent to the U.K. where Jamie Ward produced and mixed everything.
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| The three members of Mountains / Courtesy of Mountains |
The final product has 10 tracks, with songs in English, Farsi and Japanese.
"The only language that doesn't appear on this album is Korean which is a departure for us," said Ali, an ethnic Iranian citizen of the U.K.
He sings in his mother tongue on "Goodbye," a song the band recorded on their first album, "Tenses" in 2016, in a slightly different form. "There aren't many other Iranian language math rock songs that I know of," he said. "A world first!"
The album contains a bonus track, a Japanese-language version of "Past," also originally released in the 2016 album, in which it was sung in Korean. They found a Japanese version of the song released last year on YouTube by Haruna Asahi, and invited her to contribute the song to the new album.
Another notable song is the instrumental "Korean Football," which takes its title from bands similar to Mountains with names like American Football (from the U.S.) and Chinese Football (from China).
"There is a new band from Tokyo (I think) called Japanese Football too," Ali added. "I think the name Korean Football is just us paying homage to the trend and staking our claim to the name in case we ever have to change our band's name in the future. If I ever move back to England one day I'll have to start a band called English Soccer."
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| The cover of Mountains' new album, "Old Friend" / Courtesy of Mountains |
"I've wanted to use it for artwork for a long time because it reminds me of childhood friends from some small town, village or whatever," he said. "A picture that captures that feeling, a moment in time so to speak, and to think about all the things that have unfolded since then."
From that idea, they decided to name the album "Old Friends," and the songs contain a running theme of friendship.
Mountains has been around for about a decade, playing their first show in Daegu in 2013 and releasing a demo in 2014. "we've been running for a long time, but slowly," said Ali, who came to Korea in 2011 after joining the U.K. band Maybeshewill on tour to Japan.
He has since played in numerous bands, including the similar-named Colours, Visuals, Machines, Ghosts, Emperors and Bandits, as well as joined other bands including Yuppie Killer, Swan Eater and Classy Wallet.
Steve, who has also been with Mountains since the beginning, has been in five other bands. Joel, the newest member having joined five years ago, has been in 11 bands himself, in the U.S., Korea, Vietnam and Mexico, only one short of Ali's 12 bands.
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| The three members of Mountains / Courtesy of Mountains |
Currently, there are no plans for the band to reunite in one physical location to play shows again as Mountains, but at least we have this recording.
Listen to it at mountainssk.bandcamp.com or watch the music videos at youtube.com/@Mountainssk, and follow the band at @mountainssk on Instagram.
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