In many ways, Chris Simpson is a lot like so many of his fans. He’s chipping away at his college degree in between raising his kids. He drives a van. He and his parents talk about his short-lived band, Mineral, during holiday dinners. The difference between Simpson and everyone else, however, is how much of an impact that band had on an entire generation of angsty teenagers who stumbled upon Mineral’s two albums — 1997’s The Power of Failing and 1998’s EndSerenading — in the decades after the band’s breakup.
Two months ago, the influential Texas outfit returned with its first new songs in 20 years. “Aurora” and “Your Body Is the World” come as part of the band’s upcoming 25th anniversary celebration, which involves a limited-edition retrospective book, One Day When We Are Young: Mineral at 25 (due on January 4), and a world tour that finds a Tampa band, Pohgoh, opening the first four dates. CL spoke with Simpson about all of that and more.
Read the full Q&A and get more information on the show below.
Mineral w/Tancred/Pohgoh. Fri. Jan. 11, 7:30 p.m. $25-$30. Orpheum, 1915 N. 7th Ave., Ybor City. theorpheum.com.
Are you guys rehearsing yet? How's that going?
Oh yeah. We've had a practice space since March, actually. It's in Austin. Not too far from Emo's; it's central, a little on the south side. We're starting to feel like it's coming together. Practicing is so much… I don't know how to say this — it's not fun.
It's work.
It's the work part, but that makes it so you can have fun and play well. Most of the stuff is starting to sound pretty good. We're our own worst critics, but it's been really fun to get to practice for so long. When we did the 2014 tour, for me, it was so much work. We learned the songs, figured out guitar parts, and there were parts of songs where I knew I wasn't playing what I used to play, but I'm playing something that's close that, maybe works, you know?
This time, getting to rehearse these songs more after having played them four or five years ago; it's not like I'm having to completely relearn them. It's been much more productive. I think think I've found a lot of my original guitar parts or chord versings that were sort of alluding me in the past.
A couple years ago you expressed excitement about the way electric guitar was coming back into your atmosphere. Has that continued?
It's definitely true. At home, even, I am just constantly playing the electric guitar and playing through the old Mineral songs. It's been fun to reconnect with it. Largely, with Mountain Time stuff, I play acoustic or piano, so it's been a while since I've played electric guitar regularly.
The new songs are a marriage between Mineral’s two records, and the artists that you guys are now, but they’re not meant to be a re-hash, per se. You've mentioned it in the past, but I still feel like I have to ask whether or not you, Scott, Jeremy and Gabe figured out how to share files via Dropbox yet? I'm assuming fans shouldn't expect any new Mineral music outside of these two songs…
I would say that's true for now. We've been so busy getting these songs written, recorded and ready for the tour and getting ourselves ready for the tour by rehearsing original material. We really haven't had time to think beyond that, but I do think we've stumbled upon a method that could work, which took a while. We can have demos going, we send back and forth, people can work on their own parts, which is good. It took a while to stumble upon a method that works for us now.
We used to write just with everyone in the room together, every day. Now that we have lives, we can get together once or twice a week at the most. In order to write we had to figure out how to do it. How to have stuff prepared, on our own, ahead of time, so that when we get together we could actually work and not just twiddle our thumbs.
Can we talk about “Aurora,” which I believe took up about 85-percent of the time writing new music? You’ve been active in other projects, but what was your confidence level like as that song started to happen, and how did it change as the process went on, you bringing it to band, recording and now releasing it?
Yeah, I think the confidence level, for me, never really comes until the end. Maybe even after it's done, and I can listen back to it to see what it is. When we've gotten mixes back, we've been like, "Oh, this actually sounds like a band. It sounds like us." Sometimes you're not hearing the whole thing together in the recording process until the very end. Even when you are hearing the whole thing together, you still know that's not where a guitar is gonna be, or you know that's gonna be a scratch, or you know that a vocal isn't gonna be there — you know you don't have the finished picture yet. For me, once I feel like I've finished writing the vocal, and the lyrics, and the melody — that's when I start to feel a little more confident. Up until then I'm just worried that I'm not gonna come up with anything good enough. You know?
Totally. You’ve talked about not really feeling like yourself, especially during the breakup. Has that changed at all or is it still a journey? I believe you’ll always be a seeker, but has social anxiety replaced spiritual anxiety? What's the mental state now compared to back then? I know you've stabilized more, life is more mundane, things aren't as heavy.
I don't know if I'd say things aren't as heavy, but just feel so much more… I don't know what the word would be.
I guess I also think your kids make you younger, too. You have twins who are seven years old now.
Yeah, they're seven. Kids have been a big part of settling down, settling in, and feeling more rooted in my own life. I think I was the sort of person who, well into adulthood, always sort of felt like my life is a movie that is just kind of happening — and I'm just in it. I'm not really in control of what happens. Things just happen to me. I think I've really begun to realize that I can take responsibility for my life, my decisions, my actions, opinions and feelings — I can really step into my life and be more present, more calm and less anxious. It hasn't been any sort of overnight flip of the switch — it's been a long gradual process — but I definitely feel much more stable these days.
Is the college coursework for social work still a thing in your life?
Yeah, I just finished a class the other day. I won't be taking anything the next couple of semesters because of all the touring this year. It's still, definitely, a part of my life, but I guess it's a smaller part at the moment because of everything going on with music. I've just been really picking away at it; I don't even know where I am most of the time. People ask me, "Oh, how much longer do you have?," and I really don't ever really know that. I imagine I've got to be at least a sophomore or something at this point. At the most I've taken three classes a semester, and there's been many semesters that I've only taken one.
We have a baby now who just turned 15 months, so for the last few semesters I've just been taking one class because we have a lot going on.
Yeah, man. Some people say there's a magic number when it comes to how many kids you can have to make it flip from chaos to being locked in and handling everything. I don't know that you're at that number yet…
I will say that, with four now, the difference between three and four puts you right on that line chaos and being locked in at all times.
Are you at the van stage yet? It's like large SUV or van now.
We've been renting a Sprinter-type vehicle.
No, I'm talking about your family.
Ha, that's funny. Yeah, we have a minivan. I'm in an Odyssey, and I would not, even if I didn't have any of these kids, I would not switch. This is the vehicle for me.
Talking about the book, Jeremy has kind of taken the blame for setting the breakup conversation in motion, but that story about your dad poring over the record contract and then finding out you broke up is interesting. You’d had had your struggles in older age, reconciling my views and my parents’ views and our differences and similarities. How’s he feel about the reunion and this tour? Is it something that gets talked about at Thanksgiving and Christmas?
Sure, they're excited about it. They were tickled by how well-received the original reunion was in 2014 and how we got to go to all these places around the world. It's interesting. I don't know if I get a real emotional response from them about it. I still think, to them, it's just another world to them — they don't really understand why anyone would want to do this to themselves.
It is a tough life. Obviously it's been written about a ton, but the fact that you're going to Japan and Europe on this tour. People are asking about Brazil. I think it's awesome, especially for a band that was around for, essentially, less than half a decade. That's powerful.
Yeah, it's wonderful. I think I've said this in many interviews, but to me what's so cool about it is that it reinforces that records are immortal. Even if you put it out and nobody buys it, if it's out there in the world, floating around, then someone could discover it 20 years down the road or 50 years down the road. The artifact itself is out there; I love that about them.
Going back to the book. It's this big picture of a very short period in your life. How was linking up with Mischa Pearlman and trying to revisit all of rare or never-before-seen photographs, memorabilia, and handwritten lyrics like as you were working on the book? The interviews feel like everyone is getting along and really able to talk about the past.
Yeah, it felt very normal, kinda painless, really. I don't know about all the guys, but I think they would all agree with that. We had a great time with Mischa. He's just super easy-going and a lot of fun to hang out with. He's easy to talk to. We're the band that kind of dreads things until we're in them, so the idea of doing the book and hanging out with this guy that we didn't really know — the guy who was gonna be writing the text for it — it seemed like, "Ugh, we gotta do this?," but once we were there I felt like we all really opened up and had a great time. It was fun.
More than anything, this reunion, this book — it's actually kinda fun to just hang out together. We do have a certain camaraderie. There's obviously a musical chemistry, but even outside of that, there's a camaraderie that comes right back when we're together. It's not all rosey. Sometimes you'll be like, "Ah, yeah I remember how much this person drove me crazy in this way," but it's almost like family. Like a relationship you have with brothers or something. There's always love and respect, even when there's some butting of heads.
Was it weird to read all the interviews and see these other musicians, including Matt Hamon, and people who existed in the sphere of the band talk about Mineral? People were gushing.
Yeah, it was nice. I really enjoyed the interviews. I kind of had no idea what to expect. When he did them, I think he wasn't sure if he was going to have them as standalone interviews in the book or if there were going to be quotes. When he decided that the interviews were strong enough to stand on their own, I remember not being sure of the idea — but when I read them, I was like, "These are really great."
I think it's appropriate because the thing about Mineral that's allowed Mineral to survive is that it has resonated with so many people, and those people have their own stories about what it means to them. To have these interviews in the book feels appropriate, rather than making them a part of our story. It let's people have their own stories about the band.
Did other people get you a ton of submissions for nostalgia when you put out the open call two years ago? Anything weird come in?
All that went to our manager, and I'm sure he would've shown us anything interesting, but I don't think we got anything weird. Pictures, flyers, cool old stuff where we'd be like, "Wow, I remember that show." Looking at some of the flyers, we'd laugh at a 12-band bill that starts at one in the afternoon at the VFW Hall — sounds like a great Sunday, you know. I don't recall anything super weird.
And to go back to these old flyers. We call your brand of rock emo now, but you have a band from the same era opening for you in Tampa, Pohgoh. Vic Bondi caught Pohgoh by accident at Fest two months ago. A lot of shows don't end up with a local support band, so can you talk about how Pohgoh ends up on the bill with you in Tampa? Do you remember them for back in the day?
I do remember them from back in the day. I reconnected, maybe five years ago, with Keith [Ulrey], just online. For a while he was putting these South By Southwest day shows, so my band Mountain Time played several of those. He actually brought me to Tampa to play a solo show when Mineral was down there playing Fest. I came in a day early and did a solo show that he set up. I really connected with him and Susie. I definitely remember them from back in the day, but I mostly feel like my relationship with them is from the last four or five years. I just really love them as people. We're from a similar time. They have a new record, and I know how integral they are to the local scene in Tampa. It just kind of made sense to ask them to do the show. They're actually doing all three of the Florida shows, and the Atlanta show. I love the idea of getting to start the tour with them, getting to hang out with Keith and Susie for four days.
Eventually the after effects of your Interscope deal snowballed into you just feeling trapped being depressed about it all, but do you remember the moment when you snapped out of that and became OK with the decisions that you made and the record that Mineral didn't make?
Maybe 2013?
Oh, wow. OK.
I don't know. I was so concerned for the longest time, with being able to have a fresh start. Not wanting to be boxed in, in any way, by Mineral. I think that obsession was sort of clear in The Gloria Record. I think for the longest time I just didn't want to talk about Mineral. I just wanted to focus on what I was doing now. I was really annoyed that people wanted to talk about it.
The idea of us ever getting back together seemed impossible — not something I would ever want to do. If and when I listened to the records, it was hard. I think I sort of dismissed it, largely, for a long time. Maybe the year or two before we decided to do the reunion, I started softening to it and understanding that it was such a big part of my life. I couldn't change that, so I might as well embrace that part of my life because it was a very important part of my life. It was only four years, but it felt like, and still feels like, one of the biggest parts of my life.
Anything else that you wanted to add? I know that there's not a lot of press right now, but I'm sure you've been on the phone a bunch, so we'll see stuff roll out as the tour approaches.
I don't know. I guess not. We're starting to get excited about the tour, and I can't wait to just get some shows under our belt and get into the flow. For me, this time, it's just about being able to connect with people. The energy, whatever people bring to the shows — being able to enjoy that. I think I'm gonna be a lot more relaxed this time around. Less anxious that I was on the initial reunion shows, so I am looking forward to just having fun and hopefully giving people some entertainment.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2018 – Jan 3, 2019.