The Pandora’s box of black metal scrutiny belonging to Mamaleek has been opened once more. Their new album Vida Blue looks at the concept of loss through its multitude of material forms, and the intricacies of our human response to it. The titular legend of the Oakland A’s baseball team is one character among many, describing loss across its dizzying technicolor spectrum; of pride, of money, of significant others.
Created following the loss of the band’s keyboard player Eric Livingstone, the album stands as a singular statement that honors Eric in a way entirely befitting the band and their work.
We spoke with the band via email to get the locker room chat on one of the year’s most fascinating albums.
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Vida Blue continues the trend set by recent Mamaleek albums of starting with a kernel of conceptual specificity (in this case loss) and then revisiting it through various lenses and perspectives; how does this approach help you explore and realize your ideas?
It seems the only way to gain real perspective,is to take on and off various lenses, and realize that yours is often dusty and needs cleaning. We’ve found that this approach serves the interests of exploring an idea as thoroughly as possible.
Listening to Vida Blue at times feels like navigating a Raymond Chandler story, its narratives set against glockenspiel and saxophone melodies. How did you settle on the arrangements and musical vocabulary of the album?
The question of when to settle on something is an open one, aways. I’m not aware of any consistent logic involved in these choices, but the others may disagree. Like most other bands/artists, our process starts from intuition and experimentation, before the yield is subject to the pressures of conceptual or thematic coherence.
The Lyric “Still the greatest, never beaten, Vida Blue” feels resolute and defiant on Blue’s behalf, why did you choose these qualities as a way to approach his story?
That’s fan-speak. Vida is ultimately just a man who did a thing really well and was rewarded for it, but who also struggled personally and professionally–including by the torture inflicted by Charlie Finley–and is now deceased. The fan tends to be hyperbolic and knowingly indulges in fantasy, but of course, nobody is the greatest (despite ‘Man of Steal’, Rickey Henderson’s claim). For instance, conventionally speaking, a good hitter is batting .300 AVG, which means that even when they’re doing something right, they’re doing something wrong 70% of the time.
The album speaks to the relationship between loss and its acceptance, but also memory. What role does the human tendency to sculpt memory through creativity and forgetfulness play in dealing with loss?
Creativity helps us navigate loss by transforming fleeting memories into something lasting before they fade or alter. This album not only captures a specific moment in our lives but also stirs the memories and sentiments tied to that time. In some ways, music is an antidote to forgetfulness, both in the memory demanded by its performance and the feelings that the performance conjures, worthy of preservation.
Of the album you’ve remarked “This is your celebration.” In leaving interpretation to the listener, and in exploring loss through so many scenarios, it feels as though you are being greatly generous with your personal experience of grief, how was the process of doing so?
This is actually a reference to the A’s victory music, a line from Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration.” It’s mostly tongue-in-cheek. Your interpretation with regards to grief was unintended on our part. It reveals more about you than it does us (something good!)
In the video for “Vileness Slim” a dispossessed man remarks to camera that “The lord knows because it’s his doing.” There is an unease in seeing another human having lost the assurances of shelter and stability, yet appearing at peace with it. What did you take from your time spent with him?
He hasn’t lost what he sees as the greatest assurance of all. His statement reflects a deep faith that every experience, however apparently bleak, fits into a larger providential order. Despite his hardships, he’s adapted in a way many of us might struggle to imagine, finding strength to create order and meaning in his daily life through domestic rituals and hard work.
The album contains many moments of beauty. Of them, the piano melody at the center of “Ancient Souls, No Longer Sorrowful” stands out as a rare moment of straightforward beauty. Can you share something about its creation?
Brilliant! Yes, it may feel like a trope, and it is. One of the central questions was: Can you take something that normally incurs embarrassment and make it into something sincere and worthwhile(?) See, for example, the scatting, guitar soloing, and church bells in “Hidden Exit.” You be the judge.
Mamaleek remains a part of The Flenser constellation of acts, a group not typically known for stylistic or artistic *consistency*. You have upcoming shows with Have a Nice Life and Chat Pile, how do you approach them?
We’re grateful for the opportunity to play with those we esteem, and we approach these shows with a sense of urgency. Each performance is treated as if it could be our last, and we hope not to take that for granted.
The title of “Black Pudding Served at the Horn of the Altar” uses a very specifically British term for blood sausage. I’m curious how it wound up there?
Indeed! I recently returned from the UK and I can’t help but pity the person who considers black pudding fit for human consumption. Someone else might feel the same about, say, the morel mushrooms found on my plate. My interest here was in the sacralization of something abhorrent, something cultures everywhere do all the time. Food seemed an obvious way to explore this theme that may extend to rituals, habits, beliefs, etc.
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Vida Blue is available now on The Flenser, and Mamaleek play upcoming tour dates with Have a Nice Life and Chat Pile.
