Mercury Messiah is Starbound with their new single

Mercury Messiah, a young up and coming rock band from Montreal, Canada. Saro Hartounian/The Concordian

The Laval band has released their third single, “Starbound”

Mercury Messiah has just released their latest single “Starbound” on Friday, Jan. 7. The release kicks off 2022 for the group and is their third overall song released. Originating from Chomedey, Laval, the band released two singles: ”Sunlight Surfing” and “Mercury Messiah” last year. 

The track “Starbound” starts off with a punchy four-chord riff delivered by Mano Diles, the lead guitarist and backup singer of the band. Diles wrote the riff when he was just fifteen years old so he felt an immense sense of accomplishment when the band finished writing the song in 2019. Johnny Dims, lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and tambourine player wrote the lyrics and cites his mother as a major influence.  

“My mom is a writer and ever since I was a young kid, I was always surrounded by books and words and developed an affinity for it, and that’s where I developed a love for the arts,” said the Concordia graduate.

Corrado Johnston, the bassist, laid down two layers for the bass guitar section of the song, one for the low end and the other to cut through the mix. This is reminiscent of classic rock groups, who often used similar techniques to maximize space in their songs to make them sound more full. Bands like The Who with “Eminence Front,” or Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” both showcase double-tracking of the bass. The majority of the mixing and mastering comes not only from Johnston but Alex Brunel as well, the band’s drummer.  

Mercury Messiah’s main influences are Rush, a progressive Canadian national treasure, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin, but they’re not afraid to step out of their comfort zone. “We don’t want to box ourselves in,” said Johnston. They will write songs that are rock, sing-along, and anthem-poppy, like “Sunlight Surfing” and “Starbound,” but then write very prog-induced psychedelia and heavier singles like “Mercury Messiah.” “I’m gonna throw myself under the bus dude, my number one played artist of 2021 was Dua Lipa,” said Diles.

The last verse of “Starbound” includes the lyrics “It’s clear that her life is starbound, the simple life’s now got her down, my baby’s stuck in her hometown,” with the last line repeating for five more times. This line took an ironic turn when the Omicron variant made everyone stuck in their hometown.

“The timing was kind of perfect but in a bad way, all of the shows got cancelled again and we literally released the song as we were stuck in our hometowns so it was appropriate,” said Brunel.  

For now, they are currently working on releasing their upcoming EP and LP. The band is set to perform on the third of June at Petit Campus! See you then? 

 

Photograph by Peter Tsoraidis             

 

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