We bumped into gorgeous girls THE MENTALISTS!!! Well known for appearing on channel 4's Mobile Unsigned Act. Their style is "melodramatic" and they are heading for the stars in their own mental way!!!!
Hi girls…Introduce yourselves We are The Mentalists!Kim. E. Leon (singer, guitarist, keys)Malice (singer, bassist)KellyMental (guitarist)Linza(drums)
Where are you all from? West London (like many west Londoners Kim E. Leon is actually Australian)
How did you get together as a group? Kim E. Leon: We met in disused mental asylum. Linza was living there and playing drums and M’alice and I heard her from the carpark, like mia cats we followed the soundtrail and Lo! The Mentalists were born. We lured KellyMental into the fold by impressing her with our dirty guitar hooks. She was living down the road from me at the time and I’d fling cds through her window whilst riding my bike past on my way to work.
How did you come up with the name The Mentalists for the group ? Kim E. Leon: Sometimes we think too much! It started with the disused mental asylum lynds was living in, we were chatting about how blokes are described as eccentric whereas women are always seen as a bit mad if they are different. There’s so much pressure on girls to be inoffensive, we’re not like that, clearly Mentalists! Also we’ve got a bit of an attachment to Victorian values and The British Mentalists were a 19th century group of mind-readers, sort of like a Victorian Derren Brown troupe, we like the idea of messing with peoples’ minds.
Who are your musical influences? Kim E. Leon: In terms of songwriting we like a lot of melodic 80s pop like David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Cure. For beats we’re into the danceable raw energy of what was going on in new york in the late 70s & early 80s – ESG, Liquid Liquid – street party music with lots of cowbell. And then we love distorted lush guitars, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive.
How would you describe your style as musicians ? Kim E. Leon: Melodramatic Popular Song
You did very well in Mobile Act Unsigned…How did you feel about losing out? Malice: We are pleased with how far we came, getting to the top 5 bands out of 1700. We got our music out to a very large TV audience that wouldn’t necessarily have seen us before.
It was always a competition for 1 record deal, so it doesn’t really feel that we ‘lost out’, as we gained so much exposure and had a great time!
Has the programme been a spring board for you? As in has it opened some doors for you as a group?
Malice: As our name is now known, more good venues are approaching us with gig offers, and many more people listen to our songs everyday online, and come to gigs.
We have a lot of people rooting for us now, especially those that saw us on tv and wanted us to win!
Do You have any funny stories from the tour? Malice: Every episode we filmed was an adventure. We are close as a band, and so reacted to everything together, in our usual mentalist-team style…which involves rebellion, laughter and often vodka.Kim E. Leon: LinzaMentalist was doing her flaming sambucca party drink and nearly singed Alex Zane’s eyebrows. It impressed the boys though - James Gingerbread then tried to woo LinzaMentalist with his dancing skills and they took out the dancefloor, human skittles!
The Judges on Mobile Act said that you were better off as a threepiece, do you agree with this? Malice: The Mentalists are a 4 piece, that’s how we were born and how we must be. You don’t ask a dog to remove a leg. Or John to leave The Beatles.Kim E. Leon: I was stuck in Barcelona airport and only saw the edited version so I don’t know if they cut it for more telly drama to appear like the judges were saying we should actually get rid of a member (i.e. me). They said The Mentalists should lose a member more often – which could be a sideways compliment about how well the remaining Mentalists pulled together under pressure. I was very proud of the girls and how they handled a very difficult situation.
Who do you think should have won the competition besides from yourselves of course?
M’Alice: Envy and Other Sins are a great band, we were there when they played in the wildcard round, and were impressed with their song and performance. We of course would like to ‘win’ a record deal, but hoping we’re gonna get one anyway! The Mentalist way…..
Kim E. Leon: I liked Hijack Oscar a lot, they didn’t give a toss about the judges, they were just doing their thing.
Where do you see your careers going from here? M’Alice: Onwards and upwards, dancing all the way
Kim E. Leon: We’ve all quit our jobs to be able to write more, it’s so much fun and we are gonna write the perfect song!
Your single is out at the moment, how has it done so far and have you had good feedback from your material so far? M’Alice: We’ve had good response from our Single ‘Don’t Know What To Do With You’.
It was a Limited Edition vinyl release on a small label of our friend’s. We sold all of the copies we had pressed and made it to no 20 in the Indie Chart!
Kim E. Leon: I made a video for the song too and it’s been awesome to see that on the tellybox, people always seem to get us a bit more once they’ve seen the video
Do you have an album coming out? And if so what will the album be called? M’Alice: We are currently recording our debut album, but plan to release an EP in the summer. Kim E. Leon: No names yet, you’ll have to wait and see!
Has there been any interest from record labels since being on Mobile Act? M’Alice: We have been approached by a few record labels since our appearance on TV, so we will have to see what happens next!;-)
You have performed in the same line up as some well known acts in the underground scene, who has been your favourite and why? M’Alice: We had a great time at Glastonbury, as we got to watch The Arcade Fire from the side of the stage, and also met Bjork!! Our friends Hard-Fi are always good fun to play with. As is Pete Doherty and Carl Barat.Kim E. Leon: And we loved playing with Belle&Sebastian, they are very down to earth people and we respect them loads, they’ve worked hard for years to make something wonderful. One of the reasons I love being in a band though is to hear music that doesn’t get much airplay, in Paris we played with My Sister Klaus who were like Jonathan Richman playing with The Doors, tres cool! And just a couple of weeks ago we played with The Patty Winters Show in shoreditch, their guitar sound had that perfect indie blend of melancholy and poptimism, and their outfits! it was like Pixies in Lederhosen. Next week we are playing with Ejectorseat and I’m very excited about that.
Where can we find out more information about the mentalists???
You can go to our www.myspace.com/thementalists
Or www.thementalists.co.uk
Or come to a gig to feel The Mentalism live! Photography credits: Amy Scaithe
