ION INDIE MAGAZINE September 2014, Volume 4 | Page 63

keytar, which has added a whole new dimension to The MESS’s sound.)
ION: Now Jay, as the founder of The MESS, this is your baby. Do the rest of you feel the same way?
Is The MESS the number one priority?
Joe: Well Uman Era is MY band, but when I’m playing with The MESS I’m a hundred percent there
for The MESS, and when I’m with Uman Era, I’m a hundred percent for Uman Era.
Janson: With any band I was ever in--at one
point, I was in FIVE (at the same time)--there
was not one band that ever complained
about my attendance or my contributions to
the band. It made me cocky. It really did. I
figured I could be in a bunch of bands all
the time. Not cocky as in playing-wise, but
just that I could do it. I have a very difficult
work schedule, and I feel as it comes down
to that if you want to do it, you can. For me.
ION: Alan, are you also involved in multiple
projects like everyone else?
Alan: Yes, I also play with Janson in
another project called BEYOND THE
ECLIPSE. In that band I play guitar.
ION: So The MESS are a very multi-talented
band that are also heavily involved in
multiple side projects. What are your plans
for only The MESS?
Jay: We have studio time booked, and we’re in a stage now where we’re picking the songs. Me and
Janson have been writing now for so long, he’ll bring me a disc with like thirty songs, and it’s always
hard to whittle that down. You’ve got bands with writer’s block, and we just can’t even get into it all,
there’s so much. We’ve always been a very independent band, and we’ve been close to laying down
tracks for a CD or whatever, and problems with personnel or whatever, would get in the way. Now
we have all these songs, and it’s just a matter of narrowing it down for this CD. We have a BILLION
songs, and there’s the new dynamic of Janson’s keyboards. He has a KEYTAR…
Janson: I LOVE IT!