The Hive Minds are one of the Coachella Valley’s most consistent and well-liked bands.
However, the reach of the Hive Minds may soon reach beyond our dusty little valley: The group recently recorded an album with famed producer Ronnie King, a Palm Springs local, and hopes to finally tour outside of the Palm Springs area.
While the group was recording the album, the Hive Minds launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project, offering presales of the EP and other incentives. How did it go?
“It was unsuccessful,” said frontman and guitarist Derek Jordan Gregg during a recent interview in Palm Springs that included all three members of the group. “A lot of people think some guy is online doing (crowd-funding campaigns) to buy mayonnaise or some stupid shit like that, so there’s a stigma of some sort. People think you’re asking for a handout when we’re really just trying to get something in exchange for all the time we put in.”
While the Kickstarter campaign failed, the group found success working with King, who has produced for Rancid, Mariah Carey and the local group IIIZ (formerly the Yip Yops), along with many other acts.
“He gets really good work out of you,” Gregg said.
Drummer Sean Poe seconded Gregg’s comment.
“You’ll work all day and just get the best take you can get,” Poe said. “We would do it; we’d think it was good, and that was the take. Ronnie would be like, ‘No, do it again.’ We’d do it again and again and be like, ‘That’s the take!’”
However, bassist Matt Styler conceded the process was not always easy.
“We definitely had to learn (how to deal with) thinking we had put out a really good take or a song and hear, ‘Oh no, there’s still a lot of work to be done.’ It’s learning to be OK with that process and having the presence to know you could put together something better, even though you already love what you did before.”
When I visited IIIZ while they recorded with King last summer, King was making IIIZ guitarist and vocalist Mari Brossfield do multiple takes for a track. Gregg said he was put to the test a few times himself.
“I remember doing a take on our song ‘Wish You The Best,’ thinking I had just nailed it, and Ronnie said, ‘Yeah, it was good, but I didn’t buy it.’ He pointed to the part and had me change it, saying, ‘There’s no emotional content.’ He had me going over and over it. He knows what makes a hit song for sure.”
The group hopes the new EP will be released within several months.
“Probably in May or June,” Gregg said. “It’s a bit of a story, and it’s conceptual. It’s all love songs and based on the building and the breaking of a relationship. It’s just five tracks, but it’s really upbeat and sounds different from the first record. The first record was really mellow and Americana; this one is totally different and indie-pop.”
Ronnie King ended up playing keyboards on most of the tracks. The members of the group enjoyed the sound, and as a result, they are now looking for a keyboardist.
The album includes other guest appearances, too.
“Mari (Brossfield) from IIIZ is on it,” Gregg said. “A local sax player named Aaron Merc is on it, too. He visited us, and we were listening to one of the tracks. … I was like, ‘Aaron, do you happen to have your sax with you?’ He was on his way to rehearsal, and it was in the car.”
Poe talked about how Mari Brossfield became involved.
“We were like, ‘It would sound so much better if we went an octave up,’” he said about one of the band’s songs. “We’re all sitting there trying to sing it and hit that note. Derek was like, ‘I wish we had a girl here,’ and Mari was right there, and (Derek) goes, ‘Hey, you want to sing on it?’ IIIZ was really supportive and came out several days when we were in the studio.”
With the new album came a new and interesting endeavor: a music video, for the song “Chasing You Around.”
“Robert Sandoval did it,” Gregg said. “He helped us out when we made our Kickstarter music videos, and he’s really good. He kind of works how we work, where if you have an idea, and you start to wing it a bit, you just to allow yourself to be open to new possibilities.”
Styler explained the theme of the video.
“It’s a love story: Guy sees girl, and guy chases after girl,” he said. “It’s basically someone chasing her around. But it’s in the least-stalker way as possible. We want to make that clear.”
Gregg thought of an amusing alternative ending for the video.
“The ending of it should have been the guy getting a cease-and-desist letter,” he said.
The Hive Minds will perform with Monreaux, Higher Heights and the CMFs at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 20, at Playoffs, 12105 Palm Drive, in Desert Hot Springs. Admission is $5. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/thehiveminds.