Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Kameron Frankart - Guitar and Vocals

Allan Landgraf - Bass

Joey Craig – Drums

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Mindless Matters? How long has the band been around?

Mindless Matters first formed in October of 2014 when our friend Gavin Siegel introduced Joey and I at our first practice. A couple names thought of by my 13 year old self were “The Illusions” and “Third Degree” and they were both short lived because that lineup stayed for about 6 months. That’s the only band Joey and I were in prior to Mindless Matters.

We had Allan over for one practice playing bass before he left to live in Austria for his freshman year. We started as our current lineup when he got back in August 2016 and it has been the same since and we have released one EP “Shiggy Diggy” and will be releasing an acoustic version of “Isoman” off of the album on March 5th, 2018.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

We’ve been asked about our name a handful of times and every time we try to find more meaning to our name but the truth is I just thought “Mindless Matter” during a practice while Allan was away and Joey suggested adding an “S” to the end so we became Mindless Matters. Maybe down the road we will find more meaning to the name than sounding cool to us but for now it just rolls off nicely and we can conveniently abbreviate it to MM.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

I have written all of the guitar parts and lyrics to our music as well as a few bass parts that Allan tools with and adds to. Joey and Allan write their own parts so they lock in nicely though. We don’t aim for any specific sound really we just write our parts and jam them out for a while until they fit nicely and the products are each pretty unique on their own. Not any two songs really sound alike but they all have our individual character mixed together really nicely.

All of what I write minus one exception which is fully about The Grateful Dead just comes from things that go on in my life like relationships, social situations, and things that really inspire me to write on the spot. I try to make what I write a good mix of mystery to the listener so they can interpret the lyrics on their own and lyrics that are relatable to everyone and catch their attention. Sometimes it just comes straight from the heart though. I don’t think I’ll ever ditch this writing style but if I pick up any other ideas on writing I could adopt them into my strategies as well.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Since we all listen to a lot of different styles of music all the time going from Jazz to Indie/Alt. And even some Folk and Americana. This definitely helps us not place any borders on our sound and it makes it a lot more of our own sound because there’s not such a distinct label on it. A few bands we have all really been into for a while are Naked Giants, The Band, and The Districts. A solid mix of local bands we hear and play with often contribute to our influences as well.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

The idea of just being in a band is more what compelled us to start the band more than any band in particular although we were all big fans of The Naked Brothers Band when we were young. Joey started playing piano at 4 and took lessons for 7 years and actually didn’t start drumming until a year before we started jamming. Allan and I both started taking guitar lessons from the same teacher when we were 8 and we didn’t find out until he joined the band. We even played a recital together. I have been around my older brother Kaleb’s bands like Decapitus (Death Metal) and Juxtapose (Psychedelic Rock) so that was a huge influence on me personally.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …

We don’t have any crazy rituals we do before shows but we always make a point to play a few games of 9 ball in Joey’s basement before we head out to the venue for load in. When we play in our hometown (Bowling Green, OH) at Howard’s we usually go to Pisanello’s Pizza across the street or get some coffee down the street at Grounds for Thought. Our best shows have definitely been fueled heavily on coffee.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

So far our best highlight as a band would be our EP release show from November 2017 that was held at Grounds for Thought. That was our debut release and probably the most attended show we have played but the smallest venue we have performed at with the exception of an Irish pub in Bowling Green whose stage could only fit the drum set. We played for almost 2 hours with several cups of coffee in us and also sold the most merch out of all of the shows we’ve played.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

If we had to pick any band we could tour with it would have to be a tie between Naked Giants out of Seattle and The Districts from Philly. We got the chance to snag some tickets to see Naked Giants on tour with Ron Gallo at Ace of Cups in Columbus a few months ago and it was probably the most high-energy show we have ever been to and the music stayed super tight the whole time.

A microphone flew into the crowd, their bass player didn’t seem to have both feet on the ground once during the show, and the show was sold out so one could only imagine that big of a crowd experiencing this.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Over the past few months with what we had saved up from other shows and profit off of our EP we have been building up a home studio and our first release out of it will be our “Isoman” acoustic single. We are in the works of writing the rest of what is needed for our first LP and will begin the early stages of recording soon. The LP will include three songs off of our EP which will be re-recorded and 6-7 more originals which haven’t been released yet.

We are planning on getting further out of our local scene this summer and will try to hit some of Southern Michigan, possibly some of Northeastern Indiana as well as more areas in Ohio like Columbus, Cleveland, and Akron.