Lower Definition

A Chat with Valentino Arteaga from Of Mice & Men

and Lower Definiton

Interview by Ken Morton Live Photo by Jack Lue

Of Mice & Men (pictured right) has spent their time within the wilds of a great pandemic creating their sonic artistry, with the stunning results being a duo of EP’s entitled Timeless and Bloom - both now available via SharpTone Records. OM&M’s drummer Valentino Arteaga is also very active with the reawakening of his previous band Lower Definition, best known for their The Greatest of All Lost Arts album from 2008 on Ferret Records. With a brand new single entitled Grief Eater and even more music on the way, Lower Definition is primed and ready to present their dynamic auditory visions to the world once more.

Highwire Daze recently caught up with Valentino Arteaga via Skype to find out more about the current happenings from Of Mice & Men and the return of the post hardcore collective known as Lower Definition. Read on...

Part One - Lower Definition

How did the return of Lower Definition come about, especially when you’re already super busy with a major band called Of Mice & Men?

A couple of years ago back in 2018 we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the release of Lower Definition’s first and only album The Greatest Of All Lost Arts. And I kind of had some foresight in seeing that that time was coming up – and I thought since I had some time, that we could schedule a show in our hometown at Soma – which is basically our home venue in San Diego. And that whole 2018 kind of sparked us into talking about it. Obviously, we’ve taken it slow, but that’s also because we’re holding it close to our hearts. That’s kind of how we always did it, and we don’t want to rush it for the sake of putting out music just to put it out. We want to make sure that the music is absolute top tier quality of what we expect from ourselves and what we hope our band would sound like in the year of 2021 and onward. It’s a whole new landscape and I think our mindset as a band back in the early 2000’s post hardcore and underground metal scene / underground punk scene. It’s a different realm out here now. And we want to stay true to what our sound is – whatever that means to us today.

I think I saw Lower Definition either at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood and/or at the Cobalt Café in Canoga Park.

I was going to say I remember Highwire Daze from Cobalt – you guys were always out there covering those shows. And there was such a killer scene out there man – we were always so stoked when we got to go out there to play. Back then it was just moshing, and it was crazy. It’s these small venues that really gave way to these iconic memories for us. It was either the Knitting Factory R.I.P. or the Cobalt. I don’t know if the Cobalt is still around.

Cobalt Café R.I.P….

Aw man! Yeah, it’s pretty crazy but being in those circles and playing at those venues – being from San Diego we always felt like we wanted to get out of our town and go up and play in the Los Angeles area. We’d always go out to the Los Angeles area and play The Showcase out there. The music scene back then was like the fabric of what built who we all are today. And for myself especially with having taken a career in music, and everywhere that that’s taken me – so I feel very strongly rooted in the hometown scenes in the So Cal

Scene – and it really cool to kind of have Lower D back in the mix of that. Because I know that we’re really feeling that – because we’re all kind of spread out right now. Stefan lives out in LA, I’m out here in Palm Springs, Eddy and Matt live in North County, and I think Mark’s out there in that area.

Let’s talk about the new song Grief Eater and what that title and song means to you.

The underlying theme behind it I feel like is we all need a Grief Eater, because you can’t just live with grief. You can’t just settle for the things that you can’t control, and grief is a big proponent. As we get older, we never really come to terms with how to deal with it or what’s right or what’s wrong. But it’s important to have something that is a Grief Eater – and for us, bringing the band back – that was our Grief Eater.

Being able to create music together again and rekindle friendships that we had a decade ago – and there was so much involved with that before, because we had been a band for almost 10 years before things ended – or got put on hold technically. But writing this music, we felt that this was the perfect song to share first off, because this was our method to the grief we had felt for the band or the grief that we had experienced in our lives in the past 10 years. We wanted to put it into a song – to put it into something that vibed with a statement of “Hey we’re back. We’re making music. There’s no plan – but there’s a plan cuz we’re just making music!” So that’s that. We know that everybody’s going through pain right now and we wrote it in the middle of the pandemic too – so it was kind of like “are we going to play shows?” We just got the band back together it feels like. What does the future hold? Alright, let’s just focus on our Grief Eater – let’s focus on our music and let’s not worry about the things that we can’t control. So, it’s been really cool feeling the depth in the music as well as in the lyrics.

And obviously there will be a new Lower Definition EP or album somewhere down the road.

Oh yeah, we’re getting all that stuff figured out. There’s some studio time booked right now this month, and we’re working through a bunch of stuff because we wanted to test the waters and see what happened if we just dropped a track on April Fool’s Day, which was on purpose for sure because we knew that everybody would be like, “Oh, great April Fool’s joke!” And I was like, “No, we did that.” (Laughs) So there’s definitely more stuff in the works but we’re just really having fun with it and reconnecting with our sound – and I think that our audience is really going to enjoy what we have. There’s definitely a lot of great music happening, and we can’t wait to share it with everybody coming soon. Mice & Men often for awry.” We live our band name and I think with everything, we never realized the impact that the music had until it was right in our faces being sang by thousands of people back at us one summer at Warped Tour. We were like oh my god, this is so much bigger than we expected it to be. This is something important. We’re in the middle of something. We’re on a wave with all these bands right now – and there’s a phenomenon happening right now – and we gotta kick it into high gear and take things real seriously and turn it into a freight train. No sick days – you’re not allowed to miss VIP – it had to really tighten up and I feel like in a lot of ways that’s not necessarily for everybody.

And I guess in a lot of ways, through the years being able to feel like we have a core unit now for quite a few albums – some of us have been in it longer than others. You have Alan who joined after Phil and I – Aaron came a couple years after that. So, we’ve all kind of evolved with each other and I think we now have a pretty good songwriting structure, and how we do things as Of Mice & Men. And I don’t know that could be said without having to go through all the ups and downs of member changes and album pushbacks and album shelvings – there’s so much you know. And I think that the power of music has kept us going. And it’s really our fans because as of right now, we’ve never had more listening on our streaming platforms. Our new songs are resonating with our old fans and our new fans and brand-new fans who are just finding out about them. It’s pretty incredible to have been able to be so prolific through the years and be able to get out the albums and make sure that our sound remains true to the band and what Of Mice & Men means.

PART TWO - OF MICE & MEN

And now on the Of Mice & Men. You left Lower Definition and started Of Mice & Men back in 2009. How frustrating has it been to see so many members come and go throughout the years?

The thing is with Of Mice & Men – “The best laid plans Of

This year you’re in the midst of releasing a series of EP’s on SharpTone Records. Is there any overall story or concept behind the titles Timeless and Bloom?

With these EP’s, it’s kind of like feeling Timeless. Are we really timeless? What does Timeless mean? Is timeless a film that exists on celluloid or is timeless the idea of a film that exists on celluloid and the story of that film? It’s about what makes something timeless and it’s about keeping memories alive. And Bloom does segue way into that in a way, because Bloom is about our impermanence on this Earth – and things and the people that we love the most are those that can no longer be here with us.

In a lot of ways, all of the songs that we’ve been releasing are dealing in a similar vein of that – because there’s been a lot of experience of that in our lives recently. Being off the road and what does timeless mean? Are you really a timeless act? What about being Obsolete? These kinds of things we’re feeling, we’re kind of expressing in these songs. Kind of like facing reality and being like, “This is what it is. Love is watching the pedals fall.” That’s the final lyric off of Bloom. I think the main lyric in there is “We were born to bloom, destined to deteriorate, no beauty in plastic flowers, no honey made from fake bouquets.” And it’s like nothing that’s important is made from something that’s fake. It’s gotta be real, and if it’s real, then as good as it feels there’s also going to be the bad that comes with it. And us being able to come to terms with that is what makes us human. .

Do you think Of Mice & Men and Lower Definition would ever want to tour or do some shows together? Or has that already somehow happened?

That has not happened, but I don’t think it’s out of the question. That would be sick! And then we get Aaron’s other band Jamie’s Elsewhere and we’ll make it The Hometown Homey Shows. I don’t know -shows in my mind – I know that they’re gonna happen soon. I think in due time I would not put it off the table. I think that would be sick and I’d have a blast. I know the other guys in the band are fans too and that’s a cool thing to have – to know that there’s mutual appreciation with the music and at the same time all the dudes are supportive of both music projects. It’s a cool time to be creative. I think it was scary first when everyone was told to get grounded and stay inside, but it’s been an incredibly creative time. Arguably the most creative time in my life – and at the same time I feel like I haven’t done a damn thing in a year and a half. But that is what it is. so many amazing artists right now. Spending time creatively and then being able to put it out into the world is such a fulfilling feeling – and I think that so many bands have taken the time to write amazing music because we’re all going to interpret what happened in our lives differently – but we all kind of have this commonality of “we gotta dig into music and release music.” What I hope for the music scene and for us and for the bands and the musicians and the audience alike is to just appreciate all this art. Get out there and buy the vinyl – buy the shirt if you can. I know at the same time it’s not all about the “buy, buy, buy,” but just listening and streaming and supporting the bands. Leaving comments on their profile and telling friends about them – and just kind of being part of the community – I think we know as a music community that we need that more than ever – and we thrive on that.

And we haven’t had shows, so we need to all kind of band together as things are opening back up – take care of each other – hope for good health and hope for happiness. And really – PEDAL TO THE METAL – the heavier the music comes out, the better. The more music that comes out, the better. I’m here for it – I love listening to new bands. I love seeing bands succeed. Metal is in the top charts these days. Like what year is this? It’s crazy! It really is unprecedented. We can all agree that something culturally hugely has happened around the world – and as creative individuals, we’re all going to have our own take on it. So just be on the lookout for more new music from Of Mice & Men and Lower Definition and probably all of your favorite bands – and go spread love and be a part of the community – support one another and take care of one another.

What do you hope the rest of 2021 brings for you, for your bands, and for the worldwide music community in general?

I know it’s going to bring so much more new music – and that’s an exciting thing too – to be releasing music alongside

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