All things must come to an end, and for the Athens pop-rock band Mind Fish, that end came a week ago in Toledo for the band’s first and only show to promote its new album Morristown.
Most groups follow up a new record with a tour to promote the new music and sell merchandise. But Dean Tartaglia, front man for Mind Fish, said the project was about ending the band on a high note.
“I was the last guy to move out of Athens and against all odds we were going to try and make (the band) work, and we kind of did because we put out one more album,” Tartaglia said. “This new album, Morristown, is by far my favorite because I got to spend the most time on it and tweak these songs I had been working on for three years.”
Tartaglia said the evolution of the band has come full circle, as Mind Fish started as a pop band that played rock songs and turned into a rock band that played pop songs.
Tartaglia wrote most of the songs on the album but has always had help from friend and musical partner Trent Rissover, who said he’s happy the band can end on a good note.
“I feel pretty good about it because we’re all drifting in our own directions and this album, I think, is really good,” Rissover said. “This was honestly the best possible way to end … it was kind of nostalgic.”
Rissover wrote the song “Run For Cover” on the album and said he came up with the guitar pattern when he was a toddler running around the house with a small microphone singing a random tune. He plans to keep writing and is in the midst of forming a new band in Cincinnati.
Tartaglia has been hard at work for the past year touring and recording with his much more gritty, rock-oriented band Silent Lions.
With just a heavily distorted bass, some synthesizer and drums, Silent Lions has been touring the U.S. alongside The Yugos since April and has just returned from the studio in hopes of releasing a currently unnamed album early next year.
“When we started as a two-piece, I had to relearn how to write songs, Tartaglia said. “I wanted (the album) to be more chill than how it turned out … now it feels like a super heavy rock album and it’s just going to get heavier and heavier over time.”
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