S: Thanks Thanos. We feel like being in good shape ourselves, glad someone noticed it. The latest news as of now is that The Mushroom River Band has a new drummer and will go out on a European tour starting in London on April 24th. The Awesome Machine, Pawnshop and Hoek will be joining us through England, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Sooner or later I hope we'll get the chance to play in Greece as well but this time I'm afraid it won't happen, sorry...

2.Do you prefer people to consider TMRB as another “stoner” group? What’s your opinion about that? Personally I hate the word “stoner”!

S: I always thought of us as a reggae band...

3.Can you tell me about the musical background of each of the members of MRB?

S: Spice's past in Spiritual Beggars is probably the only thing worth mentioning. The rest of us have been playing in different bands that have recorded demos as the biggest achievement... nothing noteworthy really.

4.Are you enough satisfied with the final production of the album? Would you change anything on it if it were possible?

S: We worked up until the very end to achieve the ideal tracklist, make a proper mastering, get the right album cover and so on, I think we did a decent job. The whole thing was actually delayed and finished after deadline but it turned out well in the end. There's one disappointment as far as I'm concerned. Bass and drums worked well together on this album, more like a real rhythm section should sound but the bass guitar got lost in the final mix, that's the only big thing I'd like to change. You be the judge of the production of the album, I think it definitely has the best sound of all our recordings so far.

5.Can you tell (this a very cliché question) why Spice left Spiritual Beggars? He became after that a full-time member of the band?

S: He quit for personal reasons, not for musical ones. Since late 1997 he's been 100% part of The Mushroom River Band, but of course since Beggars were bigger and had more to do than TMRB he had to focus more on them back then. Nowadays he's even with us at rehearsals...

6.I believe that you have a very strange name for a band. Can you tell me why you call the band TMRB? Are there any connections with the “magic mushrooms”(from Holland!)? (Just kidding)

S: Many years ago we were all high and swimming in a river full of mushroom eating virgins. All of a sudden the band name appeared in the sky in pink neon, that's how it came up... or maybe it just came up when we were sitting in a coffe shop trying to break each other with the most stupid band names we could think of. Some people really like the name, some people hate it. Maybe it would've been a lot cooler if we called ourselves something more metal sounding. Hammering Steel maybe...? Maybe not...

7.Tell me a few things about the lyrics of the album. And please explain to me what “Simsalabim” means. Why did you give such a name for the title of the album?

S: Spice wrote a song called Simsalabim which we thought was so good that it would be great as the title track. Simsalabim means the same thing as "abracadabra". You need to see both front and back of the album cover to get the whole concept behind the name and cover. Again something that some people like and that some think is really phoney, which is fine, but don't forget to listen to the music too. The lyrics deal mostly with how Spice and guitarist Anders see different things in life, they write most of the words. If you asked them this question they'd probably tell you to interpret the lyrics yourself.

8.Now lets go to the weird questions… Do you believe that the phrase “Sex, Drugs & R’n’Roll” have influenced in nowadays?

S: If you're into sex, drugs and rock'n'roll I guess it's influencing you... eh...?

9.If you wanted to make someone totally freak out and stop dealing with rock and metal music no more, which 3 albums would you choose to give him and why?

S: Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake, neglected in his own time, a cult figure nowadays. Some good guitar playing in another sense than the usual metalhead is used to. a) Music Music by Lloyd Price, an excellent funky soul album from the 1970's. b)Uprising by Bob Marley ,because he had cool dreads. I don't really think anyone will freak out and quit metal after listening to these albums but they are damn good anyway. If you're open-minded about music I recommend them.

10.Ok, thx for your time. The last words of this interview belong to you.

S: Thanks for supporting The Mushroom River Band by doing this interview and thanks to those who cared to read it.   Cheers!

by Thanos (Mc)