Of Mice & Men Singer Addresses Shoegazy Step on ‘Wake Up’

Of Mice & Men may be nine records into their career, but there are still new avenues to explore and singer Aaron Pauley was beaming about the band’s shoegazy track “Wake Up” during their recent appearance on Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show.

Though the band has dabbled with some shoegaze influences in the past, it’s never been as up front as on “Wake Up.” “It’s sort of an homage to like ’90s alternative and shoegazy,” says Pauley, who credits drummer Tino Arteaga with creating the part that launched the song.

“It just hit me right in the nostalgia feels. It reminded me of everything that I loved about metal and hard rock and alternative and everything about that feeling. That was one where I was pretty adamant about using it and I think it came out awesome, so it’s cool that the fans are digging it too.”

Within the chat, Pauley also spoke with Jackie about the band taking a hands on approach to their Another Miracle album, which he also mixed and mastered. The frontman also spoke of the focus they put into perfecting their melodicism on this latest album and the big wish that he would like to manifest for their latest musical outing.

Aaron and Jackie also speak about the band’s new fan community, MiceSpace and the singer speaks about his connection to the music that came before he joined the band and the evolution they’ve made in the years since.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and today, we welcome to the show frontman and essential jack of all trades for Of Mice & Men, Aaron Pauley. The band, of course, have their ninth studio album, Another Miracle, which is out now. The band wrote, engineered and self-produced the album, while you personally also handled mixing and mastering. Artists like to have some control in how things turn out, but what was your experience being involved in every facet from start to finish on this record?

For us, it started a few records ago during COVID. We try and just push things as far as we can ourselves and it just turned out that we could kinda get it almost to the full finish just by working on it internally and sending files back and forth and then me mixing and mastering it.

It’s something where, for us, we enjoy it. It is essentially another job that somebody has to do, but I really enjoy it, so it’s fun.

Of Mice & Men, “Another Miracle”

Aaron, I understand some of this may be press release speak, but one thing that caught my eye was the mention that the Another Miracle album raised the bar on the melodic side, and that feels like a lead-in to a particular approach on this record. Can you speak to how you started to see things develop in the creation of this record that maybe differed from your past experiences with the band?

That’s a really, really good question. That is a ten out of ten question. Speaking from a vocal standpoint, I think I really wanted to sort of develop the songs to the utmost melodic dynamics.

This sounds like word salad vomit and I’m trying to not make it sound like that. For us, melodicism is like a really, really important part of songwriting. It’s something that I feel like is super important to the mechanism of a song that carries the emotion of a song and so for us, I think focusing on that from an instrumental point of view first and then a vocal point of view second, I think that was sort of what we may feel like is a level up, but it is sort of PR talk.

One song we definitely have to talk about that caught my ear on this new album is “Wake Up.” I can’t recall Of Mice & Men taking a shoegazy turn, but this sounds great. How did “Wake Up” come about and was there any conversation about how this song fits under the Of Mice & Men umbrella?

I think we’ve sort of dabbled in it in some songs in the past, but nothing to the extent where it’s kind of an, homage, you know? I’ve always said that it’s sort of an homage to like ’90s alternative and shoegazy and I think everything that you just said is accurate.

It started off as a demo that our drummer, Tino [Arteaga], had actually like put together himself and then put in the Dropbox. One thing that we do when we’re starting records is we’ll all throw things that we’ve been working on independently into a Dropbox where we can all listen on a Zoom call with each other and then everything that sort of excites everybody collectively ends up in another folder so it’s sort of just like mining for gold we’re just sifting on, so that’s the first round of sifting.

He felt initially like maybe this wasn’t going to fit with Of Mice and that maybe it’s just a really cool-sounding instrumental, but I was like pretty adamant about wanting to use it and figure it out, so I had him send me the stems for it and we built it from [there].

I think what he sent over initially was like a minute and a half or two minutes, just sort of like verse and chorus loop, but it just hit me right in the nostalgia feels. It reminded me of everything that I loved about metal and hard rock and alternative and everything about that feeling. That was one where I was pretty adamant about using it and I think it came out awesome, so it’s cool that the fans are digging it too.

Of Mice & Men, “Wake Up”

Aaron, Of Mice & Men has always had a solid following, but I, I have to credit you guys on coming up with the ultimate fan club name. Tell us about MiceSpace and what fans of the band can look for in terms of digging deeper into the group’s music and making that personal connection.

I swear, I was sitting on that pun for years. I was like, “If ever there was a time where we could use this and utilize it, MiceSpace?” And then finally it came up where we were working with the company Chorus to develop MiceSpace because we’ve always had sort of a tight-knit community of people online, whether it was on Twitter or X or Instagram or Facebook and Twitch.

READ MORE: Of Mice & Men’s Aaron Pauley Names His Dream Collaborations

During COVID we made the album Echo over Twitch, so we’ve always had some sort of a tight-knit community online that sort of bounced from place to place and we kinda wanted a place to sort of land, where we could upload old demos, like a bunch of cataloged archive footage and there’s a forum, there’s a live chat. There’s live streaming and things like that. We do giveaways monthly.

It’s just a cool place. It’s a cool place to hang out and we’re developing things slowly on the back end with Chorus and it’s getting better and better, so it’s been a cool experience.

Aaron, I’m sure you were a fan before you joined, but this will now be the seventh album for you in the group. How do you feel about the evolution of the band since you joined and have you made your own personal connection with the material that came from the group before you came into the band?

Oh, definitely, definitely. This band is very fan-forward. And for us, we’re always thinking about them and what’s important. I think that’s just important in live music in general, just in music in general, is people ascribe meaning to things. They decide what they like and what they wanna hear.

And so definitely, a lot of the back catalog and songs that we play live, even the ones that I didn’t write, there’s definitely a connection to and then that sort of informs a lot of the material then going forward. It is pretty crazy to kind of go back and listen through the albums, I think.

We’re always just listening to different things. I think the four of us, and, and being inspired by different things, and then sort of seeing how that just sort of tinges the flavor of things.It’s kind of interesting and cool.

Once again, Aaron Pauley from Of Mice & Men on the show. Using the Another Miracle title as a jumping off point, I’ll ask what unexpected thing would you wish either for yourself or your bandmates that you would love to see happen? It’s time to manifest it and put it out into the world. What would be your one wish?

I think if “Wake Up” could be in the top five at radio, that would be pretty amazing. it could be at No. 1, even more amazing. But I think just shooting for top five. It’s awesome that it’s been having the reception that it’s had, because it’s a song that we felt was really special and we’re a band that really pours our heart and soul into things. It can be kinda scary to be on your ninth record and to do something that’s a little bit maybe left of center like that.

Well, here’s to putting it out there into the universe.

Thanks to Of Mice & Men’s Aaron Pauley for the interview. Pick up Another Miracle through the group’s website. You can also stay up to date with the band through their Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube platforms. You can also join their MiceSpace fan club as well. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.