Apostasy is a product of complete, creative isolation. In its most raw form, this pure, musical bliss is a secession from the modern world. Meaning to ‘abandon a particular belief’, Apostasy is the full-length, sophomore release of Baltimore saviors, Megosh. These humble, inspired artists have always dug deep and continually challenged themselves. Our admiration for them has only grown after having the chance to chat with them about their forthcoming album coming out on December 16th.
What was the creative process of putting Apostasy together?
We wanted to write something that was amazing, knowing that whatever we had written needed to be that, and a little different. Thinking about how we could rid ourselves of all distractions, we reached out to a friend of ours that was at college but had a cabin in North Carolina. It was actually on a Cherokee Reservation, we ended up going there, out in the mountains, all alone, just the band. We wrote about 7 or 8 songs there in just 2 weeks. There, we bonded really well, woke up every morning, had rooms set up for recording everything, and it moved along very quickly.
How did you reach the point of no-return, in your pursuit of music?
Derv: I started out playing in crappy cover bands, just screwing around on guitar for a while. Took a little time off, and right after I picked it up again, one of my old bands parted ways, and I realized that I wanted something more.
Finch: I was 15 yrs old at my first show, playing with my brother and a bunch of other older guys. I fell in love with playing. I knew it was what I wanted to do, and I gave it all I got. Every time I had an ‘actual’ job, I just blew all that money on musical equipment anyway…
With Apostasy, is there an ideal state of mind for a listener to best connect with it?
Apostasy means the abandonment of beliefs—political, religious, etc. When making it, we wanted to isolate ourselves from the world to see what would come out of us, artistically. Having deserted all we knew—no cell phone service or internet—it was a pretty extreme experience. A complete polar opposite of our lifestyle. Even if this album, 15 yrs later in our catalog, isn’t our best . . . no matter what, it will always hold a special place with us, because we did something with it that not a lot of bands have done.
What’s it like, being a musical nomad?
Derv: Often, when you tell someone you’re in a band and tour, their gut reaction is to say ‘wow that’s really cool!’ But, you aren’t staying in hotels every night; you aren’t always a band that can afford that. We’re sleeping in a van every night, on tour for 5 weeks, with 5 or 6 other people. On our last tour, we all got into baseball, got mitts, were just throwing around a ball. You just try to keep sane and find things to do.
Finch: There was this bass player on a band we were on tour with, it was his first tour, and he had this perfect misconception of what touring would be. I was like, “hey, what’s wrong dude?” He says “man, I just thought tour would be so different.” “How so?” “Well, I thought it’d be like, raining cocaine and fuckin’ bitches, but it’s just sweaty guys and hot farts.”
Anything else you’d like to let our readers know?
If you’re a fan of Megosh, and really like a band, the first week of pre-sales really open up a lot of doors for us. We’re really communicative as a band, too, so if you like us, totally reach out.
Apostasy is out on December 16th, and you can pre-order it here. They also give out candy on Facebook, so I’ve heard.
