Review Fix Exclusive: Mindwars’ Mike Alvord Talks Goals, Album and More

Review Fix chats with Mindwars’ Mike Alvord who discusses the band’s origin, creative process and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How did you guys get together?

Mike Alvord: Me and Roby initially met in 1989 in Milan, Italy when Mike’s old band Holy Terror was touring Europe with Exodus and Nuclear Assault.  They had a connection because Roby is from the same southern part of Italy as my grandparents.  They reconnected through FaceBook about 25 years later.  We started discussing music and what they missed in the speed/thrash metal genre.  We decided to start sharing material and soon found Danny “Z” Pizzi to play bass guitar on what became Mindwars. 

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Alvord: A lot of the material on our first release The Enemy Within were songs I put together back in 1989 while he was still in Holy Terror.  I shared this music with Roby and he put drums to the riffs and they developed, structured, and arranged songs from much of this material.  We had a similar approach with our second release Sworn to Secrecy, but we didn’t have as many complete songs when we started the writing process.  Once we have the main components of a song and are happy with the structure, rough guitars are recorded and Roby and Danny then lay down the drum and bass tracks.  Once we are happy with the sound of the rhythm section, I re-record the final rhythm guitar tracks, solos, and then lay down the vocals.  I try to listen to different styles of music every day and I am constantly humming riff ideas into my phone recorder.

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Alvord: There are clear negatives.  The main one being we are not in the same City working together. I live in Los Angeles and Roby and Danny live in Turin, Italy.  Not being in the same City rehearsing and writing material has clear drawbacks.  However, with the power of the internet and things like FaceTime and Skype, it makes sharing and collaborating ideas a lot easier.  The thing that makes this special is the flexibility.  Me and Danny both work full-time jobs outside of music and not having set rehearsal times allows them to create on their own time and share their musical thoughts anytime.  There are times when I will record something late at night LA time and email them to Roby.  Roby will lay down some drum track ideas while I am asleep and I will wake up to an email inbox with music.  It’s actually pretty cool 

Review Fix: How would you describe your style?

Alvord: Truly, we are products of the 80s thrash/speed metal and NWOBHM era.  We also have a lot of similar classical rock influences.  While I don’t think we sound completely “old school,” that is the general description we get on our reviews.  I do think we have an element of something different in our songs.  We have some slower heavier segments and some full on speed parts.  However, we try and work them together to create a newer genuine feel.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?

Alvord: We hope that STS just reaches more and more people.  We don’t have any real goals other than creating music we love, music we think might be missing a little bit in today’s sound, and hopefully pick up a few fans along the way that enjoy our music. 

Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?

Alvord: This is a tough one.  I actually like quite a few.  The title track Sworn to Secrecy really captures the essence of the theme behind the album cover.  Our world has always had secret societies made up of the wealthy.  This song tries to shed some light on this topic.  The opening audio from John F. Kennedy is thought by some the speech that got him assassination.  Scalp Bounty is another favorite of mine and is a song about the American Indians. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Alvord: We hope to play 6 – 10 shows this fall in Europe and have our third release out by the summer of 2017. 

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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