SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Minos the Saint: The Lockdown Interview

Minos the Saint are a staple in the southern music scene, as inevitable as king cake at Mardi Gras and crawfish boils in summer. Their eerie, effervescent take on folk and zydeco classics has singled them out as unique amongst local Louisianan festival-circuit bands.

Founded by Ben Herrington in 2013, Minos the Saint is composed of five musicians: Peter Simon (vocals and guitar) Ben Herrington (accordion, keyboards, and trombone) Micah Blouin (percussion and vocals) Joel Willson (violin and mandolin) and Arisia Gilmore (French horn.)

Totally Wired recently caught up with Ben and Peter to find out what Minos the Saint have been up to during the turmoil of the previous year, when we can expect new music, and what their plans for the future are.

Totally Wired: “Awake and Dream” was such an astonishingly beautiful debut. Any plans for a second album in the works? And as the creators of the album, how would you describe “Awake and Dream”?

Peter: “Awake and Dream” is our first work, and really captures a very special time where our joined collaboration was realized. The album is intended to portray our live performances which are often described as dynamic and whimsical. We are finishing up our second album, tentatively titled “Atchafalaya Child” set to be released this summer.

Totally Wired: Like your website bio says, Minos the Saint is definitely not a typical LA folk band. Y’all have such a unique, layered sound, it’s entrancing. How did your different musical backgrounds knit this sound together?

Peter: We started as a duet, then grew to six! This slow burn, “bit by bit” approach helped us realize the creative mind and input of each member.

Ben: Yes, also I think a key is that all the musicians in the band have a wide variety of musical interests. As varied as aspects of our sound can be, I think we really lean heavily on elements which are comfort zones for each of our members. While we’re always trying to push the envelope as a whole, much of what we do is based on expressive techniques that we’ve each been working our whole musical lives to refine. Bringing those individual life-long pursuits together to form a whole is what continues to make it enjoyable and exciting for us.

Totally Wired: The pandemic has obviously been an extremely trying time for anyone with a job in the arts. How have you guys been keeping it together?

Peter: We’ve managed to keep moving forward simply because we have an album to make. So, in a way, the pandemic offered us a time to stop and capture the material we’ve been working through.

Ben: Also, I think the last year has really brought us on this interesting journey of questioning and learning about what it means to express ourselves as a band. For a while, it seemed like there was this momentum forcing us to figure out how to express ourselves remotely. Having gone down that road for a time, I think now we’re maybe at a place where we can see the beauty of small-scale human interaction with new eyes. Everything old is new again.

Totally Wired: This is a bit unorthodox, it’s a reverse interview question! What question have you been dying to be asked—and never have been—by a music journalist? And what’s the answer you’d give?

Ben: The question: If your band were a Labyrinth, who would be the Minotaur? The answer: either me or Joel, but for different reasons: Joel because he’s our chaos agent and myself because I am the most consistent in my demands over a long period of time.

You can find Minos the Saint on Instagram @minosthesaint, on Bandcamp, and on Spotify.

Photo Credit: Aaron Hogan of Eye Wander Photography

Recommended for you:

Why We Love: Tee Vee Repairmann

Jack Downey July 12, 2023

Australia. The backbone of several memes regarding its apparently nightmarish wildlife and the home of the late legend Steve Irwin, it has bred quite a lot of great bands throughout the decades. AC/DC, INXS, Men at Work, and Midnight Oil come to mind. Most recently, a trio called The Chats have been dominating the international punk scene with their humorous, punchy songs. However, The Chats are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what’s going down in the land down under. In recent years, a fairly spectacular underground music scene has developed in Australia. Featuring bands such as Gee Tee, R.M.F.C., and Tee Vee Repairmann, the style has been called “Egg Punk” by some, and it typically features fast, distorted barre chords punctuated by loud guitar lines or mellow synths, impenetrable bass, and drums that are so compressed they almost sound mechanized. The vocals are often filtered

Why We Love: Alex Chilton

Jack Downey December 21, 2022

Alex Chilton has become something of a hero to multiple generations of alternative rockers, power pop enthusiasts, and music lovers in general. First rising to fame in the late ’60s with the band The Box Tops, Chilton was just a teenager when the band’s debut single, “The Letter,” became a number one hit. For three more years, the group continued to release hits, though after multiple lineup changes, the group split. Having been the frontman of a successful band for multiple years, Chilton could have done whatever he wanted. He contemplated going to college, he worked on multiple solo songs, and he was even considered for the position of singer in Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Instead, he decided to do none of these things and went on to form a band called Big Star. There could easily be an entirely separate article about how great Big Star is, and maybe

Jessica Winter: “I Want to Find Something Real”

Ingrid Jensen November 15, 2022

With a soaring magic carpet ride of a voice and a talent for writing pop hooks that rivals anybody on the charts today, Jessica Winter’s sound can’t be tucked neatly into any identifying genre but exists in a liminal space between electro-pop and indie goth, laced with jagged, searing punk rock rawness.

Why We Love: The Cleaners from Venus (aka Martin Newell)

Jack Downey August 23, 2022

In 1980, Newell formed The Cleaners from Venus with Lawrence “Lol” Elliot, though since then, he has remained the only consistent member. Under this moniker, Newell has released a multitude of albums, and this isn’t even taking into consideration his wealth of material under his own name. Starting with Blow Away Your Troubles, Newell showed the world what to expect from The Cleaners from Venus: wonderful, jangly music that was staunchly lo-fi.

An Analysis of The Beach Boys: 1967-74

Jack Downey July 19, 2022

From 1967 to 1974, The Beach Boys proved themselves to be remarkable composers, lyricists, and musicians, even with the dwindling participation of Brian, though he still contributed songs and ideas from time to time. Starting with Wild Honey and ending with Holland, there were ideas and gems abound on each tracklist.

Adwaith – Bato Mato: The Welsh Trio to Rule The World

James George Potter July 4, 2022

The genre-defying Welsh language trio Adwaith hit their home music scene hard in 2015 and have since brought their spellbinding sound and punching attitude to stages at Glastonbury, Green Man and many others across the UK. The larger British music scene has quickly embraced the band’s extraordinary energy and our prayers have just been answered with Adwaiths new album Bato Mato. Fresh back from their weekend at Glasto, we spoke to Gwen, Hollie and Heledd about the album’s reinvigorated sound and their hopes for carrying Welsh language music to a mass of new listeners from across the world.

How To Let Go – Sigrid

Liam Thomas Lynch May 19, 2022

Wow, I cannot believe Sigrid invented music. That’s how I felt after hearing the latest LP from singer/songwriter/superstar Sigrid. First of all, I’d like to point out that 2022 has gotten off to a fantastic start for the release of new music. Hell, this month alone has already made me nervous about just how this year’s wrap-up of our favourite albums will go down. But between you and I, I think I’ve found my winner. Upon the release of “Mirror” last year, I was ecstatic about the potential of Sigrid’s next musical outing. Sucker Punch was already one of my favourite albums of 2019, but my goodness, the soundscape of Sigrid in 2021 blew me away. From “Mirror” to “Burning Bridges,” the heavy emphasis on this broader, heavier, and dirtier sound gave me goosebumps. Opening track “It Gets Dark” majestically defines what you’re in for this time around. With the

WE – Arcade Fire

Liam Thomas Lynch May 19, 2022

Has it really been five years since Everything Now, perhaps one of Arcade Fire’s most polarising albums? And my my, what a road we’ve been on since then. So, it begs the question: Arcade Fire, where are we at? After the release of “The Lightning” I and II, we see that Win Butler and friends have taken a more traditional approach to their songwriting; not too dissimilar to sounds you’d find off any of their albums from Funeral to the Suburbs, but obviously with a much tighter approach to production. To me, WE sounds like the bridge between The Suburbs and Reflektor, and I’m all for it. The album kicks off with “Age Of Anxiety I” and “II (Rabbit Hole),” and it’s a really strong start: the percussive breaths on “Anxiety I” make for a really effective way to almost unnerve you, and the beautiful piano hook that gets shaken

Why We Love: Glasvegas

Jack Downey March 3, 2022

I’ll never forget when I began listening to Scottish band Glasvegas. In seventh grade, I started branching out from the music I heard in the car or on the radio and almost accidentally started listening to them. My dad had received their 2008 self-titled debut album from my uncle, and because of that I began listening to it. I immediately fell in love with the atmospheric, dense sonic world that Glasvegas created on the album. Songs such as “Geraldine,” “Go Square Go,” “Daddy’s Gone,” and “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” tackled emotional themes while enveloping the listener in swirling guitars, rumbling bass, and simplistic yet effective drums. Although singer James Allen’s vocals were obscured by such a thick Scottish accent that I often had to look up the lyrics to understand what was being said, I still adored the album and still do to this day.

An interview with Jimkata

Cat Caie February 12, 2022

Feel-good upbeat electro-rock flows through Jimkata’s Bonfires, released in July of 2021. With influences spanning from 80s new wave and 90/00’s hip hop and electronic, the band create a well-developed sophisticated palate to the ears. Playfully “dancy, melodic and energetic”, the music reflects the nature of the band, as I found out when interviewing them. Like many other bands, Jimkata started out by covering songs by punk and grunge bands such as Nirvana, NOFX, Rage Against the Machine and Primus. Yet, besides this, they were also influenced by an array of different genres which was a perk of having grown up in the 90’s/00’s, “a time where genres were opening up and cross-pollinating. You could be a fan of vastly different artists at the same time. And bands were sort of creating their own unique, hard to classify sonic worlds – like Beck, Gorillaz, Muse and Radiohead. Music production technology

Minos the Saint: The Lockdown Interview

Recommended for you:

GET THE MAG