AMH’ Glenn Johnston was lucky enough to catch up with Nathan Leone at Soundwave Melbourne. Read all about their journey, new album and an exciting project they have coming up below.

So Mateo recently left the band, very suddenly, have you made an official statement yet as to why this occurred?

No we haven’t, there’s two reasons for that. One, he just quit too early. He’s from Bogotá, Columbia and the touring just got way too grueling for him. We are still writing as Madina Lake, all the music in the future will be done as the four of us. Touring wise we are using our tour manager replacing Mateo at front of house.

So Mateo is still a permanent member of Madina Lake, but basically he is just no longer a touring member?

Exactly!

So WWIII has been released and has been very well received, personally I think it’s very similar to your first album and hits all the spots Attics To Eden didn’t.

I couldn’t agree more, we went into the second record very excited, loving where all the songs were before we hit the studio, our label at the time put us in with David Bendeth who is a wonderful producer, but it was one of these massive budgets, super shiny production, quantize drums, I think it kind of lobotomized the songs, it wasn’t the perfect match for our band. We really paid for it in that sense. So when we went in for WWIII we decided that we’d do the whole thing for ourselves, Mateo produced and engineered it, we recorded it in our rehearsal spot and we really got to bring out the personality in it like we did on our first record.

READ MORE »

“Mateo is no longer touring. As much of a target for undesirable comments forthcoming sentence may be, I’m goin for it!
Touring is very very very hard. We’ve been doing it like its going out of style for 7 years (minus 1 temporary pause for lid repair).
We remain very close, we remain writing partners, and we remain Madina.
As for him, he’s making music w his bro, and exploring other adventures , which no doubt, will be fantastic. so stay plugged into him, in a non literal sense.”

In response to the fans, they also said:
“Yes we are still writing together, just not touring together” and
“Also, thanks for all of your words. To happily support both parties is a clear indication that we have the classiest, and Most genuine friends / supporters / family, a band could dream of. Thank you for that”

“my dear friends:
I am writing to let you know that I am no longer part of madina lake. my time has come to end this cycle of my life.
Interestingly enough, if you are familiar with the theory of the 7 year cycles, i have been in madina for exactly 7 years.
Madina will go on. The four of us made some important music and I hope you continue to support them artistically and emotionally.

As far as im concerned, Im gonna keep making music forever and ever. Soon Im gonna release a record I just finished with my lil sis and bro, very electronic. This will come as no surprise  for those of you who know my taste in music. I am also gonna start producing/recording/mixing bands full time so dont hesitate to hit me up if you wanna work with me.  (mateocamargo@hotmail.com)

mucho love
-m”

It’s a small video with a shout out to a Japanese record label, but I thought I should post it anyways!

If you click the READ MORE link, you’ll see pictures from the guys in Japan taken by HYDRANT music.

READ MORE »

Here a few pictures from the guys in Japan taken by HYDRANT music.

‘

READ MORE »

“I luckily got the chance to spend 10 minutes catching up with the lovely Matthew Leone, talking about the new record, being back after his heroic incident and the ends to an era.

So, how’s tour been so far?
Oh it’s been a really, really nice to be back on tour after such a long break y’know, um. We call it Disney Land y’know when I got hurt. Which is y’know to put a positive spin on things, but ever since then we hadn’t taken a break that long in music since we started, in 2006 when we made our record it’s like we went from studio to the road, to the studio to the road then we finally had that summer off to write the 3rd record and that’s when everything happened y’know. So we hadn’t been, hadn’t taken a break in music that long and it really started to scare us because we don’t, we don’t fit in well in the real world y’know what I mean, so being on tour is fantastic I guess that’s the short answer.”

READ MORE