Converting Children To Metal With Alex And James From METAL MOUSE

For too long now, parents have had trouble convincing their
children that rock and metal are the way to go, not pop and the
likes. It is a never ending battle of guidance, but one that is
generally destined to failure from the outset. Parents the world
over have agonised on how to introduce decent music to their
children's lives, and now, thanks to a new band emerging from the
US, their prayers may have been answered.
By converting Disney classic tunes to the dark side, Metal Mouse
are using already known and loved songs for children to their
advantage by adding a touch of metal madness to songs from family
films such as The Little Mermaid, Frozen and The Lion King. It is
an ingenious idea that is sure to at least appeal to the next
generation of music lovers.
Fronted by American Idol alum James Durbin, Metal Mouse taps into
Disney nostalgia with the flair and theatrics of glam rock. What
began as a “what-if” idea has struck a chord, especially with
millennial women who grew up on Disney - and men who never gave up
on hair metal.
Durbin and band creator/manager Alex Pels sat down with HEAVY to
discuss this exciting new creation and how Metal Mouse plans to
convert as many youngsters as possible to real music.
"We're trying to make the connection between heavy and Disney,"
Pels explained. "James and I both love metal. We're both involved
with tons of other metal kinds of music, but we realised that the
Disney songs - in addition to being excellently written by great
songwriters - the themes and the chord progressions and everything
else lend themselves to a heavy architecture."
It's such a simple idea, but one which has never been tried on this
scale before.
"I've been doing a lot of heavy metal in the last five or six… even
longer than that, eight years," Durbin relayed. "I was with Quiet
Riot for a couple of years and have put out a couple of heavy metal
albums over the last few years with different projects. So, metal
has been seeping through my system. It's difficult, because
sometimes there can be such a thing as too much metal - a metal
overload - and metal isn't widely accepted by everybody, but here's
a perfect way to make it accessible to people. With songs that are
already known mixed with the classic 80s music and hair of the day,
mixed with this beautifully arranged music… it's a blessing."
In the full interview we discuss the genesis of Metal Mouse, how
easy Disney songs convert to metal, the selection process for
songs, the live show and what it looks and sounds like, future
plans for Metal Mouse and more.


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