Interview: Getting to Know Mikey Ball & The Company
Releasing on Thursday the 24th of September, ‘Keep The Fire Burning’ is the new album from Mikey Ball & the Company. The single and video ‘No Time To Lose’ is out now. In this interview, we get to know them a little better.
1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.
Mikey Ball: Well this band’s iterations have evolved a lot over the years, from what started as initially adding more musicians to a very acoustic based band, it quickly grew into a rock band, but with each new iteration, everyone brings some of themselves into the mix and I get the pleasure of learning an awful lot along the way.
2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?
Mikey Ball: This one always seems hard to summarise, on the surface it’s very classic rock, there’s some blues in there, but then with full credit to the guys, there’s a lot of their own influences that we stir into the mix. So I tend to go with ‘Modern Classic Rock’. I know it’s a little hypocritical but it’s the best way I can describe it.
3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?
Mikey Ball: We have just released our latest single ‘No Time To Lose’, not only is this the first new music we’ve released in four years, but it’s also the first single from our new album ‘Keep The Fire Burning’ which will be out on 24th September. So as you can imagine it’s been a bit of manic time planning and working towards what we hope will be a well received release.
4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?
Mikey Ball: Honestly I’m really proud of what we have created with this new music, the guys have really done a fantastic job and it’s been quite the honour to get to add my part to it. So I’m most excited about finally getting the chance to share these songs with everyone.
Gerard Guminski: I am super happy to have been part of the process, to reminisce on the experience to learn the songs, add my own personality to it and, of course, the studio process. The exciting bit now is to share these experiences in the form of the music itself with everyone who comes to see us live, buys the CDs or just streams it. Music is probably the greatest platform to bring people together, and I know I will be making a lot of new acquaintances in places we may have never played before over the next few months while we’re touring with the new album.
Sam Hurst: The fact that the release day is growing closer and closer! Making this album has been a long process, some of these songs were being written as long ago as 2023, so finally being able to share what we’ve been working on after all this time is incredibly exciting.
5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.
Mikey Ball: Work on this album started quite a while ago. Not long after the release of the last album ‘Through The Night’, I had a few new song ideas, slowly over time I had a few more, but really the work began once we started working on these together. Piecing together a lot of the dynamic changes, finding where the backing vocals come in etc. Some we created some demo’s for, some started life as voicenotes on my phone, and lyric ideas on the notes app between shopping lists! It all takes time, because you want to give it the time to get it right. Then I think what also helped, is we then booked into the studio, once that date is set, there’s an end point, that’s a valuable extra motivator. I think sometimes, I am certainly guilty of this, but if you don’t set an end, you can keep obsessing and changing things. Having an end point certainly helps me give my best to developing the songs. And for meaning, as I said previously, I’m incredibly proud of these songs, and everyone’s contribution, it’s been a challenging road and that just makes this mean even more to me.
Gerard Guminski: I am helping my wife run a successful business that often requires working overtime. Looking in from the outside, you would think I have enough on my plate with that and a very busy social life. But being a musician, playing music – whether that’s with headphones in a broom cupboard or in front of an audience – is passion. It doesn’t sap energy out of you, it generates. For a normal person it would be a massive chore to prepare for an album, practice several times a week for hours at a time, but when you’re a musician, it’s a gateway to a great place. Therefore, it’s difficult to quantify the “work” gone in.
Sam Hurst: It honestly varies song to song. The way I like to describe our songwriting process is that Mikey will come up with the skeleton of the song, having a general idea of the structure, lyrics and a guitar line, and then in the practice room we all come together to put the meat on the bones and really flesh the song out into what the listener ends up hearing. No Time To Lose is an example of a track we’ve been iterating on for a while, and in contrast there’s a couple of tracks on this album that we only started roughly 7 or 8 months before recording and seemed to fall into place with very little iteration required. We like going into the studio knowing exactly what we’re doing to really make the most of our time there, so we spent the months prior to recording drilling these new songs around our show prep, and I truly believe that the work we put in and the time we dedicated to these tracks is audible in the final recordings.
6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?
Mikey Ball: Well for music in general, it’s been a great way of understanding, both experiences and emotions. There’s something about when a song connects with exactly where you are, or what you’re dealing with, that’s completely unique to the listener. And I’m not sure there’s another experience like this. Then when it comes to creating, it’s an extension of that attempting to make sense of life and the challenges we all face, but then if you’re lucky, there are incredible moments of connection between the music you make and someone listening.
Sam Hurst: The beauty of music, from both a creator and listener’s standpoint, is that it can pretty much be whatever you need it to be. Sometimes it can be a reprieve, a way of leaving any troubles at the door and floating off on a melody for a while, and sometimes it can resonate so strongly with someone’s personal experience that it makes them feel seen and understood in a way that little else can. I know throughout the course of making this record, both have been true for me at different times, and getting to share that experience with others is where the real magic of music is.
7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?
Mikey Ball: Lineup changes have been a big challenge, when you develop together for x amount of time, and then someone moves on, it can be hard not to see this as a derailing setback. But I don’t want to spin too negatively, I am always grateful to everyone who joins the band and gives their time and energy to the band. But it is a challenge to adjust and move on, but sometimes you get lucky and the next person to join brings a fresh energy that revamps everything seamlessly. As for overcoming, especially when it can feel harder and harder to keep going, the best thing I did was to go back to therapy. This wasn’t directly music related, but I had let some parts of my life fall out of balance. Therapy helped me worth through that, which in turn helped me to keep working.
Sam Hurst: Being a drummer I am always trying to answer the question of how to practice without disturbing the people that live with and around me. This isn’t something I’ve overcome completely yet, although strides have been made in the right direction, and I’m eternally thankful for the patience of my neighbours and relatives.
8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?
Mikey Ball: Well I haven’t started the tiktok dance career…. Yet! It’s a tough part of it all, but it is a huge part of it. I think it’s one of those things, if you dwell on it too much it’ll drive you mad, but if you don’t give it any energy, you’ll miss out on great opportunities and a chance to connect with your audience. The best way I can approach it, is to try and be honest, open and optimistic in anything we put out on social media. As for measuring success, you can argue that this has always been a numbers game. If it’s not likes and follows, it’s ticket and unit sales. But I think a very good and healthy habit to develop is to be able to set your own metrics for success, your own goals and your own sense of achievement when you get there.
9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?
Mikey Ball: Remembering that even though it’s a necessary part, it’s also a great opportunity to connect with the people that are supporting you.
10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?
Mikey Ball: Stream the music, like the social media accounts and share with as many people as you possibly can. Even if it’s to a handful of people, if they buy into what we do, that’s another step forward in building our audience.
Sam Hurst: Presaves are a big help too, they let the streaming services know there’s something to pay attention to here.
11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?
Mikey Ball: I try to keep it simple, I read, exercise and I really enjoy cooking. But the reading also goes hand in hand with drinking a ludicrous amount of coffee!
Sam Hurst: My friends and I have a number of D&D games at various points of the week, I have a small but rapidly growing comic books collection, and a backlog of video games I’m working my way through gradually.
12. Where can people find you?
You can find us on all social media platforms by searching Mikey Ball & The Company.
We also have music on all Streaming services but if you fancy ordering some merch you can find us on Big Cartel too!
