Feature
Not Quite 20 Questions with Eric "Mean" Melin
(Photo by Miriam Doan)
Eric "Mean" Melin is a drummer in the band The Dead Girls (and was the drummer for the bands Truck Stop Love and Ultimate Fakebook), runs the movie review and interview site Scene Stealers, and, more importantly for this interview, is heading to the US Air Guitar National Finals in NYC on July 22nd! Eric took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few of Hiram's questions about rockin' an imaginary guitar, reviewing movies, and opening for KISS.
HL: Let's start with the Air Guitar Championships. How did you get involved with those?
EM: Very, very late in the game. Its been competitive in the US since 2003. I finally saw the 2006 doc Air Guitar Nation and it suddenly dawned on me that this thing that I'd been doing in my bedroom since I was 13 was now somehing that people wanted to see onstage...and they made a movie about it! A couple months later, the US Air Guitar organization (yes, there is one) came through town and after months of rehearsal, I was finally ready to air guitar my favorite Megadeth song, which came out when I was 14. Talk about timewarp--thing is, I don't have the same body I used to have when I was a kid, so I sprained my foot practicing the night before. Like any performer (with a desperate need for attention), I braved the pain and emerged victorious, getting a perfect 6.0, 6.0, 6.0 in the second round to represent KC in the Nationals in 2009. A proud moment indeed.
HL: How did you come up with your Mean Melin persona?
EM: The name is an old nickname that I earned during a jobless summer of selling plasma and drinking tequila in Manhattan, KS. Everybody else had a punny name and I wanted to do something different. Since I was doing thrash metal, I thought Mean Melin was appropriate. Also, it helps people remember how to pronounce my last name since it rhymes (muh-leen). I have no fashion sense and couldn't look cool to save my life, so I just came up with a classic black and white idea for the outfit and thought it would be funny to have my face looking tough with a very metal logo on the front. This is funny because a.) I'm not known as a very mean person and b.) What's more full-on bravado than your own face on the shirt you're wearing? The leather studded wristbands were a no-brainer and the flared white pants came from my friend JD who played Ozzy in a Sabbath tribute band.
HL: Do you practice your routine or just go for it while you're on stage?
EM: Both. The first round is one minute and it’s a song/routine of your choosing. This is where you can really get creative and raise air guitar to an art form (I’m really not kidding here). If you’re not doing things that aren’t really possible with a real guitar, then you are not really air guitaring. It’s all about taking that one minute to the highest level. Tell a story. Have a beginning, middle, and end. Be the ultimate showman. Illustrate the music visually. Be that fan, that little kid who jumped on his bed and celebrated the very thought of the absolute freedom of rock n’ roll!
The second round (if you place in the Top 5) is the improv round. They throw a song at you (edited down to the best minute of course) and you have to wing it. This is the round where you really get to show off your natural air guitar skills and it helps to have a wide-ranging knowledge of rock music. I love the second round because I’m old enough to know a lot of tunes and I can wing it pretty well. Once I got tripped up by Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” though. Weirdest one-minute edit ever. That sucked. I just blew it. I had no airness that night.
HL: Do you have a guitar idol that you've modeled your stuff after?
EM: Not one in particular, no. Although Ace Frehley is definitely my single biggest visual influence. For the most part, guitarists are boring. They just stand there and have to play the right notes, I play the notes I see in my head, which are way bigger and cooler and more fun. I always thought watching guitarists was disappointing because the changes, the dynamics, the noodling always seemed bigger than life in my head. Then you see them and they’re just standing there playing around on the fretboard. When I air guitar, it’s my ultimate expression of my pure unadulterated (and fiercely un-adult) love of rock.
HL: Let's talk about Scene Stealers for a second. How did you get into reviewing movies?
EM: I’ve been a movie fan since I was old enough to see them, so when the bands [Truck Stop Love and Ultimate Fakebook] broke up, I went back to school and finished up a film degree. I started a cable access show at the same time, and by the time I graduated 2 years later, I had Scene-Stealers.com up and running. It’s one of those things you learn how to do by doing, and I’ve been doing it regularly now since 2004. Writing and talking about movies and their cultural impact—looking at them with a critical eye—has always been a passion of mine. I try to keep things focused on the art and not all the celeb-tabloid crap and box office receipt talk that surrounds it. The movie industry doesn’t interest me, movies do.
HL: Are there any favorite people that you've interviewed for the blog? Favorite essays or reviews?
EM: Seth Rogen is about as nice and genuine as anyone I’ve ever met. Interviewing writer/director Greg Mottola was like talking to an old college
buddy—we had so many of the same experiences. Bruce Campbell is just as
sardonic and caustic as you’d expect him to be and he doesn’t suffer fools, which makes him even funnier. Interviewing Wayne Coyne about “Christmas on Mars” was an eye-opener because his inspirations are so personal and obscure. Writer/director Rian Johnson is freaking brilliant and a long interview with him about the layers of detail he puts into scripts like “Brick” and “The Brothers Bloom” was fascinating.
As far as anything I like that I’ve written… yikes. Sometimes I’m really proud of a review and sometimes I’m just plain uninspired. Mediocre films are the worst. I’m constantly struggling to challenge myself and become a better writer and I’m never satisfied, especially when I read the latest AO Scott review.
HL: Are there any movies that you think "people must see in their lifetime" that have come out recently?
EM: Yes! Here’s my Top 10 of the decade and 20 runners up.
This year has been weak so far, but I liked The Ghost Writer, The Runaways, ToyStory 3, and Inception and I think everybody should see Shutter Island, an intriguing mess of a horror mystery.
HL: Just to kick it old school Kansas rock for a second, did you have the same
reaction I did the first time I heard Drive-By Truckers, which was “I didn't know that Truck Stop Love had a new album out?”
EM: No, I had that reaction when I first heard of Truck Stop Honeymoon—ha!
HL: You're now in The Dead Girls (formerly Dead Girls Ruin Everything, a name that won accolades from Dave Eggers’ The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007). How was it to open for KISS? Did you get to meet the dudes? Did Gene have any advice for you?
EM: Opening for KISS was nothing less than a dream come true. They are the reason I wanted to play rcok ever since I was 6. We met the whole band, were treated great by the crew, and had the best rock n roll day ever. I stalked Gene and talked to him briefly before the show and told him the first song I ever played for a crowd on the drums was “Tears Are Falling” at a Jr. High Talent Show. He was impressed, smiled, laughed and then said “I hate that fucking song.” (Paul wrote it.) Other great moment? I found out he and Tommy had watched a good amount of our set from the side of the stage. The crew said “They never do that.” Later, when we met them before the show to get a picture (in full makeup!), both of them singled out our playing, our vocals, and my drumming. Then we watched the entire show from all over the arena, including the front row. All Access really was all it was cracked up to be that night. Sounds cheesy, but it was a proud moment.
HL: Any advice you'd like to pass on to our readers (from Gene or yourself)?
EM: Wow! No one ever asks me for advice, but here goes: Never take yourself too seriously and always do what feels right to you. And have fun—life is short.
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