Mood Rings is the kind of band that I have so many questions for, but it’s hard to even figure out how to express all of them. They actually do a much better job of expressing ideas through their ethereal tones and blurred lyrics. Their show at Cameo clouded my head even more, but here William Fussell assuages the haze a bit on the band’s background, the sound they create, and what kind of weird things might be going through their heads too.

Kelly Knapp: How did Mood Rings first come together?

William Fussell: Among weekday tequila parties and rambunctious summer times, Chris and I developed a friendship through our former bands playing together. We decided to move forward with a project that would achieve more sonically than our previous efforts could before.

KK: Your music has this universal, slightly androgynous quality – was that something intentional or did it just develop?

WF: I don’t believe we sat down and decided on a sound. It was just through trial and error we came to realize a kind of music we enjoyed playing. I feel something from playing fey and sultry sounds.

KK: You’ve just released your debut album, VPI Harmony. How long was that record in the making?

WF: We had been writing the songs for about 2 years before we were contacted by Mexican Summer to record in their studio in Green Point. We had previously recorded the album in our homes in Atlanta. Actually, two of the songs on the album are from those sessions.

KK: Where do your minds go when you’re playing live? Does your music ever conjure up it’s own images for you?

WF: It is most likely different for each of us. For me, I enter into my own personal persona. I enjoy performing a lot. When it’s good, I will usual form some kind of trance like mindset where I focus on one member of the crowd at a time. When it’s bad, I tend to focus internally more and try to build a new idea whether through the song or performance.

We like to play short thought out sets with little air in between. I know when I watch a band I want to be sucked in from start to finish. When there are pauses or jokes amid a set I find myself leaving the room.

KK: What do you tend to notice about who is in your audience? Anything you think is unique to your fans?

WF: For the longest time, growing up as a band in Atlanta, our audience were our friends or soon to be friends.  The newer fans we come in contact with now tend to be sweet people. We write tense-less music for the most part, so I can’t imagine that people who like our music would be people who are angry. I think that a lot of our first time viewers would be surprised to see the difference live though. That tends to be what the most common phrasing is. The live show tends to be much louder and with more tension. I think the emotion comes out in an energetic way rather than the melancholic vibes that come from our recordings. They tend to be of a feminine persuasion, whether they are male or female.

KK: Who were your early influences that made you decide you had to play music?

WF: Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, most of the artists of that Pure Disco compilation from the mid 90′s. A lot of 80′s music that my parents listened to constantly, Violent Femmes, Rick Springfield, Eurythmics

KK: What inspires you lyrically?

WF: For the most part, I like direct inspiration for writing… epiphanies and the sort. I usually can’t escape the urge to write about the personal situations in my life or those around me. I like writing stories, but have never really tried to tell one in song. I like blurring the lyrics occasionally through different effects, it almost lets you re-write the song so that it can be different and personal for every listener.

KK: Are there any other current bands right now that you can’t stop listening to?

WF: Androgynous Mind, Ava Luna, Idiot Glee, John Maus, Oneohtrix Point Never.

KK: What’s the wildest dream you’ve ever had that you don’t mind sharing?

WF: Recently, I had a dream about swimming to an island somewhere in the South Pacific with the band. When I became aware in the dream that we had been swimming for a really long time and were really exhausted, we suddenly found ourselves right on the beach. Everyone was wearing denim jumpsuits. However, I was wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt. We knew we were not supposed to be there, but for some reason we kept walking. We came up on a military industrial complex and began walking up different flights of concrete staircases that led to nowhere. Eventually an alarm sounded, and we were chased back into the ocean by what looked like military police. We swam back to America. From there it got fuzzy. I found myself in the ocean again, and in my head I knew it was years later, and that I was headed back for the island. When I returned the complex was overgrown, but there was a large new building. I walked inside and found myself in a huge marble room with sliding gold doors. I looked upon the wall facing the front entrance, and in the fashion of Cold War era Russian propaganda there was an enormous painting of Mickey Mouse. Now at this time the room was empty, but as I prowled around the room buzzers started ringing from the golden doors. They began to open and revealed themselves as elevators. From these doors came what seemed to be thousands of coal miners and all of their families. I walked through them as they whispered and pointed at me until my back was to the wall that had the Mickey Mouse on it. They all glared at me, and I felt uncomfortable, so I tried to leave, but as I was leaving I made eye contact with a beautiful young woman. I walked towards her. I reached out my hand as to take her with me, but her mother slapped my hands and began speaking in a language I had never heard, pointing from the Mickey Mouse to me, then to the mouse then to me. It ended with everyone staring wide-eyed and not blinking, just pointing at the Mickey Mouse.

KK: What’s next for Mood Rings?

WF: We have already been preparing new material, so look for that. Until then, we will be touring as much as possible. We hope to see you soon.