Mortal Reminder: Doing MacBook Metalcore the right way.

I had the pleasure of talking to 2 of my good friends, Liam Geary (Vocals), and Doug Court (Drums), from modern Djent band, Mortal Reminder, about their recent album, MORTAL REMINDER II, the writing process behind creating hard-hitting modern djent tracks, their previous bands, musical influences that they pull from when writing, and their perspective on possible future opportunities.

Watch the full video and read the transcript below. Warning: They’re yappers, it’s a long read.

Liam: Are there any rules?

Hayls: No. Free ball. I’m not a baby on the internet, you can say what you want, shit on people if you want, whatever.

Doug: I'm gonna say the most controversial thing as soon as it starts and I'm not even kidding, I have it locked and loaded, so, you let me know when you're hitting record.

Hayls: It’s recording now.

Doug: Listen, I’ve got something to say. Shout out Greg Hall.

Liam: Yeah I like Greg.

Doug: That’s the most controversial take I can get in.

Hayls: Now I can ask, how do you feel about the songs that Greg said he liked? All three of them.

Liam: I’m surprised those were the three. It was, Beyond, Forbidden, and War of Love.

Hayls: War of Love is a banger though.

Doug: I'm not surprised about two of them at all.

Liam: No, Beyond was actually one that I would peg Greg to like.

Doug: That's one I was surprised about.

Liam: I thought he would’ve liked Deadly Seven.

Hayls: Did you expect him to like any of them?

Both: Yeah.

Liam: Greg likes good music.

Doug: Aside from the good music take, he likes, more authentic music, and we don't write for anyone else, but what we want to write. We don't go like, “this is in right now. this is in right now.” Or like, “we want to sound like this band or that band.” I listen to my own band so much because I'm just writing the music that I enjoy to listen to. So that's why I think Greg Hall, even though he's not like, you know, a big fan, that's why he like fucks with us as people.

That's actually kind of changed some people's view on social media. Where they're like, “this band is stupid because they play XYZ genre.” But then I'll talk to them and they’re like, “ Okay, this dude's cool.” And I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know, man. He likes authentic music and that's really what it boils down to.

Hayls: He does, and he has said that Mortal Reminder are one of the only bands that can do MacBook Metalcore.

Doug: I have her in the background, (points to MacBook) it’s right there.

Liam: That’s the Mac right there.

Doug: That’s where it all gets tracked on.

Hayls: That’s where the magic happens. Well cool, we started with Greg Hall then, he’s gunna love that.

Doug: And we’re gunna end with it too.

Liam: Yeah, I’m gunna end Greg Hall, with a kiss.

Hayls: I'm so glad I picked you two to be the first, by the way.

Liam: I don't know why you picked Doug, but I think picking me was a pretty good pick.

Doug: I agree. Liam's got about another five or six minutes in him before he completely checks out. You can see the look on his face right now. He is checked out.

Hayls: There is not a thought going on behind those eyes. Right, we’re going to Mortal, we’re talking about Mortal, I suppose.

Doug: Okay, talk about it man! I talk about myself and my own band enough.

Liam: He’s embarrassed.

Hayls: Who’s embarrassed?

Doug: He said I was.

Hayls: You’re just embarrassed of Mortal Reminder.

Liam: Yeah, I am too.

Doug: We’ll talk about the band all fucking day and night. It’s my favourite band.

Hayls: For anyone who doesn't know you guys, who doesn't know Mortal Reminder, never heard the name, how would you introduce yourselves to them?

Liam: WHAT UPPPPPPP. YOOOOOOO! (daps up the webcam)

Hayls: Yeah, that’s exactly what I meant Liam, thanks. How would you present the band to them? If you were trying to reel in someone.

Liam: I’m never trying to reel in someone, that’s the thing.

Doug: He really isn’t.

Hayls: You’re just hoping that it lands on people that love it.

Liam: Listen, it’s like Djent, but it’s badass.

Doug: Yeah I mean it’s just very aggressive Metalcore. Rooted in the shit I grew up listening to, like Meshuggah and Volumes and Periphery and stuff. So that's really what the band is about. If you like the heavier side of djent and stuff like that, you'll be a fan of the band. It's not like atmospheric and about space and talking about that.

Liam: That’s the biggest misconception.

Doug: People go, “oh, it's a djent band, get it out of here.” But it's like, half the songs are about fucking up your enemies. The other half is you getting fucked up by a loved one. So, take your pick.

Hayls: You do see a lot of people say that there is definitely Volumes. I see that said a lot about you guys, is that you can hear the influence from Volumes with the djent riffs and how it's structured.

Doug: Yeah, I love Volumes like through and through. Without Diego, rest in peace, the band like wouldn't even- I don't even know if I would have started really playing guitar and stuff. I just wanted to write stuff that sounded like “Via” when it first came out. So that's when I really started picking up a guitar and fucking around. I really haven't gotten much better than when I started like 10 years ago. I just am better at like song structure and stuff like that. Liam's one of the best guitar players in the band.

Liam: Yeah, but Doug loves to do this thing where he doesn't want to give himself his own due flowers and his song writing is down to a science at this point where that's why we've been able to do two records in two years, which is a lot faster than most other bands I'd like to confidently say.

Doug has kind of nailed down, like I said, his science of song writing to the point where there's always something for me to work on. Doug works at a pace where there's more than enough and I could start something right now if I was bored enough. It'll come to me though sometimes. Not every track is a winner, like there's a lot to pick from. Some tracks are an instant, “Oh, I’ve got to get on this” and some need a little bit of work, and some are like, “yeah, this is cool, but this isn't really what we're going for.” But that's a nice perk, having Doug write songs and having all that to pick from.

Hayls: So, you're writing constantly. In between the two albums, obviously you dropped the first one in 2024 and then “Mortal Reminder II” in 2025, like you said, a year apart. In that space between the albums, did you know that you were going to write a second one and then were you constantly working on it in that period?

Liam: We knew that we were gunna write a third one!

Doug: Truthfully, we released the [first] album in May. Played a show in June on like the 1st, and then I wrote “Terminal Dogma” -which is on the album- June 8th, like a week after we played the show. So, album comes out in May, we play our first show in June, I already had a song done for this latest album then. As opposed to the first album, that was like years of me just writing and sending Liam shit and this and that. Like years.

Liam: Am I crazy to think that there were parts of the record that were done before the show?

Doug: I mean, no, you’re not crazy. Liam and I met during the shutdowns via Nick, who's in Mortal as well, and I was just always writing. I was writing a lot of music for this NFT project because we all know like how popular that was during the shutdowns. I had like 25 one minute sections and then that would turn into me writing a whole song because I'd just be on my computer all the time, and then I would send one to Liam and then it just like went downhill from there.

Liam: Yeah, then one became three. You were just streaming the one you were working on and I was like, “dude, this is sick.” And it was maybe the first Mortal one you were working on like over that period of time. I still listen to that one all the time.

Doug: The first song that Liam and I wrote together has never seen the light of day ever. We have demos and full done tracks and songs that are 80% done just by the dozen. I could hit a button, a folder on that computer and it's just music, songs.

Hayls: Just an archive of stuff you’ve worked on.

Doug: And it's crazy because all I do is bitch about how I have no time in the world, but it really is coming down to what Liam said earlier. It's down to, not like a science, but I'll sit down and, writer's block, I don't let really happen. I'm like, “I don't even know if I love this part, but I'm going to push through and I'm going to get to the next part.” And I'll see where it takes me. Then there's times where I'll write a full minute of a song and send it to Liam and he's like, “hey, can you redo the first part?” then I go rewrite the whole first riff and then that leads to something else. I'm talking in a big giant fucking circle about nothing.

But the crazy part is, hold on one sec.

(Doug walks out of his room while still talking)

I don't know if you know this Hayls..

(Doug reappears in Liam’s room) ..but Liam and I live together.

So, from there, (pointing to the MacBook) it goes to him in his bedroom then he just screams.

Hayls: Liam just does a bit of shouting. So, are you two the masterminds behind the writing process?

Liam: That's not to say that everybody doesn't play their role, because Nick has this ability to do like the final sheen on things. He's like the artillery, you know what I mean? Like you call him in when you really need something special. Or sometimes he'll just give a fresh perspective on things. When it's just me and Doug bouncing ideas back and forth, sometimes you need that third person, especially if we're stuck on something. We disagree all the time, obviously.

Doug: It is like an echo chamber sometimes too, where we both think everything we're doing is the best thing. So, it's a lot more of the producing, like what a producer would do, “oh, we think you should do this or add this part or make the buildup this long.” Nick is really good at that. And then Nicky is just our band himbo. That's just a hottie.

Hayls: Everyone has their role. It’s a good one to have to be honest.

How have you found the reception for Mortal Reminder II? Have you felt like you got a good one? Is it what you expected or like Liam said earlier, you're not really making music for other people, you're not following trends, so any good comments that you get are just “cool.”

Liam: We’re all happy.

Doug: All of the above. At the end of the day, this isn't what any of us do for a job. It really is just like, “hey, we want to continue to write music and we want to make music that we like to listen to. And if you're also into it, that's cool, thanks for the support.” So, any positive feedback, people sharing, shit like that, is amazing. It's not like our other projects that we've been in the past where it's like, “dude, like I hope this happens or, I hope this happens or, I hope this person sees it.” Like, I don't give a shit. Listen to it or don't. Tomorrow I’ve got to clock the fuck into work. So yeah, you like it or you don't. But tomorrow I'm starting my work week where it doesn't matter that I'm in a band whatsoever.

Liam: There were never really any expectations on how anybody would receive it. We just knew that we felt like putting out music and then whatever came after, cool.

Hayls: You guys are pretty vocal about that on socials, how Mortal is just a creative side project for you guys. Do you think that that's because you've been in other bands or is there more to it? Like why don’t you want to push Mortal to stadium level?

Doug: Well, I mean, Liam and I have done the touring shit and you know, I'm getting to that age where if I sleep wrong in my bed, my fucking neck hurts. So, I can't even imagine trying to sleep in a van or sit there for six hours a day and go unload and drum. When the first record came out we were talking to labels and this and that and I think they understood that we're not some 20 year olds that are going to be taken advantage of.

One of the labels were like, “we're not a bank, you know, we really want you guys to be touring.” And Liam literally said, “then what is the point of the label? Like, what are you here for?” to this guy's face. And I'm like, “yeah, what the fuck are you here for? If you're not going to fund the project get the fuck off our station straight up. We're good.” We don't need to go be playing fucking shows to spread music anymore. It's 2026, put that shit on Spotify and let people enjoy it or not.

Liam: It's not to say that the concept of doing something greater than what we've done is off the table. Cause we have had the conversation a tonne of times, especially at times where we needed to have the conversation like, what are the expectations? What do we want to do? And like Doug said it best, we're older and we're not in our young twenties anymore when we all started to go on tours and shit. Life changes, your prerogative changes and what you need to get done changes. But we've always said that if the opportunity ever came to do something cool we would obviously do it.

We have the power to control our own destiny with this project and not having any type of management, or agent, or label, or anybody really trying to impose their idea on what we should do. We really have the freedom to be like, “we only want to play these shows cause it's going to be a good time for us.” We don't have to fucking do these tours that you don't really want to do in places you don't really want to go to.

Doug: Those tours work though. I mean, for bands that are serious about wanting to do the music thing, put the fucking groundwork in. Liam and I have both played shows where we've gotten paid zero dollars, there's 20 people there, and it costs more to just drive to the show. Because at that point it's like, we need to put the work in. But you know, we're both at a point where like you said, the prerogative has changed. I don't feel the need to grind and play these shows simply to be like, “hey, we're a touring band.” It just doesn't matter.

We have a really, really, really cool show lined up in March of this year. It hasn't been announced yet, but the shit that we want to be doing are shows where it's some friends of ours. They're playing in their hometown and they're like, “hey, we want you guys to play it.” “Sure, we'll figure out a way to get there.” You know, like we don't have a van and trailer. (19:56) We're going to figure it out (19:57) and that's what we're going to do.

Hayls: I think that's cool though that you guys still take that element of, not a mini tour, but you still do live performances for the music that you've created and give people a chance to see Mortal Reminder in a live setting, because it's different than just sitting down putting some earphones in and listening.

Liam: For sure.

Doug: The whole point of the band is to enjoy it in a live setting.

Liam: If anything, playing the shows is more for us than for anybody that's going to go there. It's almost like an athlete coming out of retirement just to play the game again. Just to get one last run on the pitch. That's what it feels like, you know? Because you start to realise any show you play could be your last. We don't know how long any of these bands that we listen to are going to be around for. So it really makes you cherish it.

Doug: On top of that, a lot of the “MacBook this, MacBook that,” do not get this shit twisted, man. If you've never seen the band play live, we don't fuck around. We kind of rock, I'm not going to lie. I've been playing shows since I was 18. I've been playing live music for 17 years. That's longer than some people on Twitter talking shit about Hardcore and Metalcore have even listened to the fucking music. I'll still to this day go back and watch old drum videos and I'm like, “holy shit, man.” I can't even believe I was playing some of this shit back then because that would cook me now. I'm old.

Liam: I feel like as soon as people hear we're a djent band they have this preconceived notion of what that looks like and sounds like. And you would never expect the actual music to sound like Mortal and I don't think you would ever expect the kind of live performance that we give either. I think it's one in and of its own for this kind of metal.

Doug: On the actual first full song on the album, I put the sound clip from our first show of Liam saying, “yo, keep fighting and fucking each other up. I love that shit.” It's not just for fun. I really do want people to understand the type of performance, and the type of environment that we grew up loving, is people there not glued to their phones, and people moshing each other to death. Same goes for Nick and Nicky, we all grew up going to shows probably as early as 15, 16 years old and now we're all 30 to mid-30s still going to shows and stuff. I really wanted people to understand that we're kind of about that shit.

Sometimes I'll laugh because Liam will say some shit on stage and I will fucking die laughing. He stayed up really late one night doing homework so that we could go play the show. He literally goes, “I stayed up till 3am doing homework so I could be here.”

Liam: Then it was just madness. People were eliminating each other. That's the raw, authentic energy that we want at our shows. You don't need to sing along, you don't need to be a super fan, you just have to feel the energy.

Hayls: Do you feel like that makes it a little bit more intimate? Because you only play one show a year, maybe two.

Doug: Last year we played four, baby.

Hayls: Four?! And I got none of them?

Doug: I’m coming to the UK this summer so you’d better fucking chill out.

Hayls: Yeah, but not to play Mortal songs.

Liam: No, but we would if the offer was like a lot of money.

Doug: If the offer is literally like, “hey, we'll fly you to the UK to play some shows and fly you home,” we would go, “okay, great, done. Sign us up, we'll be there.”

Hayls: That’s wild, because Doug, you’ve said to me you’d never step foot in the UK again.

Doug: And I stand on that. Wait why did I say that? The UK was a good time when I was there.

Hayls: We were talking about a tour that you did with Sirens and Sailors and you were confused if you’d ever been to Scotland before, because I was asking. This was when I first discovered you guys. I was like, “oh, come to the UK.” And you went, “absolutely not, never, not doing it.”

Doug: I was playing hard to get, man.

Watch the music video for their single, “War Of Love” below, and spin their 2nd full-length record, “Mortal Reminder II”, which is available on all streaming platforms.

Keep up to date with all things Mortal Reminder: Twitter / Instagram / Apple Music / Spotify