By Adam Messer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQAxleAGpd8
https://mikewest333.bandcamp.com/track/mothman
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What is Mothman?
As a kid from the UK, our cryptids are the Loch Ness Monster, the Beast of Bodmin Moor and that’s kind of it. When I was around 10, I got a book that showed me Sasquatch, the thunderbirds of the Americas and Mothman from Point Pleasant. West Virginia.
As a kid massively into superheroes, to see a giant Mothman creature was so cool and the striking visual really struck me. As I got older and read more on him, the Silver Bridge tragedy and finally saw the Mothman Prophecies film with Richard Gere (I didn’t really understand it when I watched it when I was young but I rewatched it a few years ago and I think it holds up), it was just something that always stuck with me as I continued my cryptid obession.
To me, and I talk about this on stage, Mothman is a 6 foot moth creature that terrorised Point Pleasant, West Viriginia, back in the 60’s but I don’t believe it was a real creature. I believe it was a community’s way of dealing with inexplicable tragedy and needing to know the unknown. That to me, creates a more interesting legacy and asks more questions than a more literal physical creature.
What inspired you to create the song?
I had been on a cryptid kick before I wrote Mothman. I had the Small Town Monsters documentary filmmaker on my podcast to talk about their work and how they made these films and had watched their Mothman one prior to interviewing them.
I had all that kicking around while I was just running a new chord sequence I’d come up with on my guitar when I thought..”I saw Mothman.” and then it flowed from there. The first verse is about the first sighting where Mothman chased a car down an old country backroad, the second is about the Silver Bridge tragedy, the third verse is inspired by Mothman Prophecies and asking “why has he shown up? What is he trying to tell me?” and that frustration before the final verse goes into what I wanted to be a Country Metal breakdown where the protagonist surrenders to the unknown and I’d also been listening to a bunch of Public Enemy and I love their song and saying “Man Plans. God Laughs” which I think fits perfectly into the Mothman legacy so I stole those lyrics (Sorry, Chuck D) to wrap it all up.
Once I’d finished it, I was thinking to myself, “no one is going to want to hear this.” so I went into the next room where my wife was and asked “is this stupid?” before playing her the song. She said “yes. But it’s a good song” so I thought fuck it, let’s see how people react to it. And they’ve loved it! Thank my wife that it is out in the world.
Please talk about your journey into music.
I’d been in a few Metal bands that all inevitably fell apart and when the last one did, that I thought was really the one to get anywhere, I took a step back and I was listening to a bunch of Johnny Cash, Blind Willie Johnson, Howlin Wolf and Kris Kristofferson and picked up my acoustic guitar and this weird Country/Metal hybrid came out.
Then I found similar artists like Shawn James and Amigo the Devil and realised there was a niche for this type of music and the rest is history. I have been lucky enough to tour with both those artists as well as a bunch of others I love like Nick Shoulders, Bridge City Sinners, IV and the Strange Band and I’m now 10 years into this and grateful to still be doing it with a band.
Please talk about your song writing and composition process.
I never want to write about boring stuff, or have a whole album or gig be about the same thing. We get it, she left you. Move on.
I love reading and writing comics and short stories and that’s poured over into my songwriting about building guillotines or Mothman or burning down your place of employment as well as the usual love, loss and human emotions that connect us all.
My composition process has always been taken out of the Black Sabbath handbook where you have a pretty standard verse, chorus, verse, chorus and then go in a completely different direction and build the song up to a climax that you can take the listener along with it. A lot of my songs do that and I enjoy the switch up.
How have fans embraced your music? How does it compare with Mothman fans?
The fact anyone cares about my music in a day and age where the media landscape is so oversaturated is mindblowing. The fact I’ve got to tour and gig with all my favourite artists is insane. I could stop now and look back with pride on what I’ve achieved. How people connect with songs like No Grave and Wait & See means the world to me because they are some of my most personal ones and to know other people out there feel it too, is massively life affirming.
Mothman fans are the best. I get a notification on TikTok pretty much daily that someone is using my song over their video where they’ve made the cutest Mothman plushie or artwork or whatever and then the gamers who meet Mothman in Fallout ’76 is always fun and then the Mothman costumes and stuff. It’s incredible. Even The Mothman Museum has used it on a video which is definitely a life goal.
I’ve just looked at my distributor and Mothman has been streamed over 1.8 MILLION TIMES! I have literally just found that out for this video and that is absolutely nuts. I guess they’ve embraced it pretty well!
What would you like people to take away from your music when they listen?
I want them to understand where I’m coming from and hopefully understand themselves a little bit better. Sometimes you can’t articulate a thought or feeling until you see it said by someone else and that’s the beautiful thing about poetry, music and art and I hope in my dumb, Bastard Country way, I can help with songs like No Grave or What If? And it also helps me figure out my thoughts and feelings as I write them out and play with them and figure out who I am as I go along.
I also want them to enjoy it. Mothman, How to Build a Guillotine and Ballad of the White Collar Arsonist are meant to lift the mood, put dark thoughts in jokes and show it all doesn’t have to be doom and gloom.
What can an aspiring musician do daily to hone their skills and craft?
Keep reading, keep writing, keep playing and keep enjoying what you’re doing. Write what you need to write and not what you think people want you to write.
Do you have anything else you would like to share?
All Hail Mothman
Mike West
Not Country Enough
Not Blues Enough
Not Folk Enough
Too Heavy
Action Pulp! 
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