Candiria’s Mike MacIvor Shows His Alt Side With A Family Plot

While Candiria made serious strides in the metal scene for their use of jazz and atypical time signatures, which was considered a groundbreaking urban/metal fusion, bassist Mike MacIvor understands the value of flexing a wealth of creative muscles. The bassist has another project, dubbed A Family Plot, which showcases a very different, diverse side of his musical personality, one that isn't quite as left-of-center.

"A Family Plot is a return to the musical influences of our youth," MacIvor told Noisecreep. "We've always been inspired by the bands that were changing the musical landscape in the early '90s, as well as the groups that were inspiring them. When I started to put the idea of this band together, I knew only one thing for sure. That it had to be very extremely different from what Candiria was. After spending so many years playing such cerebral music, I knew I wanted to spend the next few years writing and playing heartfelt, emotional music."

As a result, AFP is "raw alternative rock," according to MacIvor. But it's not a complete departure, just because it's not as abstract as his other band. "We have our moments where we like to get a bit progressive, but we never abandon the song and more importantly, the melodic content is always present. We want to connect with people, not confuse them."

While Candiria's music is and was so ahead of the curve and brainy, MacIvor doesn't see why Candiria fans won't appreciate and like what he is doing with AFP. "I think that there are plenty of Candiria fans that will dig A Family Plot, simply because a large portion of Candiria fans were truly open-minded lovers of music," he said. "The average Candiria listener doesn't only listen to chaotic metal bands. On the contrary, many of our fans were not metal listeners at all. But we all love metal, so we're glad that the scene embraced us the way it did."