Miami based psychedelic indie rock band MOLD! have just unleashed their sophomore album. The self-titled, 10 track journey of explosive sound takes the listeners through a myriad of genres including punk, noise, rock, pop and psychedelia. Narrating themes including adventure and what it's like to be immigrants in the states, MOLD! creates rock music with purpose and emotion.
Earmilk chatted with the band about their emotive influences, dream collaborations and how performing and writing music in Miami has influenced their sound. The band even shares a hilarious tour story to boot.
Hi MOLD!, happy to chat! Congrats on your new self-titled album. Can you tell us more about the various themes on the 10 track release?
The album is a collection of songs about feelings that have to do with being immigrants and living in the U.S. far from home. Songs about homesickness, melancholy, frustration, anger, love, resilience, nihilistic thoughts or tendencies, loneliness.
How has living and creating in Miami influenced your sound?
Different experiences of living in a foreign country blend us in. At the beginning we both had different approaches to music and we ended up finding a nice blend. Bunch of friends helped us out, when we didn’t have any idea of what to do, especially on touring, shout out to zeta on that one.
How does your new album differ sonically from your previous releases?
The biggest difference is that our sound feels more developed or “mature”. Songs are more fast paced and more straight forward on this album.
Why did you decide to self-produce the album and what did your engineer Ryan Haft add to the creative process?
We have enough experience making music to produce our own material. Ryan was helpful in engineering and catching our sound accurately and also respectfully of how we want to sound. He also had some arranging ideas on a couple of songs that really made the difference. Shoutout to Ryan!
I would love to hear from all of you on your favorite song on the album and why?
Carlo: my fav song of the album is "Walk Alone" as I think it’s the most creative MOLD! song we have ever done. Bronto: can’t choose one always changing.
Why did you decide to release the album on vinyl?
It was the next step, you know how it is.
You all are constantly touring, performing at festivals around the world and venues throughout the states. Can you tell our readers a funny tour story?
Definitely not around the world, we wish! Still a small band wanting to grow as much as possible hahaha. The first time we toured out of Florida, we got pulled over twice within 20 minutes for speeding. We were used to driving fast with no consequences in Florida, the minute we hit Georgia we get pulled over twice lol. And that’s how we learned to respect speed limits.
If you could collaborate and tour with any artist and/or band who would that be and why?
I guess we would like to collaborate with Albini at the studio, that would be sick. For sure also still collaborating with Peruvian artists for the art of the covers and who knows maybe some videoclips in the future. We like to think if we could help artists from our country it would be a little window of exposure for the amazing stuff that happens there and sadly does not get much support or attention. On the touring side would be amazing to do it with A Place To Bury Strangers, they seem fun and we really enjoy their music. Also with some friends would be fun, like Pons, Gift or another bands we’ve been listening lately like Dead Tooth, Bassdrum of Death, Ssnooper and a huge list. Now that we mention that it would be beautiful to tour with a Peruvian band and help to open opportunities and build a little bridge between here and there.
Finally, what's next for MOLD!?
A lot More touring, work on a third album, hopefully get signed by a label haha.
Connect with MOLD!: INSTAGRAM
