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Mo Lowda & the Humble are: Jordan Caiola – lead vocals & guitar, Shane Woods – drums, Nate Matulis – bass
Can you each describe in one word what quality you bring to the band as an individual?
Jordan: Ooooh. That’s my word. Ooooh! I can think of words for these guys, but not myself…
Shane: Shitty. I bring things to a really bad sounding point. [laughs]
Nate: If I had to name one right now, I think it’d be “earth.”
Jordan: Girth?
Nate: No, earthy!
Fabulous. So we have shitty, we have earthy, and Jordan?
Jordan: Girthy! [laughs]
You stated recently that you’re working on a new album. How’s that going? Any news on a release date yet?
Shane: It’s going awesome. And no!
Jordan: We just finished up tracking. So it’ll be mixed hopefully by the end of next week and then mastered. But yeah, still working on how we’re going to release it, whether it’s through a label or self-released. So we’re still in talks about that.
Nate: From now until 6 months from now.
Jordan: Yeah, within the next 6 months. And that would be the absolute latest is 6 months from now.
How involved are you guys in the actual recording process? Do you do any of the production, mixing, etc.?
Jordan: Shane co-engineered it. And we all like being in there. Nate was done his bass lines within the first few days of tracking, and he was in there for all the rest of the days just cause we all like to be there. It’s been, on this one more than ever, a really collaborative effort on these songs and really letting them kind of shape. Some of them we actually wrote choruses in the studio which we’ve never done before. We played a song a bunch of times live, we loved the way it sounds, and we go in and record it like that. But now we’ve kind of lived with the songs a little bit, so I guess they’ve taken full form.
Nate: Yeah, I would say we’re very involved in the recording process. And we also had some help from our friends who own the studio. Kyle Pulley from Thin Lips and Joe Reinhart from Hop Along were co-producers and engineers on the record as well.
Jordan: Also Shane and I went to Temple for audio production.
Awesome! It’s always more interesting to listen to bands that you enjoy when you know they’ve…
Jordan: Worked on it?
Exactly. They’ve played more of a role in the recording process than just playing the instruments and tracking vocals.
Jordan: It is cool! And you have way more power. I mean, we talk to bands all the time. Even huge bands, and you tell them that their album is awesome, and they’re like, “Yeah, it could have sounded better.” You know, you’re never quite happy because you want everything to be perfect, and the smallest thing every time you listen to it is gonna eat away at you. [laughs] So we’ve been making sure everything is exactly how we want it.
So…according to Facebook, you guys record naked. What’s that all about?
Shane: [laughs] We had an interview with JUMP magazine…
Jordan: For the “exposed” issue!
Shane: And that was one of the pictures we decided to take for the issue. We’ll see where that goes. I know that’s not out until the Fall. That was more-so for the magazine than our own enjoyment. [laughs]
Certainly attention-grabbing…for sure! [laughs] Obviously people following the band already know who your initial influences are, but what bands are currently inspiring you?
Shane: I think the same with everyone in the whole world right now…Courtney Barnett’s been pretty awesome. Everyone’s been enjoying her.
Jordan: I’ve been listening to Twin Peaks. We saw them at Firefly, and we all really dug their set. Kind of like a no apologies, raw sound. I like that about them.
Nate: The new albums from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco. Those all just came out pretty recently, so those have been on repeat.
Jordan: And in the last two years when we’ve been writing, I’ve really gotten into Cage the Elephant’s last album. So I think that’s definitely played a part in some of these songs.
Shane: I think we’ve been finding old bands, too.
Jordan: Like digging back into The Strokes. Early Arctic Monkeys stuff…
Shane: Yeah, Pixies have been a cool thing for us. Led Zeppelin!
Jordan: Yeah, Zeppelin and The Who.
Seriously…Who doesn’t like Led Zeppelin?!
Shane: Idiots!
Jordan: Yeah, if you’re a musician and you don’t like Zeppelin, you’re dumb. [laughs]
So this one can be individual or collective. If you were to cover any album in its entirety, what would it be and why?
Jordan: Wait…say it on three! One, two, three…
Shane: Chocolate Starfish!
Nate: Ordinary Riches!
Jordan: It’d be cool to do a whole Stones album. We used to do a lot of covers, and we did a bunch of Stones songs.
Shane: It’d be cool to do just any cool 60’s kinda rock slash pop album that’s super simple…like a Zombies or Animals or Kinks album. Any of that kind of stuff would be really cool cause they’re simple and you can have fun with them. And I feel like people don’t know who those songs are by sometimes.
Jordan: Shania Twain’s first record.
[All simultaneously start singing and referencing Shania Twain songs]
Jordan: Hit after hit after hit…how can you say no?
Shane: Tania Shane. That’s my Shane Woods Shania Twain side project. [all laugh]
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All photos by Ali Brant Photography
