Chicago – In the United States, the last few years the music industry has seen a swell of bands that began when the musicians were still teenagers, recording in their bedrooms and basements, rising from the interwebs, signing with labels, and releasing incredible and creative albums. In Chicago we had The Orwells and Twin Peaks. Philly had The Districts, Saint Paul has Hippo Campus, St. Louis has Radkey, and Atlanta graced us with Raury. Parts of Europe have been experiencing this, too. England had Catfish and The Bottlemen and now Pretty Vicious. Then there’s Spain who has the Catalonia foursome MOURN.
MOURN is comprised of best friends, singers, and guitarists Jazz Rodríguez and Carla Pérez, along with drummer Antonio Postius and bassist Leia Rodríguez. Over the summer Best New Bands caught up with MOURN at Pitchfork Music Festival for a quick chat to talk about their music, working on album number two, and what it’s like touring in the U.S.
What inspired “Otitis?”
Jazz Rodríguez: It’s about an ear inflammation I had two years ago. I remember Carla and I were at English class, and it was time to put the drops in my ear. She did it because I couldn’t do it myself. I was like this [tilts her head and laughs] with my head in class, and I was thinking, “Jeez this is so uncomfortable!” Then I wrote a song about it. [laughs]
And “Dark Issues,” what inspired that?
JR: It’s about like hmm, a lot situations of being poor, I don’t know how to say it, like umm, I don’t know how to say it. It’s like when you do something wrong and someone is always there like, “Oh, you did it wrong, you did it wrong, and now look at the situation.”
Like tearing you down?
Yeah, tearing you down.
Who was tearing you down, teachers?
JR: No. [laughs] It’s a song I wrote for someone, but I see it in other people when I sing it. It’s a situation I’ve been in a lot of times in my life.
I read you’re huge fans of PJ Harvey. Do you have a favorite album or two?
JR: Hmm, maybe the ones she did with John Parish.
You guys used to cover a lot of her songs, right?
JR: When we were in high school, yeah we did.
Was there a particular song you liked to cover?
JR: We used to cover “Dress.”
Carla Pérez: “C’mon Billy,” too!
I also read that you’re working on a new album. Have you been taking a new direction now that you’re a bit older?
JR: It’s the same line but different songs. Different but the same.
You guys started writing songs in English. Now that you’ve gained some attention, might you start writing songs in Spanish or Catalan?
JR: Hmm, whatever, I mean we don’t have an idea of what we’re writing about. We just write when we’re inspired, so it may be in Spanish or Catalan or English. But yeah, most of our songs are in English, so we’ll probably keep with that.
Do you feel that coming here to the States, a lot of your fans are Spanish speakers? Are Spanish speakers connecting with you?
JR: Yeah there’s a lot of Spanish speakers coming to shows. They’ll come up to us afterwards like, “Muy bien!”
CR: Or Catalan people, which is uh…
JR: Weird to find here!
Here in the States, I feel like Latino bands, I know you guys aren’t Latino, but here Latino bands are very underground, so when one does sprout up to the mainstream, a lot of people get excited. Do you feel coming here, being Hispanic, Latino and Hispanic people are excited, seeing you, a band they can relate to?
JR: Yeah, we’ve seen such a great response. People are singing our songs. It’s great because we are super far away, and people are coming to our shows!
Good old internet!
JR: Yeah!
You can keep up with MOURN via the internet, by following the band on Facebook and Twitter.
Photo by Sarah Hess for BestNewBands.com
Sarah Hess
After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.
You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
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