When The Mowgli’s first came on the scene, they seemed to be a culmination of everything that the music world had become enamored with over the past five years. Pop music that’s still rock with wild percussion, group chants, great harmonies, and cavity-inducing melodies. Basically a perfect soundtrack for a car ride with the windows down on a warm day. All the band needed was a song where the chorus shouts “Hey!” and a synthesizer and they’d be the perfect indie band.
When The Mowgli’s first came on the scene, they seemed to be a culmination of everything that the music world had become enamored with over the past five years. Pop music that’s still rock with wild percussion, group chants, great harmonies, and cavity-inducing melodies. Basically a perfect soundtrack for a car ride with the windows down on a warm day. All the band needed was a song where the chorus shouts “Hey!” and a synthesizer and they’d be the perfect indie band.
But the band did show a lot more seriousness on their first proper record, 2013’s Waiting For The Dawn, than critics gave them credit to like with “See I’m Alive.” On their newest record Kids In Love just released last month, the band has opened up a lot more and calmed down the frantic, frenzied nature of the first record for more concrete and fleshed out song-writing ideas that is surely going to give the bands the legs to make a long run together.
Before their debut in Richmond tonight at The National, bassist and backing vocalist Matthew Di Panni opened up a lot with us about the conscious shift in sound from the first record to the new as well as all of the different sonic ideals within the band and his thoughts on the band’s sometimes-criticized demographic.
Despite still being an indie pop record, Kids In Love is a lot more restrained and reserved than Waiting For The Dawn. Was this a conscious effort?
Well, with the new record, we actually decided that we were going to open up a little bit. We thought we were branching out a little bit and trying something different. On the first record, we were a bunch of kids from the San Fernando Valley moving to Venice so it was this beachy, jangly vibe and we didn’t know what we were doing. You always have forever to make your first record, but for our second record, we calculated it a little bit better and we worked primarily with people we wanted to work with instead of people we were forced to work with. We didn’t have as much a choice in the past because we didn’t have as much of a budget. On this one, we had a chance to try new things and experience different ways of recording with different people. With the songwriting, it is a little different because on this record, the songs were written primarily by just a few people in the band as opposed to everyone in the band on every song which is how we did our last record. To me, it was maturing on different people’s parts and different levels. I think this record is a bigger record for us.
Were you hesitant to open up like you did and try something different?
No, we were very happy to try anything. We were ready to work with anyone and try anything on any different level. Just down to do whatever we could to make new music that we all loved and we hoped everyone else would love.
So how did the songwriting look with it being less of a collaborative effort?
It was a situation where a lot of the songs were written on the road. I had written a few songs, but maybe those songs weren’t the best for this type of record we wanted to do. There are a few songs on this record where we were all jamming in our room together for a few minutes and we came up with some good ideas. A song like “Sunlight,” which is the closing track song on the record, is a song that we all had the chance to write together. Even the song “I’m Good” is a song we all got to write together. We had the experience of stepping back and sitting out a few times and then we would get the phone calls from your friends to see if you can write a cool bass line or if the drummer can come in and try something different. That’s kind of how this record went and it was a cool, interesting process.
What on the new record resonates with you the most?
I’m pretty partial to the entire records, but one of the songs that sticks out most to me is “I’m Good” because that was such a collaborative effort. Initially, it was written for an anti-bulling campaign and we didn’t think it was going to do anything except be a part of that, but it actually fit into our record really well up until the point that we were in love with it and had to put it on the record. It matched up perfectly too. It’s been an interesting way of making a record. I think over the course of your career, you get a way to make very different records each time. You don’t always have to make the same record. This time, this is how the record went. Maybe the next record is one where we lock ourselves in a cabin in the woods for three to four months and just write a record.
Are you guys concerned about being pigeonholed into the indie pop genre at all?
It doesn’t concern us at all actually. We’re pretty excited to be involved in any kind of genre. I’m excited to know that if kids across the country don’t listen to all types of music, they’ll still listen to my band’s music, I’m a prime example of that. I would have never listened to my band’s music in the past had I not met the people in my band that introduced me to their influences. If I was in 10th grade, I never would have bought our band’s CD in a record store, but now, I would totally buy that CD. The dynamic is very interesting and it’s music for everyone at this point.
So what’s a good example of your musical tastes versus the rest of the band?
I’m the kind of guy who grew up in a very heavy rock and roll environment. My father would play me Top 40 hits as well, but I listened to a lot of classic rock and then from there it progressed into heavy rock and metal and hardcore and technical and things like that. That’s where I ended up getting the most of my influence. I went through my years of listening to punk and ska music and stuff like that, but I really sort of grasped onto listening to heavy metal. At this point, I would buy any record from any band doing something different like that. With the guys in this band, they’d probably go and buy the new Taylor Swift record. Not to say that that record isn’t amazing. I actually love it too, but I wouldn’t actively go out and buy it even though I would listen to it forever. That’s the difference between the guys and I. We’re such a diverse group that any type of song can come out of the mix and I never know what’s coming next. Colin and Josh came from Oklahoma and Kansas City so I learned all about country music and all these emo-genre bands that were out there from them. It taught me so much about how they’re writing skills are going to be so much more different than my writing skills. I would just say we’re all just such different people, it’s so difficult to know how far our influence is going to take us or what we’re going to create in the future. I know these guys have taught me a lot about different genres of music that I probably wouldn’t have known if I didn’t meet these guys…and girl.
How has it been touring with these songs that are a lot more reserved next to songs that are a lot more frantic?
At this point, we’re so on our game, we could potentially play any song and still feel very comfortable,. These new songs, there’s such an exciting thing that there’s new material finally. We’ve been together for six years and this is technically our third album, second on a label. We’re at a point where we’re so excited to play anything for anyone and to show up in a town to where eight hundred to a thousand kids are singing every word to your new record is a pretty mind blowing experience. All the music, it’s all universal. Anything we’ve ever done is all kind of the same stuff. Maybe some songs on our new record are not as group chant-y as something on our old record and maybe something on our new record is more anthemic than something from our old record. At the end of the day, we will always try and give the fans what they want and I think our music will always kind of speak this one kind of tone where it’s love and positivity. It’s actively trying to give a voice to a crowd of kids or a crowd of people to give them the opportunity to do what they want with this music and to maybe influence them to want to work with charities the way we do. For me, The Mowgli’s is just one big love and positive song. Everything we do is something in the right direction.
What do you think about the growing backlash for bands like yourself, Walk The Moon, The 1975, and so on who get dismissed for having such a young/teen audience?
I don’t know how I feel about it, but it’s kind of cool to know we’re on the radar of bands like Walk The Moon, bands that have these upbeat positive songs. Yeah, maybe the demographic is very young, but they’re still influential and they want to grasp onto you, try and change the world with you, and use you as the soundtrack to their life. You can label bands anyway you want, but if you’re creating fans and creating positivity with your fans, I think you can be called whatever you want to be called and no one can ever hate you for it. If they do – whatever, who cares?
To wrap up – one member in the band who you just can’t line up with musical taste wise.
Our keyboard player Dave Appelbaum is a very talented musician and he’s grown up with all kinds of music in his life. I would say just about anything in his catalogue is something I still don’t get. He’s all over the place with his musical tastes. Maybe we listen to a few of the same bands, but we’ll be driving in the bus and he’ll pull up a song that is sixty-five years old and I have no idea what it is and it sounds like junk to me. Then I’m just screaming at Dave, “What is this?” He and I have the most different opinions on music, but we still get along really well because we’re part of the rhythm section. We have to.
Understandable. Well, we’re excited to see you guys in Richmond for the first time tonight.
I think we’ve come to Charlottesville a few times now. We love Virginia, but we just don’t get to come there as often as we’d like to so we’re excited to see Richmond for the first time in concert.
The Mowgli’s make their debut in Richmond tonight at The National alongside Hot Air Affair. For more information on the show and where to buy tickets, click here.
