Latest news with #HopeWeHaveFun
Edmonton Journal
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
'It's a weird place to be': Mt. Joy on the rise even if if feels like their country is 'in decay'
Article content While only a few months old, one of the tracks from Mt. Joy's fourth album, Hope We Have Fun, has become an unlikely fan favourite on the band's recent tour. Article content On the softly shuffling God Loves Weirdos, the narrator shifts from optimism to acknowledging a darker reality. Article content On the hushed choruses, vocalist Matt Quinn sings about love, joy and intimate connection with a partner, offering the tender scene of a couple laughing at a gas station at 4 a.m. about a 'God Loves Weirdos' T-shirt. 'Damn, I'm still in love with you,' he sings. But elsewhere, he accepts that 'the world looks insane as it circles the drain.' Article content Article content The Philadelphia-born, Los Angeles-based band did not write overtly political tunes for this album, nor are they always directly autobiographical. But the song can be seen as a metaphor for a band on the rise during troubled times in its country. In the past couple of years, the act has graduated to stadiums as its fanbase continues to grow. They have received attention from Rolling Stone and the New York Times. They have earned one billion streams around the world and sold out iconic venues such as Madison Square Garden, Red Rocks and The Greek Theatre. They played Bonaroo in June and the Newport Folk Festival last week. Article content Article content 'All this great stuff is happening for us, but the backdrop we are in as citizens feels like it's in decay,' says Quinn, in a phone interview with Postmedia. 'It's a weird place to be, obviously, as people first, but also as artists. We're always trying to bring people joy. Our purpose feels grounded in people having a good time and a respite from their difficult lives: Come and have fun at a Mt. Joy show. We're always aware of what is going on in the world, but where does Mt. Joy fit into that? Is that becoming something that we need to address? It's something we've thought about a lot. I don't know the right answer to that. I wish I did.' Article content Article content It's not as if the band, which will play Calgary's Saddledome on Aug. 9, hasn't been more politically overt in the past. They still play the 2018 song Sheep, a soulful folk tune that Quinn says is about 'Americans becoming sheep and blindly following the ideology of Donald Trump.' Mt. Joy was even more on the nose with 2020's New President, a pre-election song that proposed America was in desperate need of fresh leadership after Trump's first term and has Quinn singing the less-than-subtle battle cry 'we're gonna march down right now. We're gonna tear down these fascist clowns' against a deceptively soft groove. Article content 'Things have changed here,' says Quinn. 'Somebody asked me in an interview if I thought that I would be allowed to make statements like that. I guess I hadn't fully thought about that, but it's a fair question. I don't know what the rules are. They seem to be changing very quickly. It's scary times. As a band, Mt. Joy, we're still trying to figure out how best to lend our voice to that.'
Calgary Herald
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
'It's a weird place to be': Mt. Joy on the rise even if if feels like their country is 'in decay'
Article content Hope We Have Fun was three years in the making and showcases a variety of tones and genres, from the charging post-punk of Coyote to the furious Scared I'm Going to F–k You Up, which rings in at just over a minute. Nathaniel Rateliffe harmonizes with Quinn on the gentle, whistling-filled Wild and Rotten. She Wants to Go Dancing flirts with synth-roc,k and Groove in Gotham is silky and funky soul-pop. Country singer-songwriter Maren Morris joins Quinn for the folk-rock duet Highway Queen. Article content One of the standout tracks, Lucy, is based on a true story. The band was backstage after playing a triumphant, sold-out show at Madison Square Garden a few years back, and they heard news that a friend of the band had been diagnosed with multiple brain tumours. Article content 'The prognosis was uncertain,' Quinn says. 'There was even uncertainty as to whether it would be something worth treating. It was crushing for us and sad to hear. As time went on, I kept thinking about it. I felt inspired by the idea that there are so many people out there who are dealing with circumstances like that, where life isn't promised to them in the way that most of us have it, or feel like we have it. There was resilience there but also a real opportunity to face real fear. I'm a person who struggles with anxiety. We can manufacture fear but it isn't nearly as real as something like that. I was just inspired by what it would be like to face something like that and the grace that some people have during that difficult time.' Article content Article content It fits into larger themes of resilience, grief, loss and living fearlessly that the album embraces, although Quinn admits the band didn't set out with particular themes in mind. Over three years, they just emerged. Article content Quinn says the songs can't help but reflect the reality of the band spending nearly a decade together and much of that time on tour away from home. Article content 'I think sometimes when I'm writing a song, it will have a feeling of being written on the road or about being on the road,' he says. 'We have this unique experience. So I think, inevitably, you will end up writing about that. But my hope is that when you step back from it, it relates to people because, at the end of the day, if you boil down what we're doin,g we're just … I mean we love what we're selling … but we're travelling salesmen. I think so many people can relate to that in some way. I feel it would be hard to write about anything else. Anyone who travels for work or leaves their house a lot can attest that it's all-encompassing. It becomes your life, it's intense and I think it's the easiest thing for me to write about.'
