Interview: Mipso

Old Town School of Folk Music

Chicago, IL

By Sophie Minello

A light-hearted group of musicians join forces to create a classic, elegant bluegrass band. Mipso comes to life. This North Carolina band has made a great name for themselves over the past few years, creating an atmospheric and collaborative environment for all those that cross paths with them. During their living room tour experience, I was able to have a quick chat with them, witnessing this harmonic group of people work together. Read our interview below:

What prompted this more intimate living room tour experience?

Jacob: We’ve been playing with our great friend, a drummer named Yan Westerlund, for a few years now. He’s a really important collaborator and we love playing with him, we’ve gotten to be really comfortable as a 5-piece. But… we thought it would be a challenge and a refreshing change of pace to go back to where we started our roots as a “string band” where just the 4 of us get together and make the songs work. Also, this year will also be defined by having new music come out. We want to start out a time of welcoming these new songs into our world. We take a harder look at songs we’ve been playing for years.

With playing new songs during tour, does it help you look at the songs in a new light?

Libby: Yeah, definitely. We recorded the album with drums and when we were writing the songs we were in the midst of playing with a drummer. It’s actually been a challenge to take some of these songs and translate them from the recorded versions.

Is there anything you can tell us about this new music?

Libby: We recorded it with a producer named Sandra Perry who is a musician from Toronto, a really creative maker of guitar and synth-y music of his own and a producer for a lot of people in the Toronto music scene. We also are working with our good friend Mark Adele and another musician drummer/banjo player named Shane Lynyrd. We have kind of this cast of friends that we’ve made music with over the years. We recorded it in three different places: Asheville, NC, Chapel Hill, NC, and some last minute things up in New York and Brooklyn.

Writing wise, what was the process for the new album?

Joseph: We all write songs. It’s important when we make a record that we really deliver on working on the songs together. A lot of the songs we’ve taken them apart and put them back together. We took some songs that were half finished and smashed them together with other songs that were half finished or we totally took out lyrics and replaced them with other lyrics. We all like to finish the process ourselves but it felt like this time around we did more… cooking.

Jacob: This time last year was the first time we met up to talk about the album. We were just listening to music and sharing really early individual stuff. From there there were five months of really loose and sporadic getting on the same page. We had a much wider focus heading into this album than we’ve been able to have before

I read that you guys met at college but weren’t expecting to go into music. How did you discover this chemistry with each other and realize you’d be a good fit for a band?

Libby: Some of us had been friends before playing music together and sort of realized that we each played instruments, specifically that we played instruments that would fit into a traditional string band / bluegrass / old time variety. We got together both to explore the traditions and play old songs and also Joseph and Jacob were writing a lot of music. It was an easy outlet to try out those songs. It was a trio before I joined and they had one or two serious gigs before. Within the first year of being a band it felt like we were really doing it, maybe not for a job yet, but it became the main hobby that we all had.

Jacob: We were friends first and that’s the important part. We were doing a band to learn about music and we were learning songs and learning how to sing together. It was our hobby of trying to get better at playing music and it’s wild that we’re playing together.

I like the thought that it started out as a learning experience.

Libby: And also one benefit of that is that because we all started out not fully formed as musicians, our styles kind of grew toward each other. The way that we all play our instruments has a lot to do with how we compensate or respond to each other. We were kind of puzzle pieces the way that we turned out as musicians.

“The way that we all play our instruments has a lot to do with

how we compensate or respond to each other.

We were kind of puzzle pieces the way that we turned out as musicians.”

Will: I think compared to the experiences of some of our now friends who were more obviously going to be musicians early in life, some of their first experiences seem really pressure laden. For us, we were making music for ourselves and for the community. It was this really free place to learn and be vulnerable.

This year your music was featured in the movie The Tomorrow Man. I’m guessing it’s a very different feeling than anything else you’ve done. What was that experience like?

Joseph: That category of stuff is still pretty new to us. We’re learning about it as we speak. It’s definitely very different from writing or recording or performing live, because there’s this whole industry side.

Jacob: Actually, last week our song was used in a reality TV show in the UK called “Love Island”. We didn’t even know it was going to be in it until people started commenting about it on our videos and posts.

Libby: With the trailer, it was like okay that’s cool. People basically just saw it, commented on our social media, and then it was gone from everyone’s lives. But it could be cool to get the ball rolling. We’ve had friends where a certain show runner or movie director starts to really like their music and it becomes a regular thing where they’re in every few episodes or they’re asked to do soundtracks. If you can develop a relationship and get licenses that way that could be a really cool creative opportunity.

Being recently signed to Rounder Records, how would you describe working with them?

Libby: Very pleasant. We feel really supported. They trust us, which is a rare feeling. All the creative decisions we’ve wanted to make, they’ve been totally supportive. Everyone from the company is good to talk to and interesting. I don’t know how much you know about Rounder but it’s a traditional bluegrass-y label. It’s undergone a change in leadership over the last several years and the people working there now are learning more about this traditional music. They’re learning and they’re open to artists who come from a traditional music background and people who don’t. It’s a cool thing for us to not feel like we’re pushing the envelope. We’re not interested in shocking bluegrass fans, we just want to make good music that we like and find an audience that will like it too. Rounder is the best label we could have found to do that.