Ahead of the release of Hope We Have Fun, Matt Quinn takes Steven Loftin through the songs that made him.
From a childhood surrounded by a vast collection of music to his discovery of Brazilian artists via his wife, Mt. Joy vocalist Matt Quinn has followed an explorative musical path.
But it's within his band that he undertook his most significant journey yet: one that’s shaped not just his music, but his sense of self.
It’s taken three albums of deliciously expansive, boots-on-the-ground indie folk, but Mt. Joy are ready for the next step. First forming in 2016, the five-piece are set to release their fourth album, Hope We Have Fun which marks a turning point in the band's psyche. “It's been such a crazy couple of years for us as people and as a band,” Quinn explains. Since the release of their self-titled debut in 2018, they’ve delivered a concoction of sounds that have consistently brought out the twists and turns, and loving the embraces of life. Getting to this point of their journey hasn't been without its pitfalls, however.
“There are these moments where you step back and there's a lot of sacrifice that goes into that," Quinn tells me. "Everything, from the strain it puts on our families to the internal anxiety of stage fright and things like that, whatever it is, right?"
Stepping back and taking stock has been pivotal to Mt. Joy's survival beyond their burgeoning success. These lessons are what they've packed into Hope We Have Fun. The key one was questioning if they were truly ready to be all in on the project. "I hope that everything that everyone in this project has sacrificed is worth it, and I hope that it's a blast," Quinn says. "I don't want to end up regretting anything, and so far, that hasn't been the case, but I think we've reached this point of no return with this band.”
With their success building, Mt. Joy have turned their hand to what's become their most drawing aspect. A communal spirit runs throughout their catalogue, manifesting into turns on hallowed stages such as New York's Madison Square Garden, and even our very own Roundhouse in London.
"What we focus on the most is large gatherings of human beings," Quinn explains. "Fortunately for us, we're not Dua Lipa, we don't have smash-hit, pop songs as the driver of Mt. Joy. For us it’s been the grassroots thing of, ‘We're bringing our songs to people.’ That allows us to block out some of the expectations of what type of song a band that's playing in arenas make. Should they be making hit songs? Because some of these arenas we play in, Dua Lipa also plays in."
At this point I mention the Dua Lipa shirt I'm wearing beneath an over-shirt, assuming Quinn's clocked it. "Maybe I did subconsciously,” he laughs. “I love her. I think she's incredible. The comparison is to say that we find ourselves, at least in the States, playing similar rooms to her, but not feeling like we need to achieve. What I imagine is a challenge for her is trying to make smash hit songs – and she's so good at that. But we don't feel that pressure.”
This blessing is their earnest backdrop and sets the scene for the latest chapter of Mt. Joy. Much like the majority of Quinn’s Nine Songs selection, there’s something that exists because it needs to. “I do feel for the people chasing something specific in songwriting, because I think that's when it gets hard for me,” Quinn admits. “People have asked about being political and stuff like that, I find it hard to create any sort of narrative ahead of time and be chasing something super specific, rather than making music and following whatever the creative muse is in the moment.”
This is where Mt. Joy’s music has found its success. They’re making music for the masses, serving to a different portion of ears than the pop stars, but still, inducing as many people as possible to find a common thread of humanity and to share that. Music has always held this draw for Quinn. “It's important as a writer to love music first, because there's a lot of things in this industry when you become part of the business of music that can strain the thing that got you there. I think that you just love music. You love making it. You love listening to it. You love appreciating it in whatever form.”
Which leads to the throughline of his Nine Songs. Quinn explains the simple criteria for each of them. "I was trying to find nine that I felt I could sit and talk to you about, as to why I love them and why they're impactful,” he says. “But I just really love these tunes, and they've all impacted me as a human being and a writer."
It's where this list and Hope We Have Fun intersect. Both are categorically Quinn and his bandmates respectively, aiming to relish in the craft. Sometimes he may need to step back to reassess. “There are nine great achievements here on this list, and there are so many more, and they're all inspiring to me to hear people from all different genres like achieve that,” Quinn says. “That thing that jumps off the stereo is what we're all chasing, and we should equally be appreciating."
"Tudo O Que Você Podia Ser" by Milton Nascimento
MATT QUINN: So two years ago, as of May 20th, my wife and I got married, and she's Brazilian. She came into my life six years ago and opened my mind to so much amazing Brazilian music, including this song. I thought this song represented that, and it’s an amazing song too.
It’s got influences, obviously, from Brazil, and that comes through rhythmically but melodically it’s got an incredible melody, and the arc of the song, it’s one of those where you hear a song like that as a songwriter and you're like, ‘Damn, I wish I'd make a song like that,’ so it's a song I go back to a lot.
BEST FIT: Having never heard this song, I delved into the story and it's really powerful.
Totally, and that’s one of the things that drew me to it, I was learning Portuguese – I think my wife wishes I was better at it! – but I don't know enough Portuguese, especially quickly in a song like that, to really pull meaning right away, but I'm just reacting to rhythm, melody, the earnestness of singing, things that jump off the record.
And I feel like that's a reminder to songwriters and music makers everywhere, that it's not so much what you're saying. There is the dark art to music that has nothing to do with anything other than the energy that you're creating.
How does that affect you as a songwriter?
I think you're aware of it, but it’s people like Milton, the genius level, where they're always reminding you that you can never stop improving. Part of being a great songwriter is being an explorer of sounds that have come before you. I'm definitely aware of the intangible energy that you can create by being a master songwriter. But in this case, when you hear a song like this it's more like, ‘how did I never hear this song?’
It feels like part of my role as a songwriter is to be a music explorer and to listen to tonnes of music and know the history of music, but I had never heard this song until three or four years ago and man, how did I miss this guy? And then you start digging through his records and it’s just incredible.
"Take It to the Limit" by Leif Vollbekk feat Angie McMahon
There's a few on here that are covers of songs that I love, and this is obviously by the Eagles. I believe it's a Jackson Brown cut, but it's a song that is for someone who tours. It feels like it's written by someone who really understands this life, and there's some extremely poignant lyrics.
I got to meet Leif this year and I think he's an incredible artist. I've not met Angie McMahon - who's also on track - but I admire her from afar and she's an incredible artist as well. The way they put this song together, they brought out the parts. The Eagles version is a classic song, but when I heard this, I immediately texted Leif and I was like, 'I'm not blowing smoke, but I genuinely think you've improved upon a classic'.
The way that he did it was just patience and space, and it's minimal, all the choices musically are never in the way of telling the story that's in the song. A really great song is often lifted by unveiling different layers that you didn't see before, and this felt like a version of that.
It definitely re-contextualises the song - with that, is it hard to go back to the original?
That's what I was telling him. I was like ‘You ruined and also improved the song for me. I now see this song in a different light.’ I think the Eagles version is a little more upbeat, but then when you hear the lyrics, and hear the way Leif expresses those lyrics – and I know he's a travelling artist as well – it's something where, maybe it's just because of how massive the Eagles are, and how massive that song is, that I never took the time to really digest what was being said, and maybe that's just on me.
But it wasn't until I heard Leif's version that I was like, ‘Whoa, this is a song that is coming for me. It feels like personal things that I deeply understand.’ He did a great job bringing that out. He's been an inspiration to me since I met him and listening to his songs. He's a great songwriter.
"Boogie On Reggae Woman" by Stevie Wonder
I had to put a Stevie Wonder song in here, because when I think about who's the best ever, in a broad sense it's a fruitless debate which doesn't really make any sense, to compare musicians in that way, but to me he's at the top of the pile.
He's an unbelievable musician. I've heard people say that his left hand is the greatest bass player of all time. He's one of those singular artists that when I'm feeling down his music is so uplifting, and so complex. The way he modulates his understanding of harmony, you don't hear that in contemporary music anymore, mostly because I don't think people know how to keep a pop and upbeat song, and demodulating keys, and adding amazing extensions on chords, but it not sounding learned.
He has a way of doing things that feels very in the flow – very complex musical ideas that are very much in the flow of a dancey or positive tune. I don't know if there'll be another person like Stevie Wonder, and I challenge anyone to put this song on and be in a bad mood when it ends.
Do you remember when Stevie Wonder came into your life?
Good question. I was probably a teenager. I don't know which came first, but I remember there was a Fugees record where I think Lauryn Hill raps about that she gets ‘Innervisions like Stevie.' I had heard a lot of Songs In The Key of Life by just being alive, going to weddings and things like that, but I'd never sat down with it.
That was a moment from a rap of lyric and then as I started becoming a songwriter, more in the last five years or so, I've had this appreciation of, ‘Goddamn it, he's good!’ Whereas before, there's a ubiquity to it, like you said, where of course I respect the crap out of it, but now I don't know if there's anybody that's ever been like him, and I don't know if he'll ever come again, so definitely appreciate him.
How do you get your head around that level of genius, is the only way to leave it in its lane, and get on with your own stuff?
I write songs about silly things. In my mind, I'm doing a totally different thing, and certainly if I try to step into the realm that he was in I would fail. It's not like I need to compare myself to Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder's better than me at everything, except maybe making Mt. Joy songs. I'll just try to stick to that.
"To Live Is to Fly (Live)" by Townes Van Zandt
He’s an artist that I love. This particular song, it almost feels like poetry. It's got some lines that are just so beautiful and the way he delivers them, in such a matter-of-fact way, is something that has always inspired me.
Almost to the point that you made about Stevie Wonder, the beautiful thing about music is that you always have the opportunity to reinvent the way people hear something or knowing that what's possible in songwriting is always limitless.
As a listener, as a music lover, the fact that someone could equally love Townes Van Zandt and Stevie Wonder is what is exciting about being a songwriter, because that is a pretty wide gap in terms of the type of songs that they're making. To me, they impact me differently, but they impact me in the same way, which makes me more enamored with music. There's a line in the song, 'We've got the sky to talk about / And the earth to lie upon', and there's a simplicity to the way he approaches things. He challenges me to be a more concise and better lyricist.
Did you choose the live version for a specific reason?
That's actually how I first heard this song, I do really love that album. I have that in my house here on vinyl, and it's in rotation as morning-time music. But I don't know if it's specific to that version, that's just the version I fell in love with.
On your previous point, what is your journey as a music listener, given that you mentioned there's a wide space that exists between the previous two picks on your list.
My parents had a pretty eclectic music taste, but my Dad is a big music listener. Music was always on in the house, he had a big record collection, and he was really into a wide variety of stuff. I probably heard Stevie Wonder from him, but also he's really into New Orleans jazz. He would take us to this French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, and we would listen to local New Orleans jazz music. He was a Rolling Stones fan, rock 'n' roll, folk music.
He introduced me to Townes Van Zandt, but he also introduced me to Wilco and more contemporary things as I was growing up. That allowed me to hear a lot of different types of music. He's not a huge hip-hop fan, but we go to these American football games and he would be in charge of building out the playlist.
He'll build these two-hour playlists and of course it requires more upbeat music, so there'd be like an A Tribe Called Quest song, and I grew up around that kind of stuff. People say, ‘What's your favourite genre of music?’ and I always have the annoying answer of ...everything. I like anything that moves me. There's an IT factor to songs that transcends genre.
"On Your Way Down (Live)" by Little Feat
Was this version also picked for a particular reason?
I really liked that it’s a recording, and I’m a huge fan of Lowell George. This is actually an Allen Toussaint song, so it brings a net like New Orleans I guess - things that run through me, but it doesn't stop there.
I really love Little Feat. I think they're in the conversation for the most underrated band, at least from that era, and maybe ever. They had a super talented songwriter, guitar player, singer, someone that I really look up to, and this song is just so cool. There's such a swagger to the song. The groove is sticky and confident, it’s a song that oozes cool.
The idea of what they're saying in the song, the same dude you misuse on the way up is who you might meet on the way down, as a scrapping band coming up, and not a band that always immediately got the opportunity. We had to tour and tour, and each thing got a little bit bigger.
I always felt like sometimes bands that were bigger than us, we maybe had a chip on our shoulder a little bit. So I like the idea of, ‘be good to people on the way out, because you never know who you're gonna pass that's gonna become a star’, or something like that.
A few of these songs have that inherent band-life to them, is that a subconscious element?
It’s definitely not conscious, but it makes sense to me that maybe on a more subconscious level that I would be into things that, and maybe being in Mt. Joy I can relate to that.
"Macarena" by Los Del Rio
The day before our anniversary, we were driving and I asked my wife what her favourite song was. I was bored...you're on a drive, I was egging her on, and she was like, ‘Oh, I can't answer that.’ But then she thought for a second, and she said, “Happy Birthday”. I was laughing, and she was like, ‘No, actually I think that genre of song reminds me of singing with my family and friends and just celebrating life.’
I like those types of songs, and I hadn't thought about that beautiful sentiment. So we started going through all of these celebratory, inclusive songs that we take for granted. We put on this song in particular and I kept thinking to myself of all the silly, goofy things, like doing the Macarena. I think we do take them for granted and it's a reminder as a songwriter that there is something equally powerful about a song like “Macarena” in terms of its impact on people, and how much joy it has brought people...and then you listen to it.
My brain is breaking it down as a song, and I'm like, ‘It's a pretty freaking good song, it's all there, and it gets forgotten.’ So this was me giving some love for the Macarena.
It's going back to that ubiquity thing - I've heard this many, many times in my life, but I've not had it in my headphones until now.
Yes, and there's other versions too, one with Kylie Minogue I think? But the original version, I mean, you're in England, my wife in Brazil... this song found everybody and brought so much joy to the world. Sometimes we're always looking for the critical value of things, and maybe the value of things isn't always in that. Obviously you're a journalist critiquing things – but at a certain point you have to step back and be like, ‘This is excellent. Look what it's done.’
It wouldn't be this timeless if it was a bad song
1,000%. To what we've talked about too, it obviously jumps off the page. If it was just telling people ‘This is a ridiculous dance’, it's something about the song that has this thing. No question about it.
"The Harder They Come" by Jimmy Cliff
Honestly, I just love this song. And I feel increasingly, with some of the things the world is going through right now, I love the sentiment of this song. 'As sure as the sun will shine / I'm gonna get my share now, what's mine? / The harder they come, the harder they fall'. I think that is my ethos to the way I'm approaching what's happening politically in America and around the world. As things get crazier and crazier, the harder they come, the harder they fall.
It's another one of those scrappy songs.
History's on our side kind of thing, yeah? When you hear a song that's this old and feels so present.
Is it one that spoke to you most recently or that's always been there?
I've always loved the song. One of the next songs on the list is a Grateful Dead song. Jerry Garcia is a huge inspiration for me, and he does a cover of this song in his solo career. So this song has been around in my life. I've always thought it was a great song. But recently, I found myself listening to it and wondering if Mt. Joy, could ever tie it into a song this summer, because it feels really pertinent.
With the idea of covering it, is it easier for you to voice your political side with a song that's already done it?
It’s also got that factor that I need. That song could be in Spanish, and I think I would find it moving. With the political aspect of it, for me, it's this line from The Wire, ‘If you shoot at the king, you best not miss’. A lot of times, the left forgets about that, that you need to be impactful, if you're going to use creative means to try to make political points. Even if you disagree, if you go, ‘I do love that song’, ultimately that's what songs are about, right?
The medium. If you want to take down a politician, then write an essay or an op-ed. But if it's music, it has to be meaningful music, and I think that requires something intangible that you can't conjure up, because you don't like the president.
It's not like you can just throw three chords down and say, 'F the president', or something like that. To me, it has to also be something like this, where it's like, ‘Man’. So if that already exists and you can highlight it, then I think that's another great way to do so.
"Cumberland Blues" by Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead is a band that I look up to in so many ways.
Obviously, musically, incredible lyrics – Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia, and all of them, have written beautiful songs – the playing, the adventurousness of the music and the improvisation of it, and what they were able to accomplish. In some ways, I think they're responsible for fandom the way that we see it today. I'm musically inspired by them, but also a lot of things that we think about playing shows and in our strategy and stuff like that, I think about the Grateful Dead.
They're one of the longest touring bands, and most successful throughout a long period of time in the history of music, and kind of like the Macarena, you like them or hate them, but they're doing something right.
Are you a Dead Head?
In the sense that I do love their music and think that there's such great playing all over their music. Sure, I'm a deadhead. I'll leave it at that [laughs].
What was it about this song that made it make your Nine Songs?
I love this record, Workingman's Dead. I heard Bon Iver say that the Grateful Dead made terrible records, and you know, that's fine, that's an opinion. But, ‘Hey, listen to this one, Justin.’ They made some weird records, I'll give him that, but they made some excellent records, and this is one of them.
And this is one of my favourite songs from that record. It's got this bluegrass energy. You can put this song on and it's fun. It's got this bounce to it and there's a cool chord progression to it.
"Jealous Guy" by Donny Hathaway
Another cover, and a performance that blew me away. It sticks in my mind as, ‘This is what's possible in live music.’ To me, this is a significant improvement on the original and I think John Lennon might say the same. Obviously, the John Lennon version is great, but with this...man, he smashed that.
And that's what I love about getting to perform live, you always have this opportunity to do something special, to take something that was once recorded one way and to reimagine it, and that doesn't have to be a different arrangement, it can just be the soul and the spirit that you approach it with. This groove is legendary to me. This is excellent drumming, excellent rhythm section, and beautiful, soulful singing that makes the hair stand up. This has always been one of those songs that represents what's possible live.
Is that another where it's hard to go backwards to the original?
This is my favourite version of 'Jealous Guy' for sure.
What else sticks out to you about this song?
Again, digging in and making this a bit groovier, a bit more soulful than the John Lennon version, it allows the lyrics to sing a little bit more similar, to 'Take It To The Limit' from this list. And I love the idea of it. John Lennon's an incredible songwriter. I love the idea of acknowledging being a jealous guy. I think we all can relate to that.
Have you ever been a jealous guy?
Totally, yeah [laughs]. Another fun thing about being a songwriter is you get to re-frame things. Obviously being jealous is supposed to be a bad thing, but everybody is jealous, and that's why it's a cool song to me too, because it's challenging everyone quietly to be like, 'I am a jealous guy', which is great.
Hope We Have Fun is released 30 May via Futures / Bloom Field Records. For more information, visit mtjoyband.com.
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