After growing up in Pennsylvania on the infamous Mount Misery in Valley Forge National Park, Sam Cooper and his bandmates decided to instead name their group after its sister mountain, Mount Joy, for a more – pardon the pun – joyful name. Cooper and his friend Matt Quinn both grew up in the Philadelphia region, but it wasn’t until they reunited in Los Angeles that they really formed their music group. Quinn remembers casually playing music together with Cooper through middle school and high school, but once the two started seriously focusing on music on the west coast after college, they realized that they might really be able to maintain a following.
Mt. Joy first recorded four songs together, including the single, “Astrovan.” They put the song up on Spotify and certainly didn’t expect the reaction that followed. Matt remembers that after seeing how well “Astrovan” was being received online, they knew that they would have a chance to actually play shows and have a chance at success as a band.
Although Quinn has played guitar and vocals since the very beginning of Mt. Joy, putting a label on the band’s sound is still a challenge. He describes their sound as a “throwback folk-rock band,” taking inspiration from the 60s and 70s folk-rock music they grew up listening to. Growing up in a house with classic rock playing all the time, Quinn feels like he has always connected with artists like Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers and Paul Simon. Mt. Joy tends to be influenced by more contemporary artists as well, including My Morning Jacket, who they have looked up to for years.
With the release of their self-titled debut album earlier this year, we were interested to know the band’s thoughts on making the album. Matt remembers that making the album was not an easy task. Originally, they didn’t set out to make a full-length record, so they never “mapped out a list of songs and tried to choose the best ones.” Instead, their process was a little different. They recorded four songs at first, since that’s only what they could afford at the time. Only after those songs were doing well did the band have the opportunity to make more songs. So, in the limited amount of time, they were tasked with writing and recording additional tracks to be able to putout a full-length record, which Quinn recalls as a sort of “fun challenge”.
Read more about Mt. Joy and the rest of Issue 18 here!
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