I’ve not had a chance to check in with the band since their Pollen review, so I figured I could spend some time catching up with Blacktop Mojo at their last show of the year in Terrell TX. (11-8-24) If you recall, the review spoke of an “evolution” of their sound. Something new and not the typical hard driving music fans are used to from this southern grunge band. While I found it to be their most “complete” effort to date, overall sentiment was mixed with the fans.
As it happens with an evolution, things change. Styles, experience, desire to grow all lead musicians to, well, evolve. But what changed with the band? What made them decide to do something arguably so different than the past 4 releases?
The question is, was this change planned going into the studio?
“Well it does have more of a classic rock feel” frontman Matt James commented. “I think we did decide to do something different this time, but it always evolves along the way when you start breaking stuff down.”
Mojo drummer Nathan Gillis added his own perspective on the changes that actually took place in the studio.
“When I think back to the conversations, we had about the songs that were already written” Gillis began, “they were not intentionally written TO be different”
Indicating the process was business as usual at first, then something happened along the way. While in the studio recording, the conversations about the songs shifted as the process showed a different view of the music.
“These songs were not written intentionally to be different” Gillis commented, indicating the final results wasn’t the idea going into the studio. “We didn’t write them this way on purpose. During recording, we had conversations and said ‘wow, these songs are different’
“The entire direction of the rest of the recordings parachuted off of As the Light Fades” Gillis said. “At first the conversations centered around it not really being a Blacktop Mojo Song and I was like ‘why isn’t it’?
“We wrote it, we’re gonna record it, why isn’t it a Blacktop song?”
Gillis also brought up Red Enough comparing it to an “emoie” vibe. When pressed for details, Gillis indicated that the band wasn’t out to fit a mold and simply let the process run its own organic course.
“When you start just writing songs and you’re not out to fit a certain style as an artist, you get a wider range of stuff”
This was certainly shown in the final result, Pollen.
“One of my favorite things about the record was we talked about it being our 5th, and we decided “who cares” Gillis explained about trying to fit a past mold. “Let’s just take the best songs. We had heavier songs but are we really going to take better songs off the record to just put heavier stuff on it that people are used to?”
The ultimate decision of course was the band deciding to put the best songs on the release, even if not the heavier stuff people may be looking for.
Now, was the process itself more fun?
“Most fun I’ve ever had making a record” Gillis chimed in.
“I feel like on this record, we did a lot less preproduction than we did in the past”. James followed up. “When we got in the studio this time, we just had rough ideas and hashed it out as we went where in the past, we’d spend 6 months working on the songs before even getting to the studio”.
Catt Murtis, the most animated bass player in rock and roll, added his experiences in the process. “There was definitely a lot more spontaneity as we built it up from nothing, meaning you have to be happy with what you come up with right then”.
Now, with the final show for the band behind them (Silver Saloon, Terrell, TX on 11/8 – amazing venue and great show – see pics below!), the next big project for the band is the coming UK/Ireland tour.
The spring 2025 Tour with Shamans Harvest has been a long time coming for many European based fans. In fact, it’s one of the top questions in Mojo Nation, their Facebook group.
To make this happen, the bands first manager, Demetrious Benoist, came back with his booking company, Satellite Touring. Benoist approached the band willing to help get the guys booked and some shows setup, but the entire tour still required a lot of out of the box thinking and innovation.
Recognizing that the band was simply not represented in Europe, Benoist got permission to approach sellers in the UK and Ireland to see what could be booked. Over the course of the discussions, Shamans Harvest was added to the roster and they were able to get an initial block booked.
“We’ll make our own way there” Gillis indicated with a willingness to front their own tickets and expenses to get this going. “We’ll find out if the interest is really there or if it’s like 20 people spamming our socials” Gillis jokingly added.
“Youtube is what convinced me that a lot of international people were looking at our stuff” Gillis added. “We had no idea what would happen when we released the tickets on a Friday. By the following Monday, we had 120 tickets sold in London and we’re up to about 200 now. The best way to go is to go with someone established and will at least get some exposure, but how can we do that and bet on ourselves. The whole European tour is us betting on ourselves”
To find a touring partner, Gillis picked up the phone and called Shamans Harvest to gauge interest.
“I called Nate and asked them if they wanted to do it, contacted their manager and said ‘this is what we’re doing, lets do this and try to get the costs as low as possible'”
Over the years the two bands have become great friends and such bonds can lead to amazing innovation to make these live shows happen.
“In talking to Nate, I said let’s do it buffet family style VIP” Gillis began. “Lets make 1 VIP pass, make 1 tour shirt so we don’t compete, all of us will pile into 1 bus and make this happen”.
Costs and revenue evenly split, the game plan was established and some innovation was going to make this long waited tour happen.
When asked if the cost of touring so far has kept the band from touring, Murtis gave some insight to that question.
“It hasn’t kept us from it, but it’s been very, very difficult to make anything.” with James adding that they’re doing good to break even.
James expanded in that it’s simply the nature of the game. “We’re now technically breaking even or profiting just enough, but we still have a COVID debt we’re still dealing with because we had to beg, borrow and steal just to make it through.
Now that they’re finally making it to the UK, they certainly have the typical tourist trips planned for their days off. Stonehenge, castles and premier league soccer games are all on the list of things to do when not entertaining the masses.
Always one to ask about future plans, I had to ask if a new album was even in consideration at this time and laughter filled the room.
“We actually started writing a song in soundcheck today, so yes – it is started!” James chimed in.
“That literally just came up today, we were literally just talking about it.” Murtis said. “#6 is in the chamber”.
Make sure you check out the bands social pages found at the top of their own homepage. England and Ireland – get your tickets for this one while you can!
From Silver Saloon – Nov 8th, 2024
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