Daily Cardinal: You’ve been all over the country lately. How has that experience been?
Michael Vincze: It’s been really incredible. We’ve all been dreaming of going on tour for a long time, and now to finally be doing it is so fulfilling. I love seeing the new places and getting to mix with new people and new lands. To have it be happening is an incredible honor in every moment.
It’s challenging because there’s 10 of us in the van, eight band and two crew, and we definitely butt heads a little bit and everybody kind of wants to go in different directions sometimes. There’s definitely a lot of unity, but it goes in and out. Sometimes there’s none, sometimes there’s a lot, sometimes there’s a little bit.
DC: I was going to ask about that, about having eight people in the band. Does it ever get chaotic?
MV: It gets very chaotic. Sometimes it gets angry. Sometimes it’s really nice and compassionate, but it’s a roller coaster ride.
DC: What would you say your band’s philosophy is?
MV: Our philosophy is that we like to contribute to positive change in the world by changing ourselves to be better people and by constantly contributing random acts of kindness to society whenever we can. We attempt to perform them anytime an opportunity presents itself. We feel like that’s one of the best ways to just help.
It’s hard to stand up one day and start a band and say, “We’re going to change the world with this band,” but that’s what we did and we’re doing our best to stick by that. Some of the philosophies for me that we’ve embedded in the music is that life on earth is heaven if you can wake up to that idea, if you can realize that you have a limitless potential, that you really have the power to take control of your existence and make it into whatever you want it to be. That’s something that is embedded in a lot of songs that we want to share.
DC: On that note, what role do you see music playing in the world as we know it?
MV: I think it’s medicine. I think that it’s medicine for the mind, soul and heart, if all those things are even separate. It’s just… the greatest gift ever. I think we can use it to heal ourselves and heal each other and I also think we can use it for incredible amounts of fun. Even when you’re not feeling good and you’re listening to something dark and it hits that spot, there’s always an answer to whatever you’re going through. I think music, the vibration itself, is love, in some aspects.
DC: Have there been any artists you’ve been floored to be on the same bill with?
MV: We got to play a radio festival and Bush was on the bill; that was really cool. That was in Dallas a couple days ago. Phoenix was also on the bill. Those were some of the coolest ones I think. Really, I’m most excited when our best friends are on the bill.
DC: Whom would you consider a best friend?
MV: We’re getting to play with The Lucky Lonely, and they’re really close with some of the band. We did some of our very first shows with those guys, and it’s always an honor to share the stage with them. Then there’s acts like The Rocketboys. We share management with them and we don’t get to do very many shows together and a lot of the bands are fans of them so getting to play with them at SXSW was just such a joy. I was in love with their music so much. It’s cool to share the bills with some bands you like. Another one is Zak Waters, some kids that we grew up with that we just adore. They make some really, really sexy funk music.
DC: So how did the band start?
MV: I really just wanted to be in a band with all of my friends, so there was that. And kind of this punk rock rebellious notion that I had the opportunity and the power to change the industry and the world. There was no scene in L.A. a couple years ago that I was finding myself able to attach to. I really just wanted to see if everyone would be interested in coming together and doing something that was in support of one another. To see what kinds of sparks would strike. So we formed a collective, and everyone started to play in each others’ bands, and then we started recording the music and putting it out, and we’d do a show. Like ten bands from our collective would play. Those are my favorite bills to be on. When you’re excited about something and your friend is making it and you get to play right before or right after it, that’s incredible. So Mowgli’s were kind of like this all-star group of all these bands. Some members of the Mowgli’s front their own projects, so we really brought some powerful people together to create one massive “rocktopus.”
DC: A lot of people are very cynical about the industry. Do you think it’s possible to change how it’s operating right now? Have you encountered a lot of the critiques people have?
MV: I understand why people are cynical. Because suddenly, we’re now dealing with major label and distributors and radio and publicists and all this, and I get why people are cynical. It’s because there’s this bottom line that doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of the art itself. They’re in the best interests of business, which you can’t blame them for that. That’s what keeps their world turning.
One of the things that we want to have an influence over is the bottom line itself. I think that business would actually be better for everyone involved and more profitable if we always were completely committed to acting within the highest regard for one another. It means that it’s literally not letting the bottom line be about the dollar. It’s something greater than that. That seems psychotic, trying to live by an idea like that with the way the world works as far as the music industry goes. It has to be professional; it has to be in the green and not in the red. It’s weird. Having the art be manipulated by these forces, it really tugs on the heart.
One of the greatest challenges I’ve personally had to face is the ability to stay really happy through it and be excited about what’s going on, because it literally feels like it takes part of the magic away.
It’s hard because the art is now the result of the artists creating it and the business people commenting about it, and sometimes it’s really hard to make something and have them try to change it every time. You lose some form of authenticity when you allow them to have the power to change what you’re creating.
Who’s the artist? Are we the artist? Am I the artist and you’re doing the business? What is it? Because at this point, everyone is just painting. It doesn’t matter if they’re business people or musicians brought on board to make the creations themselves.
One thing that’s beneficial about this situation for The Mowgli’s as opposed to other bands is that we kind of went into all of this wanting to invite everyone to be a part of the painting anyway. There was this thing when we started the band that we would invite the whole world, too. If you want to come sing with us, you’re in the band. You’re a Mowgli. All you’ve got to do is show up, and you’re in. Now that we’re getting into business, and we started this whole thing with that philosophy, it’s like, “You know what? Screw it. These people are band members too, so yeah, they do have a say what’s going on.” We really try to hold that idea true and that actually helps with these things that would make us cynical otherwise. Even though it’s still tearing at the heart, it’s a little easier when you look at it like, “You’re in the band, too. We’re all on the same team.” Even if the original vision for the movement is slightly or a lot different than originally seen. At least everyone is coming together and doing something.
It’s more important to be excited about what you’re doing and not let any of the realities kind of have a negative effect. They are what they are, and they’re always going to be that, and you need to live in a reality you’re excited about. Maybe don’t peer into those other realms.
DC: Large-festival wise, how are you feeling about this summer?
MV: I’m stoked. We get to go play Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and I’m most excited for Hangout Festival, just because it’s on the ocean. That one seems like it’s going to go off. That whole area down in Alabama is just bubbling with goodness.
There’s like a hundred dates in the calendar right now and I don’t know exactly which place each one is in.
DC: Any funny tour stories that stick out… that you are willing to share with a journalist and the general public?
MV: Yeah. When we were in Kentucky we played at this place called the Thompson House that was extremely haunted. Freaky. They said that Abe Lincoln had spent some nights there, that this guy had killed his family there and that was weird and dark, and that was in the green room we were in. It was at one point one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad. There was extreme juju on that place.
Weird stuff started happening to the band. At one point, I was on stage and there was no draft in the room. I felt someone come up and tap my head. But Josh was standing on stage about ten or fifteen feet away and he was like, “I saw that. I saw your hair move and you looking around like someone touched you.”
Then Matthew felt someone poke him in the back when we were upstairs in one of the bars. We were on tour with Family of the Year, and their drummer Sebastian was running around, not being so friendly with the ghosts. He was kind of talkin’ a little smack to them, you know. He wasn’t worried about whether they’re real or not. He’s causing trouble. At the end of the night, he goes to slide down this banister from the third to the second floor, and his feet get picked up and he goes over the back of the banister and he falls. He ends up breaking his foot. In the morning, he describes it as someone picking his legs up, like going under him and pushing him over the side.
DC: No way, you’ve got to respect the ghosts.
MV: Exactly, he was asking for it all night.
