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LIVE LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING ISSUE: 23
REAX: What do you want people to walk away from this album with? KA: I want the songs to get stuck in the listener’s head. REAX: How has Post Records helped Mumpsy? JI: It’s really like a gigantic family. I can’t tell you how many times we called Chris Cucci (owner of Post) while on tour to complain about something, like a tearyeyed child calling his papa, and Chris just listened to everything we had to say. He really does care about Orlando and local music, and he helps out bands all the time, regardless of them being on his label or not. REAX: Please comment on this John Frusciante business! Also, I read something about Sufjan Stevens. Can you tell me about that? JI: I doubt we will ever meet the man, but, yeah, he totally name-dropped us in an interview (it’s on our MySpace), and it ruled.
Orlando’s Mumpsy demonstrates what it is to be a hard working band in this town. Their travels brought them across the country to the infamous SXSW festival, but not without obstacles. Transmission troubles and even homework created hindrances, but Mumpsy perseveres with the highly anticipated release of Cat & Canary with Post Records due out this fall. Orlando will get a chance to purchase the album early at the soon to be announced CD release show in May. Upward momentum seems to continue as Mumpsy was just announced winner of the CMJ Collegiate Nationals Music championship and will be flying to San Diego to play April 19th. The six piece consists of local musicians Jeff Ilgenfrizt (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Phil Longo (bass, vocals), Kristen Andre (keyboards, tambourine, vocals), Chris Rae (lead guitar, percussion, synthesizers, vocals), Waylon Thornton (drums, vocals) and Sean Moore (violin, trumpet, vocals). Ilgenfritz and Andre took some time to tell us about touring, the new release and even John Frusciante. REAX: Most recently, you headed out west leading to the SXSW festival. How was the festival? Any tour stories? Jeff Ilgenfrizt: We played a nice little show with other Florida bands, and the people were diggin’ it. Later on, Chris, Waylon and I wrote a new song in the hotel room, completely drunk. As far as tour stories go, there are too many to count. I must have bumped my head a thousand times in the trailer loading out gear; we filmed another music video (“As a Matter of Fact”) at a rest stop in Florida; Waylon was constantly surprising everyone with his witty banter; Chris Rae was eating honey out of a bottle, looking even more like a grizzly bear; I saw snow for the first time in Pittsburgh; our show at DC9 in Washington D.C. was the best show we’ve ever played. I could go on and on, but nothing too extreme or wild on this one. REAX: How is the van and its transmission holding up? JI: Thankfully, my dad is a mechanic. As soon as the van’s transmission went out, we drove it from Gainesville in second gear the entire way on 441, back to Orlando, and he fixed it. There were a couple of days in a row where we were seriously freaking out,
wondering if the tour was going to happen or not. Luckily, my dad rules. REAX: The new album, Cat & Canary, will be available for the first time at the CD release party, but the official release is this fall? Kristen Andre: Yeah, having the official release months after a CD release party, which more or less signifies a local release, is a good way of establishing local support in order to gain enough momentum so that the national release is more of a success. REAX: Can you tell me about the recording experience, how it may have differed from past experiences and how this album differs from past efforts? JI: This one, more so than the others, feels more confronted by external pressures because each song deals with two opposing forces, lyrically, at least. We recorded it in my studio, and worked on it harder than anything we’ve done so far. It was still a group effort, with a lot of my friends helping out with recording different parts to it.
Sufjan Stevens did a Christmas song contest, and we wrote and recorded a song for it. We were shocked when we found out that he picked our song among 600 entries, and that it won the “Best Garage Pop” category. Really, praise from celebrities like that is great and amazing, and you can definitely put them on your résumé, but they don’t go beyond that. It’s nice when people ask us about them, like we know them, and we just nod and say stupid things like, “I know, right?” Then we usually act like little kids talking about Superman. REAX: Kristen, how has your experience been being the only female in a group of dudes? KA: Sometimes, I hardly feel like I’m the only girl in the band. However, there are those rare times when boys will be boys. A few months ago, we were on board the “Sweet Dick Dude Tour” with the fine lads of Trés Bien and Win Win Winter. Obviously during that tour, the penis jokes never got old. Not having a penis, I found myself feeling a little left out, but what ya gonna do? As far as touring, I have kind of taken on the roll as “Mama” which is my attempt to look after everyone: making sure Jeff brought a jacket, Chris is taking his vitamins, and Phil and Waylon are behaving themselves. REAX: What can 2008 expect from Mumpsy? KA: New album. More touring. Watch yo’ self! JI: I think Kristen summed it up perfectly.
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REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • APRIL 2008 • PAGE 20