In 2016, Philly-area high school classmates Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper reunited in Los Angeles and quickly got to work making music. The pair named their band Mt. Joy, for a hill in Valley Forge National Historical Park near their hometown. Since then, they have gone on to release three albums: their self-titled 2018 studio debut, 2020’s Rearrange Us, and 2022’s Orange Blood.
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With their fourth studio album, Hope We Have Fun, due May 30, Mt. Joy recently spoke with American Songwriter about their brand-new single, “More More More.”
American Songwriter: Can you tell us a little about the creation of your new release?
Matt Quinn: Yeah, this song was actually created around the time that we were writing our last record “Orange Blood” in 2021. Sam Cooper, the guitarist in the band, and I rented out a barn outside of Philadelphia and this was one of the tunes I had that we tried to figure out in the barn.
At the time, the song just didn’t quite have the right ending; it just had the first two verses. So we stashed it away and then sometime in the last year or so we dusted it off and worked on it with producer, Caleb Nelson. For some reason it had a renewed energy and the ending just kinda came to us.
The song was born from an anxiety-riddled walk through Philadelphia and we sort of just landed on this ambling ending that ultimately erupts into a crescendo, which hopefully feels like a person walking off an anxiety attack and coming to an epiphany. The end is one of our most rocking moments on the record, the band really killed it. It’s a good lesson in not giving up on songs!
[RELATED: Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy Strums Up Old and New Songs While Quarantined]
AS: If you could convey one message to listeners through your music moving forward, what would it be?
MQ: That’s a tough one, but I guess just to keep going. Seems like every truly great feeling I’ve ever achieved has come from doubling down when things get s—ty and finding a way to stay the course. Music is such a great way to zoom out and connect with something outside of your head. I would hope that somehow our music gives people the comfort they need to keep moving when things get shitty and a few songs to rejoice in good times too!
AS: How do you hope to grow as an artist in the years to come?
MQ: I think one of the things that keeps me going in music is how much there is to learn. There are an infinite number of ways to approach songwriting, and I think for me just continuing to get better at my instrument and working on writing songs at least a little bit every day. I don’t really have any specific goals, I just sort of compete with myself to be better, whether that’s being more observant of the world around me or just finding interesting phrasing or chord progressions. There’s always something new you could try, and I just hope my writing never gets stale.
AS: If you could go back in time and give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
MQ: I think I would just have tried to be less shy and more collaborative. I’ve learned so much from watching how other people write. In the beginning, I think my confidence was so low that it was hard for me to want to be in the room with anyone else, but the more you do it the more you realize everyone’s an imposter in their own head and collaboration is just one of the best ways to learn.
AS: What’s a song (by another artist) that you wish you’d written?
MQ: Man, there are a lot. I’ll go with a classic and say “You can’t always get what you want” by the Rolling Stones. Songwriting can be really complicated, but so many great songs are just distilled truths about life that aren’t lyrically revelatory, but when sung over a simple progression become this cathartic expression that you can’t believe didn’t exist before it was written. Almost like eventually that song was going to be written, they just got to it first. For some reason that type of hit seems within reach for me. So, I would say they inspire the most “jealousy.” I would love to have written “Sir Duke” but its just not in my bag… yet lol!
Featured image by Scott Moore/Shutterstock
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