We caught up with Leo from Mt Doubt ahead of their King Tuts New Years Revolution headline show! Give the interview a read below as we talk New music, Future plans and First gigs…
What made you want to pursue a career in music? How did Mt Doubt come to be?
I don’t actually know what made me start but I bought a guitar off a friend at high school who was big into music and we started a band sort of kicking around in his bedroom writing songs and then that kinda led into being a band at high school. Which was kinda fun but didn’t really go anywhere and that led into me continuing to write songs after it and continuing to teach myself different instruments. I then decided that I did want to put them out and that’s how Mt Doubt came to be really. Yeah that is really how it started, learning instruments at high school and then coming into this but also a big part of it was I loved music, I was always listening to music as well…
What can people anticipate from your new single ‘Tourists’ due to be released in March?
I hope people will like it, it’s a bit more, I don’t know if dancey is the right word but it’s definitely not quite as rocky as a lot of the stuff. It’s a weird one I’m interested to see if people will like it or not. I hope they do!
What was the writing process behind ‘Tourists’?
Its a really straight forward song musically, like technically, cause I’m actually really bad at music like the band have to show me how to play stuff sometimes because I write it then can’t actually play it. The song is really kinda about, I hate flying so I never really go away at all and it’s about people who go on gap years so I feel that it could offend a lot of my friends *laughs* but that’s fine I think I can take the risk…
2016 was a massive year for you guys as a band, if you can pick just one, what was a standout moment?
I guess probably T in the Park cause it was the tenth year in a row that I’d got to go and we got to play this time around. I’d always wanted to do it so that was a pretty amazing experience! Lots of highlights from last year though, it was pretty cool.
Yeah we caught you guys at Belladrum
Oh yeah that was really great as well, really enjoyed that!
Your last single ‘Thirst’ was released a few months ago now, how do you feel about the overall reception it received?
It was fine yeah! It was kind of, not that we were treating it fully as an afterthought but the main singles had come out which were ‘Soak’ and ‘Afterglow’ and then the album came out and we didn’t really want to just leave it so we thought another song would benefit and it’s not one that we actually play that much but yeah it was fine! I don’t think people loved it as much as well not that people have loved any of the songs…
Im sure they have!
It didn’t go down quite as well as the others but still it was fine. Sorry that was a really dull answer *laughs*
So since Mt Doubt came to be there has been a fair amount of material released, where does your inspiration come from with it all?
To be honest I do just kind of write all the time, like I write a lot of rubbish as well which gets disposed of but I read quite a lot and watch a lot of films and a lot of it does come from that. Personal experiences as well. A lot of the songs start lyrically and get put to music rather than the other way round…
In regards to Mt Doubt, what’s ahead of the band in the next six months?
Just putting out more music… All the bands I’ve ever been into, like I’ve been able to get into an album at the time and then kind of work backwards and find out lots of stuff about them. So if quite like to have it where if someone heard a song from the band, there’s so much released that they have loads of music that they can listen to. So yeah we are going to be having new music coming out and we’re going to be playing a lot more shows and hopefully have some quite fun supports coming up as well!
Quickfire Round!
The first gig you ever went to?
My Chemical Romance – Black Parade Tour
I could not have guessed that. No way!
It was the best night of my life, I loved them so much!
*laughter*
At the time may I add
If you could have written any song ever which one would it be?
Morrissey – Everyday is like Sunday
Describe Mt Doubt in three words?
Uhm oh god! Those aren’t the word *laughs* You’ll have to pick the words, I feel bad describing my own bands music…
Unique, Energetic, Alt-Rock… Apologies guys, also kinda broke our own rules, the hyphen saves it though!?
Your dream support slot?
The National or The Shins or Nick Cave *laughs* There is quite an extensive list of people I’ll never get to support!
Just do a super tour…
Yeah just all of those bands together with us
Your musical guilty pleasure?
I don’t really feel guilty about that much but I do really really love Lady GaGa
That’s not really that guilty…
Okay yeah it’s not that guilty! Shania Twain – Party for two, now that’s a great song!
Well thank you!
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