‘The blood of the universe’

Once critics think they’ve got a band figured out, it can be a tough spell to break. Just ask Mt. Joy, the LA-based quintet that crashed onto the scene with their self-titled debut in 2018. The album’s lead single “Silver Lining,” which became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard adult alternative charts, led to a quick typecast of the band as a straight-ahead folk rock act in the mold of Colorado’s own Lumineers — a comparison that, for better or worse, has stuck.

“I get where it came from and everything, but I think it’s a bit lazy … if you go back and listen to the first record, the other songs were pretty different,” says singer-guitarist Matt Quinn. “I don’t know if our whole goal is to avoid comparisons, but it is nice to start to feel like we’re coming into our own, and the music we’re making fits the music we want to be making.”

Here Quinn refers to the band’s latest LP, Orange Blood, which has gone a long way in changing perceptions about Mt. Joy since its release last summer via Island Records. There is still a folk scaffolding beneath songs like “Roly Poly,” “Don’t It Feel Good” and the title track, but they come with gauzy atmospherics, synthetic beats and otherworldly guitar tones that push these songs into bold new territory.

Elsewhere, the band gets even more adventurous. The distorted lead guitar of “Johnson Song” gives the tune a freaky edge, while “Lemon Tree” serves up a Beatles-esque psychedelic pop experience. “Evergreen,” meanwhile, is a catchy, nervy rocker with shimmering guitars and a driving beat. But what stands out even more than the production are the inviting melodies spun up by Quinn and his bandmates across the record’s 34-minute runtime.

Despite this new and broader sonic palette, comparisons to the Centennial State’s biggest folk-rock act didn’t come out of nowhere.
In fact, Quinn got started writing for Orange Blood soon after a tour opening for the Lumineers wrapped in March 2020.

“I was stuck in a studio apartment [during the pandemic] and actually my girlfriend had a kind of busted acoustic guitar, but I didn’t even have my guitar,” Quinn says. “But I had [her] guitar, and [songwriting] was all there was to do. We were quarantined and genuinely terrified of interacting with people. So we were making music, and it was freeing in a way to have an outlet like that. I feel really, really fortunate that was my job.”

‘Make something that moves you’

Quinn and his girlfriend didn’t stay in New York City for long. With the pandemic raging, they moved to Quinn’s former home town of Philadelphia. Eventually, they felt things had calmed down enough to safely travel to LA to grab Quinn’s things from his apartment there. That’s when Quinn began to get his head around the kind of album he was starting to make.

“On the way back to Philadelphia, we stopped in Joshua Tree … I think the intentions for the record, and what we were trying to do with the music, were really built there,” he says. “There’s such a spiritual element to being there. You really connect with the earth and this larger level of [existence]. … Orange Blood came from this idea that the sun and the light is sort of the blood of the universe.”

After that, Quinn and his Mt. Joy songwriting partner and guitarist Sam Cooper rented a small barn near Philadelphia and started convening for near-daily writing and recording sessions. Most of the new record was written there, and then it was time to hit the studio. So Quinn and Cooper joined the rest of the band — keyboardist Jackie Miclau, bassist Michael Byrnes and drummer Sotoris Eliopoulos — alongside producer Caleb Nelson in LA to craft their next offering.

“For us, it was definitely intentional. I think each record is an opportunity to do something different and to take a step in a new direction,” Quinn says. “It feels like each record you get a little more space and time in the studio to experiment, to try to make sounds … I think the most simple explanation is you’re just trying to make something that moves you.”

Quinn says the new Mt. Joy songs translate well to the live stage, which Front Range concertgoers will experience for themselves when the band comes to Red Rocks on Aug. 17. He also says the Orange Blood material is bringing Mt. Joy closer to achieving the kind of live experience the band has been reaching for all along.

“One of the real amazing things about the new album is it’s really allowed our sets to be more diverse,” Quinn says. “We [wanted] to become a band that plays unique shows, and our new album has really allowed that to happen. It’s set up some cool jams. It’s really made the live show more dynamic.” 

ON THE BILL: Mt. Joy with Flipturn. 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Aug. 17 and 18, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets here.