Interview: The Mood

One of the other bands that I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with at CMJ, is the New York City based band The Mood. The Mood consists of Marco Argino on lead vocals and guitar, his cousin Corinne Callen on vocals and keys, Kenton Langsthroth on guitar, Chris Bunatta on drums and Brian Karp on bass.

The Mood’s sound is sunny straight ahead rock with elements of 80’s new wave and 60’s Brit pop mixed in. I chatted with the band over sushi at a sushi joint near Kenny’s Castaways in Manhattan, where The Mood played their set for the CMJ Music Marathon. We chatted about many things including what brought Marco Argino, guitarist Kenton Langsthroth and keyboard player Corinne Callen to New York City from Ft. Lauderdale Florida to how the band came together.

You guys are originally from Florida.

MA: Three of us are from Florida

What is the music scene like in Florida?

MA: When I was originally in it…. it was more like a real punk rock scene in South Florida.

CC: It was metal and punk.

MA: In Corinne’s area it was more metal and in my area it was punk. I was in punk and pop punk bands. When I knew the band that I was in was at its end, I knew I wanted to put together a project that’s like what we’re doing now with the two guitars and all that. And I was trying to get the guys that I knew from down there to move up here to New York and they ended up fizzling out, so I moved to New York on my own booking some acoustic gigs and meeting the promoters and getting my foot in the door. That was in 2004 and I just played everywhere you can play and then it was like okay I can’t do this anymore I need a real band! The first person that I contacted to be an official Mood member was my cousin Corinne; we did acoustic gigs together….

CC: We did sing songwriter shows.

MA: We played all with all these different artists in the Columbia University area.

CC: We both went to college in the same town as well and Marco had his fans in Tallahassee and I had mine there too, but we didn’t meet up till we both got to New York.

MA: I was always looking for a singer, a good harmony voice and I was always looking for this guy who can sing harmonies. Then I realized it was right under my nose the entire time…Corinne! My cousin has this amazing voice and she can play all of these instruments. And working with family is really easy and it works out. So we started playing together and we had these various drummers and bass players and I was like humm…second guitar who are we gonna get now? And I ran into Kenton at a birthday party and I spoke to him joining the band but he didn’t remember us talking about it because he was so drunk. I had to remind him the next day, we had that connection of being friends and recording buddies back in Florida and I knew what he could do and he, Corinne and I started playing together.

We went through some various line up changes with the rhythm section, our old drummer introduced us to Brian Karp our current bass player and he was the best bass player hands down so it was a no brainer for us to choose Brian as our bass player. The next person to join our band was our current drummer Chris who got in right before we made our record at Electric Ladyland studios. After that the band was solidified and we had done a bunch of gigs.

In your own words can you describe the sound of The Mood?

KL: I don’t want to say that it’s pop or it’s this or that, for me it’s either music that makes you think or it’s music that uplifts and makes you dance. I don’t want to say that it’s two parts that, two parts this with a little splash of this on top….

BK: It defiantly has its influences 50’s, 60’s….

MA: 60’s British invasion bands, some 80’s..

BK: Yeah 80’s post punk electro pop.

MA: Overall I would say it’s a rock and roll sound and that kind of covers it all. Some people will tell us we’re power pop that keeps coming up a lot. It’s melodic, it’s rock and roll!

I just read that you guys did some shows in England, did you play any special shows while you were over there?

MA: We got asked to play the In The City music festival, which is Manchester’s version of CMJ. I thought to myself if I’m gonna get the band to go over there I should make it worth the band’s while and so besides doing the In The City we played some other non festival shows in the UK. We did a show at the legendary 100 Club, where everyone from The Who to Metallica to the Sex Pistols and Zeppelin played….

CC: Famous people still show up there!

MA: When I went to the 100 Club for the first time I saw the Hives play there. And the next time I was there we were fucking rocking the place! So it was a really amazing experience to play there! We started in London, then we went to Stockwell, then we went down to Brighton and we played an amazing
room were everyone was up dancing. There was all the crazy energy in Brighton…

CC: The people in Brighton show their love of music a lot more.

BK: They come out to have a good time and hear bands..

KL: We had a really great time in Brighton!

MA: We ended the regular bit of the tour in Brighton. Our final show was at the In The City Festival in Manchester and it was a really nice show! It was an intense experience but it was a great experience!

You guys were talking about the differences in the crowds…you were saying the crowds in London are a lot like the crowds in New York, a little more reserved a little more cynical….

BK: It’s not so much being cynical, when you live in a big city like New York or London you get to see the best of everything. You can go out any night and see a famous band that you’ve heard of, so naturally when you go out and see a young band that no has heard of you want them to show you the goods. So it’s not so much about being cynical as it is, I live in a big city where I can see world class music any night…so be good!

CC: I say it’s a little bit more challenging as an artist or a performer to give them a good show, which keeps everyone on their toes. So in another words I wouldn’t trade living in New York City for anything in the world right now!

MA: We all worked really hard to get to this point!

CC: I’m not saying anything negative about London but in the same way it probably feels like that too…it keeps you on your toes and makes you a good performer!

MA: Honestly all five of us earn it on stage every night! We go out there and we put on a show, we’re not sitting there making faces. Our songs are catchy and we put on a rock and roll show! We go out there and engage with the crowd…

BK: It’s a high energy show!

What’s the songwriting process that goes into each song by the Mood?

BK: Marco stairs at the sky till it hits him..(everyone laughs)

MA: (laughing) Exactly!

KL: I feel like the songs on our EP “Get In” are songs that Marco had crafted over a long period of time. It’s a singular process but we all leave our mark on the songs.

MA: With those songs it was a bit of a darker time then. Cause, everyone had just moved to New York and gone through break ups and struggles to get to New York. Even going through the weather change, going from that sunny Florida weather to the New York weather affected the songwriting process! Then we started thinking outside the box, wither it’s physcadelic with the lyrics or it’s a little more story telling, everyone grew on “Synaesthesia” our latest album and left their own mark on each of the songs.

CC: We produced “Synaesthesia” and in that respect it made everyone’s participation that much more prevalent.

What does the future hold for the Mood?

MA: We’re already talking about doing another record. We own our own record label called Out Right Rock and we put out our own records. And so we’re looking for a nice independent record label that sees our vision, basically we’re looking for a home.

To hear the Mood’s music, get tour dates, other news and to order your copy of “Synaesthesia” you can go to the Mood’s myspace site:

www.myspace.com/marcoargiro

- Amy Grimm

Tags: Chris Bunatta • Corinne Callen • Interview • Kenton Langsthroth • Marco Argino • The Mood