Who Let The Dogs Out?

Today we had the pleasure of speaking with Capp (guitar and vocals) and Connor (bass) about Mopsy, where they’ve been and where they’re going. 

Laney: When I was researching your band in prep for this interview, I saw you started a band back in high school. What encouraged you to keep it going?

Capp: Connor technically wasn’t in that band, but he toured…. And so that’s when we decided we wanted to be in a band with Connor. Me and George were in a high school band with two other high school friends and it was a high school band so it wasn’t crazy it’s all just funny.

Connor: My band had a rivalry with your band that you didn’t know about. Everyone in his band went to a different high school but they played at my high school’s end of year party so my band didn’t get to play. I friggin’ hated them.

Laney: Wow, the tea.

Capp: Yeah, there’s a lot of tea. Connor and I didn’t go to the same high school but I still played for the Bountiful High School band and kids would walk up to me and be like “Oh dude, you played at the Bountiful dance” and I’d be like “Yeah.”

Laney: Definitely sounds like a rivalry to me. That’s really funny. So, then how has your sound changed since you’ve come back to be a band again?

Capp: Our little high school project with George has evolved a lot. It was more like indie-pop and we’re pretty butt rock now. I didn’t love the sound of our high school band even then, I was just stoked to be in the band. But, I’m really stoked at what Mopsy is doing now.

Connor: I think it’s just the product of trying to play more interesting stuff. Technically more interesting. More fun to play, more technical parts. It’s like a natural progression.

Capp: Our biggest thing is just goofing off and having a good time. We’re not too worried about anything else.

Laney: It does sound really fun. Like, your latest EP “Making Out At Butt Rock” is so good. I’ve had it on repeat since I found it.

So, what is the meaning behind Mopsy? Like there’s dogs and lots of barking so I’m intrigued.

Capp: the story kind of went: I was in the high school band with George and I didn’t see him for a long time. [he had a dog in high school] and his dog in high school was fifteen years old and I was like “Holy crap, that’s an old dog” and then when I came back, we were reunited to start Mopsy and his dog was still there and he was eighteen years old. The dog’s name was Mopsy. I don’t remember how it got thrown out in one of our practices but we looked up the name Mopsy and Urban Dictionary [defined it as] a raggedy darling. The dog was named after Flopsy Mopsy from Peter Rabbit and we thought it was original. We didn’t see any other bands with the name Mopsy.

Connor: It was kind of a coincidence that it came from a dog so we’re kind of dog themed because of that. Also I learned that it means dog in Finnish.

Laney: Since you have the whole dog thing going, do audiences bark at your shows?

Capp: Yeah, it’s kind of what fuels the bit. I thought barking was really funny, and my friends would bark at me while I’m on stage and the crowds just started getting on it too. One of the lyrics in one of our songs “Making Out At Butt Rock” goes “you got me barking like a dog” and every time the crowd goes crazy.

Laney: On the topic of Butt Rock, what is Butt Rock? Is it a place? Imaginary?

Capp: I think it came from us lying to people about what genre we were.

Connor: Yeah, because we didn’t really know so we were just like “We’ll just say butt rock because nobody knows what that means” also it is a place but we haven’t found it yet. When we’ve found the real butt rock, we’ll know.

Capp: There’s a hike in Farmington called butt crack and someone came up to me and was like “It’s about that place, right?” I was like “I had no idea” I also think [it’s because] I had some friends make fun of me and said “you play butt rock” and I was like “hell, yeah” so we just ran with it and it just kind of stuck.

We record our ideas, and before we played [a song I came up with] I said “I was thinking we name this song ‘Making Out At Butt Rock’”

Laney: So, then what is your process in song-writing?

Capp: All of it is very unplanned. I’ll show up and be like “Guys, check out these chords” most of the lyrics we have I’ll just blurt out off the top of my head and it’ll just stick. I’m too lazy to write down lyrics so I’m just stoked about whatever it is that’s made up.

Connor: It’s very collaborative, very in the moment. Whatever we think is a funky spot or are like “that’s so cool, let’s keep doing that.” 

There’s a thought behind it, but maybe not as much thought as there should be.

Laney: So, are there any made-up, on the spot moments on stage?

Capp: It depends on how big of a deal we think the show is. Like, whenever we’re playing in someone's backyard or there’s like two people in the crowd, that’s when we improvise and goof off the most. 

We’ve been incorporating jam songs, which are loosely organized songs, in our sets more and more, so that’ll probably change once we start improvising more.

Laney: That definitely makes me excited for the future of Mopsy. Going off of that, the composition of your music really is so effortlessly excitable. Like for example the title song of your EP goes from an a capella lyrical moment, into a crazed guitar riff. How do you guys manage the ups and downs of each song?

Capp: I fall into a habit of grabbing whatever the melody was and going for a quiet-loud-quiet. I feel like a lot of songs start like that and we try and shake it up. Yeah, different every time. 

The thing about Butt Rock is it was kind of written on accident because I was trying to learn an Osees song by ear and I got the riff from that. And from there a lot of it came from Connor one time, it was me and him on drums one time trying to figure out the structure.

Connor: I also think a big part of it comes from the crowd. Like, “Oh we lost them there, gotta cut that bit out.” It's like trial and error with what works with the crowd.

Laney: Sometimes, that’s the best way to go about it. Shifting gears a bit, I did see you recently played a show at Metro. How did that go?

Connor: We had a lot of fun. We played our hearts out. It was so much fun that we had a lot of our friends in the audience. It was like a farewell for George before he left for his long vacation. We tried some newer songs out and got feedback on that.

It was really exciting to play a newer, bigger venue with other bands we admire. But y’know playing a weeknight at a bigger venue, it’s not going to feel as packed. I was a little bit like “Oh, I hope we brought enough people. I hope they’re not mad at us.” But, it was fine. It was a great show, everyone had a good time, I think the organizers were appreciative of how it went.

Capp: I feel really silly playing at a venue that’s that big. Like, I’m honored that we even had the chance to do that but I think it’s funny that a band our size did that. We brought the herd, which our herd is like, fifteen of my friends and my mom. Fifteen people at a venue like that seems so small compared to a smaller venue. We never really care about the turnout, like I’m always comfortable. 

But yeah, super stoked. I think we probably sounded the best there.

Laney: I’m glad that you guys had a good time. Capp, I saw while looking through posts and videos that you did salmon tours a little while ago.

Capp: It was supposed to be salmon tours. My parents were like “I need to work for this company and they can move us out to Alaska and you can do salmon tours.” So we moved to Alaska, and I ended up just working at a gift shop [which] had a rival gift shop. We'd call the cops on each other all the time….it was the funniest drama. The rival shop was causing us so many problems and our owner would just fight back by calling the cops. One time I got hired to work a shift to just wear my uniform and stand outside the door to intimidate the other store. So yeah, it wasn’t salmon tours, it was a goofy gift shop rivalry.

Laney: That is insane, what an experience for you. So, in regards to our Gone Fishin’ event will you be catching any salmon in preparation for our event?

Capp: We actually do have some fishing pictures that we should use to promote the show. I don’t know if I have one of all of us, but I do have the one that I use on my dating profile. It was in the middle of the night and the only fish I’ve ever caught.

Connor: He held it close to the camera so it looked big. But it wasn’t.

Laney: Well, I’m stoked to see the action you bring at Kilby Court. Thanks so much for chatting with me today. It was a true delight. 

There you have it. Make sure to check out Mopsy and we’ll catch you at K-UTE Radio’s Gone Fishin’ event!!

Instagram: @mopsy_band

Spotify: Mopsy

Website: mopsyband.com