Mo Lowda & The Humble

That’s part of what makes the band's latest effort, Tailing the Ghost, feel so alive, because so much of it was born on the road. The music was shaped in soundchecks and refined in real time by a band that knows how to listen to each other.

In our latest feature, Jordan Caiola, Shane Woods, Jeff Lucci, and Kirby Sybert talk about the evolution of Mo Lowda's sound, their growing creative chemistry, and how new songs like “Northside Violet” have already taken on a life of their own.

Analogue: How is the new material in the live setting? I’m assuming they’ve been a lot of fun to play?

Jordan Caiola: Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun to start working them in. Obviously, we've been a touring band for a really long time, so anytime there's new material to play, it breathes a little bit of life into the live show and makes you get a little bit more excited when you see those new songs coming up on the on the set list.

We actually went up to upstate New York and shot and recorded live versions of this entire record, as well as some older tunes. When you’re really drilling them for that, you have nothing to hide behind. When you're in an in-studio live setting, you're going to hear everything, and I think that really helped us lock these songs in.

We haven't done the full Tailing the Ghost set that we're going to do in the fall just yet. We've kind of slowly worked them in a handful at a time, but I think once we get cooking on that, it's going to be really fun to go out and play a ton off of this new record every night.

Analogue: Which songs have made it into the set so far?

Jordan: We've been playing “25 Years” for about a year and a half. That was one of the first ones we finished, and it's got this great energy to it. So that was the only one we were premiering before anything came out.

We had been playing the singles “Canary,” “The Painter,” “Northside Violet,” “7:31” into “Sara[’s Got Big Plans]”. We've been working in “Tailing the Ghost” a bit, “To Keep Sane in the Dark”. So yeah, a little more than half the record has made an appearance.

Analogue: From what I read about the album, that the album was crafted while on the road. When I talk to a lot of artists, they'll talk about an inability to write when in tour mode. Do you think that kind of being used to being on the road so much has developed that muscle?

Shane Woods: Part of it came out of necessity. We realized we were kind of getting towards a new album cycle. At the same time, we realized how much we were going to be on the road so we had to write together on the road..

Luckily, we were touring a lot of places in the West, so we could take time and spend days off in beautiful places anyway. Why not write and record in a beautiful place while we're feeling inspired and playing tight as a live band?

Jeff Lucci: I would also add that some of the things we started with as far as creative kernels or ideas, a lot of them came from random times when the band had been soundchecking or jamming in the past.

Part of the process was revisiting a couple of sweet ideas that could have been literally just three seconds of time on an iPhone and then using that as a jumping-off point. It wasn’t like coming in cold where no one has anything. There was always a little bit of a sweet idea, and then after working on something during breaks, people started getting inspired and tinkering around.

It is nice to be able to go home and have all the time in the world, but at the same time, all the time in the world doesn't always bring the best ideas.

Analogue: By the way, when was the last time you guys had a long stretch of time at home?

Jordan: We just had one at the beginning of the year. We took a really easy first half of this year to go really hard in the fall. We had the rest of the summer home, which I can't remember the last time we had a summer home besides maybe lockdown. I think we've balanced it really well this year.

When we do get out there, I'm chomping at the bit to be able to play every night. I feel we've done these 10-day or two-week runs, and you just start getting momentum, and then you're back home. I'm ready for the every night, every other night thing. Then again, ask me again when we're three weeks into a tour, but now I'm ready. [Laughs]

Analogue: This is not your first time around the block. Tailing the Ghost is your fifth album. Musically, where are you going with things that you couldn't have done a couple albums ago?

Jordan: That's a really good question. Shane and I founded this band, and we had a different bass player back in the day, and then Jeff joined when he left. So we were still a trio, and then Kirby [Sybert] joined about six years ago now.

Obviously, Shane and I have grown as musicians and writers too, but adding these two guys, everybody is an absolute weapon at this point. We share bass duties. Jeff and Kirby both play keys, bass, and guitar.

We kind of move egos out of the way and craft the best song that we can. I think we are very good at listening to each other. I write some parts knowing that Jeff's going to play it and knowing that Jeff's probably going to take it another route.

All of this comes with time, with playing with each other a lot and being one step ahead of each other. But yeah, the addition of those two to the band over the last 10 years has totally shaped the way we've gone.

Kirby Sybert: This is my first record that I've been a part of. Going into it, I was not apprehensive, but I was trying to add rather than subtract. I think a lot of times I was trying to enhance what was already there, whether it was a demo or an iPhone idea, just trying to add to what the band already was.

They were already super tight as a trio, so when they asked me to join and be a part, it was really cool. It’s interesting. I've kind of been a fly on the wall for so many years. I started out doing photos and video on the road, and then, sitting in the last song of the show and kind of adding to that in my own little way.

To be a part of this record, I just wanted to make the songs the best they could be and create space for what the live show already is. I’m just fortunate to be playing music with three of my best friends and thankful to travel the world and experience all these things together.

Analogue: You mentioned writing in these beautiful places on the road. Do you feel or hear that when you play them?

Shane: Yeah, 100 percent. A lot of the singles ended up being some of the ones we tracked in Joshua Tree, and when I hear those songs, I think of playing drums while looking out at the desert. It was pretty fucking sick. I look back at pictures and think, ‘Damn, I was just playing drums, looking out at the desert.’ That’s exactly what I think of when I play the songs.

Analogue: I’m in love with “Northside Violet”. Is there a special story there?

Jordan: Those were the last lyrics I wrote for the album. I mumbled over that one for a really long time. There are definitely real details in these songs of my own life or other people's lives, sometimes film or books or TV make their way in there. To me, that one painted a picture of just letting go, time to let somebody do their thing, a sort of a wild child kind of story.

As far as the story of how that song came together, I know those tones don't come about without us listening to Queens of the Stone Age quite a bit. Then Kirby and I took just a little voice memo of a rehearsal that I think Jeff and I were messing around on and kind of chopped it up, almost hip-hop style, and started arranging that tune. When we all got together to play, it just hit. Everybody playing that same rhythm. That's definitely a top two or three for me to play live. It just hits.

Jeff: Yeah, that song is the most fun song to play live. Then after the show, people will say that song hits live. So it's really nice to have the feeling and then get the validation that others feel the same way that you do.

VISIT: Mo Lowda & The Humble

*Photo: Luda Ronky