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Jordan Clarey (vocals, keys), Michael Ashfield (guitar), Matt Purcell (drums) and Scott MacDougall (bass, keys) are the newly-formed boy band from Melbourne, Australia, who listens to the name, MOBS. They started their joint music career under the name Move On Be Strong, and about two years ago they were re-introduced to the public as MOBS. Some time ago the band released their E.P. “You Want Beauty?” from whicj their single “Say Anything” stands out while their most recent release is yet another E.P. entitled “Bad Love,” which gave us another single, “Dark Side Of A Good Thing”.

MOBS have created a really clean and polished pop base that they always enrich with elements taken from the 80’s synth music. If you like any kind of pop music of today that is mixed with the electronic side of synth, then MOBS is the band that will fascinate you!

But who are MOBS in reality? How did they manage to create their own unique sound and steal the hearts of the crowd that are nostalgic for anything retro (like our own @ -dartie, Theodore who chose “Say Anything” for his Top5 songs-list for 2017)? What are their future plans and what should we expect from them in the near future? All this and much more were revealed to us by Michael and Scot through the exclusive interview they gave to SounDarts.gr!

You have quite a rich history, starting in 2013 when Michael Ashfield and Jordan Clarey created the duo band Move On Be Strong, and after Matt Purcell and Scott MacDougall joined the group. In 2017 Move On Be Strong were re-introduced as MOBS. First of all, I would like you to share with us what does the acronym MOBS mean? Also, how did you decide to do this music turn?

Michael: Thanks for having us and asking about then band, we’re always excited to answer questions!
Changing our name was a big deal back in 2017 for us, but it was an important step in creating space between the two genres of music. We thought that it was important to seperate our music as we went from a rock band to a pop band. We’ve seen a lot of bands do this where they would release a real different album or EP than their last under the same band name and people not react well to it because they were used to the bands last release. We wanted to avoid this, and also we feel MOBS just has a good short feel to it.
MOBS is just short for Move On, Be Strong, we didn’t want completely change the name, and a lot of fans referred to us as MOBS over the years so it seemed like the most logical thing to do.

I know you are drawing inspiration by 80’s icons and movies, creating a nostalgic pop sound that makes your songs unique. You have said before that this was because you were ‘huge fan of the 80’s era musically and cinematically’. How easy though is to include all these nostalgic feelings into your music?

Michael: When we’re writing, we really dive right into so many different 80s artists and really listen to what they were doing at the time. I think what separates us is that we’re not so much just referencing particular sounds, but we’re understanding what different parts add to a song. Every instrument we put in our songs whether it be a synth, a guitar part or horns, it’s all in their for a reason and not just because it sounds cool. We also are guilty of spending a lot of time just listening to songs we love, I think our reference playlist going into the studio was 150 songs or something ridiculous like that.

What were the main icons that influenced you into choosing this particular music path?

Michael: It started out with artists like Phil Colins, Go West, Genesis, Tears for fears, but as we’ve gone deeper and deeper into the music, we’ve been influenced by Michael Jackson, George Michael, INXS, Bryan Adams. That’s just a few anyway, as I said above, our reference playlist was huge.

Recently, you have signed with Rude Records. What are your thoughts and feelings about it? Is it different to collaborate with a record label than work on your own and in which ways?

Michael: We couldn’t be more excited to have signed with Rude. We have a great relationship with them, and they’ve been as passionate as we have so far about our music. We probably didn’t really know what to expect, but they really just believe in us and are supporting everything we want to do. It’s definitely different, in the past we haven’t had a big team around the world helping and pushing our music like we do now. The whole process has really taken a lot off our own shoulders so we can focus more on the music and performing. But also just having a third party to discuss different ideas with is something we haven’t had before too. We’re very eager to see what we can achieve with them going forward for the rest of 2019 and beyond!

Also, your new EP ‘You Want Beauty?’ is now released, receiving a lot of positive feedback. How do you feel about this new release?

Michael: You Want Beauty was such a great time in our lives when we recorded it, it was apart of the first bunch of songs we did after we changed our name to MOBS, so it felt really fresh and exciting. It has a lot of extra instruments we never used to do before we were MOBS and we were also really proud of the song writing, especially the single ‘Say Anything’. We’re just excited people are giving it positive reactions and feedback.

I am sure you are also receiving many positive comments from fans. Is there any that made you feel particularly special?

Michael: I’m sure the other guys might have their own opinions on this, but my favourite comment we get is how far we’ve come as a band. People hear our new music now and then listen back to our older music and are blown away that in a short amount of time, how mature our songwriting has become. As musicians, it’s a good feeling knowing you’re improving and writing better and better songs.

You have mentioned that next on your list will be the release of a debut full-length album. Do you know approximately when this will be ready? Also, would you like to reveal any more details on this new album?

Michael: At the start of March we went into the studio for 6 weeks and recorded the album. We’ve wrapped up all the tracking of that now, and we’re into the mixing and mastering stages at this point. We’re aiming to have the album out in the second half of 2019, so keep your eyes out for it. I don’t want to give too much away, but every song has been written or based upon a particular 80s/90s movie. We wanted to make this album feel like the ultimate nostalgia. One cool thing we’re doing because of this is creating an artwork for every song which will sit inside the booklets of the album based upon each movie. We’re really excited to see how they will turn out.

You have been in the music industry a few years and you have gained experience on the ways this works. What would you say is the greatest difficulty you faced up-to-date and what did you do to overcome it?

Scot: We are always learning in how to approach this industry and the people that are involved within it, I believe that it’s inevitable that there will be some really good days and slow days in any industry, but its more about being patient with our music and our art. When we started MOBS we had a really strong pallet of songs in our hands that we wanted to get out to the world and a big difficulty was getting the right team behind us so that we can effectively get the music out there and be the band we always wanted to be. This was our biggest difficulty, yet most rewarding lesson we experienced in the industry – creating the right team around us. For us, a major factor in the whole process was knowing and connecting with the right people that could take our sound, believe in it, and push it in a direction to which we have always wanted to go. We teamed up Daryl Pryor from Capital Artist Management in the UK and that exposed us to Rude Records and more representative figures who appreciated what we are doing with our music and our presence within the industry. We are still developing the team, but we are enjoying every minute of meeting new people, talking about music and building relationships in this industry.

Is there any other artist you would like to collaborate with?

Scot: If you ask us individually I think we would all have a different answer, we have such a wide range of favourites that we would do anything to collaborate with. Artists such as Charlie Puth, Julia Michaels, The 1975, John Mayer and an 80’s great Phil Collins would be the absolute dream. I think there would be a few teary ballads in that mix..

Are you thinking about live performances for this summer? What is in plan?

Michael: We’re definitely planning on touring as much as we can this year. We’re touring Australia in May first, and we’re hoping to make it overseas in the second half of the year. We’ve just started rehearsing and putting together a new live show which we cannot wait to get back out on stage and perform for people.

Not a lot of people do what they love, but you have succeeded in that, building steadily your career. What would be your advice to fellow musicians to help them do the same?

Scot: Trust the process, and appreciate what you are doing. We are grateful to be in a position that we have amazing people around us that are supporting and contributing to the band’s identity, however we worked really hard to get to this stage. Whether that be touring or knuckling down and writing songs – everything doesn’t just come over night, if you work hard on the music and spend time building the right relationships in the industry it will allow you to involve yourself with music every day. In this day and age, it’s so easy to get caught up with the social side of things and lose the key reason to play, but appreciating the sound you put out there, dedicating yourself to it and focusing your attention to the music then that’s a solid foundation to live by – that’s what we all live by. We would be a band no matter what the circumstances are because we are in love with writing and performing music.

Also, is there any phrase or word, like a motto, that defines you or helps you keep going?

Scot: ‘It’s a marathon not a sprint’ – Matt Purcell

Finally, is there something you would like to say to all your fans out there?

Scot: A massive thank you for giving us a listen and investing your own time to hearing what we have to put out, it has been a long process to get where we are today and we couldn’t have done it without the support everyone has given us.

Interview: Eleni Kefallinos

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