Interview: Jacob Sharp (Mipso)

Composed entirely of North Carolina natives and UNC Chapel Hill graduates, folk rock quartet Mipso has played across the U.S. and Europe, but loves returning to The Orange Peel, which hosts the group on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Taking a break from a weeklong full-band writing retreat in a cabin just outside of Blowing Rock, mandolinist Jacob Sharp (who now calls Los Angeles home) spoke with Asheville Stages about Asheville’s musical allure, the power of reptilian instruments, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has made Mipso a stronger band.

Edwin Arnaudin: I’ve been digging the new — or, well, the self-titled album. Is this still being called “the new album” with all the craziness of COVID? 

Jacob Sharp: You know, that’s part of the funny moment we're in where those songs are old to us. We took the most time we'd ever taken for that album in pre-production. We started working on that album almost a year before we got in the studio, and then it came out over a year after we recorded it, and then we sat at home for a year after that.

So, it's a funny relationship because, technically, this is the album release tour. And a lot of the songs ahead of the west coast leg, which was in September, we had never played live and honestly hadn't really learned. The way we record for the studio, that's not necessarily how we're going to play the song live, so we kind of had to relearn the songs for stage. 

It's kind of magical. It's forced us to have a different conception of what these songs mean, and to be sharing them publicly for the first time with our fans, who have had a lot longer to get to know the recorded version, it's been really fun because we're not catching anyone off guard. Normally on an album release tour, most people haven't really digested all the new material yet.  They want to hear the old stuff, you want to play the new stuff — and now it's kind of all old and all new in a good way.

EA: In general, what's it like being back on tour after that hiatus? 

JS: You know, it's surreal. We've been a band for a long time, and from the time we graduated from UNC until the pandemic, we never took more than, like, a month without going on tour, at least having a weekend of shows. So it was something that I think, at that point in reflection, we realize now that maybe we were taking parts of it for granted. It felt almost mundane and normal to go on tour and get to play music for people five or six nights a week, most weeks a year. 

And we have been reflecting, getting back this summer and fall and ahead of this winter tour, just what a present privilege it is to know that people can be together in a space and be sharing something as important and collectively emotional as music is for us as live music fans and also performers. So, yeah, it's surreal and awesome, and we're happy that we're not touring at the breakneck pace that we were in our mid-20s, but really looking forward to each and every moment that we get now. 

EA: Are there things that have taken on new significance on tour and things that…maybe not necessarily you took for granted before, but just things that have evolved with being on tour this time?

JS: Definitely. And I would say that we were taking some stuff for granted. Not that I'm  embarrassed about that, but it feels natural that the thing that you do the most in your 20s becomes something that's easy to not have in full focus. What we're most cognizant of now is how important the little things are, like the hilarity of getting seven or eight people into a van in the morning and into a hotel room at night and everything in between. 

All those moments, which previously maybe were a little more like herding cats, now feel like this magical circus. And similarly, getting on stage — sound checks have been really fun and much less rote and much more free and performative. So, we've been having a lot of fun experimenting. Maybe a good way to put it is “being a little less precious about it.” We're there,  wrinkles and all for everybody, as they are with us, and it's really easy to feel good about that right now. 

EA: You mentioned you've been in LA for the last little bit. How else have you been spending your time during the pandemic, especially during the lockdown quarantine part of it?

JS: At the beginning of the quarantine, we were mixing the album still. When it hit, we decided, "Let's push the release date, like, five months." And that gave us the luxury of going back into the box and taking a harder look at some of the tunes. So, we felt really active. We were still talking on zoom every other day, like we do — like we did in normal times. And we did a lot of remote performances also during the front end of the pandemic. We got together three or four different times for, like, 10 day chunks that kind of felt like band camp where we self-produced a lot of music videos and put together a live stream performance.

So, we were lucky in that time that we felt really present and engaged. And then I think in the months in the winter afterwards, all of us kind of retreated into the solo worlds that we do. Everyone has some sort of side project, whether that's  co-writing for other people or with other people. [Fiddler] Libby [Rodenbough] put out an album last year, as did [bassist] Wood [Robinson]. [Guitarist] Joseph [Terrell] recorded one during the pandemic that he'll put out soon. So, we kind of all were working on other musical projects and also focusing on balancing the rest of our life, too. It was cool: we were able to pay attention to the things that, when you're gone 250 days a year, you don't get to pay attention to. And that felt both challenging and super beautiful. 

EA: And speaking to those days on the road, it seems like y'all have made The Orange Peel your Asheville home for the last little while. From the eyes of a touring artist, how do you feel like Asheville has evolved over the years?

JS: Oh man. The Orange Peel... What a crazy thing that that's a home away from home! Even, North Carolina loyalty aside, it just is one of the best places to perform. And, from my perspective, to see a show, too. I grew up in Morganton and was a live music obsessed middle and high schooler who drove to Asheville or got my older brother to drive me all the time. My first concert was String Cheese Incident at the Civic Center when I was in sixth grade. And then after that I think I saw Toubab Krewe at The Orange Peel, like, three times a year for five years. 

And then when Mipso started, the first places we played outside of Chapel Hill were Boone and Asheville, and those were the places we've returned to the most since. So, we feel lucky to have played so many amazing venues in Asheville, from Isis Music Hall and The Grey Eagle. We started at LAB downtown. We've played a lot of outdoors stuff, too, during the summer months. And now the last...I guess this is our third headlining show at The Peel, and it's such a easy place to connect with the crowd. And the crew there are so amazing. So, yeah, it does feel like home away from home. And this tour starts there, which is going to be amazing. Sometimes the first show, you can be a little nervous. You don't have your tour legs under you, but it will be pretty easy to bring it at The Orange Peel.

Photo by Chris Frisina

EA: Excellent! Yeah, it does seem like more and more folks are choosing to start in Asheville. I know there's not always the control there, but The Lumineers started their tour at The Civic Center a couple of years ago with two shows, and that felt pretty special to have them there. So, yeah, it's always cool when people can have that good Asheville crowd to get them going and send them into the world.

JS: Totally. We hear all the time. When we travel, a lot of our musical peers are jealous that we're from North Carolina. I think we all know how special it is. Both in the mountains — in Asheville, especially — and then also in the Triangle, there's so many top-notch venues and bands that also feel very casual. We're spoiled for the amount of places that we have that are good music venues. There are so many great cities that don't have a good music venue of every capacity size, and Asheville and the Triangle has a great venue at every capacity size. So, touring bands look forward to growing there. 

And then Asheville especially just has such a charm. The amount of touring bands that are from the west coast or up north who are kind of obsessed about Asheville and want the tour to start there or want to record at Echo Mountain, or want to have a day off in Asheville, it's a special part of I think why... I mean, it starts with the crowds and the music fans and having people like you that highlight the music, too. But then it does play a fact that most bands who tour frequently tell their booking agent management, "We have to play Asheville this year." So, it really is a unique and special spot.

EA: Definitely. You mentioned Echo Mountain and being spoiled and…obviously, y'all tracked the bulk of this album there. I like to ask everyone I can that goes there, what about it stands out to you? What drew you there and then what was the experience like this time?

JS: Well, the record before this, we recorded in Eugene, Oregon, in the winter. And that record is dark and gloomy — in an honest way. That's where we were in our personal lives, I think. And that's definitely what the season was. It was the January that Trump got inaugurated, and it was 40 degrees and rainy every day. So, as we were approaching this batch of songs, we noticed that they kind of had a sunnier perspective. And we wanted to record closer to home and knew so many records that have been recorded at Echo Mountain that we love the sound of. As we were planning it, it was the natural landing spot. 

And then what it brought that was special to the project is... well, it's run by amazing people who really care about all the artists being comfortable and having an enriching time in Asheville, both in the studio and in the hours outside of it. You know, it's a church with this huge live room that gives you part of its iconic sound. And it also is one of the most comfortable places to have downtime. It has an amazing shared kitchen and game room, and it really encourages the studio feeling like home and being a place where everyone has space to be comfortable in the wide variety of emotional spaces that a recording journey is. So, it just creates this environment that's very camp-like in that everyone wants to be there more. It makes work not feel like work, which is also a trait of music. But it's just a perfect curator for that type of energy.

EA: And you mentioned these songs being sunnier, a little bit more positive. And I was curious, having those done before the pandemic and then looking at them now, have certain ones taken on a new meaning for you over the course of this bizarre year and a half?

JS: Definitely. And I would say, too, that the songs maybe feel a little bit sunnier than they are. A lot of them have some element of acknowledging that maybe things look a little bit better than they feel. And so for that reason, I think they suit the multi-dimensional understanding that the pandemic has brought. And a couple of them especially, like “Big Star,” “Shelter,” and “Hourglass,” all stand out to me as songs that we kind of thought we knew what they meant to us when we were writing and recording them, and definitely since the pandemic and mixing them through that process and then releasing them and now playing them live with the context that we all share... yeah, they have kind of showed a different side of themselves.

EA: And I liked reading about how y'all brought in some unusual instruments in the start of the writing process. What did you bring to the table for that part of the album writing?

JS: Initially, the thing that we were all most focused on was getting different types of sounds out of an acoustic guitar. There's a lot of foam-muted guitar, and now, actually, on stage, Joseph frequently plays a rubber bridge guitar, which has a similar sound. So that was personally what I was most drawn to playing on. But one of the sounds that stands out to me when listening back to the record is on on big star, one of the key parts of the rhythmic beat that Yan [Westerlund], our drummer, came up with is played on a turtle shell, and it has this amazing pull whenever you hear it. And that was at Echo Mountain. We wouldn't have had that sound if we hadn't been there. That, to me, is one of the coolest little recorded moments that surprise me still. 

EA: And lastly, you were mentioning that y'all are at a writer's retreat right now. So, is the next project already kind of starting?

JS: Yeah, it is. And it's really exciting. We love that we have now a deep catalog of music that people have relationships with. And it's fun to play those old songs, but I think we find the most joy when we're sharing new stuff together and figuring out what that means to the person who brought it and then how, collectively, we can give it more meaning. So, it feels fun to be at the start of a new chapter and we're going in pretty relaxed. We don't have a producer in mind or dates in the recording studio booked. It's more a space that we've created this week and that will continue to create where we can kind of define what it is that we're most excited about and where we think we can uniquely jump in together. 

I think a lot of the pandemic for us became a process of recommitting to this thing. It's like this baby that we created that has, at times, as I kind of said, been easy to take for granted or resent. Often, it felt like the thing we started by accident in our late teenage years that then defined our early adulthood, you know? And we kind of found a way to claim that back and to be really grateful for the relationships that we've created together. And it's this unique bond of having played, I think at this point just over 1,000 shows together, and that's something that'd be hard to find with anybody else. So we're at this moment where we're just letting the ideas flow and remembering what each person in the band uniquely brings and what's special about them and trying to find a way to highlight that.

EA: So, an all turtle show album, right? [laughs]

JS: [laughs] A symphony of turtle shells! That's exactly right. Yeah. Tell our record label. They'll be pumped. It's gonna be a hit.

IF YOU GO

Who: Mipso with Lowland Hum
When: Wednesday, Dec. 1, 8 p.m.
Where: The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Ave., theorangepeel.net
Tickets: $22 advance/$25 day of show

(Photo: DL Anderson Pictures)