BandNation

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard of Mumpsy (or seen their live show), but in case you’re one of the downtrodden, deprived souls that has not…please read on. This Orlando-based band is chugging it’s way up the mountain towards becoming a household word. They think they can, they think they can. I know they can, so climb aboard and grab a window seat on the Mumpsy Express.

Current members are Jeff Ilgenfritz (guitar/lead vox), Chris Rae (multi-intsumentalist), Phil Longo (bass) and Waylon Thornton (drums). The CMJ Collegiate Nationals champions are currently on tour in promotion of their new album entitled “Cat & Canary”, and if you’re lucky, they might be rolling through your town like Chrstmas came early.

Sam Stellar: Tell us how Mumpsy was started and how you guys met.

Jeff Ilgenfritz: I'm not a big fan of singer-songwriters who use their own name when they release albums. Having said that, I first started using the name Mumpsy just to not have to use my own, stupid Jeff Ilgenfritz name. Seriously, who's going to remember that? And Chris Rae and I were in bands in the past, so we each started putting a lot more time and energy into Mumpsy and started seeing people get behind it and start respecting what we were doing. Phil Longo and Waylon Thornton were fans from the start and both had free time to contribute. And now...we are Mumpsy.

Chris Rae: I met Jeff when he was 19 and he came over to a practice that a former band of mine was having. I met Phil Longo when I was 18 and going to UCF, I had seen his bands play around town for awhile. I met Waylon about 4 years ago when he was in Vegas Choir Boys, the gayest band I had ever seen, but he put me in my place when he pulverized me in a drinking contest. Mumpsy began with Jeff wanting to learn how to play guitar better and then wanting to learn how to record better. I was helping Jeff along the way in this transition and then we ended up in The Heathens (reference: myspace.com/weareheathens) together. After The Heathens called it quits I took time off from music before rejoining and putting my heart into Mumpsy. It has drained me ever since.

Waylon Thornton: I met Jeff around 2004(?) when he was playing with a band called "Out". Around that same time Chris was playing with "On Cassette". And Phil, I don't remember how we met, but he is a bartender, so that may have something to do with it. Actually, I think we all shared different stages around town at one point or another.

SS: Although I’m not a big fan of labels, how would you describe Mumpsy’s sound, and what are the band’s musical influences?

JI: I think power-pop, but Rae disagrees. I love the Kinks.

CR: I would have to say the songs bloom out of ideas that all of us have and we are growing further and further into a cohesive direction. I think we started with Exuberance of Peachtree sounding like the LoFi folk charms reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel and Mountain Goats and since have evolved into a mix of Of Montreal, The Kinks, Nada Surf, and Bishop Allen. Although since Dr. Dog has hit the scene and their management has dumped money into PR enough for them to be known more commonly we get the "Hey have you heard Dr. Dog yet? Man they sound just like you guys."

SS: You have a new album out called “Cat & Canary”. Would you mind telling us a little, or a lot, about the recording process of this album?

JI: I think the general premise behind the album is, on each track, some kind of force that's either pulling apart another force or seriously compromising or undermining the other. I don't want to go through all of my lyrics, but there's more than enough evidence on the album to back that statement up. The recording process was basically like the others, whereas I started tracking a lot of the ideas and then had the boys and Kristen Andre (keys) come in and tell me what they thought. Sometimes we started over. Other times, we just kept going. Why fuck up a good thing?

CR: I came in as a full-time member about half-way through the recording process of this album. Jeff has been toying around with some of the songs for over a year and others were brand new to my ears. When I came in I didn't quite know where I would fit in, but immediately started hearing melodies that would fit on certain songs, and just added in some touches, along with helping on the recording and producing of the album. The final product was a fantastic mix of several artists coming together to create a masterpiece. I am just fortunate enough to be a part of it and can't even describe the excitement I am feeling from the new stuff we're writing.

SS: I’m sure the readers wouldn’t mind if you geeked out about the actual process of recording the album.

CR: The entire album was recorded at Brighton Conservatory (Jeff's house) with the use of one Nady TCM-1100, a Behringer T1953 Tube Preamp, and we recorded onto Acid Pro v3.0. It was mastered locally by Darren Hughes. The recording process took a total of 4 months and every track was recorded individually (one instrument/part at a time). It's a real challenge to get a solid "live" sound when you record in this manner, but we were very pleased with the outcome. The only advantage of this process of recording was not having any phasing issues. If you know at all about recording then you would know we don't have enough room or time to discuss how many disadvantages there are to recording like this. :) Jeff, Sean (former member), and myself produced, engineered, and recorded the album, and Jeff edited everything.

SS: What is the song writing process like? Is it collaborative or a one-man-show?

CR: I believe it started off and still is greatly rooted from songs Jeff creates on Acoustic Guitar and then begins singing melodies to. So one man show with how the song is initially created, but before a final product is heard several minds and hands create what surrounds that root.

JI: I write a lot of the songs... OK, I write 90% of the songs. So what? I hate one-man band kinda things, and honestly, there's no point in playing these songs by myself because I envision a full band behind me playing them. It's because of this that makes me want to say I don't write any of the songs... But I do.

WT: The new stuff we have been working on is very much a team effort. We are free to experiment with new ideas and I feel everybody's input is taken into consideration.

SS: Do you have a favorite song on the new CD?

WT: Right now, maybe "Head in Hands" is my favorite to listen to. The whole song is one big crescendo and Sean's violin parts are amazing!!!!

CR: I really like Change of Heart because I can sit back and listen to it and not even think about it being a song that a band I play in created. It's one of the most dynamic songs we have ever created. There is this part after the first chorus where back-up vocals, flute, and everything just opens up like a flower, much the way Folk Implosion can do at times when I listen to them.

JI: Yes! Head in Hands!

SS: How was the tracklist determined?

CR: Ask Jeff. I know we bought a Cat and Canary whistle at Satchel's in Gainesville and Jeff wrote the title track shortly after that, but I forget details like that. I usually forget everything for a couple of weeks after visiting Gainesville and smoking its amazing weed.

JI: Over the course of several months, and with many multiple tracklistings. I wrote "Cat & Canary" last, because we knew we wanted to call it that, and because I thought we didn't have a competent opening track. "Cat & Canary," therefore, was the obvious choice. Then, one night, Longo and I were at the Social and the tracklisting popped into my head. It was perfect.

SS: Were there any songs that didn’t make it onto this CD that you wish would have?

JI: Oh yeah. But they're going to pop their ugly heads up somewhere else. I, personally, had written 15 for the round; we picked ten solid ones. The rest were pretty good, too.

CR: I think we have a B-Side Track list thats up to like 40 unreleased songs now. I have no clue what we will ever do with those or if anyone will ever hear them, but at least we're writing songs.

SS: What is your most favorite and/or proudest moment with Mumpsy so far?

WT: Winning the Collegiate Nationals has probably been my favorite so far. They flew us out to San Diego to play our set while a flowboarding competition was going on right next to the stage.

CR: Between the alcohol, me having MS, and also having never played guitar in a band before I get excited everytime I don't fuck up a solo. I also sang over the phone from a high speed Ferry I was taking from Nantucket back to Hyannis last August when I was on vacation. That was pretty memorable.

JI: I think the first time we played out of state, in Wilmington, North Carolina is a special memory for me. Not knowing anybody there who came out to see us was great. Of course, playing Cinevegas 07 in Las Vegas and meeting Ron Jeremy was probably the most surreal. That guy is such an asshole. Oh yeah, John Frusciante (from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) namedropped us in an interview. That was magic all over. And playing San Diego at the Wavehouse while CBS televised it nationally was pretty dope.

SS: Along those lines, any embarassments, mishaps or crazy shit you'd like to share?

WT: Chris Rae is all three of those bundled up into one person.

CR: At the Exuberance of Peachtree CD release party (2005), I got shit tanked and Jeff asked me to play a couple songs with him, cause at that time he was playing solo. And I played "Sir Lancelot" with him, then I laid on the floor of the stage for the next song, playing floor tom with my hand. Then I sat up, asked if we could play "that one song," then sang Sir Lancelot to him. Jeff then said, looking petrified, "We just played that one."

JI: Jesus...Any night whiskey is involved in copious amounts. Actually, we played a show in Maitland, FL and had a stand-in drummer that didn't know our songs. Who had toured with us before. That was a... terrible, terrible... show.

SS: Ok, enough about the band as a whole. Let’s get to know you individually.

JI: Mmmahllllllright.

SS: Do you remember when you fell in love with music?

CR: I have always had an extreme passion for music and my parents tell me I used to walk around the hospital where my grandfather worked singing Man Eater by Hall and Oates when I was three. The moment music hit me with an intense love was when my father smashed my Guns 'n Roses Use Your Illusion II CD. I was playing Get in the Ring, which has a decent amount of fucks in it and my dad flipped out asked for the CD and broke it in half. I felt like I was living in a Twisted Sister video. The most fucked up part is my dad got me into Guns 'n Roses 4 years before that when he bought Appetite For Destruction on cassette the day it was released. Boy I sure was sucking on the teets of Irony that night.

JI: I remember fondly. I was five years old and heard the forgettable Zager & Evans on the radio in my mom's van. "In the Year 2525" scared the shit out of me forever from that moment on, and I realized that art could make you think, could be catchy, and could push boundaries and scare the shit out of a five year old all at the same time. I got my first drum set at nine years.

WT: No, it's pretty much always been there.

SS: Did you grow-up in a musical environment?

WT: Definitely. Mostly everybody on my mother's side of the family played music.

CR: My Uncle sang and played Keys in a band that would entertain his friends and family and mainly do cover songs. My mom would play Piano quite often, but no one in my family was really that good at playing music. Don’t ever tell anyone in my family that though.

JI: Yeah, all my brothers played instruments so we all jammed with one another and wrote really bad grunge songs. It was a wonderfully intuitive time as a little kid because I was just enjoying my time with my brothers and hanging out, listening to tunes. Not too unlike Mumpsy now, really...minus the grunge songs.

SS: When did you start playing music, and what was your first instrument?

JI: 1994. I was nine and played drums.

WT: I took piano lessons when I was 6. I quit about a year later. Then I played french horn for 4 months in 6th grade. But I remember being really young and wanting to play drums. Finally when I was in 8th grade my mom got me into lessons.

CR: When I was in 4th Grade I had the option to take trumpet in Elementary School. I played trumpet until I was 15 and then played in a couple of unsuccessful ska bands in high school.

SS: What instrument(s) comes naturally to you, and what instrument(s) do you find to be most challenging?

WT: I love playing drums, guitar and bass. They feel pretty comfortable for me. I have a mandolin and a sitar that I'm still trying to figure out.

JI: Drums, definitely, comes naturally and all of a sudden. I can hear the entire song and exactly what I need to do on it. However, piano is tricky and organ can be, too. I love all of the instruments, though.

CR: I picked up Bass Guitar when I was 18 and had just begun college and played in several bands. I love playing bass and pop melodies come very naturally to me on that instrument. I am now 27 and I play Guitar, Percussion, and Keys for Mumpsy, none of which I know how to play. They are all very challenging. I always joke and say I'm not a very good musician I'm just good at memorizing things.

SS: What was the first album that you can remember listening to over and over again almost obsessively?

WT: I think probably Metallica's "Master of Puppets". When I was younger I wanted to learn every drum fill on that album.

CR: At The Drive In - In Casino / Out ...I went on a road trip once and listened to this album repeat the whole way and never got sick of it once. I can put that album on at any time and all I picture is spending a week in Nashville and lots of Kentucky countryside as odd as that seems.

JI: Green Day, "Kerplunk!"

SS: What was the most recent album that you had to listen to repeatedly?

CR: Why? - Alopecia ...I was an Anticon fanboy when I lived in Gainesville and was very into cloudDead and then a couple months ago saw Why? was coming to town, it had been a couple years and I was excited to hear his new stuff as I had entirely forgotten him. I was blown away by his new approach as an Indie Rock artist and can't seem to pull myself away from it. I now kick myself in the head wondering how many other great bands I have forgotten about that are still around making fantastic music. That's one of the only great things for me that has come out of this industry of over-saturated make or break bands. I get to rediscover loves for bands I have already loved.

JI: Flowers Forever, "Flowers Forever"

WT: It's a toss up between Stephen Malkmus' "Real Emotional Trash" and Supergrass' "Diamond Hoo-Haa".

SS: What’s in your CD player/iPod right now?

WT: Lots of Beatles, Pink Floyd, Malkmus, Pixies, Kinks.......

CR: Why?, Built to Spill, Nada Surf, Of Montreal, Tapes N Tapes, White Rabbits, Andrew Bird, Halo Benders, MK Ultra (John Vanderslice's old band, not the shitty hardcore band), David Bowie, The Kinks, Spoon, Violent Femmes, The Walkmen, The Explodings Hearts, The Dismemberment Plan, Tres Bien, win win Winter

JI: I have Crutch & the Giant Junshi in my laptop. Does that count? He's a singer-songwriter from Orlando who doesn't use his real name. I love it already.



SS: Of all the songs you play live, which is the most fun to play?

JI: I would say "Ain't it Hard (When it's over)," "Thanks to You," "Question Mark (In the air above my head)," and "Worried Mind."

CR: IOWA CITY, because I have so much to do on that song and it's a lot of fun for me. WT: I like when we break out one of the "Misfits" covers. The crowd likes to go crazy

with those. SS: Is there a song that you never want to play again?

CR: I don't think there are any, they are all so different and fun for me.

JI: Nope. They're like children. Slow-witted, dull children that, goddamnit, you just have to like and love for the rest of your life because someone is gonna overhear you talking shit about one of them and then you'll have them taken away from you forever. You'll never be able to live that one down... Every time you even think about humming it, you'll remember that one person's quip about liking it despite the fact that you don't. And then you'll be a bad father.

SS: If you could collaborate with anybody, alive or dead, who would it be?

JI: I'd collaborate with Ray Davies from the Kinks. And I would tell Liszt and Paganini that they were really good, although they couldn't write a good pop song if they wanted to.

CR: Thelonius Monk, because for fuck's sakes we need a good piano player. B.B. King for the same reason (but on guitar while he sits in a chair).

SS: What’s the line-up of your dream concert? (again, alive or dead)

CR: If I could have opened up for Stephen Malkmus and John Vanderslice this past spring, that would have been my dream concert.

JI: Mumpsy, then Mamas & the Papas, then Beethoven.

SS: What thrills you the most about making music?

WT: When everybody's individuality combines to create one unique sound. It can be pretty amazing.

CR: That's what thrills me- making it. Writing it is the best part. Getting to perform it live in front of people is a different thrill but still very rewarding.

JI: Releasing albums and doing music videos. Oh, yeah, and expressing my inner-most thoughts via cryptic lyrics and guitar chords.

SS: What frustrates you the most about making music?

WT: That I can't afford to do it full time.

CR: That we don't have the capital to pay for an advertising campaign like Vampire Weekend or Black Kids, because we may be the same with regards to songwriting or talent, no one will ever hear us, or at least not to that capacity.

JI: Practicing can sometimes get frustrating. It's really more about having fun with Mumpsy, which is the best part, I think.

SS: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

JI: I'd be going to school. I mean, I am now, too. But I would be really good at going to school. Ya dig?

WT: I'd probably be married, have a few kids, looking forward to that next big promotion....

CR: I would probably be lying in my grave.

SS: Other than music, what do you like to make? In other words, what do you like to do when you’re not making music?

JI: I make felt paintings. Like, the fabric. They're pretty sweet looking. I also like to make sandwiches and kool-aid. Oooohhh Yeeeaaahh!

CR: I like to bike, go to shows, cook up vegan concoctions, read about magnetism, play smash brothers. Oh what do I like to make? Love.

JI: (When not making music) I like to talk to friends, play Smash Brothers on the Nintendo 64 console, drink alcohol, play cards and ride my bike to work.

SS: What’s next for Mumpsy?

CR: We are leaving Post Records after seeing the release of Cat & Canary through and are looking to somehow impress someone important, enough to be offered an agent, manager, and new label. We are the type of band that would be touring and writing music 365 days a year as long as we had enough money for food and rent.

JI: Mumpsy IS next! Booyah!

SS: Ok, so everybody is listening…what would you like to say to them?

CR: Stay in School and Don't Do Drugs.

JI: Pfmfp....I can't think of anything to say to them, other than, "Hello! I'm Jeff. How are you?"

If ya don’t know, now ya know! I’m not gonna to tell you what they sound like. Check ‘em out for yourselves on Myspace at www.myspace.com/mumpsy, and once you decide they’re your new fave band, you can buy “Cat & Canary” at www.post-records.com

If you live in or near one of these fine cities, doyourself a solid and go see ‘em do it live.

Mumpsy Tour Dates:
November 08, 2008 – Caffé da Vinci – Deland, FL
November 13, 2008 – Anti-Pop Music Festival – Orlando, FL
November 29, 2008 – Backbooth – Orlando, FL

Click to view the Mumpsy Slideshow