Moji had recently quit her job as a Houston-based engineer when she met Frosti Jón Runolfsson in a whiskey bar in Reykjavík, Iceland. She’d already logged several years as a professional vocalist, fronting her own bands in Texas while singing harmonies with artists like Eddie Vedder and Glen Hansard on late-night TV shows. Frosti, too, was a musical vet, balancing his time as a drummer, film maker and DJ. What began with a conversation in a whiskey bar turned into an unexpected songwriting session later that night, when Moji found herself in Frosti’s home studio in Reykjavík, improvising a melody over an instrumental track that Frosti and created with his neighbor. The band took shape that night, with Frosti’s neighbor — guitarist and producer Bjarni — rounding out the trio.
Brought together by a shared love of groove, grit, and guitars, Moji & the Midnight Sons mix their mutual interests — the riff-heavy rawness of Led Zeppelin, the punch of Bruce Springsteen, the dirty swagger of the Rolling Stones, the soul of Big Mama Thorton — into songs about leaving behind old lives and starting new ones. The band recorded What I Saw on the Way to Myself in a former outdoor shed in Iceland, with Bjarni co-producing the sessions alongside Hallur Ingólfsson. There were no isolation booths. No AutoTuning. Instead, the band focused on capturing an honest sound, turning culture clash into some of the hardest-hitting blues-rock on either side of the Atlantic.
In this interview, we chat with this power trio about their new release, influences, navigating the digital music world and more.
Q&A, links and streams can be found below.
The band’s new album, What I Saw on the Way to Myself, is now available!
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Moji: Hi, I’m from Long Island, NY but I have spent a healthy bit of the last ten years in Houston, Texas. I would say the music we create is similar to earlier Rock n Roll– when it still had some soul and blues. But we add a bit of twang to our songs.
Frosti: I´m from the suburbs of Reykjavik and I think we make pretty decent music, (chuckles).
“Rock´n Soul” music
Bjarni: I live in Reykjavík and i´d describe our music as dark soulful rock.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
M: Music is a fairly healthy habit to keep. I’ve always liked music, writing, and the sound of my own voice and I guess that turned into singing/song-writing. I started in my first band when I was 21 or 22– pretty late because y’know college and working, but the after-work hobby slowly consumed my thoughts. You know you’re in the wrong field when you’re writing song lyrics in important meetings. I think there is a bit of mysterious alchemy when it comes to music making- we are the masters of air; turning the intangible into something heavy enough to move the listener. If there’s even a slight chance I can make that happen for myself, the guys, and anyone else that is motivation enough to stay the course.
F: I can´t even remember myself not being immersed in music in some form or another. From my father playing me Little Richard, Buddy Holly & Chuck Berry to my brother giving me my first album when I was four. It was KISS´s DESTROYER and from that moment on there was no turning back. I had a grunge band back in the early 90´s from there got into heavier stuff, psychedelic monster music. After that I started playing the blues more and country rock. Me and Bjarni used to be in a band called ESJA which is where we sowed our country seeds together in a band. I have always been a diverse listener when it comes to music and I think that has leaked out into my own creating of music. About a year or so ago I started making my own music at home and that has changed my whole game. Passion motivates me, it sure as shit ain´t money. Making music makes me feel better and performing it on stage with people whom I love makes me forget about everything else for that short period of time. The excitement of a song being born isn´t compatible to anything, if you got the bug.
Bjarni: Music is my vocation and i´ve been on this path since i was very young boy growing up in Mosfellsbær. I´ve been playing in bands since i was 11 and i´m still at it. Playing music has given me a chance to travel the world and experience things i never dreamt of doing.
I guess staying the course is due to pure stubbornness and the love of creating music.
Who or what are your biggest influences when it comes to your creativity?
M: My biggest influences would have to be my surroundings, especially people I meet or see. I like to imagine their lives, their struggles, their story– is it like mine, better, worse? There are so many layers that can be overlapped and forged into a song. I also like to think of all the incredibly complex lady-musicians who inspire with their uncompromising and gorgeous art (the old greats as well as Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, Grace Jones, Brittany Howard, and Merrill Garbus) the list could go on ad infinitum.
F: The tragic ones, the ones left out. The ones rummageing through the garbage cans of broken dreams.
I´m also a filmmaker at heart so I like storytelling, be it abstract or not.
Little vignettes of humanity.
Weird news & statistics, freak accidents, odd human behaviour, stranger than fiction tales.
I really like that t.v. show COPS.
Bjarni: My early influences were the basic guitar heroes and metal bands but as you grow older you find influences in other things life throws at you. Be it tragedies or joyful experiences i try to find a way to channel the feeling to music. So i guess life is my biggest influence on my creativity.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
M: This is our first release with Moji & the Midnight Sons. My prior projects were funk and jazz-heavy records… very different from M&TMS! From the song writing perspective I wanted there to be honest conveyance of emotions; uncertainty, fear, longing, desperation, and also strength. When the band was conceived in the Summer of 2015, I was at a junction in my life and wasn’t sure of anything other than my desire to say “yes” more. I hoped that open attitude would allow truth to rise to the surface.
F: This one was born out of a series of “coincidences”.
Meeting Moji at a sleazy bar in Reykjavik at midnight did not necessarily mean that a year later we would have an album together.
This was a labour of love and I think we all feel how special this album is. Now we are fast friends and are playing shows together around the world.
These are the benefits we reap. Sometimes you´re just looking too god damn long into the future to smell the roses and tour-bus farts.
Bjarni: This project to me is basicaly going with the flow of things. Sometimes things happen for a reason and you need to see them through. I put my heart and soul into the music i write and i feel a magical connection between the three of us.
Recording wise this album is a weird one and i had a blast doing it. The only thing i wanted to convey was to get the feeling of human beings playing music so no click tracks and keep the warts audible
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
M: Hmmm… challenges. The main challenges as I see them are two fold: there is no road-map to success anymore (how does on get signed, do you want to get signed, etc.) and there is a deluge of options for the public to hear your music but very few will help keep the lights on, so artists have to be more creative marketers than they have had to be in the past. Technology helped this band running. I’m in NY most of the time so communicating online has been the only thing keeping this ship afloat!
F: The challenge now is it´s ALL up to YOU. Which can be a good thing with a little bit of talent and a whole lotta luck.
I´m against this tech-frenzy. I´m old school y´know. I like a little bit of mystery to things.
Bjarni: I didn´t become a musician to get into internet marketing so it frustrates me to be expected to do the boring non-musical aspect of a modern day musician. There are of course pros and cons to this sad state of affairs namely how easy it is to record music and get it out there. The problem is that everybody is doing the same so you have to swim blind through the abyss of other artists in the same situation and hope you get discovered by Team Zissou
How do you feel about streaming services? Any romantic attachments to the physical formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, CDs?
M: That’s a loaded question… I use streaming services and prefer to listen to band whose albums I have already purchased more often than not, at a live gig. I do think there has to be a way for the content creators to get a larger portion of the profit from the content providers. If the creatives can’t afford to make music the whole world (as I know it) collapses! If the world is going to go down I’ll be clutching my CDs tightly.
F: As I said I´m a sucker for nostalgia. I´m not too tech-savy but I´d be stupid not to see the beauty of everyone being able to release music online through streaming. It just means there´s a whole bunch of crap to sift through. Which can be entertaining, don´t get me wrong.
But I can´t say I use it to discover music. That´s not a statement at all, it just doesn´t appeal to me I guess.
I never listen to music on Spotify for example. A dear friend just showed it to me the other day, championing it. Still feels like a 1980´s video game to me.
It ain´t an album until I can smell it.
Bjarni: I use everything. I like the availabilty the streaming sites give you and i love the nostalgia of the physical format.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
M: To follow us online, check out our instagram: @mojimidnightsons. For music, you should buy the album out at ye old’ digital retail shoppe on October 21, 2016. Check out our Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/user-984653689) for the sweet and savory sounds of our two singles, Island and Dog Days of Summer.
F: Given the previous question I feel like a douche but we of course have a soundcloud account and a facebook page and all that.
But our official homepage is : www.mojimidnightsons.com and we´ll be kicking up some dust over there as soon as the album comes out and things start rollin´.
Bjarni: What they said.
Anything else before we sign off?
M: Thanks for taking the time to read the ramblings of our sleep-deprived minds. We appreciate you. Takk Fyrir!
F: Check out our album and see if it tickles your fancy. If it does come check us out in concert when possible and I´ll buy you a beer.
Bjarni: Please listen to the album and help us spread the word.
