It was a cool Tuesday night at Gramps in the heart of Wynwood. 70 degrees. Uncommon for Miami—even in winter and particularly this late in winter. I got to catch a great 3-set show comprised of local bands Lagoon and MOLD! along with the touring band, Twen.

The night started off with last-minute add-on Lagoon, a side project by Flipper who was filling in for and is the drummer of another local band (Glassbody). Their set was laden with complex textures, a massive sound for just one person onstage, playing music that had a sense of longing and emotional vastness.

Next up was Twen hailing from, as their lead singer said, anywhere and everywhere as her and the guitarist live traveling out of their van. TOUR LIFE!!
Their music and performance was electric and plenty of fun. The singer emoted between phrases with a playful craziness and wide eyes, the music floats between bouts of bursting energy with the sweet harmonies crooned by the singer and the guitarist singing backups.
Their sound was reminiscent of so much, but I can say for sure rock and roll lives deep in this band’s veins, and may I say I hear a bit of twang. I asked them after if they particularly had 70s and 90s rock influence, and they said it “really depends on the song” and their influences are very eclectic.
Right on y’all!

The night ended with a powerful set by local troubadours, MOLD!, who played songs from their self-titled 2nd album.
I have personally been to many MOLD! sets over the years and the best way to describe it is like purifying your soul through a massive wall of sound that is just on the sheer edge of psychedelic noise rock, but that all sits well-and-good with me (as a notorious head-banging shoegazer). They deliver a sound strewn with effect laden vocals and an orchestra of screeching, moaning guitars and deeply modulated synths.
I got a chance to sit down with the creative forces behind MOLD! for a short interview about the band, their process, and their outlook on the life of a musician in Miami:
Who are we talking to from the band today?
Bronto: Technically, the band is Carlo and I, and we play with Frankie and Josh as supporting musicians. Obviously, they’re like family at this point. We’ve played with Josh for a year, we toured with him twice and we’ve played with Frankie for 2 years now.
So that’s mainly the band.
What are your musical and cultural influences?
Carlo: We definitely bring a little bit of what we heard in Peru, we try to do some sort of fusion with that, we’re both from the same city.
You’re both from Peru?
Carlo: Yeah!
Bronto: Actually, fun fact, we were born in the same hospital in the same month.
Carlo: Yeah, yeah, our birthdays have like 10 days difference.
That’s insane
Bronto: That IS insane.
Carlo: He’s almost a Leo! He moved from Peru like 6 months before I moved here… a lot of people think we’re cousins or something, it’s pretty funny. We definitely bring something from back home, we moved here not super young we were probably like 23, or 22.
Bronto: I was 22, you were 23.
Carlo: Yeah, it’s not like we moved here super early in our lives, you know. I think it’s a little different for individuals, for me, I obviously brought the Peru thing that I was doing. Impossible to run away from that. I tried, personally, to make a fusion of that and what’s happening in Miami which is like heavier music, that’s my point of view at least.
Bronto: My point of view is obviously I grew up in the Punk scene over there, and I was checking out a lot of the awesome bands that a lot of friends would play in, and–I don’t know–when I came here I just kept playing. I think I made a really good match when I found Carlo, because he was like the other side of the coin and we just blend each other’s sound and everything.
Carlo: I have a little fun fact actually, when I first moved here I was dreaming of having a jazz band. I had been doing jazz guitar for like 3 years intensely, but playing with Bronto obviously we’re not going to do jazz (all 3 of us laugh), he took me in another Direction you know… and I love it! It’s really cool, and I’ve learned a lot about myself doing this.
Tell us a bit about your process for writing and producing your music.
Carlo: Well, that’s always a little different, you know. I can bring a song, or he can bring a song or we can have a jam session and program a drum loop…
Bronto: We mostly do Jam sessions.
Carlo: I guess mostly they’re Jam sessions, yeah.
So you guys are big on co-writing?
Both Agree
Carlo: Oh yeah, the credits for the songs are always 50/50. We produce them together, we write them together.
Bronto: He takes care more of the sound situation since he’s a sound engineer. We have a record now that he’s mixing and I’m really excited because I see also growth for Carlos and his professional field, and he’s doing amazing! It’s also really good input also because I have the benefit of saying I have someone that can record us.
What are your thoughts on music streaming and the music streaming economy, particularly because you’re always working on music and always writing?
Carlo: Pays like shit, it really sucks…
Bronto: Yeah, pays like shit
Carlo: It could pay so much more but pays so little.
For you guys as songwriters, what does that mean for you when you write, does it matter for you when you’re in your songwriting process? Are you trying to make money songwriting? Is that even possible?
Carlo: That’s the question!
Bronto: I think that that’s a tricky question… of course we want to live from our music like anybody that’s involved with art in their life. They want to make a profit out of it, because art is something that you really put a lot of yourself in it. And it’s kind of really hard to find a balance, you know, you always need to juggle a little around with life.
Sadly, a band is not going to pay your rent immediately, it’s not like you open a business and you see green numbers immediately. It’s a tough way, and I respect a lot of the people who do it. I think it requires a lot of guts from the person who is making art to say, “fuck it, I’m going to live from my art” and stuff like that…
Carlo: And die trying!
Bronto: Yeah, and die trying, it’s something I really respect a lot
Carlo: It’s not aligned with capitalism at all, so you have to just be prepared to before, it just is what it is.
If you could meet your younger self when you were just getting here to Miami, what is one crucial piece of advice you would give yourself?
Carlo: I would tell myself to be highly, highly perseverent. Don’t let anything bring you down. In the end you know what you got inside of you and you should fight for it. It’s a bumpy road of course, ups and downs, lots of ups and downs. You’ve got to not let that bring you down.
Bronto: Yeah, I think I would say the same thing. It’s not going to be easy but you got to do it.
Carlo: It’s not like you have a choice, there’s nothing else you can do.
Bronto: Exactly, at least I can say for Carlo and I, we are 100% committed at this–at what we’re doing. You know we just have a lot of ruthlessness. You just push through it, no matter what happens, nothing can bring you down and you just got to step up and “boom” keep going.
You brought up that you’re working on an album, what are you working on exactly?
Carlo: This is our third album, it’s going to be 13 songs. Right now we’re in the process mixing it. In a couple of weeks we’ll send it to mastering. We’re really excited, it’s a different endeavor, We’re trying to do something ourselves. we’ll see what happens, you know, well, it’s a little experiment. Trying to change the formula of what we’ve done on the other albums, where we worked with Ryan Haft (recent Latin Grammy winner for mixing) co-producing.
Bronto: Which he did a great job
Carlo: Yeah, yeah, he’s a monster!
Bronto: I think if you’re in miami it’s like, Ryan. We were really lucky to work with him twice, because we learned a lot from him, it was just like the process and the time to learn how to make our music sound the way we wanted it to. Like I said, we are very lucky, man, because Carlo is a very good engineer.
So just to finalize the interview, when is your next show? What are you guys doing next?
Carlo
We’ve got a show March 16 at the Sandbox (Miami Beach), another on March 29th in NYC for Brooklyn Made (425 Troutman st. Brooklyn, NY 11237) with Native Sun and This Love , and a show we’ll announce soon that’s happening on April 7th in St Pete.
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You can find MOLD! on instagram, and check them out on Spotify or on any streaming platform! Make sure to look out for their upcoming 3rd album.