The McLovins are no strangers to festivals- they had their big debut at Gathering of The Vibes in 2009 and have been prevalent on the scene ever since! The band planned to get extra weird at Catskill Chill, so The Music Vibes caught up with drummer Jake Huffman and Guitarist Justin Berger to see what exactly we were getting ourselves into. Jake and Justin were an absolute pleasure and left us stoked for their performance that afternoon. The band performed in giant furry costumes and, while waiting for the show to start in the photo pit, it was pretty funny to hear the members of Grant’s Tomb warn The McLovins that their headpieces were about to bump into the top of stage! While the costumes were silly, the performance, which featured collaboration with the horn players from Grant’s Tomb composed by McLovins guitarist and keyboardist, Atticus Kelly, was a display of serious talent. George Porter, Jr. joined in on the fun for the classic “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang. If you have the festival’s headliner making an appearance during YOUR performance, it’s safe to say you’re doing something right! The band opened for George Porter, Jr. at the Red Square in Albany, NY earlier in the summer and they busted out the same crowd-pleaser at Vibes this year. From our favorite funk-masters to our friends and peers, it’s safe to say The McLovins are becoming a new favorite. Read on to find out what The McLovins are up to and see for yourself how incredibly humble they’ve remained- even when the Chillfam treats them like rockstars!
Mia: Can you tell us about your experience coming up in the festival scene with Vibes?
Jake: Oh, definitely. Well, five years ago we played Gathering of the Vibes, that was the first festival we played, and we got that gig because of the “You Enjoy Myself” video. It was around April, after that year, Ken Hays [GOTV’s founder] emailed us and he asked us if we wanted to be part of it. He actually emailed my mom because she was managing us, we were like 15 so yeah, it was a little bit different. Vibes was our first festival experience; it was the biggest show we’d played at the time. There were probably [about] 500 people there. After that show, it was kind of a turning point where we realized that that’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to play music. So the next year after that we really tried to play as many festivals, so we played Snoe.Down, that next year, and Mountain Jam, and Nateva Music Festival, and Strange Creek and Wormtown. We kind of really wanted to be in the festival scene. That’s how we really placed into the scene, it all started with Vibes.
We’re going on 6 years, so I think it’s like 5 ½ we’ve been together. I met Jason [Ott] and Jeffery [Howard] within the same week. I met Jason at a Jazz camp then a week later Jeffery at a rock camp. Then the next week I invited them over my house to jam and we just had really good chemistry. About a month later after 1 or 2 little gigs we played, we posted videos on youtube and that of went viral, and that’s how we got our start.
Mia: I saw you posted on Facebook that you’re VMA-bound, so is there another video in the works? What’s going on with that?
Jake: Laughs. Yeah, we actually have been working with- he does a lot of documentaries for companies and stuff- but his name’s Paul Horton. We’re releasing a new album in January and we’re trying to do everything we can to promote the new album, and so our plan is to post three different music videos up until we release the video to gain some momentum for the release. So, two of them are acoustic. We played our songs acoustic, like one is on the street corner at 9 at night in Middletown so there’s all these people walking by. We didn’t tell anyone about it so it’s super random, it’s a really cool video. Then one of them, we’re still not done, we spent a week working on it before and we have a couple more dates in September. It’s a narrative music video for one of our songs, “Birthday.” So that one’s going to be really cool. It’s really weird and funny. That’s going to be- we’re trying to get that to go viral in December when we post it, so that’s the VMA post.
Mia: What’s your experience with the Chillfam? We heard you plan to get super weird here- why here?
Jake: This is one of our favorite festivals to go to. There’s really no festival like the Chill just because they really do pamper you, they kind of treat you like rock stars. You don’t feel like rock stars all year until you go to Chill. You know, because you get to go to the Greenhouse and then there’s all these artists around you and they give you whatever you want. They’ll radio things in for you. And then, the people here are just really chill. It’s not like crazy electric zoo where everyone’s just here to rage super hard, they’re here because they’re all supporting music. It’s like the last hurrah of summer festivals. It’s cool, last year was our first time here and this year our show is very different and weird. It’s going to be probably the best show that we’ve played all summer. This festival has some good vibes, probably because the water is so clear up here.
Mia: Do you have members of Grant’s Tomb playing with you?
Jake: Yes. Atticus our guitar player, he’s actually only going to play keyboards today, is amazing at arranging music. Mike Bafundo, he’s kind of head of Grant’s Tomb, he went to the same high school that Atticus and I did, it’s like a jazz high school/academy of the arts. We made a lot of connections through that school. So we’ve been friends with Grant’s Tomb for a while and they opened up for us a couple of weeks ago at Keene State. We always stay in touch with them and Atticus was like, “Yo, how about for Vibes and Chill, I’ll arrange 5 or 6 tunes and we’ll just have a giant horn section and make it like a big party?” And we’re like, “Yeah, that’s a great idea!” So he spent about 12 hours a tune- he was spending weeks, he wasn’t doing anything but arranging. He wrote all these parts, like 5 piece horn arrangements. That’s really hard to do! It’s amazing what he did. You’ll see that in a couple hours.
Mia: How has your songwriting been, especially since having Tom Marshall working with you?
Jake: Actually ever since “Cohesive,” our song writing process has changed a lot. It used to be where we’d just come to practice with an idea. We’d be like, do you want to write a song today? We’d just kind of jam out until we had this kind of Frankenstein, weird piece of music that we put together. Then after “Cohesive,” we really started to focus on structured tunes, the harmony behind it, and the lyrics. Normally what happens is someone will have a rough idea sketched out and they’ll come to practice. I primarily am the one who writes the lyrics for the tunes, but recently for “Samson” and “Shivers” and “Yankee Rose,” Atticus and the other guys were like, we’ll hop on the tunes. But Atticus and I are kind of the main force of the lyric writing and then Justin and Atticus and Jason really put more structure to everything. It’s a full on team process, so it’s cool, we hear it from all angles.
Mia: You love your fanbase so much that you call them the 5th McLovin. What’s your interaction with them and how do they affect your playing?
Jake: Yeah! Because we started really young it was really cool, when you’re 15, to have thousands of people who are older to you, like 25 to 50, just raging out in front of you. We couldn’t, we wouldn’t play the way we do without them. If we just went on stage and there was no one there it would be kind of a bummer. The fans- I don’t want to say fans because that sounds pretentious- the people who come to our shows are really, they’re the reason why all of the artists are here. We’re just trying to have them smile and have a good time.
Mia: Are you reminded of your younger selves at all seeing Bobby Paltauf on stage?
Jake: Yeah, definitely.
Justin: He’s a little different. He’s put his foot in the door with his blues style.
Jake: It’s really cool to see him. It’s great because you know that you’ll see him in 15 years doing the same thing.
Mia: Anything else you’d like to share?
Jake: Yeah, our album’s coming out in January. As of right now, it’s called “Beautiful Lights.” There’s going to be three music videos coming out- probably October, November, and December and we’re just going to keep on playing.
Mia: How have you been balancing working on the album with touring?
Jake: It’s been good, we didn’t play as many shows this summer because we were all kind of doing our thing. Justin was interning at Milkboy Studios. I got a job, I’m a composer at Sesame Street now, so I’ve been doing that. It’s been great, you know. We recorded the album in April so it’s just been getting mixed and mastered right now, so it’s not too much more work. We’re planning out how we’re going to market it. Tell people to like us on Facebook!
You heard the man- LIKE The McLovins on Facebook! Also be sure to catch them on Fall Tour and stay tuned for an album this winter!
Catskill Setlist:
Tracy>
Run Like Hell (Pink Floyd)>
Brickbone
Cohesive*>
Lenny (Grant’s Tomb)*
Samson*>
Shivers*
Cripple Creek (The Band)*>
Lenny (Grant’s Tomb)*
Rapper’s Delight (The Sugarhill Gang)*^
* – with Grant’s Tomb Horn Section
^ – with George Porter Jr.
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