Mom Jeans. is a four piece band that is originally based out of Berkley, CA. The band is composed of Eric Butler, Austin Carango, Gabriel Paganin, and Bart Starr. I recently had the opportunity to conduct an email interview Eric. Check it out!
Rapid-fire Q'ssssss
1. Who would win in a fight? The Boss Baby or a Juggalo version of The Boss Baby?
-def the juggalo version no question. Like assuming they are completely equal juggalo boss baby is gonna fight dirty and take down the regular boss baby
2. Whats the band’s group text name?
-I can't really think of a name cuz it's less of a group chat and more just all of us trying to one-up each other and beat each others’ high scores in the Fb messenger games
3. Can you add me to the band’s group text?
-nope too many secrets and compromising photos of myself and bart
4. Can you guys do a cover of Dancing Queen and post it somewhere?
-honestly would be super down I fucking LOVE abba
5. Can you help me fake my death so I don’t have to pay off my student debt?
-honestly I got my own damn debt to worry about I can't take on the responsibility of that
6. What music have you been into lately?
-been jamming a lot of Hop Along, Kississippi, Just a Friends, Nervous Dater, Retirement Party, Prince Daddy & the Hyena, Mover Shaker, Looming, Charly Bliss, and Awakebutstillinbed
7. We’ve been trying to come up with a slogan for the site. Do you have any suggestions?
-nah I'm hella bad at that shit
8. Last book you read?
-Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma
9. My friend Taylor and I recently took a 3,000 mile road trip, and that car smelled like booty. Any advice for Taylor on making that car even smellier?
-play shows every day and don't change your clothes and also keep all your dirty socks in a trash bag that you leave half-open in the back
10. If you ever meet Ray Romano, can you tell him that I love him?
-I'll try my darndest
Isaac Gutierrez for Born Loser.: Can you give us some background on your band?
Eric Butler of Mom Jeans.: -long story short we're just a group of friends who like playing music and like meeting new people and making new friends
Where are you guys from? How did you guys meet?
-we're from all over the state of California. I (Eric) am from the Bay Area, Bart lives in Fresno, and Gabe and Austin live near LA. Austin, Gabe, and I met at college in Berkeley and that's where the band started and we became friends. We met Bart through playing shows together with his other band
What are your biggest fears?
-being late and or being on tour without a phone charger
What kind of music did you grow up listening to ?
-personally I listened to a lot of everything. My favorite bands growing up were Barenaked Ladies, Green Day, and Earth Wind and Fire
Do you have a specific moment when you realized that you wanted to pursue music?
-I feel like I've always wanted to do music in some capacity. I always figured I'd be playing music in one way or another but I honestly never thought I'd ever be in a position where I was playing in a band that would do well enough for us to pursue it full time.
If you weren’t pursuing music, what do you think that you would be doing?
-no freaking clue, probably working some bullshit job trying to scrape money together to pay bills. I have a degree in sociology but it's hard to get a job that pays well enough to support living in the Bay Area. Gabe and Austin are both really smart so they'd both be working big boy jobs probably.
A while back, you tweeted about the band getting its own cooking show. What would you name the cooking show?
-honestly not sure what we'd call the cooking show but I think it'd be pretty fun to have bands over and cook together and kinda do a lil interview type thing and put it on YouTube.
Do you guys watch the pizza show? It's a personal goal of men to eat at every place on that show.
-Yea we hella like the pizza show we went to their place in Brooklyn last time we were there it was epic
I’ve been watching your Audiotree Live session nonstop for like 2 weeks. I noticed that you guys were wearing Soul Glo and Just Friends tshirts. I think it’s dope to see bands supporting other bands. How would you describe the DIY music community? Do you see a lot of support within the DIY community?
-I mean at least to us it's only natural to rep your friend. Besides the fact that Sam from Just Friends basically clothes our entire band with all the stuff he gives us it's a nice gesture to like buy your friends’ merch and I think that wearing and repping each other's bands is a small but powerful way to support each other that requires pretty low effort
I watched an interview you guys did where you talked about there being certain barriers you don’t have to face as cis white males, and the importance of using the platform you have as a band. How important is it to you to support those who are a part of marginalized groups? In what practical ways could other people who maybe don’t have as big of a platform show support and maybe even be a voice for these groups?
-I think it's super important for everyone to at least feel obligated to facilitate dialogue about how to make the music scene in general more inclusive, and I mean I think it would be honestly irresponsible of us to not realize how much of our ability to tour, make music, meet people, and share our music is facilitated by non-male individuals, queer individuals, and individuals of color. Without those individuals who book us shows, let us crash at their house, share their art with us, we wouldn't be able to do the things we do and survive it all, so it's a no brainer that being vocal about making sure that underrepresented communities are treated fairly however we can. Not only is it the right thing to do to try and make music communities more inclusive, but I honestly believe that it leads to better art better shows and better experiences when talented artists are valued for who they are and put on the same pedestal and given the same opportunities as every white boy pop punk band who thinks they're the next big thing
How was touring with Tiny Moving Parts and Oso Oso?
-tour was epic, honestly epic is all I can say. So fun
What do you miss the most while you’re on tour?
-I miss my bed and my dog and my partner a lot but I also miss sleeping in and cooking my own meals and playing video games
Your guys live pretty far away from each other. How does band practice work for you guys?
-we kinda just make it work lol. Everyone drives up to my house in the Bay Area before we have a show or before we record and we practice as much as we can with the time we have until we get sick of each other or go on tour
Uhhhh opinion on Weezer?
-I'm not the biggest weezer fan in the world but I got nothing against them and there are definitely a good number of hits spread out among the discography
Who would you consider your major influences?
-honestly all the other bands on our label and the bands that we tour and play with give me the most inspiration. Anyone who's out there hustling trying to make good meaningful music and wants to share the experience with other people has influence on me and our band
When you’re on tour and you’re in the van driving to the next city, who farts the most? Is that ever an issue?
-definitely Austin. No question
Is there anything that you guys like to do before every show?
-smoke weed and eat a nice meal
Do you have a most memorable onstage moment?
-last summer when MJ and Grad Life played Boston we made a big flyer for grad life’s set and at the end of the set we held it up and our friends from PALHTH ran through it and it was hella epic
What has been your worst show experience?
-played a house show in Santa Barbara where one of the locals wore a trump hat “ironically” (while playing at a Co-op for female students of color) and they got kicked off the show so they decided that trashing their gear and leaving it in the room where bands were supposed to play and ruining the night for everyone else was the right decision haha
My personal favorite song on “Best Buds” is ‘Scott Pilgrim v. My Gpa’. Did you guys learn to play the trumpet and trombone for that song, or are those instruments that you’ve been playing for a while?
-Austin and I have both been playing horns since elementary school, we were both super devoted band kids in high school with like jazz band and stuff so it comes naturally lol
Can we expect a Ska album anytime soon?
-fuck no
How does your songwriting process usually work?
-usually austin comes up with a guitar riff that i can't play and then he teaches it to me and then I take that and write the song and then we learn it as a full band
Do you have a song that is your favorite to perform?
-I like playing shred Cruz cuz when austin gets too drunk he plays it really really fast to the point where it's difficult to play and it's really fun
What is the most important thing to you when it comes to performing?
-for me I think feeling that there's a mutual respect between members of the audience and the performers as well as within members of the audience. I hate people who make the show all about them and about their compulsive need to have a good time. Everyone goes to a show because they want to listen to some music and have a good time and if everyone keeps that in mind and is respectful and courteous to each other and the venues staff and the bands then that's the perfect show
What is something that most people wouldn’t know about Mom Jeans?
-I'm Canadian?
What are you most looking forward to doing after this tour?
-I mean we've been home from tour for about a month and we're in the process of recording our new album so I'm really excited to wrap that up and get working on releasing the album
What can we expect to see from Mom Jeans in the near future?
-new album summer 2018
-record release shows in SF and LA with Prince Daddy, Save Face, Awakebutstillinbed, and Snooze July 20 and 21
-full us headlining dates fall 2018
Listen to Mom Jeans Here:
