Mt. Joy have shared new single ‘In The Middle’ as well as telling NME about what went into their huge new album ‘Hope We Have Fun’ – via hanging out with Mumford & Sons‘ Ben Lovett and a pre-fame Noah Kahan.
Friday (May 30) saw the release of the billion-streaming Philadelphia Americana giants’ fourth album ‘Hope We Have Fun’ – as well as the epic new single ‘In The Middle’, which features frontman Matt Quinn teaming up with Gigi Perez.
“I’m super excited about this one – it’s the first time I’ve written with a group of people,” Quinn told NME. “I went to upstate New York to a house that’s owned, at least in part, by Ben Lovett from Mumford & Sons. It’s a beautiful property up there and I got to hang out with some really talented people for a weekend.
“This was the first thing I worked on. I just sat down and made a song with Gigi. I’m just out to lunch but she’s obviously a star. I didn’t know who she was and she didn’t know who I was, so it was perfect. We just sat down and got on with it.”
As well as “all the Mt. Joy people putting their stamp on the song,” ‘In The Middle’ was also made with a little help from producer Rob Bisel producing and Amelia Meath from Sylvan Esso on backing vocals.
“Sometimes writing songs can be a real labour-intensive thing, and others you can just be at a party and a song pops out,” Quinn added. “That’s what happened here, and it’s really cool.
“I was really reluctant to jump into something like that – just for my own insecurity and not knowing how I would work in that environment. I love making songs and music. It’s silly of me to be afraid of it, but it really opened me up.”
Asked about the band’s relationship with Mumford & Son’s Ben Lovett, Quinn said: “He’s a super generous, gracious and nice guy. That was the first time I met him. He’s been massively successful, but it shows to be around him and see how talented he is.
“He’s just a great hang. With all of his success he could come off as seeming like he’s better than people but that’s not the case at all. He just makes songs better by being a part of them. He’s definitely a guy that you want in the room.”
Check out the rest of our interview with Quinn below, where he also opens up about other famous friends, not being so hot on TikTok, and the band’s upcoming UK shows – including supporting Zach Bryan at Hyde Park.
NME: Hello Matt Quinn. Your recent single ‘Lucy’ really captured the hearts of a lot of new fans as a beautiful way of translating grief into something quite warm and comforting. What it mean and what did it take to be able to do that?
Matt Quinn: “It doesn’t always work out. You might be inspired by something and then sit down to write the song but it just doesn’t come together or it’s not good enough. I’m always trying to be an antenna to the strongest possible feeling that’s coming through in the moment. Whatever it is out there that sends melodies and things like that, it just connected at the right time.
“One thing that Mt. Joy has always done across the past three records is try to take something that’s really dark and maybe just splash some joy into the situation. We like that juxtaposition of a song that bops along, but then you dig a little deeper for something darker under the surface.”
Lyrically, what’s running through the rest of the album?
“This album isn’t really conceptual in any way. Our approach since the beginning has been just to make the best 10-15 songs in the time and follow the narrative wherever it takes us. It’s not set down to be thematic in any way. There’s a lot about the growing pains of where we’ve been over the last couple of years – which has been amazing. We’ve become this intense touring band. It was a thing that started out as friends in a van for this bootstrapping DIY sort of thing, now we’re selling out arenas in the States.
“It’s changed our lives in good and bad ways. Anyone who’s going through intense change in their lives can connect with this record.”
Where does ‘Hope We Have Fun’ take your sound from 2022’s ‘Orange Blood’?
“A song like ‘Kyote’ is just us trying to make a rock song. There are acoustic moments, folk moments, there’s a feature with Nathaniel Rateliff that I just love. That’s what Mt. Joy has become. We’ve never been like, ‘We’re gonna be an Americana band – grab a mandolin and a banjo and get after it’. We just love making different types of songs and smashing ‘em together. It makes for an interesting show.”
You guys are pretty close to Noah Kahan. What’s it like to be in his orbit, especially now he’s gone stratospheric?
“We met Noah pre-stratosphere mission. We were just admirers of his songwriting. We were in a somewhat similar space here in the States and crossed paths when playing similar venues and festivals. During the pandemic, he came out and we rented a barn on this woman’s property just to make some music.
“He had not put out ‘Stick Season’ yet, he came down and hung out. He played us some of his songs and we showed him some of our stuff. Some of the songs that he played then ended up being on the album and it just took off. It was cool for us to see someone in our orbit get sent into another stratosphere. It’s definitely inspiring.”
What do you think the secret is?
“He’s a special example of someone who is a super-talented writer and wrote an amazing record. In this world, a huge part of promoting an album is being this character that allows you to connect with people. He was doing the TikTok thing in the barn when we were with him. I was legitimately making fun of him!
“He was taking it well. It wasn’t mean-spirited, but I could never do that. Fast-forward six months from then and he’s suddenly the biggest TikToker there is. He’s a really smart guy who understands what it takes to get young people to hear your songs today. He’s going to be around for a long time because there are people who know how to do that but can’t write songs or aren’t good musicians – but he’s both.”
Are you not so adept at TikTok yourself?
“I guess if I were to judge myself on that scale, I feel confident working on songs but when it comes to being an ‘influencer’ in any way, I don’t know if anyone’s going to be influenced by me on TikTok any time soon…”
You’ve got some huge UK shows coming up – including a headline spot at Hammersmith Apollo and joining Zach Bryan at BST Hyde Park…
“We’re just getting these opportunities at the right time. We’ve been playing together long enough that when we get an opportunity to pull up in front of that many people, we don’t take it for granted. We’re just having fun. We’ve been playing together for nine years and this is what we’ve always wanted. We’re playing at our best right now.”
‘Hope We Have Fun’ is out now. Mt. Joy play London’s BST Hyde Park on Saturday June 28, before performing three in-store shows at Rough Trade East, Banquet Records, and HMV Manchester and returning in early 2026 to headline London’s Eventim Apollo on Friday March 27. Visit here for tickets and more information.
