The high-energy alternative rock band The Mowgli’s will be performing their music that is “in love with love” at Freakfest’s Gilman Stage this Saturday. Singer Katie Jayne Earl spoke with The Badger Herald about their upcoming performance, and described their music as a sort of “pop-rock-folk thing with positive vibes; we have to make people feel good, or feel something, anyway.”
Based out of Los Angeles, the seven-member band is currently on tour with American Authors, who will also be performing at Freakfest. But this is not their first Halloween performance in Madison. The Mowgli’s opened for Walk the Moon last year.
“Every time we play Madison, it seems like the show is so high energy, and it’s definitely because of the crowd vibe we’re feeding off of,” Earl said. “And that’s not the only band I’ve heard say that. I’ve heard a lot of bands say they love playing Madison.”
Formed in 2010, The Mowgli’s released their first album Sound the Drum in 2012. They have followed up with an EP, Love’s Not Dead, and another full-length album, Waiting for the Dawn.
As for what to expect from their performance at Freakfest, Katie said The Mowgli’s have been incorporating some of the new songs that will be on their record coming out soon. She said they are looking forward to trying out the tracks and seeing how the crowd responds.
Earl said the fun thing about performing live is that she never knows what exactly is going to happen. She believes in just having fun and seeing where the night takes you.
Earl said another tradition they engage in is trying the specialty of wherever they are performing.
“If we’re in Seattle, we’ll get Seattle coffee,” Earl said. “If we’re in Chicago, we’ll get deep-dish. When we’re in Madison, we get cheese curds. … I just might regret it the week after. I’m like ‘Wow, way too many cheese curds.’”
In between shows, the band spends most of their time en route to the next show.
“Those six-hour drives are worth it … when the crowd sings and dances and gets involved,” Earl said.
Much of the band’s inspiration, Earl said, comes from everybody they meet, everybody they interact with and everybody who enjoys their music.
“A lot of people have told us some really beautiful stories,” Earl said. “People have gotten tattoos of words that have meant something to them or told us a personal story about how they were feeling a certain way, and a certain lyric or a certain song kind of pulled them out of it. I can’t say one is more amazing than the other. The fact that we can put out this music that makes anybody feel anything is amazing.”
As for what the band plans to do in the future, Earl says their objective is to “make people feel good,” but that they just want to make music, art and keep inspiring people.
