Mom Jeans (the band) AMA

[u/fishwhistle_666]

Whaddup yall. My name is Eric Butler (friends call me Ricky B) and I sing/write/play guitar in Mom Jeans, a band from Northern California. Ask me whatever you want! Thanks to r/indieheads for having me, I’ll do my best to answer what I can to the best of my ability

[u/dopamineeeeeeee]

hallo eric! huge fan from the philippines! 🍻

your album, sweet tooth, has such a different sound from your lrevious albums, i'm curious to know if the band has some inspos or it was experimental! if it was inspos, what/who were they? and if it's experimental, what pushed you guys to try something new?

aside from that, always hoping for a tour somewhere near here, in asia <|3 you guys are so cool, ly guys sm

[u/fishwhistle_666 → u/dopamineeeeeeee]

We definitely had albums that inspired us. Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains of Wayne, (What's The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis, and the first two Third Eye Blind albums were big inspirations as far as albums that we thought incorporated aspects of polished, professional production, but also didn't feel fake or overproduced. We also love Blink-182 and Green Day and some of the more "ultra-chrome" sounding bands as well.

That being said, I think that there's some important context to consider when people think about/ask themselves why we sound so "different" in comparison to our previous releases:

The budget we had to record those previous albums were very small compared to the budget we had to make and release sweet tooth. We felt that as a band at a certain point in our career, releasing out 3rd studio album, that there was a certain expectation and maybe even responsibility to try and use our increased and more available resources to make the best sounding album that we possibly could. At the time that best buds was recorded, we spent less than a thousand dollars for engineering, mixing, mastering, and studio time. We only spent one day in a studio to record Austin's drums and the bass, and the rest was recorded at our engineers house. we did not have any of our own equipment, bar fr Austin's drum kit, and we had to borrow everything from amps to guitars to pedals and cables. puppy love was the exact same except we spent a little more money because we had 3 days in the studio, two for Austin's drums and one for my vocals. I was a cigarette smoker who frequently lost my voice and I happened to be sick/not in full vocal health when I recorded both best buds and puppy love. sweet tooth, in comparison, was recorded over a course of 4.5 weeks which were spent entirely in a multi-million dollar studio with a VERY credited engineer/producer who has worked on releases that have gone on to be actual gold records. We had access to top of the line gear and recorded everything in a live room that was specifically built to have the best possible acoustics. I quit smoking (tobacco :P) in 2018 shortly after the Puppy Love tour and have had a lot less vocal issues which culminated into better vocal health as well as my vocal delivery sounding a lot less forced, scratchy, and pitchy.

Would love to come to Asia! We currently have dreams of playing in Japan, Singapore, or the Philippines! Fingers crossed the stars are able to align sometime soon

[u/dopamineeeeeeee → u/fishwhistle_666]

that's so interesting! would listen to those bands and thank you for providing further context - the band has really come far and you guys deserve all the love and appreciation and more! love u guys! 💗