Tony Reed is relentless. Every day, he gets up, sometimes before six in the morning, and goes into his studio and works on music. The result of his ethic can be seen in his constantly expanding discography. Whether he’s recording, mixing and/or mastering someone else’s release or working with one of his own bands — Mos Generator are his main outlet at this point, but Big Scenic Nowhere have a new record on the way too and are soon to play their first live show, and I hear Constance Tomb might do more, sometimes Hot Spring Water happens, and in addition to his solo stuff, there’s always new projects lurking on the horizon — his prolific nature doesn’t at all undercut the quality of his work. He is undeterred from his purpose in a way that I find deeply admirable and inspiring, and I told him as much in this interview.

He hit me up last week and wanted to talk about the next Mos Generator release. Obviously I’m down for that. I’d seen social media posts from Reed talking about a different direction for the material coming together for the first new Mos Generator proper studio album since 2018’s Shadowlands (review here) — though of course copious other outings have followed that LP, whether it’s live albums, remastered works, EPs, splits, singles or tribute contributions from Mos Generator, the entire advent of Big Scenic Nowhere, Reed‘s first solo LP under his own name, the Constance Tomb album, and more that I know I’m leaving out — and I was curious how “different” things were going to get. Ahead of our conversation, I got to hear demos for three new songs — “The Lime Before the Law,” “(Don’t) Wait Until Tomorrow” and “Only Yesterday” — and based on those alone, there was plenty to discuss.

Mos Generator in recent years, with bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett alongside Reed as the sole founder and principal architect of the band, have not been shy about showcasing a progressive rock influence. The new songs are, to put it simply, even less shy. Reed‘s demos, which are of better sound quality than any number of records I might review in a given week, are rife with layers of acoustic and electric guitar, vocal harmonies and rhythmic intricacy. With Garrett living between Boston and Texas — neither particularly close to Reed in Port Orchard, Washington — two fly-in writing sessions this past summer resulted in 80-plus minutes of new material, and as Reed takes the basic tracks and fleshes them out into what will eventually be workable, final form, he’s not wrong in noting the reshuffled sonic priorities on display. I don’t know that Mos Generator have ever sounded so intricate.

I’m going to leave the rest to you. Dive in. This is by no means the first time I’ve spoken with Reed, but it was great to hear his excitement about what’s coming. A Mos Generator triple LP? Maybe…

Enjoy:

Tony Reed Interview, Nov. 9, 2021

Mos Generator last month released the Strange Powers compilation LP, collecting tracks from studio albums released through Listenable Records between 2014-2018. It’s available through Mos Generator’s Bandcamp, along with a ton of other offerings new and old. More info at the links.

Mos Generator on Facebook

Mos Generator on Instagram

Mos Generator on Bandcamp

HeavyHead webstore

Tags: Argonauta Records, Big Scenic Nowhere, Heavy Psych Sounds, Mos Generator, Port Orchard, Ripple Music, Tony Reed, Washington

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 10th, 2021 at 9:42 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.