If you’ve yet to experience the wistful sound of Mipso, a quartet hailing from Chapel Hill, a town in North Carolina, then now is maybe as good a time as any to familiarise yourself their unique brand of indie-Americana before they arrive on these shores next month for the start of their European tour.
We’re so used to hearing songs about relationships that are severed by events that we rarely hear about the very nature of the change we all go through and how that connection we maybe once had can slowly fade over time. In their track ‘People Change’, Mipso explore that very nature of relationships. The wildly popular single is now complemented by a beautiful animated video by Jake McBride, to be released tomorrow. Band member Libby Rodenbough shared the following:
“‘People Change’ is about the kind of growing apart that is not vindictive or righteous or one-sided—about the untraceable ways your world disconnects from another’s world. We wanted a video that would convey the quiet tangle of feelings that comes along with that variety of heartbreak. It’s not accusatory, not an explosion of emotion, neither brightly coloured nor totally dark. I think so much of your struggle with yourself and other people is like that as you get older.”
Talking about the single, frontman Jacob Sharp elaborates, “a lot of what I write is centred around articulating loss. My mother died when I was young and I’ve had a normal amount of romantic relationships end… People Change is a different angle on loss, that of a friendship fading away. In some ways it’s a lot more difficult to process because the loss feels more within your control – the situation less futile – but the impact of the absence is pretty much the same.”
You can hear the very impact of that absence in their music, and the meditative lyrics are so carefully considered, like a poem to the past that is strangely calming despite the underlying melancholy.
People Change is taken from Mipso’s recently released album Edges Run.
Mipso – Live Dates
26th October – Broadcast – Glasgow, UK
27th October – Castle Hotel – Manchester, UK
28th October – Thousand Island – London, UK
30th October – 1999 – Paris, France
1st November – Paradiso Noord – Amsterdam, Netherlands
2nd November – Studio 672 – Cologne, Germany
5th November – Hansa 39 – Munich, Germany
6th November – Rhiz – Vienna, Austria
8th November – Privatclub – Berlin, Germany
9th November – Banhof Pauli – Hamburg, Germany
10th November – Folk a Rock – Malmo, Sweden
11th November – Biljardkompaniet – Kristianstad, Sweden
12th November – Klubb Uffe – Uppsala, Sweden
14th November – Tryckhallen – Falkenberg, Sweden
15th November – Tryckhallen – Falkenberg, Sweden
16th November – Jassklubben Nefertiti – Gothenburg, Sweden
Find out more here: https://www.mipsomusic.com/
Photo Credit: Kendall Bailey