Hot Gig Alert (03.10): Missio takes on Cambridge (Interview in Post!)
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(Editor’s Note: In the general malaise that the country has been in recently, unfortunately, this is an interview from a while back that is with the duo that is Missio! The band finds themselves in Cambridge tonight, and we think it’s probably something you should check out in this beautiful late fifties/early sixties weather that we’re finding ourselves in today! The last few months have been a wild ride, and we think that this show can be something you can find solace in tonight!
This is the band’s first headlining tour in a moment, and in a venue like The Sinclair, something you simply shouldn’t miss! Limited tickets are still available here!
New England Sounds: You’re in Pennsylvania today, in this support slot, and you’ve had a headlining tour since Covid. Maybe how have these slots been going with Badflower?
Matthew Bryan: They’ve been awesome so far. The fan reaction has been amazing, we’ve been gaining a lot of new fans. We’re playing a thirty-minute set, which is pretty short for us, coming from long headline tours. But what’s been fun about it is that we can just kind of pound eight songs back to back, which is really cool. We’ve kind of leaned more aggressive, just to kind of fit some of the other musical artists on the bill. So it’s been really fun, and it’s been cool to see the country again. Because second to your point, we’ve been touring. Coming up North and having beautiful weather again has been really nice. Texas is so fucking hot. We’ve been having a really good time thus far.
NES: Then how have you been kind of curating these sets, obviously, as this band, you release so much music. In this dark era time, you’ve released so music. You released the two full lengths, you did just did I Am Cinco, of all your past EP’s recently and also some new songs. How have you been curating these sets in this opening position?
David Butler: That’s a very good question. I’d say one of the great things about our year so far is that we’ve had three different tours. We’ve had a Europe tour, we’ve had a China tour, and now we’re on this Badflower tour. And what we’ve done is each tour, each tour has been an absolutely different set. So it’s been really fun, we’ve played a lot of new songs. As Matthew mentioned, this Badflower set is only a thirty-minute set. So it’s half greatest hits, and half user’s choice I would say. We’re kind of curating energy moments, in some ways over-picking songs. And then some songs have to go. It’s an endless conversation but I love it. I think it will make the live show ever-changing as we go forward.
And have you been switching it up every night? After talking to each other, seeing what works, trying things out? That conversation between the two of you.
David: Definitely. It’s happened; we stick pretty consistently to a set-list during said tour. But we learned, like on the Europe tour, we did a lot of rock fests. So we tried out a lot of heavier songs and we were really able to see. Like, for example, “Aztec Death Missile,” was the song that we both loved playing. That’s kind of become a main-stay in the set now. Because it’s just so fun to play live, and everybody responds really well to it. It’s been really exciting to see some of the new more aggressive stuff, have people react to it. Same as, “Fall Into A Blackhole,” just the energy, the pace of the song in the set blends for a pretty good time.
NES: Perfect, then you both have been in this band together for so long, but you’re also both producers in your own right. And I’m sure you’re working with other musicians as well as MISSIO, but was it always the intention to put out “I Am Cinco” as the EP’s together in this mammoth of an album, or was it something that came naturally? Once, you were slowly releasing this music.
Matthew: I think it came pretty naturally. Kind of the backstory to that is we had some time off, and we were both separately writing individually. And there was one day that we both sat down, and were, like “Okay, let me show you some stuff that I’ve been working on.” And we ended up having an insane amount of songs that we loved. The majority of them, and so from that point we were like, okay, this is our fifth album. We want to do something exciting and a little bit over the top. And so we started to work on each song, and really love each song for what they were, we started to try to come up with an idea artistically of how to express that. Because, people’s attention spans are so short now. We knew that it was going to be a challenge to get people’s attention on a full twenty-six song album. But I think breaking it up into this EP’s like we did, and being able to release them seperately too kind of gave little small chunks to our fans to sort of listen to in small does. And the whole thing kind of alludes to this massive, epic, so to speak, thing. So I think it was a lot, kind of naturally and organically, happened there, but I know specially for David, he grow up on these truly big deluxe albums. So I think that idea of is it really cool, because it’s very nostalgic in a lot of different ways. Will we ever do it again? Hell no! (Both laugh)
David: Yeah it’s a lot of work, that’s for sure.
NES: You’re like, never again! I know you’re both based in Austin, but have you always written songs on your own and brought them to the other person. Or was that something kind of changed/affected by the dark era?
David: It wasn’t like a profound change, but it is also a change. Because the way the band really got going was Matthew as the principal songwriter bringing stuff to me. Who was a friend of his, and a producer and an engineer that he had worked with in his previous band. And I kind of completed the puzzle so to speak in a lot of his early on weaknesses as a songwriter, they were my strengths. So it turned into this arrangement, different things like that. And as the years have gone on, we just really have written a lot, and have practiced writing in lots of different ways, I think it has changed a little bit. To where now, we do each individually write and bring stuff to the table that can work. So I think we’ve just become more familiar with what works and what doesn’t in the MISSIO world. So it’s fun, because it always changes.
NES: When everything happened, I know it’s crazy to think we’re in 2024, but you guys were in the natural progression at least in Boston. You had played Brighton Music Hall, you moved up to Sinclair, you moved up to Paradise. You were kind of on this headlining trajectory. Maybe something you see now in the touring culture that you’re glad has changed, and maybe something for the better? You had been doing this for years, I know it may sound cheesy, but we know the success of “Wolves,” we know the success of “Villain”. Like 2020 would have probably was going to be this massive year.
David: I think the big change for me personally has been the thankfulness that I have for being here doing it. We, from 2017 to 2020, when all the Covid stuff happened, we were just sprinting, touring and it was a hazy mess of trying to keep sure, and trying to be strategic with things as things are really out of your control. When opportunities come, you got to take them. So there was just a chaoticness to our world, pre all of that. And then obviously that all happened. And we slowed down significantly, and then we sort of started touring again obviously as soon as we could. But it’s been more like a very strategic, “We’re going to go here, we’re going to go here,” and so this year has been the return of it. And for me personally, it’s been so great to reconnect and have balance. Because it is all about balance for me, as an artist writing songs and putting your stuff out there. The touring piece is connecting us with fans, and seeing how things resonate and hearing the stories of how things have impacted, for us, really is inspiring. And getting to see the world. And recently getting to go to China and seeing giant clubs full of people that have been listening to our music for years and years. We didn’t even know anyone in China had ever even heard of us. So, those moments definitely inspire us greatly and now that we’re kind of back into it full swing, I’m just trying to stay positive and be thankful. It’s so tough, the road is always tough, there’s more challenges then ever with the costs and all of those things. So it’s really just keeping the positive mindset, and trying to make impact with our music.
Matthew: One big thing that I’ve seen, and I’m not going to give them total credit because I still think they’re the enemy, but LiveNation has kind of stepped up in certain ways to help artists because of the expenses of everything. Like they’re not taking as many merch cuts, at a lot of these venues, which helps artists out tremendously. Like having these weekly bonuses, which do help kind of cover certain things. Which, previously, to Covid, had never happened before. So I will say on the back end side of touring, they have been a lot more accommodating to making up towards the differences there. Which has been helpful to a lot of artists who do this for a living all the time. So I will give credit to them where credit’s due.
NES: Did you say it’s like a weekly bonus now?
Matthew: Yeah, they’re changing it up all the time. But they’re doing creative things to just kind of help take some of the burden off the artists. Which is extremely helpful.
NES: I’m sure. And the return of touring and everything being more expensive. And was that your first time in China?
David: Oh yeah! Very first time, we had no idea what to expect. We were definitely all very nervous and anxious about what it was going to be like. It was such a beautiful experience, their culture is beautiful and every welcoming to us. And they were so hospitable, the food was amazing, the country, all of it. We really, really had a great time and felt really honored to be an American band there. Representing and doing a thing for music.
NES: Then I wanted to ask you, despite the amount of music you released in May, you did do the song with Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit. Maybe how did that collaboration come about, and who would still be a dream for you as an artist to collaborate with? All these bands are back on tour, and they were around twenty years ago and are going strong this year. Bands that have all returned.
Matthew: Yeah, we actually were sitting down with our management at the time, talking about “Good Vibrations”. Because that song had been one of the bigger ones for us on this album, and just trying to figure out how to get more steam out of it. Especially around the album release itself. So rather than doing the typical let’s get a vocalist on this, we started just messing around with different ideas with musicians, or just kind of outside the box ideas. And brought up Wes Borland’s name. And our new managment happened to know him, and we were like oh shit, this might actually be a reality. So they reached out, and the coolest thing is that Wes is kind of know for being particular in who he works with and how he works. And he got back to us right away. Sent us a version of the song in like two days, and we heard the first verse back and we were like, fuck, we can’t believe Wes Borland thinks it’s cool enough to actually work on it. So that was a big kudos to our management. Who have that direct relationship and we’re able to make that happen.
Honestly, I’d say right now, it would be amazing to go back twenty years or so like you mentioned. Deftones, I think would be such a sick collaboration between us. There’s obviously like a couple of hip hop guys I love. Kendrick, that’s so far out of the equation for how big he is. But that’s a dream, I think that would be insane. But yeah Deftones would be really cool. Korn, I think, would be really cool.
David: Thom Yorke, Radiohead. A bunch on the list.
Matthew: Yeah, James Blake is another one. I think he’s a profoundly amazing artist and everything he touches is gold to me. Yeah, I’d say those top four or five would be a dream.
NES: And you’re still on this tour with Badflower. You’ve had quite the year, obviously. I’m sure there’s much more to come. Of course, with balancing I’m sure other things that you’re doing. But maybe hopes or goals for MISSIO in these next few months?
David: Yeah! Well, we’re really going to continue. We haven’t really announced anything for 2025, but there’s going to be some headlining touring that’s going on for MISSIO in the early part of the year. So we’re gearing up towards getting all that organized and announced. And so I guess it’s really just going to be fun to get out and connect with people. Just sort of feels like this is a nice resolution to a lot of the stuff that we’ve been doing over the last few years, like you alluded to earlier. Never really got to tour a proper tour for “Can You Feel the SUn,” for “Villian,” and now, “I Am Cinco.” So there’s a lot of music to be celebrated for us. So I think that’s part of the reason for us out here doing the thing with Badflower. So hopefully, everyone can come see us, and then we’re going to be back doing a full big headline MISSIO show in early 2025. Just keep an eye out on us!
