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Mt Joy's Sam Cooper stopped by the KROQ studios to chat with host Nicole Alvarez about how the band came to be, their new album 'Orange Blood,' upcoming tour, and more!

Mt Joy's Sam Cooper stopped by the KROQ studios to chat with host Nicole Alvarez about how the band came to be, their new album 'Orange Blood,' upcoming tour, and more!

Listen to the latest audio from KROQ on-demand.

Listen to the latest audio from KROQ on-demand.

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Mt. Joy's Sam Cooper talks about new music and how the band came to be

As thousands gathered in the desert for the first time since last year’s epic two-weekend festival, so did Blur, who have been very selective with their live shows, but admitted they couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to play Coachella once again.

“We got a phone call at about 10 o’clock at night,” Blur’s DamonAlbarn said of getting the Coachella offer before bandmate, AlexJames added, “Which is not normally a good thing when it’s management calling at 10 o’clock at night.”

Albarn continued, “[They] were like, ‘Do you want to do Coachella this year? You have five minutes to decide.’ We were just like, ‘I know we said we weren’t going to do anything, but we’ll do one more.” Added James, “This was just a wonderful opportunity, the greatest show on earth. It’s the biggest festival on the planet — if I wasn’t here, I’d have FOMO.”

Playing the fest again, “It's completely different in a way and completely the same,” says Albarn. “When I think when we start playing again, it's just exactly the same as it was at the first for me,” Alex adds. “I think it's important not to think about it too much, really,” Damon says, especially when you're sort of carrying your past revue. You know, some of the songs we play are like 30 plus years old now.”

On the idea of feature films being made about the band, (an idea which appalls Albarn,) one being a documentary of the return of Blur, Alex explains, “It's eight years since we last did anything, you know. Even when we actually split up, it didn't take that long to kind of get it together. So, there was a certain amount of kind of jeopardy, potentially, at the beginning, like trying to make a new record at this stage of your career. Most bands don't even like each other 30 years in, let alone make a half-decent record. I suppose there was a lot to play for… if you like, the band it's a good watch. We filmed the shows at Wembley.”

“I never thought I'd love Wembley,” Damon adds. “First night was great, and then next day, I didn't want to do another gig. I really I was trying to find reasons to cancel it. I was sort of sitting in a hotel at Wembley Park… just watching all these people coming in, and it's like, ‘Well, I can't cancel that, and actually it was like maybe the best. It was weird. I was like, really not into going on stage -- and then I was on stage -- and it was one of the ones [you won't forget.]

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Nicole Alvarez

As thousands gathered in the desert for the first time since last year’s epic two-weekend festival, so did Blur, who have been very selective with their live shows, but admitted they couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to play Coachella once again.
“We got a phone call at about 10 o’clock at night,” Blur’s Damon Albarn said of getting the Coachella offer before bandmate, Alex James added, “Which is not normally a good thing when it’s management calling at 10 o’clock at night.”
Albarn continued, “[They] were like, ‘Do you want to do Coachella this year? You have five minutes to decide.’ We were just like, ‘I know we said we weren’t going to do anything, but we’ll do one more.” Added James, “This was just a wonderful opportunity, the greatest show on earth. It’s the biggest festival on the planet — if I wasn’t here, I’d have FOMO.”
Playing the fest again, “It's completely different in a way and completely the same,” says Albarn. “When I think when we start playing again, it's just exactly the same as it was at the first for me,” Alex adds. “I think it's important not to think about it too much, really,” Damon says, especially when you're sort of carrying your past revue. You know, some of the songs we play are like 30 plus years old now.”
On the idea of feature films being made about the band, (an idea which appalls Albarn,) one being a documentary of the return of Blur, Alex explains, “It's eight years since we last did anything, you know. Even when we actually split up, it didn't take that long to kind of get it together. So, there was a certain amount of kind of jeopardy, potentially, at the beginning, like trying to make a new record at this stage of your career. Most bands don't even like each other 30 years in, let alone make a half-decent record. I suppose there was a lot to play for… if you like, the band it's a good watch. We filmed the shows at Wembley.”
“I never thought I'd love Wembley,” Damon adds. “First night was great, and then next day, I didn't want to do another gig. I really I was trying to find reasons to cancel it. I was sort of sitting in a hotel at Wembley Park… just watching all these people coming in, and it's like, ‘Well, I can't cancel that, and actually it was like maybe the best. It was weird. I was like, really not into going on stage -- and then I was on stage -- and it was one of the ones [you won't forget.]
Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Nicole Alvarez

Blur at Coachella 2024

Abe Cunningham and Chino Moreno from the Deftones dropped by to chat with KROQ’s Nicole Alvarez while backstage at this year’s Coachella festival -- one of the more surprising additions to the epic, two-weekend line up. “We were asked, I guess that's the quickest, easiest answer I got,” says Chino. “I don't think we expected it either," Abe adds. “It was honestly the first time we were asked to do it,” Chino says. “In the beginning, we weren't quite sure if we were or not -- and it was kind of last minute that we just pulled the trigger.”

Looking back on the band after spending decades making music together, Chino admits, “it's weird with our career. it's such a slow build. It still feels like we're still building for some crazy reason after 30 years. I've never felt like one day just like I woke up and went like, ‘wow,’ because it's been so gradual.”

“When I do look back in retrospect, I mean, it's crazy. [Abe] and I talk about it all the time, you know, we've known each other since the seventh grade,” he explains, “when we were just little kids skateboarding behind the school getting in trouble… It's crazy to think back that we're here now and still doing it after all these years.”

“I don't know if there's an end goal,” Chino continues. “I think the consistency and always trying to expand a little bit musically… We've been making music, like I said, since we were kids and, you would think at some point we would run out of ideas, but it's weird. We get together and we just start making sounds and everybody gets excited.”

“I think time too,” Abe adds. “Time is a trip because we started in 1988 man. You know, had a record deal in the early nineties and stuff. Just the fact that there's been a lot of growing at that time, you know, there's been many, many ups and downs. There's been great highs and you know, really, really, really sunken deep lows too. But it's kind of a trip -- we're just kind of chipping away. We go home, we take breaks now and it's not this constant grind anymore.”

Deftones’ ninth studio album, Ohms was released in 2020, and although the band hasn’t spoken much about its follow-up, there are now rumblings of something on the horizon. "We've just sort of been working on and off over the last year and a half from when we started writing,” says Chino. "Basically, where we're sitting right now is we have a whole record recorded all musically. And it's pretty much my job right now to finish up the vocals.”

"I have, obviously, this show again next week, and then straight after that, I go back home to Oregon and I go in the studio,” he explained. "So as long as that takes. I hate to put a definite kind of timeframe… we're not really in a rush. We want it to be great. I think that's most important. But it is coming and it's really good. We're really excited with what we've been working on. Overall, it's an invigorated kind of sound. We hadn't written a record since what was it, pre-COVID, I think, when we were last in the studio.”

He continues, “We've been playing shows, but we hadn't really got into being creative. The creative part, to me, is always kind of the funnest part of being in this band. Performing is great, but coming up with something out of nothing, that feeling cannot be topped.

"And so when you get in the room with your friends, we're laughing, we're having fun and then someone does something and then I react to it or they react to what I'm doing, it goes in a circle and then, all of a sudden, we lift our heads up and there's something that exists that didn't exist before we walked in that room.”

Words by Joe CIngrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez

Abe Cunningham and Chino Moreno from the Deftones dropped by to chat with KROQ’s Nicole Alvarez while backstage at this year’s Coachella festival -- one of the more surprising additions to the epic, two-weekend line up. “We were asked, I guess that's the quickest, easiest answer I got,” says Chino. “I don't think we expected it either," Abe adds. “It was honestly the first time we were asked to do it,” Chino says. “In the beginning, we weren't quite sure if we were or not -- and it was kind of last minute that we just pulled the trigger.”
Looking back on the band after spending decades making music together, Chino admits, “it's weird with our career. it's such a slow build. It still feels like we're still building for some crazy reason after 30 years. I've never felt like one day just like I woke up and went like, ‘wow,’ because it's been so gradual.”
“When I do look back in retrospect, I mean, it's crazy. [Abe] and I talk about it all the time, you know, we've known each other since the seventh grade,” he explains, “when we were just little kids skateboarding behind the school getting in trouble… It's crazy to think back that we're here now and still doing it after all these years.”
“I don't know if there's an end goal,” Chino continues. “I think the consistency and always trying to expand a little bit musically… We've been making music, like I said, since we were kids and, you would think at some point we would run out of ideas, but it's weird. We get together and we just start making sounds and everybody gets excited.”
“I think time too,” Abe adds. “Time is a trip because we started in 1988 man. You know, had a record deal in the early nineties and stuff. Just the fact that there's been a lot of growing at that time, you know, there's been many, many ups and downs. There's been great highs and you know, really, really, really sunken deep lows too. But it's kind of a trip -- we're just kind of chipping away. We go home, we take breaks now and it's not this constant grind anymore.”
Deftones’ ninth studio album, Ohms was released in 2020, and although the band hasn’t spoken much about its follow-up, there are now rumblings of something on the horizon. "We've just sort of been working on and off over the last year and a half from when we started writing,” says Chino. "Basically, where we're sitting right now is we have a whole record recorded all musically. And it's pretty much my job right now to finish up the vocals.”
"I have, obviously, this show again next week, and then straight after that, I go back home to Oregon and I go in the studio,” he explained. "So as long as that takes. I hate to put a definite kind of timeframe… we're not really in a rush. We want it to be great. I think that's most important. But it is coming and it's really good. We're really excited with what we've been working on. Overall, it's an invigorated kind of sound. We hadn't written a record since what was it, pre-COVID, I think, when we were last in the studio.”
He continues, “We've been playing shows, but we hadn't really got into being creative. The creative part, to me, is always kind of the funnest part of being in this band. Performing is great, but coming up with something out of nothing, that feeling cannot be topped.
"And so when you get in the room with your friends, we're laughing, we're having fun and then someone does something and then I react to it or they react to what I'm doing, it goes in a circle and then, all of a sudden, we lift our heads up and there's something that exists that didn't exist before we walked in that room.”
Words by Joe CIngrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez

Deftones at Coachella 2024

Now on their first Coachella run, singer Abigail Morris of The Last Dinner Party tells KROQ’s Nicole Alvarez while backstage at this year’s festival that she “literally just got here, and I don't know what's going on.” Bassist Georgia Davies adds, “When we got booked for it, it was like, ‘holy s**t!’ It's one of those things that you always kind of hear about and see on Instagram and everything, and it's one of those places that we would never, as people who live in the U.K., would afford to be able to go and attend. The lineup is always so incredible, so to be able to come and play, it's just like, ‘Oh my God!’”

Speaking on the inception of the group, which as host Nicole points out interweaves “enchanting and dangerous, beautiful and scary,” Abigail explains, “the magic of us is that we are five very distinct kind of separate personalities and stories and aesthetics. And yet, what's great about the TLDP world is that they all work together kind of like symbiotically. And I think we have a lot of similar aesthetic things because, you know, we're all in prairie dresses... but it's not like a uniform, it's not one distinct thing that we all adhere to. It's sort of everyone's sensibilities coming together into one massive nebulous cloud that kind of makes the world.”

Previewing this weekend’s set, Abigail explained, “We've just been on this North American tour and I feel like none of us have really had stage fright this whole time, we've just kind of been like ‘Cool show. Do it. Fine.’ This is the first time I have got stage fright in months because I think it's exciting, it's challenging. This is such a new world and we're playing to a ton of people who maybe don't know who we are, instead of playing to fans, and that's really fun because then we get to kind of prove ourselves.”

Listen to Nicole Alvarez's full interview with The Last Dinner Party above, and stay tuned for more interviews with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez

Now on their first Coachella run, singer Abigail Morris of The Last Dinner Party tells KROQ’s Nicole Alvarez while backstage at this year’s festival that she “literally just got here, and I don't know what's going on.” Bassist Georgia Davies adds, “When we got booked for it, it was like, ‘holy s**t!’ It's one of those things that you always kind of hear about and see on Instagram and everything, and it's one of those places that we would never, as people who live in the U.K., would afford to be able to go and attend. The lineup is always so incredible, so to be able to come and play, it's just like, ‘Oh my God!’”
Speaking on the inception of the group, which as host Nicole points out interweaves “enchanting and dangerous, beautiful and scary,” Abigail explains, “the magic of us is that we are five very distinct kind of separate personalities and stories and aesthetics. And yet, what's great about the TLDP world is that they all work together kind of like symbiotically. And I think we have a lot of similar aesthetic things because, you know, we're all in prairie dresses... but it's not like a uniform, it's not one distinct thing that we all adhere to. It's sort of everyone's sensibilities coming together into one massive nebulous cloud that kind of makes the world.”
Previewing this weekend’s set, Abigail explained, “We've just been on this North American tour and I feel like none of us have really had stage fright this whole time, we've just kind of been like ‘Cool show. Do it. Fine.’ This is the first time I have got stage fright in months because I think it's exciting, it's challenging. This is such a new world and we're playing to a ton of people who maybe don't know who we are, instead of playing to fans, and that's really fun because then we get to kind of prove ourselves.”
Listen to Nicole Alvarez's full interview with The Last Dinner Party above, and stay tuned for more interviews with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.
Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez

Mt. Joy's Sam Cooper talks about new music and how the band came to be

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