Los Angeles based shoegaze collective Mo Dotti totally captured my heart when I caught them live at the 4 Star Theater on my recent visit to San Francisco. The band’s sound is truly a wonder, with blissed out melodies fighting for air amongst ocean deep chord changes and seismic, swirling feedback.
With a stunning debut album under their belt and a UK tour fast approaching, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist Gina Negrini very kindly agreed to talk to the blog…
Hi Gina, thank you so much for chatting to heavymetalkids.uk. For folk here in the UK who may just be discovering Mo Dotti, could you tell us a little about the band’s origin story?
Mo Dotti started out as a solo project for me to play guitar and sing in. I used to play bass in a few bands, but I have always wanted to sing and play guitar. After experimenting with looping pedals and wacky demos, I felt myself becoming more confident on guitar; the project quickly evolved into a four piece. We all met playing the same venues in Los Angeles (in our old bands) and we also became closer working at the same movie theater. Guy and I first started playing music together in his old project which he fronted called Socorro. Mo Dotti is somewhat an evolution of Socorro (we really just combined our bands) with me as the singer. Greg Shilton (bass) used to be in French Vanilla, Post Life, and Jody. Andrew (drums) used to play in Moaning and currently plays in Fashion Club. Early incarnations of Mo Dotti used to play shows with all of those bands a lot. Currently, my sister Sophie who has a band called Janelane is our third guitar player. Experimenting with textures!
Opaque is a wonderful debut album. I find song titles such as Whirling Sad and Pale Blue Afternoon incredibly evocative. What do you consider to be your key songwriting influences?
Thank you Fran… When I think about how these songs make me feel, they make me pretty emotional. I don’t always understand how I am feeling. It’s more comfortable for me to work out what’s going on in my head in music. The Magnetic Fields, Ride, and Cocteau Twins are my biggest influences when it comes to songwriting style. Guy is especially inspired by Swervedriver and Dinosaur Jr. when it comes to his guitar playing style.
I was blown away by the recent 4 Star Theater show in San Francisco. How was the US tour? Is it live performance or studio craft which gives you the biggest artistic buzz?
Thanks for coming, Fran. We were so glad your San Francisco vacation aligned with our stop up there. The tour was great, we came home in one piece (Guy and I caught colds), and we played really well. I would say that we feel that specific buzz during the exact moment we are playing- but leading up to the show or after it I’m usually a ball of nerves. The most gratifying aspect of playing music is writing a song I am proud of. Recording an accurate representation of the music is probably second to that.
I believe all of your music thus far has been self released. Is this an ethos you’re keen to continue with, or are you looking for label support for future releases?
Yes! We are control freaks… but, after the response from the LP, we plan to seek label support for LP 2. While it’s really gratifying to connect directly with our fanbase, it was a challenge to distribute overseas. We could have sold a lot more if the record was more accessible abroad. We are currently recording demos for the second album and are about half way finished.
Lastly, I’ve experienced firsthand on my travels how important mutual respect and support is amongst the underground independent scene. Are there any bands local to you or that you’ve played with on tour that you’d like to shout out to my readers?
April Magazine and Pink Breath of Heaven (who we both played with on this tour) absolutely blew me away. April Magazine played our SF show, and we played 3 shows on the road with PBOH. I came home feeling very inspired by them both. I love the sonic tapestry that April Magazine weaves: they take their time getting to a high vibrational frequency. It’s very effective on the audience. Liv from Pink Breath of Heaven has an amazing voice, I really feel like she took me to heaven. Her band also looks (and are) super cool. There were so many musicians I love in the audience at the SF gig, that made me especially happy. It’s always nerve wracking to play for people you regard highly, but we had a wonderful time. Los Angeles bands I’d love to shout out are Host Family, Shaki Tavi, and Valley Porno People. There are so many bands in California making really interesting guitar music today. In a time that feels so hopeless for so many reasons, the fact that people are getting together making music makes me super hopeful for the future of the California indie rock underground.
Thank you so much Gina for taking time out to talk to the blog. Check out Opaque here. The band’s double EP set Blurring/Guided Imagery is available here. You can catch Mo Dotti live across the UK this December, dates and ticket links are listed below…
Wednesday 3rd December
Bristol, United Kingdom
Thursday 4th December
Manchester, United Kingdom
Saturday 6th December
The Old Hairdresser’s @ 7:30 PM
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Sunday 7th December
Coventry, United Kingdom
Monday 8th December
The Shacklewell Arms @ 7:30 PM
London, United Kingdom
heavymetalkids.uk 