The first impression of a Misterwives song is ‘upbeat’. The sounds of the drums, trumpet, and the lead singer Mandy Lee’s powerhouse vocals fuse perfectly to form albums that have a sound that is recognizable but still distinct.

At this year’s BYX Island Party: Music Festival, the Misterwives blew the crowd away at Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater along with Joan and The Band Camino. Misterwives guitarist, Marc Campbell, and bassist, Will Hehir, sat down to discuss their journey so far as a band, what inspires them, and what their songwriting process is like.

“When we first had our first ever rehearsal as Misterwives, we always joke of it being like the ‘Goldilocks’ thing where like this one just felt right,” said Campbell on what inspired them to begin creating music together.

Their first Album “Our own House” was released in 2015, and caught the attention of many Alternative/ Indie listeners. Misterwives quickly followed with a second album in 2017 called “Connect the dots”, with music that kept their fans’ attention, but brought forth a mature tone to their well-written songs. Hehir and Campbell explain how the songwriting and rehearsing process for “Our own House” moved quickly because of how soon the band signed a record deal.

“For Connect the Dots we actually went away as a band and we had band camp, where we just kind of walked ourselves away for a few months. And Mandy would sit at night and write a song on the piano, then we’d all just jam out as a band,” said Campbell, “They say you have your whole life to write your first record and then a couple of years to write your second, so I feel like [“Connect the Dots”] it’s definitely more grown-up of a record like the sound.”

The band is currently working on their third album and just reached the end of their demoing faze. They also just signed with a new record company. Both members revealed that they would be playing songs from their new album at the music festival later on that night, and the audience was definitely singing along to the chorus within the first couple of minutes.

“We’re really excited about this one, in the past we’ve had so many deadlines like even when we were working on “Connect the dots” while we kind of had more time, there was still this ‘try and get to 12 songs’ and we don’t have that with this album, ” said Hehir.

“We just signed with a new record company and it’s definitely more ‘take your time, get it right, and do what you want’ so it’s been awesome. I think the plan is to maybe release a couple of songs, and maybe the [album] would come out next year,” said Campbell.

The entire band has different tastes in music that they draw inspiration from. From Mandy loving Frank Sinatra and Motown/Soul singers such as Aretha Franklin to Hehir loving the thrash metal band Slayer’s music, the music selection on the bus while touring is very diverse. Campbell and Hehir collectively agreed that the different tastes in music are what contributes to making a Misterwives song so special.

“We all understand what a Misterwives song is, so it could be very easy to just fall into doing the same thing on every song,” said Campbell, “We work to try and change things up, and try and make things different and fresh, but it still kind of sounds like us. As soon as we’re all in it, it’s a Misterwives song.”

“It is a very collaborative endeavor and no one takes offense to it,” said Hehir, “I think that teaches us too, because a lot of times it’s easy to get stuck, like ‘This is where I think it should go and maybe this is the safest route’ and then often times it’s challenging when someone tells you to try something and you think, well I never would have thought to do that, but it makes it that much more amazing.”

The band is based in New York but has traveled extensively from Los Angeles to College Station and Houston. Both band members gave their thoughts on the best places to get pizza in New York. Hehir recommends Ray’s Pizza (but only the one in Riverdale), and Campbell suggests Prince Street Pizza for a ‘just a slice’ and Arturo's pizza for a ‘Sit-Down Spot’. And, while Misterwives have been through Texas before, they had no idea what Buc-ee’s was until this interview… but they definitely decided to stop by on the way to the airport.

Khadeeja Umana

Khadeeja Umana