By Ziggy Keairns

Mouthful are a Minneapolis-based music group, primarily consisting of members Bean Bastounes, Chloe Penny, Alex Weigel, Mia Pariseau, and Emily Schnoover with additional musicians that help create a unique lyrical genre that consists of an indie rock feel. I sat down with Bean to discuss their latest album, “I Am Trying to Be a Pool,” as well as their journey from the formation of Mouthful to today.

What is the inspiration behind the name mouthful?

Bean: I was thinking about band names and music writing and all this stuff, and an image that kind of kept coming back to me was just like an open mouth with like dirt and like a bunch of sh-t falling out of it, which is something I've never like created or put out in the world, but I just in my head, I see such a clear image of just, like, just a full mouth of things, and to me it represents being so emotional, overwhelmed, not knowing what to say, just being filled to the brim with thoughts and ideas and kind of overflowing. A lot of people don’t get it, and some people make some stupid jokes about it, but I stand by it.

What made you want to make music/what inspired you to begin making music seriously?

B: Honestly, being in Minneapolis, like, I moved here for college in like 2021 and lived in the Como neighborhood, and, like, there's a ton of, like, house shows and bands and things that would happen in that area. And so I just kind of started going to shows and meeting friends who were in bands and, like, just kind of was like, “oh sh-t. Anyone can kind of do this.” And I've always made music. I've always written songs since I learned how to play guitar when I was, like, 15, but to actually form a band, I kind of, I just saw other people around me doing it, and I had never, before I moved to Minneapolis, I had never seen a DIY scene that seemed like so possible and made things seem really possible.

How would you describe your musical style?

B: That's a hard question, because I have an identity crisis about it a lot, because I would like to say that we're like grunge or indie rock, which I do think we kind of are indie rock, but I think I would describe it as lyrical, like the lyrics are very important. Not that lyrics aren't important, but I just think the songs are led by the lyrics more so than the instruments. And I think I would say it's kind of an emotional roller coaster. Each song has, like, loud and strong moments and then softer moments. And it's never just one kind of thing. It's kind of everything.

Are there any artists that inspire you?

B: The first artist that made me want to start seriously songwriting was Julia Jacklin. She's from Australia. She's a really good singer and songwriter, and that's inspired a lot of my personal songwriting, but as a band, the bands that have inspired me have been like Big Thief Wednesday, The Cranberries, Snail Mail. I would say those are probably the main ones.

How did the band form initially?

B: I had been friends with Chloe, our lead guitarist, and I've been friends with her friends, and I got invited to her birthday party and we were talking and she is, like, a musical genius, so she was like, “oh, I'd like to play music with you sometime.” I was like, “oh, my God, I'd love to play music with you.” And so she and I got together in her basement, and just started playing. Then her roommate was like, “can I play drums?” We were like, “yeah.” Then our other friend was like, “can I play bass?” We’re like, “yeah.” So it was just kind of Chloe and I just kind of started playing stuff, and our friends joined in, which was a really beautiful thing. The drummer and the bassist aren't in the band anymore. It's still kind of formed naturally though with friends wanting to join in. And I was like, “yeah, of course.”

What was the inspiration for this recent album “I Am Trying to Be a Pool?"

B: At that point those were the four songs that we had together that were our tightest songs as a band, and we just kind of wanted to record and put something out, but those songs are all very much of a moment in time. There's a couple about a guy from a relationship that I was in, and a couple that are more about me. And I think it is kind of just like a time capsule for me. Every time I hear those songs, I'm like, this is very much kind of just what I was going through at that point, which would have been in like, 2021/2022. The cover is these two rabbits fighting each other, and I just really wanted something animal and visceral, like I was talking about earlier with how I've just been inspired by visceral imagery. I felt like fighting was an interesting thing to portray, because I felt like I was fighting myself and that whole metaphor. Then the title of it is a line from a poem that I wrote that I thought was really cool.

You did the lyrics for this album, how do you generally approach songwriting?

B: Songwriting is both the best thing ever, and the worst thing ever, and I always have, like, a really up and down relationship with it. Mostly I just pick up the guitar and start figuring out chords that I think sound cool, and then sing something along. Then I try to catch one line and write it down, and it’s like throwing pasta at a wall. Sometimes I have an idea, like it depends, sometimes the lyrics come first. Sometimes they happen while I'm writing, but mostly I try to approach it from a very like, just trying to be as like, cathartic as possible. I want to get this emotional experience out of me, and I'm inspired by a lot of different things

What can we look forward to, regarding mouthful, are there any live performances or new music coming up?

B: We have our first ever show in Eau Claire in October, which I'm really excited about. We're trying to push out of the cities a little bit, so that's gonna be cool. As far as new music, we’re in a writing process right now. We have a couple songs, newer songs, and I guess that's kind of the goal, is to be writing right now, and then we'll probably put stuff out, hopefully by next spring or summer. So not super soon, but we're definitely working on new things, just not, like super ready to share them, but, we do play them at the shows, but we’re not ready to record them or whatever. I think because Mia and Emily and Alex have joined the band, it's kind of a different sound and I'm really looking forward to that shift and seeing where we go.