Cleveland’s Mud Whale To Play Release Party at Grog Shop in November

Mud Whale singer-guitarist Michael Morris says he didn’t plan on starting a band after moving to Cleveland from Cincinnati a few years ago. But he started playing with coworkers in 2019, and that group blossomed in Mud Whale, a terrific local post hardcore band that will celebrate the release of its second album, Humans Pretending to Be Humans, with a show on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. Locals Sonder Bombs and I Hate It Too open.

“I missed [playing music], and I found those guys on [the debut album, 2021’s Everything in Moderation] on Craigslist,” says Morris via phone. He cites Circa Survive, Coheed and Cambria, and My Chemical Romance as some of his favorite bands. “One of the guys stayed. [Bassist] Joe [Hanson] has been on both albums now. It took me a couple of years to get going, but once I found the right people, it’s been smooth sailing.”

For Humans, the band sought to push musical boundaries a little further.

“I wanted the songs to be a little heavier and a little faster and a little harder,” says Morris. “I wanted them to be quicker and catchier.”

Like Everything in Moderation, Humans features unique album art from Cleveland-born artist Kit Mizeres. For Humans, she drew a fox with its tongue out.

“Basically, when we were writing the first album, I found this artist on Instagram,” says Morris when asked about Mizeres. “She backpacks around Europe and Russia. I hit her up and did not think she would work with us. We were a nobody band. She was game for it and an absolute joy to work with. I brought her back for the second album. I let her do whatever she wants to do. I just gave her the songs and lyrics. It’s a direct translation of what she heard and read. I thought it was really cool.”

Guitarist Justin Cheuvront engineered the whole album; the band recorded and produced it itself

“We had some friends come in for extra vocals,” says Morris. “We had a friend do a string quartet on one of the songs. We sent it off to be mixed by Mark Michalik.
bands Into It. Over It. and Their/They’re/There. Those guys are pretty integral parts of the emo scene, so it was a dream come true having someone work on our album that brought some of our favorite music to life..”

The album’s first single “Checking In” it starts and stops with a dynamic interplay of guitars, bass and drums.

“The song is about being there for your friends and giving them an ear when they need to vent,” says Morris. “It’s about loving them unconditionally. I feel like I was listening to a lot of [the emo band] Modern Baseball, and I liked their energy. I don’t know if the song really sounds a lot like them. I wanted to capture that angsty energy with a positive spin in the lyrics.”

The Nirvana-like Smoke Signals represents an emotional flip side to “Checking In.”

“That song is a reflection on being there for someone over and over again, but they never show up for you when you need them,” says Morris. “It’s about a lopsided relationship. It’s been getting a lot of comparisons to Nirvana, which looking back was probably a subconscious inspiration. I wanted a little bit of a Turnstile vibe, so I guess it’s a mesh of Nirvana and Turnstile.”

“Sacrifice” takes a Sonic Youth-like approach with its wall of noisy guitars.

“That one is about being in this purgatory and being chased by these monsters. Even if you get out, you wake back up, and you’re still there,” says Morris. “It’s this endless cycle. It was inspired by this video game Dead by Daylight. That’s the loose premise of the video game. I wanted to capture that sense of danger and fear. That connects well with the noisy, sporadic, chaotic guitar.”

Given the momentum that the group has picked up with this new album, it makes sense that the band will play the album in its entirety at the release show.

“We are super excited and we’re so excited to have music with [guitarist] Justin [Cheuvront] and [drummer] Avery [Sylvaine] on it,” says Morris. “They took our sound and bumped it up to the next level on top of everything else we were doing to change things around. We’re very stoked on it.”

Mud Whale, Sounder Bombs, I Hate It Too, 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.

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