OZ MOUSE, what brought all of you together and what do each of you bring to the band?
Heyo! JORDAN here! We decided to condense the band name to FOZMO because so many people couldn't find us. That's what we go by now. Originally the band started as a two piece folk punk(ish) duo. We met in college and began writing, recording, and playing shows. That other guy has since left the band but before he did he transferred to UNCG. His suite mate, CHRISTIAN happened to become our drummer. We were a 3 piece for some time until Aaron joined on bass. I knew Aaron from high school and had been in several bands with him. When the other original member left Aaron switched to guitar. CHRISTIAN introduced us to one of his coworkers DEXTER who jumped in on bass. We met our lead guitarist DALLAS from playing shows with his old band. As for what we bring: CHRISTIAN brings the most gear. AARON brings his guitars and accidentally breaks them. DEXTER brings his bass, but not much else. DALLAS brings his fiance. JORDAN brings crippling anxiety, horrible stage banter, and his acoustic.

How does it feel to live in the shadow of the animatronic CHUCK E CHEESE band? Do you feel as though this has influence your music or any habitual drug use?
CHUCK is someone we all grew up with, and looking up to him back then, we never thought we would get out of that shadow, or need to. However, CHUCK seemingly has gone downhill in the last few years. I saw him the other week, and it breaks my heart to see him so washed up and strung out. It's like watching the PUDDLE OF MUDD epidemic all over again. I hope he can get better, but we have changed our name to FOZMO to break that tie and hopefully get out of his shadow very quickly.

How many albums/eps do you have out currently?
One EP, TOBY, and our singles HOME and GRASS.

Do you have any upcoming projects that will be released in 2018?
We just recorded 5 songs down in Georgia at GHOST KIDS COLLECTIVE with LEE JENNINGS (THE FUNERAL PORTRAIT). The plan is to release them as an EP in March before we leave for tour.

If I am not mistaken, you have your own annual gathering called MOUSE FEST...can you tell me a bit about this and what brought it all together?
We do! We had been talking for a couple months after our EP release show about throwing another show, but making more of a festival setup. We were just beginning to plan the date and that's when CHRISTIAN found out his grandmother had been diagnosed with lung cancer, so he immediately suggested we turn the festival into a fundraiser for her. We ended up having 10 or 11 bands, rappers, and solo acts from all across NC come out and we ended up raising over $1200. Since then, his grandma has gotten the cancer out, while on our end, we have partnered up with HUNSTAMAN CANCER INSTITUTE. HUNSTMAN now sponsors MOUSE FEST, and we donate to them to assist in cancer research.

How would you describe your live show? What sets your show apart from other bands in the music scene?
We play acoustic sets sometimes but even in our full band shows we include acoustic. I don't think many (if any) local acts have acoustic in their sets. We also include a bit of raw noise created by a technique similar to bands from the 80s like SONIC YOUTH and DINOSAUR JR. There are plenty of noise artists and plenty of loud bands but not many actually include the raw noise IN their music. Also, JORDAN's a terrible dancer and it's very entertaining. Another thing that we feel like sets us apart is that CHRISTIAN and DALLAS have come up with a point during our sets where they will climb on their equipment, or DALLAS will go climb something off stage, depending on the venue. It seems as if some local artists now are afraid to do stuff like that, so we enjoy pulling that extra bit of excitement.

What would you describe as your biggest musical influences when writing music?
We all listen to vastly different styles of music with CHRISTIAN coming from ska punk and modern hardcore, DALLAS coming from pop punk, and JORDAN being our resident emo overlord. But I'd say BLINK 182 and FOUR YEAR STRONG are both a unanimous choice for all of us.

Do you have a favourite song that stands out among the rest or are you that "parent" that lies and says they love all of their children?
This is a really tough one for us. I can say our fans seem to love singing along to 743 with us though! 743 is also the one mentioned earlier with DALLAS and CHRISTIAN climbing their gear. It's a really fun song because over it's lengthy time, it captures almost every element that we put into all of our other songs at some point, and sums up our sound.

Do you have any bands that you would like to give shoutouts to or general people out there in the world?
Gotta give it up to LEE JENNINGS for helping us with the new record, as well as CHRISTIAN's mom for letting us practice in her basement at ungodly hours. Would also like to give a shoutout to our friend ALEX STIFF (THE FILL INS). He recently started up a new line of energy drinks themed after his band, called Hate Energy and has given us our first sponsorship. Go find Hate Energy on Facebook!

Lastly, I'd like to give you the platform to discuss anything that you would like, the floor is yours to promote an upcoming project, to drop a word to your mom, or even tell the CHUCK E CHEESE CORPORATION to fuck off.
We've got our new EP coming out early March, a couple of east coast mini-tours, Mouse Fest 2018, and a lot of new material coming.Also, fuck you CHUCK for never letting us play in your venue as kids.

RELATED LiNKS:
https://www.facebook.com/fozmoNC/