Mozes And The Firstborn are consistently hailed as the resurrection of great garage rock. “I Got Skills” and “Seasons” off of their first album were both prime examples of the garage sound. For their follow up, they’ve evolved into more of a classic alt rock sound that fits the ‘90s revival moment we’re in.

Ravelin got in touch with the fellas from Mozes and the Firstborn who are about to gear up for a tour full of “frantic live shows” to support what we thought was their sophomore album coming out on September 9th. In the course of our conversation we discovered a hidden second album and got to the bottom of the Mozes and Firstborn origin story.

You guys are the first band we’ve ever interviewed from the Netherlands! Are there any Dutch specific influences you guys have from growing up that might surprise us or that we might not be aware of?
Well, there’s a first for everything! Honestly we didn’t grow up listening to Dutch music at all. Mostly American and English artists. There’s a couple of Dutch artists that we listen to now like Bettie Serveert, Urban Dance Squad and, a more recent one, Amber Arcades.

It sounds like you guys are real road dogs judging by the extent of your touring. What’s life on the road like for the band? And what can audiences expect from your live shows?
Touring’s bliss and torment at the same time. We’ve done three coast-to-coast tours in the US so far. It’s a lot of fun and you truly get to know each other. It’s like becoming family all of a sudden, which means sharing good and bad stuff. Apart from the little personal space you have and the sheer exhaustion of playing every night it’s a magical ride. You’re in your own weird bubble and you get to share it with others! That’s the most important thing, I guess: Sharing our music and emotions on stage with as many people as possible. We’re an energetic band and we play frantic live shows!

How did the four of you come together as a band? Had you been in other bands previous to Mozes and the Firstborn?
I met Raven (drummer) six years ago when he was still 15 years old. We immediately clicked and asked Corto to fortify the band as a bass player. Ernst completed the line-up a year later with his completely unique guitar playing. Raven had a stoner band before this. Ernst is a local punk legend, who’s played in many different bands. Corto and I have played in a band together before this one. For everybody this is the first band that really tours extensively and puts out a lot of stuff, though.

You guys are the first band we’ve ever interviewed from the Netherlands! Are there any Dutch specific influences you guys have from growing up that might surprise us or that we might not be aware of?
Well, there’s a first for everything! Honestly we didn’t grow up listening to Dutch music at all. Mostly American and English artists. There’s a couple of Dutch artists that we listen to now like Bettie Serveert, Urban Dance Squad and, a more recent one, Amber Arcades.

It sounds like you guys are real road dogs judging by the extent of your touring. What’s life on the road like for the band? And what can audiences expect from your live shows?
Touring’s bliss and torment at the same time. We’ve done three coast-to-coast tours in the US so far. It’s a lot of fun and you truly get to know each other. It’s like becoming family all of a sudden, which means sharing good and bad stuff. Apart from the little personal space you have and the sheer exhaustion of playing every night it’s a magical ride. You’re in your own weird bubble and you get to share it with others! That’s the most important thing, I guess: Sharing our music and emotions on stage with as many people as possible. We’re an energetic band and we play frantic live shows!

How did the four of you come together as a band? Had you been in other bands previous to Mozes and the Firstborn?
I met Raven (drummer) six years ago when he was still 15 years old. We immediately clicked and asked Corto to fortify the band as a bass player. Ernst completed the line-up a year later with his completely unique guitar playing. Raven had a stoner band before this. Ernst is a local punk legend, who’s played in many different bands. Corto and I have played in a band together before this one. For everybody this is the first band that really tours extensively and puts out a lot of stuff, though.
Is there a reference behind the name Mozes and the Firstborn?
I loved the animated film ‘The Prince of Egypt’ when I was a kid (I still do, actually). At one point Moses (or God) kills the firstborn child of the Pharaoh.
I thought that was quite harsh. Come to think of it, it’s not the safest band name to have nowadays…

This new album seems like somewhat of a stylistic departure from your previous release; is that intentional or just part of your natural evolution as a group?
After our first record came out I kept on writing while on tour and quite soon we started working on a new one. We recorded a second album completely live, but after a little psychotic episode on my part, we decided to take a step back for a while and reconsider putting out that album. After some months of no band activity we were ready to go get ’em again and we agreed on recording a completely new album, which is this one: ‘Great Pile of Nothing’. So actually the one that’s coming out on the 9th of September is our third album. The (so far unreleased) second album only has one copy. Bids start at $35,000. The making of ‘Great Pile of Nothing’ was a very long journey for us as a band. The sounds and songs have organically grown over the past three years. To us it makes a lot of sense. I believe there’s no other band in the world who could have made this record.

https://www.terrorbird.com/albums/great-pile-of-nothing
http://burgerrecords.11spot.com/mozes-and-the-firstborn-great-pile-of-nothing.html
‘Great Pile of Nothing’ out 9/9 via Burger Records