Joe Mungovan refuses to be boxed in creatively ahead of Oxford Art Factory show
BY MARCUS HAAR
Everyday people feel and look at the world differently than they did the week before, heck the day before. And for an artist there’s no better way to express these emotions than to do it through their art. For NSW South Coast singer/songwriter, Joe Mungovan, being able to develop his sound and refusing to be ‘boxed in’ has allowed him to freely express himself despite the effects of a global pandemic and recent floods.
Mungovan is planning to play seven shows across the East Coast performing songs from his debut album, A Flower In The Weeds, with his new band for the very first time.
In a recent interview with City Hub about Mungovan’s East Coast tour, we discuss his debut album and how it demonstrates his current perspective as well as how he has continuously built his sound from previous works.
Developing your craft as an artist
“I do think as an artist, you change, grow, and develop your craft. The music you listen to influences that,” explained Mungovan. “It’s an element of showing the emotions that you’re going through at the time, and expressing how you feel in the world. The way that you look at the world and who you are as a person.”
“As time goes by you write hundreds of songs, you get better at doing that and you develop your sound. Everything I want to release I want to have a different kind of sound and nothing too crazy when it comes to changing my ways or whatever. I just want to write what I want to write and not feel like I’m boxed in any one genre.” Mungovan continued.
Being able to express yourself freely through music can allow listeners to relate to the mood or tone within a song, a feeling further bolstered by live music.
Planning a tour during a pandemic & national flooding disaster
While talking about the excitement of touring and performing in front of an audience, we also discussed the difficulties of planning locations for the tour during COVID-19 and recent floods.
“It’s been good to get back on the road, but unfortunately, we’ve had to postpone a large chunk of the tour,” said Mungovan. “We were supposed to go up to Brisbane and Byron the week that it flooded. We also had to postpose the Milton show due to one of the band members being a close contact of COVID.”
In closing our conversation, we talked about whether touring was still worth the effort despite the difficulties surrounding it.
“It’s just been a lot of fun getting back on the road and playing live shows again. People are allowed to dance again and are getting more confident to go out and socialise and be in a space with each other and share the beautiful scene that is live music.”
