MOOCH singer and lead guitarist Ben Cornell sits next to bassist Julian Iacovantuono — the two are childhood friends — and drummer Alex Segreti played with Iacovantuono in a high school band.
Their desert metal blues and shoegaze sound is reminiscent of The White Stripes, and a less-sardonic Eagles Of Death Metal. This trio from Montreal released debut LP “Hounds” in 2020.
Cornell now lives in Yellowknife, but Folk on the Rock was the first time the band performed here. They met in Montreal and have been playing together in MOOCH for seven years.
“We started when we were 17 or 18 year olds,” Cornell says, and “through the course of the relationship of this band, we’ve known each other for a long time now. We can definitely see the growth and development of ourselves as individuals, but also as a ‘family of three’ — interpersonal skills and everything.
“We’ve been growing up together for the last seven years, and so there is a lot of depth and emotions and intimacy in what we’re putting forward because it really comes from the friendship that holds us all together,” he added.
Iacovantuono remarked, “It’s really getting over the ego, you know, that inner ego. It comes with maturity, it comes with communication and it’s something that sounds a lot easier than it is to do.”
Metal is an oft-misperceived genre with tropes focusing on the glorification of anger, violence or rage, but “it’s more passion than anger,” according to Iacovantuono. “You know, when you’re playing really well it’s passion, not anger or sadness… and then once you’re really playing, you know, it’s all heart.”
