Mitch Rowland is no stranger to a recording studio. Over the past seven years, the indie songwriter has collaborated with artists like Harry Styles and Kurt Vile, perfecting his songwriting chops and refining his exhilarating guitar skills. Now, Rowland has embarked on a new adventure: launching his solo career. “Come June,” his charmingly tender debut album, hit the shelves on October 6, 2023, and in February, he kicked off a North American tour.
Our Music Coordinator, Claire Dunham spoke with Rowland about his musical influences, performing live, and those magical moments during songwriting sessions when everything just clicks.
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW ALBUM. IT'S AWESOME. IT'S REALLY WONDERFUL. YOU FIRST STARTED WORKING ON IT IN 2019—AM I CORRECT IN SAYING THAT?
Mitch Rowland: Technically, yes. The first song that happened was “Come June,” but nothing followed it. So I started intentionally making this record maybe a year, or year and a half, after that. And the version that I had of “Come June,” I had to redo it. It wasn't working, and it was actually the last song that went on the album. Rob Schnaf, who produced, was scraping the bottom, seeing if there's anything else, and I said, “Well, I got this song.” So we reapproached it, and it went last. Ironically.
HOW DID IT FEEL TO COME BACK TO THE ALBUM AFTER TAKING A LITTLE BIT OF A BREAK?
MR: Well, the recording happened more recently, so in a way I’ve never really been away from the music. I took all the finished demos into Rob's. I thought that for the longest time this was just going to be a minimal vocal and guitar record, and I gave up control when I showed up to his door step. That's when the songs started becoming more filled out, and exactly what you hear now. So it's been a constant thing for a while.
AWESOME. WAS THAT YOUR FIRST TIME WORKING WITH ROB?
MR: Yeah, or with with any producer on my own.
AND THAT EXPERIENCE WAS GOOD?
MR: Yeah, I got lucky. I didn't have to do any speed dating. My wife Sarah came home and said, “You should work with Rob. I think you'll like him.” So we got it right the first time, luckily.
I WANT TO TALK A BIT ABOUT SONGWRITING. YOU'VE BEEN WRITING WITH HARRY FOR YEARS NOW AND WORKED WITH A LOT OF INCREDIBLE PEOPLE. CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT ABOUT HOW YOU FIRST GOT INTO IT? CAN YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST SONG YOU EVER WROTE?
MR: Yeah, it was the spring of 2016, and a guy I was living with at the time was engineering the sessions. I think Harry was going from one guy to another, trying to figure out who was gonna produce the record. And when he landed on Jeff Bhasker and that team, that's where he felt the most friction. So there was a guy that was gonna be there who was already a part of the music industry world, and he couldn't make it. So my roommate, the engineer, said, “Can you come in tomorrow?” and I had to make sure I could get my shift covered. So yeah, it clicked right away.
I think it it helped us get to the point faster, because I didn't really know who Harry was, and he definitely didn't know who I was. So we were just a bunch of lads in the studio hanging out and having fun. I think one of the first songs that made our heads turn and think, “Oh, I think we could be on to something,” was “Meet Me in the Hallway.”
DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT FEELING WHEN YOU GO INTO THE STUDIO TO WRITE WITH HARRY OR WITH ANYONE ELSE? IS IT STILL JUST ABOUT FEELING IT OUT OR DO YOU THINK YOUR SONGWRITING HAS SHIFTED IN A WAY?
MR: I think you're always kind of feeling it out no matter who you're doing it with. But yeah, with that said, there are songs that live and songs that get put away. So we've definitely gone through a lot more. And I think I know how to write for him a little bit better, but at the same time he surprises me, and he’ll latch onto something that I wouldn't have expected him to. Everything's fair game—in a nice way. I think, no matter how long you've known someone or how much you work together it's nice to just go to unexpected places.
WAS THERE ANYONE SPECIFIC YOU WERE LISTENING TO DURING THE SONGWRITING OR RECORDING PROCESS? WERE THERE ANY ARTISTS THAT INSPIRED THE SOUND OR THE LYRICS?
MR: It wouldn't make sense now, because they've gone through a bit of production. But at the time when I thought I was definitely gonna put out an acoustic record, I was relying on early José González records—I had those on all the time. Bert Jansch’s Rosemary Lane was another one that was my compass. I love all that stuff, and that's what fueled a lot of the songs. I just wanted a very digestible record. I was aiming for under 30 [minutes], so I missed it by about 7 minutes. But yeah, I looked to those people a lot, and still do.
It's important for me to circle back around to what was inspiring to me, because I have gone through the whole process of filling the songs out, and I've landed somewhere else, where I didn't expect. So yeah, I need to go back and think small again.
YOU JUST PLAYED THE SHOW AT THE TROUBADOUR. HOW DID THAT GO? HOW DID IT FEEL TO PLAY THOSE NEW SONGS?
MR: It felt great. It was a sold out show, and everyone there had a lot of love to give. So it was the best case scenario for all of us. That's the only thing you can hope for walking on stage, is to just be received from beginning to end.
IS THERE A SPECIFIC SHOW ON THE UPCOMING TOUR THAT YOU'RE REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO?
MR: Well, I never thought I'd play the Fonda Theatre. That's next to the Troubadour, not on the map, but important places to me in LA. And in the last seven years or so since I've been in Harry's bubble, I haven't played Columbus. So I’m going there for the first time, and that will be a homecoming show so that'll be good too.
