Exclusive Interview with 'MT FOG'

Mt Fog was started in Olympia, Washington in 2019 in an art-filled home without an internet connection as a labor of love and a reaction to the insanity of the world. Mt Fog (Carolyn B.) layers sparse electronic noises and eerie vocals to conjure both actual and imagined mystical settings. Martin Douglas of KEXP stated that after listening to Mt. Fog’s magnificent debut album, Guide to the Unusual, which Ghost Mountain Records re-released on tape in 2022, “it’s hard not to get significant Kate Bush vibes.” Spells of Silence, her much anticipated album has been released on 14 October 2022.
Spells of Silence is a compilation of songs about haunted houses. She finds surprising joy in the little things, crying in a dusty corner changes her into a body of water, and doors open into impossibly large areas. Mt Fog’s voice is layered with violin and synthesized sounds. These are tales of reflection and melancholy portrayed through a whimsical and, occasionally, happy lens. Gothic literature and the sensation of being hemmed in during this time period served as the inspiration for the album’s lead track, “Behind a Silent Door,” in particular, House of Leaves, works by Edgar Allen Poe, and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting. The radio station KEXP selected it as the Song of the Day and described her music as “beautiful, melodic synth-pop.” Additionally, “Behind a Silent Door” was discussed on the Runcast with John Richards and “Sound & Vision” on KEXP.

Spells of Silence was composed, sung, and produced by Mt Fog. Further recording were done together with Johnny Goss. Adam Straney performed the song mastering (Breakpoint Mastering). Veta Bakhtina created the album art. Check out the album and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

MT FOG: Mt Fog started in a house without the internet in Olympia, Washington in 2019. I had been spending evenings creating loops and sounds for a bit before I started this project. 2019 is when I suddenly had more time on my hands. I said to myself, I am really going to write a song now and start performing my creations!

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

MT FOG: I grew up playing and performing classical violin. All I did as a child was violin playing and music listening, but it was all in the classical music realm. I taught myself how to use electronic-music-making programs starting in 2015 or so.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘MT FOG’?

MT FOG: My strongest influences are for sure Bjork and the Knife – my first time trying to make a synth sound was to sound like this sound in a song by the Knife. The name Mt Fog comes from loving the dreamy, lose-yourself-and-enter-another-dimension quality of fog. Mt is short for Mountain. I have been backpacking as a source of vacations for a decade and there’s nothing better than sleeping in the shadow of a mountain.

4. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

MT FOG: Art is ultimately about community building and self-expression. Without these we are nothing. I hope more people see this as AI-created “art” starts becoming more common. What do we as people have to say, when so much has already been said? Art is the thing that makes us feel less alone in this vast, messed-up universe and helps us understand our small little place in it.

**5. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?**
**MT FOG:**
Making music is my form of therapy so it’s something I do every day as a practice. I don’t view it as something that I need to get a “return on investment” from. Is breathing fulfilling? It’s just something you do! But that said, I am very happy to have the chance to perform and share my music. I just hope to continue having the space, time and resources to keep creating songs and performing them for others.

6. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

MT FOG:

Most of my songs start with synth sounds that I play late at night with my headphones on, that emerge from some kind of feeling or vision. I then craft things around that feeling and usually find ideas and melodies emerging from the woodwork. To me creating music is a process of discovery, like peeling away layers of an onion or chipping away at a block of stone that has a sculpture inside.

7. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

MT FOG:

The existential dread of climate catastrophe and the unbearable weight of being in these fascistic times. Plus the pervasiveness of misogyny in the world wherein people underestimate or undervalue the work of women.

8. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

MT FOG:

Spells of Silence

9. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?

MT FOG:

It’s not something I have had to deal with too much. I find that most people who write and talk about indie/DIY music do it from a place of love. If they’re spending time talking about you, it’s probablyto uplift your work and highlight it for others.

10. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?

MT FOG: They are both amazing and I get so much energy and healing from both. They are both so necessary and essential to music making I just will not choose!

11. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?

MT FOG: I often don’t want to say too much about what has inspired me for songs or what they’re “about,” because I think something beautiful about art is interpreting it in your own way. Carrying that interpretation with you is a special type of intimacy with music. If we’re overly prescriptive about interpretation that creates an arms length interaction with the art where people have to trudge through your presentation of it before they can have their own experience of it.