Mt. Joy will finally make their Australian debut after a near decade-long climb that’s taken the Philadelphia indie-rock band from scrappy DIY beginnings to sold-out arenas and some of the world’s most iconic stages.
Since forming in 2016, the five-piece have quietly built one of modern indie’s most enduring success stories, powered by emotionally expansive songwriting, a magnetic live presence, and a commitment to growing together, rather than chasing quick wins.
The slow-burn paid off in 2024, when Mt. Joy sold out Madison Square Garden, Red Rocks Amphitheatre and The Greek Theatre, cementing their reputation as a band whose songs are built to be felt communally, sung back by thousands at a time.
Now, they’re bringing that energy to Australia and New Zealand for the first time as part of Laneway, armed with their fourth album Hope We Have Fun (2025). Shaped by years on the road, deep friendships, and the emotional whiplash of sudden scale, the album captures the highs, lows, and in-between moments of a life lived together.
It’s certainly a fitting soundtrack for a band stepping onto their biggest international stages yet.
We caught up with Mt. Joy’s frontman Matt Quinn ahead of Laneway, kicking off next week.
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Rolling Stone AU/NZ: How are you feeling stepping onto one of Australia’s biggest stages? Are you excited, nervous, a little bit of both?
Matt Quinn: We’re super excited. As a band, it’s cool for us to play so far from home. I’ve never been to Australia, so personally, I’ve always really wanted to go and just kind of needed a reason, so we’re super excited.
We’ve done a good bit of playing festivals and stuff like that. It’s kind of cool that we get to do it a bunch of times, because you can catch the vibe, and then maybe we’ll get better at it as the week goes on, or whatever, where sometimes you play a festival for the first time, and maybe you’re like, ‘oh, we should have done these types of songs’, or ‘oh, it was more this type of crowd’, but this time we’ll really get to, I guess, see all the different vibes that Australia, and little bit of New Zealand, have to offer, so that’ll be really cool.
Is there anything that you’re looking forward to the most, music-related or not, when you’re down here?
So my wife’s best friend lives in Sydney, they lived in New York together for a long time, and she’s just this quirky, amazing, wonderful person. I just want to experience Australian culture, because I feel like I’ll get along very well with Australians, people like her, and that excites me. It looks beautiful – beautiful people, beautiful beaches, beautiful music, which obviously excites me, and I’m just excited to be part of it.
Before we sort of get stuck into your recent album properly in a little bit, are there any songs from Hope We Have Fun that you think the crowd will really love? If someone is listening to Mt. Joy for the first time ever, is there one song you think in particular that will really stand out to them?
It’s always hard, but I think live, we have a song called “Pink Lady”. It’s summertime there for you guys, and this is just this song that we made together in a room, which isn’t always how we make stuff, but I love when it works out that way, and it’s full of fun and goofiness. I think it kind of taps into the sort of family we’ve become as a band. We have so many dumb jokes, and this song came from an inside joke about a crazy bus driver that we had, it all came together in maybe an hour and a half, and I think because all of us share in it in a cool way, we have so much fun playing. Sometimes I’ll burst out laughing on stage, it just brings us joy, and I think if that’s one of the goals of music, then maybe people will be into that.
Gigi Perez is playing Laneway as well, do you think fans might be able to look forward to hearing your collab “In the Middle” live?
Yeah, I love that song. I love Gigi. She’s incredible. I’m super fortunate we got to make that song together, and that was when I met her. I got to go to this writing retreat, and I’d never been to one before, and I was like, ‘hey, I have some ideas’, so we got put in a room together. I didn’t know that she had this massive song, and she’s humble and obviously wasn’t saying that, so I got to see the whole thing happen in real time, which is a really cool window into someone as powerful as she is, and I was blown away right away. I felt so fortunate to be in the room, we put the song together, and I just knew right away that we did something really cool and special.
Getting to sing with her, man she’s powerful. She’s tapped into something, which I just feel is almost rare now. Her thing is just that she’s honest and telling these really vulnerable stories, and she’s an unbelievable singer, so to get to sing that one with her on stage in Australia would be very fun.
I read an interview of yours where you mentioned you two didn’t know each other before that writing retreat which I wouldn’t have believed otherwise – I mean, your voices complement each other so beautifully. What was it like in the studio?
We made the song with, the engineer’s name is Lance, he’s from New Zealand actually, and Rob Bissell was in the room as well. Rob produced the last SZA record, including “Kill Bill” and some of those incredible songs, and I’d never met Rob either, but he was just like, ‘hey, you guys should make a song, maybe it will be neither of your song, but just make something together’. Within 90 minutes, I kind of have this thing, and removing the ego thing of it, this was just a song for the sake of a song. We both got to dig into our voice memos, and be like, ‘hey, here’s this thing I never was able to use’, and it was easy. It was like we just put a puzzle together. And it was a lot of fun.
Is there anyone else on the Laneway lineup that you’re keen to see?
There’s so many. I don’t want to eave anybody out. Obviously Gigi, there’s Geese, I’m so excited to see there. Alex G is also a Philadelphia guy and I’ve never met him, but I’ve heard amazing things and his music’s incredible, so excited to hear him. I’m sure there are others that I’m missing. But also Chappell Roan, I mean, she’s just a force. We played a festival with her. And she played at 1pm or something, and while most pop stars would pull out of festivals or not play so early, she did it. And it was obviously the biggest 1pm festival set in the history in the middle of Iowa.
Now, I wanted to touch on the album, we’re coming on to a year since its release. And this past year has looked insane for you guys. Has it felt that way?
Yeah. We’ve been fortunate, the last couple of years here in the States and Canada, the tours keep getting bigger and bigger, and there’s a pressure with that. But this album gave us like a new life, you know. We had these new songs that we love playing, and it’s so cool to see people catch on to something that you’re proud of, and people singing back these new songs. It’s been really cool.
The album reflects life on the road, chronicles the journey Mt. Joy have been on since 2022’s Orange Blood. Was it difficult figuring out what you did want to say and what you didn’t? How you choose what part of your journey and life on tour makes it onto the record?
So I think we were all there as people. And it was pretty easy to just express and just be like, ‘this is what I’m thinking about’. I mean, all the time it was really,’what the heck is going on?’ or ‘are we going to be okay?’. But the whole time period was like that, and we knew that no matter what, we would just have fun and try to soak it up, and not worry.
Do you have some kind of ritual to keep you sane, keep you grounded when you’re going through all of this? Is there something that as a band you guys do together?
Yes! So this is always really hard to explain, because it’s an inside joke, and maybe it’ll show people how silly we are. But our bass player, his parents got divorced, and so he had like a situation early on where he had his dad, his stepdad, whatever, whatever. And so we would refer to his dads as like ‘your emperor dad’ who was his real dad, it was all very stupid and silly. We were about to play a show many years ago, and we were super nervous, until he made a joke about it. It kind of cut the air a little bit, because it’s so serious, but also silly. So we started chanting “D.A.D”, with our hands in and it kind of worked.And we’ve done that before every show ever since.
There will be a bunch of people side stage, sometimes 20, 30 people all with their hands and chanting “D.A.D”. And really, probably apart from a few people I’ve told this story to, and the five of us, I think most people have no idea what they’re saying or why they’re saying it. But that’s just the vibes. And I think it grounds us, reminds us that we’re just a bunch of friends doing a silly thing and not to take it too seriously.
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Mt. Joy has been together for nearly a decade now, if you think back to that show or other early moments of the band’s career, did you ever think that you would be selling out places like the MSG and playing these massive festivals?
I know we didn’t think that because I remember certain goals that we had that felt like the top, and then we were past them and it was like, ‘oh, my God, what are we doing?’. Yeah, it’s unbelievable. We feel super fortunate and we’re just trying to make the most of it, really. We feel in some ways, when we play together, we always knew everyone was really special. I’ve come from this world and music where I know so many super special musicians that never get an opportunity like we have. Obviously we’ve been super fortunate.
But like I said, we feel excited because at this point, we’ve had enough time playing together and everybody’s super talented. We’ve got all the ingredients and now we’ve got people turning it up.
What do you think keeps Mt. Joy sounding like yourselves over the years?
I think part of it is our influences maybe, we’re not pushing ourselves to be any bigger than we are or anything like that. And then I also know that you become friends and you get here by jamming together and kind of hold yourselves accountable. No one’s going to let me make a lame song or something like that. I mean, sure, people think our music’s lame, but to our own ears it’s not, and ultimately we’re the arbiters of that.
Someone will for sure make fun of me if I make something cheesy, just like I’m sure you and your friends do, we give each other a hard time. But that helps to keep you in line and keep you humble.
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If there’s one thing that new fans of Mt. Joy should take away from your Laneway set, is there anything that comes to mind? What do you hope to share with the audience?
I’ve said this before, I think Australia’s got some great bands, maybe unlike the States. There aren’t many of us left, it’s really hard to be a band. I think people would love being in bands, but to really break through as a band is borderline impossible at this point.
So I feel like people showing up and realising that special vibe to how we do it, that’s exciting. And that’s what people in the States have kind of fallen for is just that there’s something special about a band that gets the opportunity to be together for 10 years and make music together and go through shit together. And our music reflects that, and I think that’s what makes us different.
For more information about Laneway, see here.
LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2026
Thursday, February 5th (18+)
Western Springs, Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau NZ
Saturday, February 7th (16+)
Southport Sharks, Gold Coast/Yugambeh Jagun QLD
Sunday, February 8th (16+)
Centennial Park, Sydney/Gadigal & Bidjigal NSW
Friday, February 13th (16+)
Flemington Park, Melbourne/Wurundjeri Biik VIC
Saturday, February 14th (16+)
Adelaide Showgrounds, Adelaide/Kaurna Yerta SA
Sunday, February 15th (16+)
Arena Joondalup, Perth/Whadjuk Boodjar WA
