Presented by Heard’s Music + Tech Mash-up presented by SPIN, VIBE and STEREOGUM (SXSW Badges & Music Wristbands only)
Mobley at Mazda Studio at Empire Control Room
Cutting vocals in the woods behind his college dorm. Mixing in the backseat of a sedan. Sneaking into the music department after hours to teach himself to play new instruments (and sneaking out before the faculty arrived in the morning). From the start, Mobley's work has been marked by solitude, ingenuity, and a drive that could only be called obsessive. Whether you experience his music on record or at one of his incredible live shows, the passion is palpable. Mobley grew up all over the world, from the Spanish Mediterranean to the California coast. Perhaps it's because of this itinerant childhood that he finds it so hard to sit still.
Over the last few years, he's composed dozens of pieces for stage and television (with placements on HBO, Fox, and NBC), played 200+ national tour dates (with the likes of Phantogram, JUNGLE, Mutemath, Robert Delong, & Wavves and at festivals like SXSW, CMJ, Savannah Stopover and Float Fest), and recorded (then scrapped) two whole albums in pursuit of the songs that would become his forthcoming full-length debut, Fresh Lies. Mobley wrote, produced, and played every instrument on the album. The music -- which Mobley calls "post-genre pop" -- defies easy classification, drawing liberally (often simultaneously) from an array of musical traditions. He's equally at home on a playlist next to The Weeknd and TV on the Radio alike, while his electronic, dub-dabbling production style calls to mind the intricate work of artists like James Blake and Thom Yorke.
This summer and fall, he's touring as a one-man band, singing and playing keys, guitar, bass, drums, and samplers. He's spanning the United States and Mexico in support of his newest EP release, Some Other Country, out now on Violent Films.
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