Crashing into the hardcore scene in 2019, Santa Cruz-born Scowl have swiftly claimed their right as one of the leading faces in today’s hardcore scene. Composed of vocalist Kat Moss, guitarist Mikey Bifolco, guitarist Malachi Greene, bassist Bailey Lupo and drummer Cole Gilbert, Scowl has continued to distinguish itself with a sound that packs a heavy punch. Their shows are a riotous celebration of the hardcore ethos, drawing fans from all walks of life into the camaraderie of their scene. With fast, harsh guitar riffs and powerful, driven drums that bring to mind the whirlwind of a mosh pit, Scowl stands tall in their fierce energy, unyielding passion and unapologetic commitment to their message. 

The release of their 2021 album How Flowers Grow showcased just how unafraid of risks the band truly is. Coming in at just over fifteen minutes and thirty seconds, How Flowers Grow is full of sheer energy, impressive breakdowns and clear nods to the influence of ’80s hardcore. Their latest release, EP Psychic Dance Routine, sees Scowl continue to push what is expected of them. By combining their traditional hardcore sound with the exploration of rich, melodic-driven alternative rock, the band creates an entirely captivating sound that leaves listeners awaiting their already highly anticipated sophomore album all the more so. 

Notorious for touring, Scowl have shared the stage with punk legends like Limp Bizkit and Circle Jerks, fellow Bay Area hardcore bands Drain and Sunami and played festivals such as Coachella and Sick New World.

With only a couple of days off before embarking on the road once again, mxdwn had the honor of speaking with Kat Moss about what makes this approaching tour particularly special, meeting your icons in full circle moments and how their lyric writing process has changed throughout the years.  

They will be on tour this fall with support from Militarie Gun, MSPAINT and Big Laugh.

mxdwn: Hi, my name is Riley and I am a music feature writer here at mxdwn. I am here today with Kat Moss, the lead vocalist of Scowl. Hi Kat. 

Kat Moss: Hi. 

mxdwn: So let’s just get right into it. I know you all just got back from a full length European tour this past summer. Looking back, what were some of your favorite experiences touring abroad?

KM: Oh gosh, I’m just now getting my head on my shoulders. I just got home from Europe a couple days ago. It was such a trip, it was a great time! We as a band, like the whole band, had a great time. We’ve been to Europe once before on a tour, and we did like some festivals and club shows, but this was definitely the real deal. We did a month full of tons of festivals and then a handful of club shows. All of the club shows were incredible, just so much fun. We had a few headliners and then a few shows with Stick to Your Guns. We had a really good time. We love those dudes, those are the homies, you know, and it’s always nice to see friends. We got to run into our friends, Drain, at Tells Bells in Germany and that was a really good time. 

mxdwn: Yeah, sounds like it! Germany seems to come up often as a favorite amongst touring musicians. 

KM: Oh of course, it was beautiful and lovely. However, I think my favorite were the two club shows we played in Spain, a show in Madrid and a show in Barcelona. Those shows were absolutely nuts! I just loved Spain. Visiting Spain was such a dream. And then Portugal, that was really cool! The whole thing was really fun. We played Paris, that was probably my favorite headliner we did. We also got to play three shows in Ireland, that was our first time over there and it was just amazing! Ireland was beautiful, my favorite scenery, people and the shows popped. Everyone was so grateful to have us there. I guess bands don’t come through Ireland very often, so that was really cool. 

mxdwn: Oh yeah, I bet! I feel like the international fans are always grateful for full European tours. Especially three shows in Ireland, that is pretty rare! 

KM: Yeah dude! That’s not common. 

mxdwn: No, that’s definitely rare. Especially combined with the full tour and hitting up multiple cities in one country, like Madrid and Barcelona.

KM: Yeah, it was awesome. It was a trip. I mean literally and figuratively, it was a trip. Just, yeah. I mean, still coming down from it, still suffering from a little bit of jet lag. But that’s just how life goes. 

mxdwn: I was going to say, that leads perfectly into my next question. In less than two weeks you will be back for another full tour this fall with Militarie Gun, MSPAINT and Big Laugh. How would you describe your energy going into the tour?

KM: Oh man. Hopefully, more than I have right now {laughs}. 

mxdwn: Oh of course {laughs}! A full European tour, that has to be so exhausting! 

KM: Yeah, there’s definitely a level of it where I’m excited to jump right back into it, actually. I was talking with Mikey, who plays guitar, and I told him that I am almost ready already. In certain ways, I feel ready to jump back in. We have about a week of rest and our first show is in L.A. on September 8th.

mxdwn: That’s so soon! 

KM: I’m really excited though because these shows are going to be our first full headlining tour and that’s something I’m just so excited about. 

mxdwn: Yeah! That’s something really special and sentimental.

KM: Yeah! We’ve had headliners but we’ve never done it like this. It’s never been our tour and that’s really exciting. 

mxdwn: When you have such little time to recuperate between tours, what does your rest routine look like? Do you spend a lot of time around family and friends, do you go out and get involved in the scene or do you tend to stay in? 

KM: Oh my goodness. When I’m home it’s challenging for sure because I immediately want to see all my friends, but I also know I need to relax and take a breather. The first couple days are definitely just sleep, relax, try to link up with my friends but nothing crazy, maybe just get some coffee and that’s my main goal. Just see my core people, give them a big hug and my love, and then catch up with whatever I have the brain to catch up on. 

mxdwn: Speaking of your extensive tour lineup, from going on tour with legends in the scene such as Circle Jerk, Show Me The Body and Destroy Boys, along with playing so many festivals, I can’t help but be impressed at how much you all tour. How do you manage to always bring a fantastic show with amazing energy to each performance show after show, tour after tour? 

KM: It’s definitely partially because of the rest routine that I can put in as much energy as I do. I prioritize taking care of myself, like sleeping and my self care. I’m definitely an introvert who likes to be social so it’s important for me to just know when my battery is drained and to recharge. Going into playing a show and giving it my all, I have to try and get myself into a positive, excited mindset. I mean, I’m excited no matter what. But, if I am tired, it’s like I gotta go listen to some Megan Thee Stallion {laughs}. 

mxdwn: Right {laughs}! There’s nothing that listening to Megan Thee Stallion can’t fix. 

KM: Yeah! I love to dance more than anything. Before a set, I’m listening to some music I can dance to; whether it is Paramore, Rico Nasty or whoever, just something to get me hyped up and ready to go. 

mxdwn: That’s definitely reflected in your music, your love to dance. Whenever I listen to your music or see live shows of your music that is the picture I get in my head; of people dancing, moving, and moshing. 

KM: Yay {laughs}!!

mxdwn: Recently, you all were featured on a cover of Alternative Press, along with an interview conducted by no other than Frank Iero. Similarly, you gave great gratitude to Travis Barker for watching your Coachallea set earlier in April. As one of the leading faces in this generation’s punk scene, how does it feel to have these experiences with icons of the genre that you grew up listening to? 

KM: Unbelievable {laughs}! I genuinely mean it in the most sincere way, but I just don’t believe it! It doesn’t feel real. I wish I had a more exciting thing to say about it. There’s so much gratitude in it. I think about it more so that I’m excited for my younger self constantly, cause she would freak out. Current self is also freaking out, but I almost have to check out because I don’t even know how to process it.  

mxdwn: Yeah, I have to imagine it feels pretty surreal. 

KM: Yeah! I wish I was cooler about it. I wish I was someone who could be like, “Oh, it was so nice,” but I don’t know how to explain it or put it into words {laughs}. I just feel like such a regular person and it’s crazy to think that people I look up to so much have now been able to perceive me and Scowl, and our band. That’s amazing, that’s actually insane to me. 

mxdwn: It had to be a pretty full circle moment for everyone in the band. 

KM: Absolutely. 

mxdwn: Speaking of monumental career moments, is it a similar feeling to hear your song “Opening Night” in a Taco Bell commercial? 

KM: I haven’t heard the commercial but I swear to God every person I know has {laughs}.That’s actually insanity to me. I don’t understand, but I’m stoked on it. I’m really stoked that people like it and that Taco Bell liked it enough that they wanted to use it. I don’t think any musician goes into writing a song planning that it is going to be for a commercial. But, in the occurrence that it does happen, it’s quite exciting because it does mean there is a direct correlation between your music being not only our passion, but we live in a world where we have to put food in our mouths and pay bills. It’s so cool to be like, “Wow, this little thing I did that has so much meaning to me is giving me the opportunity to live my life.”

mxdwn: Especially in today’s generation, to be able to have your art be your means of income is a dream for a lot of people. For you to have gratitude for that just shows how humble and down to earth Scowl is. 

KM: Thank you! I just hope that more bands in our realm have that opportunity, because everyone deserves it. Everyone works so hard, you know. That’s something that has always been important to me. I think everyone should be able to eat off this, find passion and joy in it, and be able to do it as much as they want to do it. 

mxdwn: That’s very obviously reflected in your music, especially in your lyrics. It’s very impressive, especially your desire for other bands from your area to have the same experience of their art supporting them financially. Throughout my career interviewing different musicians, I can’t help but notice that bands from the Bay Area often credit the area for being a major source of inspiration and influence on their music. Knowing how important community is to hardcore music, how would you say the Bay Area punk/hardcore scene shaped or even continues to shape Scowl?

KM: I feel like it’s integral to us, from the beginning to the continuation of the band and us as artists. One, we are very inspired by a lot of legendary bands that come from here and our friends. I feel directly and constantly inspired by my friends more than anything. Whether that’s my friend Sammy from Drain or my girlfriends at home who, maybe they don’t play in bands but they put in so much love and effort into their lives, relationships, the things they do, they still come out to shows and ride for us. They support our scene because they love it. I feel like, in a lot of ways, the Bay Area is the lungs of Scowl. We have to have that in order to breathe, in order to pump the blood and passion of the band. We would have never been able to start this band, or get anywhere with this band, without the help of our friends, our scene, our friend’s bands, our homies who make zines, who take photos, and who contribute art to this community. 

mxdwn: That’s such a beautiful way to describe the scene.

KM: Yeah, I love it. It’s amazing.

mxdwn: On the topic of community being at the center of hardcore, are there any artists you would consider it a dream to collaborate with? Whether that is through making music or even going on tour together? 

KM: Oh my God, absolutely! Absolutely. It’s so hard to say because my list is so long. I could go from the tippity-top of touring with my dream bands. Those would be Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy, Amyl and the Sniffers. But also, dream tours for me are also with our best friends in Drain. We toured with Sunami, being able to tour with them again would be amazing. Touring with my friends in Initiate, Punitive Damage, World of Pleasure, and just endless collaborations of course. If the time allowed it I would just love to be sitting in a studio with so many people, it’s hard to list {laughs}. 

mxdwn: Those are some dream lineups indeed. Going on to talk about some of your recent music, your EP, Psychic Dance Routine, reminded me of the song “Seeds to Sow” from How Flowers Grow which was Scowl’s first lyrically clean song but it still embodies the hard, fast instrumentation you’re known for. We see this combination again on the songs “Psychic Dance Routine” and “Opening Night”. How did you come to the decision to incorporate this and were you exploring this method first on “Seeds to Sow” for use on future EPs and albums? 

KM: I would say it was a very happy accident that kind of turned into this thing where I realized I wanted to try to use and experiment with more. “Seeds to Sow” was absolutely a happy accident, it wasn’t really a plan for me to sing on it. When it did happen I think everyone, collectively in that moment, realized that there was no going back and that we should continue to work that muscle. For me personally, it opened my eyes. I didn’t think my voice was going to be worth anything or interesting to anyone else. I don’t think I’m an amazing singer or anything, but I felt excited and it piqued my interest to be able to try something different and new. 

mxdwn: That’s really interesting because when I first listened to your music, your voice was one of the first things that caught my attention. It’s so powerful. To hear it being described at first as a happy accident, then to see it evolve into becoming so integral to your sound. It sounds very fluid.  

KM: Dude, thank you so much! 

mxdwn: Yeah of course! 

KM: I feel like every singer is very insecure about their voice. There’s some singers out there that they just gotta know, like Beyoncé. She’s just gotta know {laughs}. But most singers I talk to are very insecure about their voice and it’s such a vulnerable thing because it’s an invisible instrument. So when someone tells me they like my voice I really, really, value that. It means a lot to me, so thank you. 

mxdwn: You’re welcome! It was truly the first thing that stuck out to me. It was truly a happy accident indeed. Your lyricism is very literal and direct in terms of emotion and energy; it packs a punch that is unyielding which perfectly compliments the fast-paced instrumentation. In previous comments about your lyrics, you have stated that the literal lyrics are very intentional and that you don’t like to shroud in metaphor too much. Why do you think you gravitate towards this style of lyricism?

KM: I think for a long time I gravitated towards as literal lyrics as I could because of the bands I was listening to, like the type of hardcore bands I was listening to. They’re very direct and the emotion is very, it was very one color if that makes sense. That was something I really took inspiration from and liked a lot because it didn’t leave the audience guessing. I’ve now since opened myself up to using more metaphors, figures of speech and things like that. Phrasing as well, that is a big one, to me. But yeah, it was also a challenge for myself. That’s something I tend to like to do going into a record or an EP. While the lyrics and the visuals will have a concept, sometimes I also like to test myself with some other concepts, like maybe almost setting rules for myself. Not rigid rules, necessarily, but maybe set a goal. Like for Psychic Dance Routine, the entire EP, I set a goal to not cuss in any of the lyrics {laughs}, because I had never done that.

mxdwn: Interesting {laughs}!

KM: Yeah, I feel like when I talk I have to make a conscious effort to not swear like a sailor. When I’m nervous, I actually swear way more, like when I’m on stage talking in between songs. So I made an effort to consciously not write swears into my lyrics, not because I felt like I wanted to keep it “clean,” but rather I just wanted to challenge myself to do that. Instead of using, you know, if I needed a two syllable word, using something more creative than a swear word {laughs}.

mxdwn: Yeah {laughs}! You know, that’s how you keep challenging yourself as an artist to keep pushing the boundaries of what you can and can’t do, even if just for yourself.

KM: That’s how art is and that’s how I interpret art. To me, it’s very much about your audience but the person you’re creating it for first and foremost is yourself. It’s an extension of yourself.

To keep up with everything Scowl, follow the band on Instagram and Twitter. Tickets to their upcoming tour may be found on their website.