Interview with Mawpit: ‘Eat A Corpse turned out just as we wanted – angry, sassy and satirical!’

Alt-rock, grunge power trio Mawpit from Cardiff released their second single, ‘Eat A Corpse’, last week, a visceral and satirical tale of human gluttony, with a gritty, pulsating chorus.

Mawpit comprises Cait Johansen (vocals), Jordan Mallinson (guitar) and Aled Nelmes (drums).

Johansen got the idea for ‘Eat A Corpse’ after ‘watching footage of animals being abused and it really upset me’: ‘I brought the idea to Jordan and he wrote the bridge. It’s quick and edgy with clashy chords! It turned out just as we wanted – angry, sassy and satirical! It’s meant to be more thought provoking.’

The song is also about the juxtaposition of stereotypes regarding meat eaters and vegans, according to Mallinson: ‘Cait and I are both vegan and Aled is transitioning at the moment [laughs]. He did say the other day that he now prefers vegan cheese to real cheese!’

As the lyrics go: ‘Eat a corpse, bury it inside.

No remorse, you laugh at the pain.

Bite on death, fill your soul with dust.

I’ll weep for them, echoing their voice.

I hope Karma gets ya, yeah.

They are rooting for her, yeah.

I hope God looks down in shame.

Turns you down at the gates.’

Mallison and Nelmes have known each other since they were 10 years old, playing in various bands over the years and Johansen and Mallinson met at university. They don’t shy away from socio-political topics in their writing, including feminism, environmentalism, politics and animal rights. Mallinson and Nelmes grew up listening to grunge, punk and alt rock music, whereas Johansen has been inspired by pop, soul and jazz.

Next single, ‘Cittàgazze’, references His Dark Materials

Next up, likely in December, will be their single ‘Cittàgazze’, or ‘City of the Magpies’, a reference to the fictional city where the two central characters, Lyra and Will, first meet in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy: ‘This song is really different to our other ones,’ Johansen said. ‘Jordan started it on the guitar. It’s sweet, actually, it’s more about love, I wrote about those characters.’

Their previous single, ‘Nature’s Curse’, actually started off as a ballad before getting an edgy makeover: ‘It’s about the bush fires in Australia and global warming,’ she said.

‘We don’t want to limit ourselves, we just want to write songs that are as exciting as possible’

It is important to both of them to develop songs that are as diverse as possible: ‘A band should have many different sides to the coin,’ Mallinson said. We don’t want to limit ourselves, we just want to write songs that are as exciting as possible.’

Their name has an interesting provenance, too: ‘I have friends who like to come up with band names when they’re bored,’ Mallinson said laughing. ‘We’re nerdy, we like Pokémon and ‘Mawpit’ reminds us of ‘Mawile’ (a short, bipedal Pokémon with a pale yellow body and black arms and feet, based on the myth of Futakuchi-onna, or ‘two mouthed woman’).’ Johansen chipped in: ‘It’s like our music, edgy but with a bite!’

Cardiff’s music scene has also been expanding in the past two years, they say, with more venues opening up prior to the pandemic, at least. ‘It’s got its own niche scene,’ Mallinson said. Johansen is a fan of local three-piece upbeat pop-rock trio Bloom as well as of Welsh-speaking band Hyll. Mallinson is a fan of local rock band Fawner. Johansen also cites Welsh singer Marina and the Diamonds: ‘I really like her way of writing because I have a pop background. Singer songwriters like Laura Marling and KT Tunstall got me into writing, really.’ She’d love to collaborate with The National: ‘I love to harmonise with everything, I’d do it for them for free!’

Mallinson is a massive fan of Laura-Mary Carter from English alternative rock duo, Blood Red Shoes: ‘She pushes the boundaries of what a guitar can do,’ he said. He also loves St. Vincent: ‘They’re like Jack White mixed with Björk!’ He also cites DZ Deathrays, an Australian dance-punk trio from Brisbane, as a band he’d love to work with: ‘I saw them live in Bristol and was blown away by their guitarist’s capabilities. It really switched me on to what was possible – I wanted to make as big a noise as that!’

(Photo from left to right: Jordan, Cait and Aled)