Q&A with Mipso fiddler Libby Rodenbough

They started making music together when the band formed in 2010, the fall of their freshman year at UNC. Now, nearly five years later, Chapel Hill favorites Mipso are hitting the road again. But not before they release their new album, Old Time Reverie, and return to Cat’s Cradle this weekend. 

Arts & Entertainment Editor Sarah Vassello spoke to the last member to join, Libby Rodenbough, aboutbeing a part of the band, returning to the Cradle and releasing her first Mipso album.

Daily Tar Heel: How does it feel to be returning to Cat’s Cradle for this release show?

Libby Rodenbough: It feels really wonderful. It feels every time we go there more of a homecoming because it feels like the interval between Cat’s Cradle shows just gets bigger by the year, and we’re going further and further afield these days, so when we come home, it makes the homecoming that much sweeter.

DTH: How many times is it now that you’ve performed there?

LR: I bet we’re on number five or six? Maybe even more than that? I’m the wrong person to ask because I wasn’t an official member of the band for the first couple of shows, but we probably played at least three or four while we were still in school, and then we’ve played a couple since then.

DTH: I saw that this is an album release show. Can you tell me a little about that?

LR: The new album is called Old Time Reverie. Officially, it’ll be out Oct. 2, but we have the copies that are printed already, and we’ll have it available for sale exclusively at the shows up until Oct. 2. If you want a copy of it, the only way to get it is to come out to the show, so we hope that’s incentive.

We’re really excited about the record. We recorded it in December and January of this past year, so it’s been a while. We’ve been sitting on all these songs and wanting to show them to people, so it’s been a great feeling figuring out how to perform them on stage and figuring out how to show them to people, so it’s been great on stage and get the records in people’s hands and ears. We’re nervous but really excited to see what people think of it.

DTH: Why did you decide to promote the album in this way?

LR: We had some technical difficulties having to do with music business stuff that required us to make the date a little later, but it ended up being kind of a blessing in disguise because it puts all of the focus on the shows, which is such a huge part of what we do. It’s really important to us; it’s almost like you can’t understand us until you see us live, in a way. So much of what we do comes to life when we’re on stage. This kind of incentivizes coming out to the show, and it makes it special that you can get it physically, now that everything comes out first on iTunes and Spotify stuff. This is kind of an old-school alternative way of doing things where you actually have to buy a CD.

DTH: What was the process of joining Mipso?

LR: I was just friends with these guys at the time that they started the band, so I was around for the Mipso Trio, originally, and I would provide guest fiddle at a lot of their shows and on their CDs and stuff, but it took me a while to decide to join. I officially joined when I graduated from UNC, which was in May 2014, and since then, I’ve been on the road full-time with them. This new album is the first one where I’m a full-fledged member, and you’ll hear my fiddle on all the tracks and the vocals on a lot of the tracks, and I actually wrote a bunch of the tunes on the new album. It’s definitely a special one for me because it’s the first one where I’m officially in bold letters part of the whole process. It’s pretty cool.

@sarahvassello

arts@dailytarheel.com