Doing well, thanks for having us!
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Austin Hohiemer, vocals and guitar
Sum up your debut EP in three words for our readers!
Honest, Raw, Optimistic
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Dillon Casey, vocals and guitar
From the heart
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Austin
You mention that the songs span a period from around 2018 to now. Looking back, can you hear your own personal growth reflected in the music?
Absolutely. Personally, Spins shows it the most on the nose for me. The second verse was written 9 years ago and it’s almost like I lived in that verse for that amount of time. The remainder of the song was written in a more recent period when I was actively struggling with my addiction rather than wallowing in it.
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Dillon
Definitely. I think that in retrospect it’s pretty easy to see how we’ve all continued to push each other to be better musicians. The finished product of the songs on the EP largely sound nothing like they did when they existed as demos. I’m lucky to play with people that are so talented that it forces me to keep improving. A lot of the early bass parts were just me trying to keep up until I started to put it all together.
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Spencer Bray, bass and vocals
One hundred percent. Writing these songs helped me process some things I’d been going through and understand what I was feeling. When I wrote the first half of Rose Street, I was feeling really isolated and disconnected from the things that used to make me feel like I belonged. By the time we put together the last chorus in the studio, I’d found some footing. It felt like I was writing about the same concept from a healthy distance with a much more hopeful outlook. Playing the release show in Lexington, where I live, and being able to sing that song for a bunch of old and new friends was a really fulfilling moment for me.
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Austin
The pandemic brought everything to a halt, but it also seems to have given Mock Bishop its starting point. How did that period reshape your relationship with making music?
I actually fell out of emo music during the pandemic and got really into folk and alternative country. Those artists that I really got into in that time (Lost Dog, Willi Carlisle, Nick Shoulders, Arlo McKinley) really helped shape me as a different songwriter than I was previously in that I aim to use more direct language in my lyrics than I did previously.
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Dillon
From around 2017-2024 I honestly hadn’t touched a bass. I had honestly given up on playing in bands. It wasn’t until I was asked to join this band that I picked it back up again. So the first year or so of the band felt like I was sprinting to keep up, but I’m so glad the guys asked me to pick it back up, and trusted me to do it well.
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Spencer
A couple of us were touring pretty heavily in the same band until a year or so before the pandemic started. When I left that band and moved to a different city, I didn’t pick up a guitar for at least a year. I felt like I’d lost a big part of my identity during that transition and I just wasn’t prepared to sort through the emotions of it all. The pandemic, for all its very obvious negative consequences, gave me the time and space to kind of fall back in love with music and want to pick up a guitar again. Travis and I started sending demos back and forth, and because no one was really touring anyway, it felt like there was no pressure to try to make something happen quickly. We were able to take our time and find what was exciting to us. Those demos are pretty disconnected from the EP itself, but they were definitely the first steps down this road for me.
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Austin
You’ve all played in other bands before. What does Mock Bishop allow you to express that perhaps your previous projects didn’t?
I feel I get to be more my honest self in Mock Bishop than I was in previous bands. In every sense, including guitar playing. I’ve always done vocals in every band I’ve played guitar in and it’s so great to share vocal duties with such a talented guitarist because we can elevate each other. The thought of “how am I going to play this and sing” doesn’t stop me in this band the way that it has previously.
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Dillon
Mock Bishop is actually the first band I’ve played in where I’ve written my own original bass parts. I mainly had filled in with bands and played their already existing songs up until now. It has been a very humbling, and rewarding, experience to have the trust to write my own parts. I’ve grown more as a bassist in the last couple of years than I ever had previously. This is also my first time singing in front of people in any capacity so that’s been a fun challenge.
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Spencer
The most obvious answer for me is singing. I did a few hesitant backing vocals in my last band, but I’d never really been a vocalist. That’s been a big transition, but it’s so fun to sing and shout these lyrics and see people singing along with us.
The writing process in this band is also really democratic. I think we’re all willing to explore an idea from any direction. And we’re all willing to put a song on the shelf if it isn’t feeling right. In past projects, I’d always felt more comfortable in a supporting role. I’d write my parts and offer suggestions, but I didn’t really have the confidence to take an equal role. So, I feel very connected to these songs.
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Austin
How do you decide who sings which parts, and how much of that develops naturally during writing?
So far it’s mainly been whoever wrote the lyrics or took on the brunt of organizing the song has been the one singing main vocals. My personal hope is that as we write more, it becomes less and less of one main vocalist and more of both of us taking on vocals as a shared duty within each song. Having two main vocalists and 2 backing vocalists is such a boon for us that I don’t think we’ve fully realized yet.
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Dillon
It’s pretty natural. A lot of the time, a song will start with an idea from Dillon or myself and we’ll see it through. But I think we each have our strengths, so other times a song or a part will feel like it’s better suited for one of our voices. More often, we’re trading off guitar parts depending on who is singing and how difficult the parts are.
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Austin
Emo has seen a huge resurgence over the past few years. Why do you think this style of deeply personal songwriting continues to resonate with new generations of listeners?
I think more and more, anything real is going to appeal to listeners who want real music created by real people. Emo really lends itself to lyrics on topics like relationships, addiction, depression, self doubt — things that most of us can relate to. When you’re writing about something you know, it becomes surprisingly easy to be very honest and that is appealing to a lot of audiences. Emo also has a very wide net sonically. When I look at the emo bands, I hear a lot of very different sounding bands — Hot Mulligan, Saturdays At Your Place, Kerosene Heights, Marietta — it’s just a little bit of everything. The genre feels like home to me because you really just have to bring your authentic self and the sounds you want to create.
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Dillon
I’m really excited that people are still discovering this genre and finding themselves in it. In a lot of ways, I think modern life pushes us towards isolation — when everything is algorithmically curated, it’s easy to feel disconnected and alone in your real life. I’ve always found comfort in songwriting that reflects my own emotions or experiences, and I think that’s part of the staying power of this music. And I think the DIY ethos helps make the scene pretty accessible. You can go to a show for free, or $5, or $10, and find yourself in a room full of people with shared interests. Even if you don’t play music, there are a lot of ways to get involved that aren’t always an option in more mainstream genres.
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Austin
Which track are you most excited to play live, and why?
I think Rose St. has been my favorite to play live so far. It’s our poppiest song and just a really fun tune to sing. Prescriptions is a close second. The instrumental part in that one is so fun to just slam out.
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Dillon
Spins has to be my favorite so far. That one is a ton of fun on bass, I don’t have any backing vocals on that one so I can just jam the whole time. Prescriptions is also up there due to the instrumental part that Dillon mentioned.
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Spencer
Honestly, the whole set is a blast. But Rose Street is a highlight for me. It’s one of the older songs, so most of the parts are muscle memory. It’s bouncy and energetic and people have been singing along, which is super fun to see.
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Austin
And finally, what’s in the pipeline for the rest of 2026?
My wife and I are expecting our first baby at the end of summer, so we’ll be a little quiet for a while. Hoping to utilize that time to get back into writing mode and hopefully have some more music out sooner than later. We have a lot of songs I’m really excited for in the pipeline, it’s just about finding the time and space to work on them.
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Dillon
Towards the end of recording I think we were all pretty collectively ready to be done with the writing/editing but that’s actually what I’m looking forward to getting back into a bit during this break. I do feel like we still have some of our best material ahead of us and I’m excited to see what we come up with next.
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Spencer
We’re going back into writing mode for a little bit while Dillon becomes a parent. But we’re booking for early next year and planning for what I think will be a really fun 2027.
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Austin
Emergi
