Kentucky’s favorite alternative Southern rockers, Mojo Thunder, extrapolate fresh ideas from disparate genres to produce an album as passionate as it is musically satisfying. The twin-guitar assault of Sean Sullivan and Bryson Willoughby forgo blues-rock clichés in favor of sheets of hard-charging rhythms with melody, while never abandoning their roots. Willoughby tells all.
Who is Mojo Thunder?
We started in 2018, and style-wise I’d say we scrounged through our record collections and found ourselves somewhere between the Kings of Leon and the Black Crowes. That’s what we pull from the most, influence-wise. We get labeled Southern rock quite a bit, but we’re not necessarily that. I usually tell people the spectrum of southern rock for us is R.E.M. to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Our stylistic cutoff starts from what would be considered traditional Southern rock.
Who are your early guitar influences?
My family, first and foremost. My uncle and grandfather were both players. They were a huge influence on me coming up and getting me into guitar.
My dad has a pretty robust record collection, and he got me started on classic rock pretty early. When we’d visit family back in the day, they would put all the kids to bed at night, but I’d sneak back and listen to them play guitar and tell stories. I wanted to hang out with them; that was my first musical objective.
What kinds of things did they teach you on the guitar?
My uncle showed me my first chord, but I took formal lessons. I’m from southeastern Kentucky, which is geographically the beginning of the Appalachian part. There was an older blues guitarist there who taught me lessons for three years. He was kind of a hippie and very open-minded, especially for a conservative small town. I started out with the holy trinity, which was Kiss, AC/DC, and Aerosmith. For me, Angus Young is Freddie King on 10 (laughs). From there, I got into this blues CD I received from one of my dad’s friends. John Lee Hooker was on it. That was my second great awakening of everything I wanted to play. I did a deep dive into that stuff.
How did The Infinite Hope come together?
We were writing songs separate from one another, but there was a collective consciousness by the time we brought everything together. We ended up calling it The Infinite Hope because everything we brought together seemed to represent the through line of the title. There’s dark subject matter and angst that turns to hope and progress.
“The Sun Still Rises” and “Step By Step” speak to that.
Our drummer, Zac Shoopman, wrote the lyrics to “The Sun Still Rises.” I changed two lines and wrote the music for it. He’s a very good songwriter. Our singer, Sean Sullivan, is responsible for “Step By Step.” He tapped into a kind of loneliness and despair but turned it around into a feeling of hopefulness. It’s the simplicity of moving step by step, putting one foot in front of the other, and moving forward. It’s our calling card or ethos at the moment.
How do you get that jangly guitar sound on “The Sun Still Rises”?
Those are guitar layers of Sean and me, but I played two Les Paul Traditionals. One is a 2014, the other a 2009. That jangly sound is an Electro-Harmonix Micro Pog. On “Step By Step,” it’s the same thing during the chorus. I really like octave pedals.
Is that you playing the solo on “Gettin’ On a Binge”?
Yeah, that’s my Traditional doing the old scooped-mids thing with the pickup selector in the middle and the Tone control rolled back to the middle.
What other kinds of gear did you use in the studio?
I used mostly Fender amps. We used our road gear; I have a Hot Rod DeVille, a Hot Rod Deluxe, and for some stuff I used a Marshall Studio Vintage Combo. I brought in my two Traditionals, but Duane Lundy, the producer, had a Les Paul Standard. I also used a Tele here and there. I took out the single coils and put in two Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups. Sean played through a Vox AC15.
What’s on your pedalboard?
A Boss tuner, Cry Baby wah, Micro Pog, Univibe, Boss RV-6 Reverb, the four-knob Keeley Compressor, and a Tubescreamer.
What’s next for the band?
We’re touring Europe, doing the independent-artist thing. You can call it a tour, but we’re pretty much always on the road. We’ll take a few weeks off, then come back to the U.S.
This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
