The Miami based group, Mustard Service, is creating a sound of their own, one they like to call “Zest Pop”. With the recent release of two new singles, an album coming this summer, and talk of even more new music in the future, we’re happy to report that Mustard Service has no plans of slowing down. Beyond the music, one member volunteers some of his time for The Sierra Club’s Inner City Outings program, a program dedicated to taking inner city youth on nature outings. To learn more about Mustard Service and their new music, read on.

Where are you based?
Miami, FL

What inspired you to come together and start creating music?
We weren’t very good looking and we wanted to start getting laid.

How would you describe your music style? Are there any styles in particular that have influenced the development of your band’s personal style?
How would I describe our music style? I wouldn’t…. that’s for other people to decide I think. At the risk of sounding pretentious I’ll just say that we are all museums of the people and things we’ve loved and hated. It’s hard to sum all of it up into one “style” but we call it Zest Pop. We’ve been inspired by everyone who came before us from Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart to Bach to Debussy to Coltrane to Kpop and so on and so forth. If I’m trying to just get out of a conversation I’ll just say we are like the Beatles and leave it at that.

Congratulations on the release of your new single “Big Time”. Could you tell us the story behind it? What inspired you to create it?
Thank you! That song wasn’t written until we got in the studio actually, those somehow always turn out to be the best ones. The music was inspired by our old guitarist Nuchi who is now a soon-to-be speech pathologist who were all really proud of, he wrote the verses and I had the chorus in one of my old logic projects. The lyrics are loosely based on myself and old friends who got into drugs at a young age. Some of us made it out and tried to help out the ones who didn’t. But as much as you love them, sometimes love can’t fix addiction and saying goodbye to someone you’ve known and loved for so long can be hard, but you can only pay their bail or pick them up from rehab so many times before you realize that the person you loved is gone.

You also have another new single “Conversation Overtime”, can you tell us a bit about this one and what you hope listeners take away from it?
Conversation Overtime is about the moment when an argument stops being a talk and starts becoming a fight, and whether or not you should say that thing you want to say. Is it going to escalate the situation or is it going to give you relief? Both? Is now the best time? Maybe try simmering down, but the silence from someone who’s simmering down can be deafening. I guess it’s about walking a fine line.

”Going Nowhere” is coming out soon too! When does it come out and what inspired this song?
Going Nowhere was one of those songs where it’s more for the artist than for the audience. The chorus was really all I had for a long time. It came from a moment of frustration and hopelessness when looking at our placement and trajectory in the music industry. The feeling of doing something that seems so futile while at the same time feeling a drive to do it out of having no other options. I didn’t go to college, I don’t have any technical skills, all I know is writing stupid little songs, so I can’t care whether or not it works out — it just has to or I’m dead. The verses are honestly just filler, I thought since the end of the chorus said “are you coming with me?” I might as well make it a silly little love song.

Your song “Hijo De Papa” on your 2020 album “C’est La Vie” is the only one on the album sung in Spanish. What made you choose to have only this one sung in Spanish versus others on the Album?
Honestly I was just trying to write a diss track for someone who I needed to work with at the time. They didn’t speak Spanish so I thought it was a good way to get out my frustrations without jeopardizing the project we were working on. We have another song in Spanish coming out on the next record too but that one isn’t a diss track.

Your band’s sound is deeply connected to your Latin heritage, with a few songs being fully sung in Spanish. Why has incorporating this into your music been so important to you?
I wouldn’t say it was a conscious decision to incorporate it into the music so saying it’s important to us feels a little disingenuous. Although when mentioned we do feel pride in our Latin heritage, but no more so than we feel proud to be American. We come from a place that’s predominantly Spanish-speaking and Latin so it’s not like we put out more of what we want to hear, there’s too much of it around us for that to be a reason.

It’s more so simply because it’s fun. We would do it more often but I agree with Jorge Luis Borges when he says English is a far finer language: Borges says “first English is both a Germanic language and a Latin language. For any idea you take, you have two words and those words will not mean exactly the same thing. For example regal is not the same as kingly, dark and obscure. It would make all the difference for example if I wrote about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost, since ghost is a fine, dark Saxon word, and spirit is a light Latin word. Then another reason: English is the most physical of all languages. For example “he loomed over” is close but not the same as “el se asomó”. You can do almost anything with verbs and prepositions, for example: to laugh off to dream away. Those things can’t be said in Spanish. To live something down or to live up to something are ideas that are exclusively anglo-Saxon.”

Marco, you also work for the program Inspiring Connections Outdoors put on by the Sierra Club. Could you tell us a bit about the goals of this program and how you’re involved?
I’m very impressed with your research because I haven’t been very vocal about this program on social media but YES, my mother is one of the head chaperones with a non-profit subsidiary of Sierra Club called Inner City Outings (ICO). It’s a wonderful program where volunteers take inner city youth on nature outings that their parents maybe wouldn’t have had time to take them on due to how much we have to work these days to provide for our families. They’ve been working on their social media so I’ve been waiting for them to start putting out content so I can share it and hopefully get more volunteers, which we are always in need of. If you’re reading this and are interested, you can donate or sign up to volunteer at sierraclub.org/florida/miami-ico.

What has been the most rewarding part of being involved with this program?
I feel a bit like I’m stealing valor because I honestly don’t go as much as I should (the outings are usually very early on Saturday mornings) but watching how much it means to the kids is really something. Having grown up with nature aficionados I was always able to go on camping trips and appreciate this wonderful earth we have, so in a way I’ve been almost desensitized to it being a given. It’s only when I see these kids out there seeing stuff for the first time that I remember how special it was for me. it’s a bit selfish, I know: getting to live vicariously through them is the most important part for me on an individual level, but on a communal level I think everyone should have the chance to kayak through mangroves with their friends or run butterfly nets through seagrass to see what weird critters are under there. Extracurriculars are the number one thing keeping inner city kids out of trouble. I wish I could go more often, but my job usually needs me on the weekends. My mother is a saint for waking up at 6am every Saturday morning.

What advice would you give to any aspiring bands out there looking to break into the industry?
This town ain’t big enough for the both of us (kidding). It’s tough dude, I feel weird giving advice when I’m the one who probably needs some. Don’t take anything I say as gospel, but the one thing I can say confidently is that you really need to love everything about it. The music, the writing, the listening, even the socials. Don’t do it cause it might make you a living someday cause let’s be honest, it probably won’t. Do it because you can’t help it. Do it if when you get home from your day job because there’s nothing more fun than playing the same fucking part over and over again just to delete it the next day and try all over again. Do it only if your inner Sisyphus is happy, but don’t quit your day job.

Are there any upcoming projects we should look out for?
There’s always something cooking, even if it’s not for Mustard Service. Sometimes we don’t know if it’s for mustard or not until we’re in the studio. We have our latest album “Vice City Magic” coming out in the summer so keep your ears peeled for that but as anything newer than that we’re always loading up the ol’ Logic folder with a bunch of trash to release next year (hopefully).

It has been a rough few years, and we expect at least four more. How have you been staying Positive?
I’m assuming you’re asking about the orange man. I don’t like to get into politics just because it’s so divisive and for the most part I’d like to believe (though it’s getting harder) that whatever someone’s beliefs may be, they probably mean well and have the best intentions. Being from Miami, we all know someone in our immediate family who supports someone we might find repulsive, but I think it’s important to talk to them to find out what they really believe as opposed to shutting them out because odds are you’ll agree more than you disagree and the mediums from which we get our news do their best to shape our ideas of who these people are on the other side when you could literally just pick up a phone and actually talk to one of them. Outside of ideology, I think the best advice I’ve gotten in these trying times is try to cut your costs. Delete those subscriptions, work out at home, eat at home, and save what you can while we deal with price increases. The powers at large are at the moment kind of unpredictable so it’s more important than ever to have some kind of back up plan or rainy day fund just in case. I’m not saying shit is gonna hit the fan, cause I don’t think anyone really knows, but the people in charge aren’t doing much to put people’s minds at ease.

What is your motto in life?
Everything’s gonna work out.

To learn more about Mustard Service, please check out the links below:
Sierra Club ICO: sierraclub.org/florida/miami-ico
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Mustard Service Creates a Sound of Their Own