Mojomama’s seventh studio album spanned the last four years, capturing moments before, during and after their pandemic experience.
The Longmont band’s new album, “We Are One” captures the last four years through 12 original songs that blend blues, rock and funk with hints of gospel, Latin rock and soul. Singer Jessica Rogalski explained the process of capturing this tumultuous time through music.
“As an artist, it’s how I process the world around me,” she said. “It’s how we all process the world around us — by trying to find the feeling and the expression and the music and talk about things and ask questions lyrically that maybe evoke people’s thought process to get a little deeper into why we behave the way we do.”
The album coincides with Mojomama’s 20th year as a band. The group is made up of Rogalski, her husband Paul Rogalski as bassist, guitarist Bob Murnahan and drummer Colin Brown.
A follow-up to Mojomama’s 2018 album, “Red, White and Blues,” a few songs in “We Are One” were written pre-2020. Jessica Rogalski describes those songs as more lighthearted, but even those touch on political division and the plights of asylum seekers.
“So I think there’s been a lot of continuation of the struggles even before we all lived through this pandemic reality that we are still dealing with,” she said.
There are also a number of songs written during the COVID-19 shut down, when Mojomama sat at home along with the rest of the world wondering if they’d ever perform live again. Jessica and Paul Rogalski started writing songs with friends from across the country, recording music in their spare bedroom and sharing it with people in Philadelphia, Oklahoma and Vermont.
“These shared experiences were like an energy that I’d hadn’t experienced in, I would say, ever in our band setting,” Jessica Rogalski said.
The title track, “We Are One,” was written through this collaboration during the George Floyd protests and civil unrest in the summer of 2020. Jessica Rogalski said that song is meant to capture the confusion and angst of the time.
“But knowing that in the long run, we’re all the same,” she said. “We’re all exactly the same. We are one, as human beings. That was a really important part of my experience through watching all the chaos happen, was that beyond that everyone wants the same thing.”
Out of that collaboration, Mojomama released a mix of live songs called “The Corona Tapes” to continue expressing their music during that time. Some of those songs were remixed and re-recorded for “We Are One.”
Jessica Rogalski said the hardest part of creating their new album was gathering the finances to get back into the studio and record the 12-song album at the top of their game during an intense three day session. The other challenge is now getting that album into the hands of people who want to hear it.
“We do music because we love to do music,” Jessica Rogalski said. “That’s the main objective is just to share it with the world.”
“We Are One” is available to listen and purchase now at mojomama.net and will be available on streaming services beginning June 17. Mojomama’s touring schedule is also available on their website, and they’ll be performing at Rhythm on the River on July 9.
Jessica Rogalski hopes that people listening to the new album walk away experiencing the emotions the band has worked to express.
“The intention of the music is to make people feel something,” she said. “To make them feel the ideas and the concepts and also feel the physicality of what music can do to your heart, to your system, to your mind. Some of that is meant to be lighthearted and fun and just groove out to, and some of it is meant to spark some feelings of compassion or feelings of hope. That’s the most I can hope for is that people walk away feeling what we’re playing and what we’re saying.”
