Mojohand + Matthew O’Neill
NJ/NYC based Americana-rockers Mojohand have been winning over audiences from Pittsburgh, PA to Austin, TX and everywhere in between since late-2016. Mojohand have played countless shows in dive bars, DIY basement venues, and at colleges, and clubs across New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, New Hampshire, and Connecticut!
Mojohand have shared the stage with national and regional touring acts such as Oteil Burbridge (Dead & Company, The Allman Brothers Band), Whitey Morgan, Jesse Daniel, Madisons, and The National Reserve to name a few.
The band released nine singles before their powerhouse debut album Songbook hit streaming in October 2021. With an ability to write both anthemic choruses and clever, listen-to-it-twice verses, Mojohand’s music keeps us wondering just exactly what decade this band is from – it’s hard to believe this band’s members are all on the lighter side of their 20s. “Songbook” was produced Sean Walsh of legendary Brooklyn-based bar band, The National Reserve and features guest performances by Walsh himself, John Lee Shannon (Circles Around The Sun), and Jonny Lam (Norah Jones, Miranda Lambert, David Byrne)
Mojohand have also hosted their own DIY music festival, Mojofest in New Jersey every summer since 2017. The sixth annual Mojofest took place on July 9th, 2022 in Toms River and included performances by 10 bands and multiple local vendors and artists selling their wares and was attended by over 300 enthusiastic live music fans.
Since the completion of Mojohand’s debut album, the band has been tirelessly workshopping new songs and taking them for a spin everywhere from the dive bars of New Orleans to the college basement venues of Philadelphia. It’s hard to know what the future holds, but it is easy to see what Mojohand’s looks like: more packing the car and driving insanity-inducing distances, more cranked amps, more packed rooms, more post-show handshakes and most importantly more serving the song.
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Matthew O’Neill is a long time Catskill based musical artist and performer. His musical practice is rooted in Indigenous musical ontologies; ways of knowing and participation through sound. His latest release Songs Of Connection, features a great crew of players including John Medeski and Jesse Murphy, while leaning into old school Colombia cumbia influences, in an eclectic mix of gutsy psych groove, artful balladry, and funky mountain jams. His mission is to be a voice for Mother Earth in restoring music’s central role of integrating culture with the land for the good of all our relations…re-indigenizing. Music for cultural resilience that speaks to social justice and climate crisis issues while being centered in Indigeneity. The result is a dynamic feeling of connection to living systems through non-anthropocentric articulations of gratitude, joy, suffering, celebration, and loss. His albums have received critical acclaim and he has collaborated with many world class and award winning musicians and engineers. O’Neill also runs a label called Underwater Panther Coalition that supports Indigenous artists and their communities through curated releases.
“MATTHEW O’NEILL FOLLOWS HIS VISION HERE, A POTENT MIND-MELD OF EARLY PINK FLOYD SPACE-ROCK, JERRY GARCIA-ESQUE LAID-BACK ROOTS MUSIC, AND NATIVE AMERICAN-INSPIRED EARTH-AND-SKY SPIRITUALITY (AND FUNK. DO NOT FORGET THE FUNK.) A SORT OF MYSTIC SHAMAN SKETCHING OUT HIS DREAMS AND HOPES FOR THE EARTH HE LOVES IN THE LANGUAGE HE KNOWS BEST: MUSIC.” – THE DAILY VAULT reviewing ‘Trophic Cascade’.
