In their 17 years jamming together, Brendan Scholz and Jarred Cooper have seen plenty of Las Vegas bands come and go. There’s no romanticizing the grind that comes with staying afloat, and though Mercy Music has experienced considerable success in its nine-year span, it too has felt the squeeze of an industry that has changed its tune.
As the pop-punk trio—Scholz on guitar and lead vocals, Cooper on bass and drummer Rye Martin—shopped its upcoming fourth studio album to different record labels, the group got an eye-opening reminder. “We’d send it to some of the bigger labels, and maybe three minutes would go by and they would say back to us, ‘What are your Spotify numbers? How many Instagram followers do you have?’” Cooper says over coffee at Sambalatte in Boca Park. “It’s like they didn’t even listen to it. It’s not all about the music anymore.”
That led Mercy Music to Double Helix Records, a family-run indie label out of Arizona. “They’re small, and they care,” Scholz says. “I wasn’t in a position where I was having to convince them on why it was a good move for them to do it. The longer you’re in this, the more you hate that. I trust these people.”
Scholz says both he and Cooper, who are both fathers, have had chances to bend for convenience and a steadier paycheck, but they’re committed to playing the music they love—for the people who love it—for as long as possible.
“It’s insanity, but I can’t quit and I can’t kill it,” Scholz says. “There are days where I wake up like, ‘Man, I wish I could be the person that was happy with the normal day-to-day.’ But it’s something in me that never goes away. I’ve never wanted to do anything else.”
Cooper agrees. “One of the best feelings in the world is being onstage and seeing all those people and them reacting to what you’re doing in a positive way. That right there is a huge driving factor for me, and just playing music. If this band were to break up tomorrow, I’d still play music every day.”
Mercy Music’s next album, set for a summer release, was recorded in 10 days, built upon demos worked up in a studio Cooper built during the pandemic. “It’s the cleanest record we’ve ever done,” Scholz says. “It’s still pretty aggressive, but it’s more produced.”
Scholz adds that it might be Mercy Music’s darkest record, too, drilling down into some of the singer’s painful recent life changes. “There’s things on the record that touch on being abandoned and accepting what comes with it,” he explains.
Additionally, Scholz and Cooper are preparing for the release of April album Stop the World with Not, a band they launched with British singer Davey Warsop, whom they met at the funeral of Mercy Music’s late manager, Stewart Teggart. Cooper says a shared love of bands like the Descendents and All forged a lasting bond with Warsop that ultimately led to the new band.
“Davey had this idea to do an All and Descendants tribute record—all original music but in the style of All,” Cooper says. “The pandemic had just started, and we started sending song ideas back and forth over email. We wrote the whole record over email.”
Before either record drops, Scholz and Cooper will hit the road with Mercy Music for a 20-date tour supporting California punk band Unwritten Law, starting on March 18. And though the itinerary includes such reliable rooms like the Bluebird in Denver, the Earl in Atlanta and 24 Oxford here in Las Vegas (April 14), Cooper stresses that touring “is not glamorous at all. First off, you’re in a van.”
“You’re probably irritated,” Scholz interjects.
“There is zero privacy,” Cooper continues. “You almost never get a room to yourself.”
“Worst bathrooms imaginable, no matter what,” Scholz chimes in, shaking his head. “But the 20 to 45 minutes that we play? It’s worth it.”
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