Mobley Shares New Single + Video 'Had To Be There'

Today, Austin-based writer, performer, producer, filmmaker, and one-man tour de force Mobley shared his new single + video, “Had To Be There,” first premiered via Under the Radar. It’s the latest taste off his upcoming new album We Do Not Fear Ruins, set for release on April 23 via Last Gang Records. 

Steeped in the utopian longing of heartland rock, “Had To Be There” blends infectious melodies with introspective lyrics about nostalgia, loss and newfound purpose. Over a driving backbeat, the album’s main character Jacob Creedmoor grapples with the inescapable pull of change while simultaneously longing to return to the past. The accompanying cinematic video stars Semaj Peltier, a model-filmmaker who centers the stories of queer and transgender people of color through experimental films.

Mobley explains, “This song finds Jacob torn between his love of the world he left behind, the strange freedom he found in losing it all, and his newfound sense of obligation to the community that’s taken him in and the orphaned child he’s come to see as his own. He’s grappling with the overwhelming anxiety of not knowing how to be (or even find) his authentic self and longing for the time before anyone depended on him.”

Mobley will also be attending this year’s SXSW as an official artist, with showcase performances listed below.

When you don’t fear ruins, “apocalypse” is just another word for opportunity. This is a central theme of Mobley’s forthcoming full-length debut, We Do Not Fear Ruins, an exploration of the intimate, the infinite, and time itself. The genre-promiscuous, sonically expansive concept album continues the story of the character Jacob Creedmoor – first introduced in Mobley’s 2022 EP, Cry Havoc! – an ordinary man who became radicalized into a Robin Hood-esque hero in an alternate version of the early ‘80s United States. Against a backdrop of futuristic art rock, Jacob fought fascism, pulled off daring heists, and was eventually captured by the government and imprisoned in suspended animation. We Do Not Fear Ruins is the next chapter in Mobley’s ongoing sci-fi epic. The story leaps nearly 300 years into the future, when Jacob awakens in a post-apocalyptic, post-U.S. world. Having lost everyone he's known, he navigates grief, memory, and heartbreak through a range of sonic textures as expansive as the wastelands (or possibly afterlife) he finds himself wandering. 

When deciding on the most effective sonic palette for his current project, Mobley turned to 1981, the year when Jacob was frozen. "When I listened to some of the songs in the air during that period, I was stunned by the incredible diversity of popular music,” he says. “You had Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, but new wave and funk were still happening. Pop and country were doing a bunch of interesting things. R&B was huge, and there were the first rumblings of hip-hop, as well as vestigial traces of disco." 

Despite the sweeping audiovisual scope of Jacob’s saga, the lyrics of We Do Not Fear Ruins remain decidedly internal: an examination of loneliness, yearning, and cautious hope – feelings that are universal, no matter what time period we’re stuck in.

The time spent between Cry Havoc! and now saw Mobley touring coast to coast, writing a forthcoming novel that expounds on We Do Not Fear Ruins’ concept, and composing musical scores for film and stage. Mobley has produced and directed the music for an Adidas commercial during the Paris Olympics and composed the theme for Webby Award-winning SiriusXM & Smithsonian podcast All Music Is Black Music, hosted by Selema Masekela and featuring guests like Kelly Rowland, Ne-Yo, and St. Vincent.

Mobley's songs have racked up millions of streams across Spotify and Apple Music and has landed sync placements on HBO, FOX, NBC, ESPN, and CW, seen airplay adds on Alt Nation, KROQ, KUTX, ACL Radio, and KEXP, and has received praise from outlets like Billboard, Noisey, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Consequence, American Songwriter, and beyond. He's played festivals like ACL, Lollapalooza, and SXSW and has opened for acts like Cold War Kids, Phantogram, James Blake, WAVVES, Sylvan Esso, Matt & Kim, and more.

The present moment finds Mobley focused on the future. He says, “Living with and working through these songs and stories has been the most fulfilling challenge of my artistic life. I can’t wait to share it all and see the life it takes on when it’s no longer just mine.”

SXSW Showcases:

March 7 UT Presents Hook'em House @ Antone’s, 8pm
March 13 DJ Set JBL Sound Bodega @ 3ten ACL Live, 1pm
March 14 SXSW Radio Day Stage @ Brushy Square Park, 3pm
March 14 Equal House Official SXSW Showcase @ Speakeasy, 11pm