Welcome to Mourning Dove.
We’re an independent music label & interdisciplinary creative studio hellbent on crafting immersive sonic universes. Our aim is to couple great songs with compelling stories, distinctive visuals, and emerging technologies to create unforgettable experiences.
We are not interested in creating disposable music to meet to recent trends. We believe that people have a pretty acute bullshit meter and can sense when artists are being inauthentic or trying to hop on a hype cycle. Accordingly, our chief ambition is to create music that is personal, meticulously crafted, and timeless. If it's not in the running for our favorite album of the year, we aren't interested in putting it out.
Everything talks. From the synth tone used in a song to the camera lens used in a photoshoot - every single detail needs to be united in service of the central feeling & narrative of the project. It's not enough to have great music alone - the stage design, styling, and social strategy all need to be exceptional.
The paradigm has shifted. You need to be more than an artist, you need to be a creative director.
From the advent of the synthesizer to the availability of the sub-woofer, Technology has always shaped how we create and consume music. We are obsessed with finding the newest tools to supercharge our creative workflows and deliver music in new ways. Whether creating experiences in VR, partnering with companies to build novel instruments, or embracing generative AI songwriting tools, we aim to be at the frontier of tech & music.
Releasing music is a moving target. A new platform is introduced seemingly every 2 years and a major social algorithm update is introduced seemingly every 2 months. Our aim is to challenge long-held assumptions about how music should be packaged and communicated and instead, release music for the here and now.
The internet is playground for exciting new music experiences, and we think the monkey bars are being severely under-utilized.
We believe good ideas are born out of play. Ego, insecurity, and expectations only get in the way.
When creating, our ambition is to recreate the feeling of being a kid playing with legos on the living room floor. No expectation, no specific blueprint - simply the solitary act of communing with creativity.
We embrace the mess of the creative process. Some feelings require 1000 demos to excavate. That's ok. Novel ideas require deep exploration. Additionally, we have an irreverence for hard and fast rules about songwriting. It doesn't matter if the song doesn't adhere to a specific structure or hit a certain tempo, the only thing that matters is if it feels awesome. Last, we like to use laughter as a barometer for quality. If we find something that feels ridiculous, but makes us laugh out loud due its awesomeness, we generally keep it.
We remain in a growth mindset. We are constantly striving to create deeper and more emotive work - whether through a deeper mastery of live performance, deeper mastery of melody-making, or deeper mastery of cinematography. With each project, we will challenge ourselves to find the next frontier. Complacency is strictly verboten.
We seek to support and build with artists. We have zero tolerance for disrespect, duplicity, or general snootiness. Period.
Right now, we're a teeny-tiny task force. We are actively looking for collaborators hellbent on creating unmatched sonic universes. If you are a musician, mixer, videographer, photographer, stylist, graphic designer, or digital marketing guru, we'd love to talk. Shoot us an email at mourning.dove.mn@gmail.com to see what we can dream up.
Over the next 12 months, we are opening three gateways to three different sonic universes. Each universe will have its own distinct genre, narrative, and tone. We are kicking off the fun with Violet Heights this summer, followed by a project in FW22, and another in SS23.
This is just the beginning of something very exciting. We're thrilled to have you along for the ride.
- MD
