Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa Explains What It’s Like To Tour With Harry Styles

Stella Mozgawa, the Sydney-born, LA-based drummer for indie-rock band Warpaint, recalls going to Splendour In The Grass when she was younger. She also vividly remembers her band’s first set at the muddy winter festival, back in 2011 – the headliners were Coldplay and Kanye West – when the venue temporarily shifted from the NSW coastal town of Byron Bay to Woodford in Queensland, about an hour out of Brisbane.

“I was hyping up Byron Bay to my bandmates,” Mozgawa begins, referring to Warpaint guitarists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg. “It's the most magical place, and we've been there a couple of times as a band just to have a holiday. So I just kept talking it up and then when we got there it wasn't terrible or anything, it just wasn't a classic Byron Bay experience.

“I was wearing a blue sweatshirt with horses on it, that's what I remember. I did a really silly photoshoot with Jen [Lee Lindberg] – looking back at those photos I always regret it.”

Warpaint finished off a tour supporting their friends MGMT in May, and return to Australia this July with a string of dates in support of Foals: “We’ve been friends with those guys for a long time,” Mozgawa says, adding that the two bands met on the touring Laneway line-up, also in 2011. “We’ve seen them grow into this massive, massive band, and that’s just really exciting. I’m really proud of them,” Mozgawa gushes. 

She won’t be pressed on any potential guest appearances over their run of shows – whether Warpaint in Foals’ set, or Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis in theirs. “I wouldn’t be surprised if something fun happens that we figure out when we get together.” 

Last year, the band opened for One Direction’s Harry Styles for his world tour dates in Asia. Usually, Mozgawa says, Warpaint’s tour offers make sense: “This one was one of the first to be quite surprising. Then we just decided, why not, why wouldn't we do that?”

Styles’ drummer, Sarah Jones, of Hot Chip and NYPC (formerly New Young Pony Club), is a friend of Mozgawa’s, and Warpaint found they had plenty of mutual friends with Styles’ touring band. “It just actually really felt like another tour with friends, except for the fact that this person is the biggest pop superstar in the world.” 

Still, Mozgawa does note that Styles’ fans are obsessive compared to Warpaint’s – but it’s the kind of weighty devotion to an artist a young person feels when they’ve first found something they really connect to. She describes people waiting at hotels when they’d return after a show. “Somehow they found out where he was staying and somehow found out when the band was leaving the airport,” Mozgawa explains.

But in terms of demographics, the differences between a typical Warpaint fan and the audiences at Styles’ shows didn’t “feel crazy different”: “Music lovers are music lovers wherever you go. It was a pretty interesting experience for us. It was really exciting. The reception that we got was really warm and lovely.” 

This year, the focus for Warpaint is recording their fourth studio album – their first since 2016’s Heads Up. When The Music speaks to Mozgawa, it’s their first week solidly working on it: “We’ve done a couple of songs already and we’ve got a lot of ideas floating around.” 

Not touring – “just being domestic and living a different kind of life” – is a form of self-care for Mozgawa. The months earlier this year before the tour with MGMT were “the longest that [she] hadn’t toured personally in 12 years”. 

“I just realised that I really, really like my life as a non-touring musician and as just a human, living day to day. Being in the same city every day, or being where you have chosen to be every day, is a true holiday for me. 

“I've always loved touring and I enjoy getting better at it, but I think as you get older you have to really be vigilant about taking care of yourself and remembering why it is that you do this thing. It's not band camp all the time. It is a job and you've gotta take it seriously and have fun while you're doing it.” 

So what does come to mind when Mozgawa needs to clarify why it is she does this whole working musician thing?  

“I was obsessed with music – I still am obsessed with music. It's a complete disease that I've had since I was really quite young. I'm just always not even trying. I just am thankfully still excited to play music.”