CM Catches Up With… Mother Mother
Monday, December 3rd, 2012
The lineup in front of Elements, a dance club and concert venue in downtown Kitchener, ON, began a few hours prior to the performance with diehards and casual listeners alike waiting eagerly in anticipation for two Vancouver-based performers: avant-garde alt-rockers Mother Mother and quirky indie pop songstress Hannah Georgas.
Prior to the show, CM‘s Brenin Edmunds had the opportunity to sit down with Ryan Guldemond (lead vocals, guitar) and Ali Sadat (drums, percussion) to discuss their newest album, The Sticks, their plans for boosting their profile in the U.S., and plenty more.
CM: The Sticks has been out for about two months now. Are you pleased with the way its been received thus far by critics and, more importantly, your fans?
Ryan Guldemond: Very well by the fans, it seems. To be honest, a lukewarm sense by the journalists. They just don’t like it – often for fairly personal reasons; it’s less objective and it’s more definite pertaining to the actual taste of whoever is reviewing it. It kinda exposes a journalist for being a bad journalist when they get really personal with their opinions. Also, it’s great to inspire that kind of reaction with something as benign as music.
Ali Sadat: I would agree with that. There has been a very mixed reaction. There have been some publications whose journalists seem to have liked it a lot and who followed the band, and could put this work into context with previous work. They had fairly accurate interpretations of the art and its evolution. Then there have been those that very clearly, for whatever reason, have been rubbed the wrong way, which surprises me. If a band has really rubbed you the wrong way, why would you want to review their work? Fans of that band’s work are ultimately going to be the ones that read the review just to inform themselves and share other people’s insights into a work of art. If you can’t provide those insights, you provide negativity – then you wonder who the journalist thinks their audience is.
CM: How do you feel this album compares to your other albums as far as how it represents the band?
RG: I think it really fits in and kinda feels like a culmination. I really hear a lot of each record in it. I find it really artistic, eclectic, and sonically diverse. The way we approached it was really pure and organic when deciding what songs should fit together. There wasn’t really discrimination; it was just what we liked the most. We weren’t overtly trying to be cohesive or trying to fashion together this thing that necessarily made sense but just tried to treat each song as an individual entity and judge it based on its own merits. Musically it becomes very eclectic because we approached it that way but lyrically and thematically it’s the most cohesive yet because there is a clear theme and a concept thriving throughout the record. I think that adds value to it as well because there is poetic depth, a message and sentiment that’s not trite or surface. In terms of an indie pop band coming out with a record, I’m surprised that some indie pop journalists have seen it as shallow or lacking depth because I think it’s our deepest record with the most lyrical weight.
CM: With four albums under your belt now, what is the setlist looking like on this current tour? How do you go about choosing what you’ll perform for a given tour or show?
RG: We actually ran a poll via our social networks asking fans to pick their top eight The Sticks songs because we wanted to know which songs off the new record are the songs people wanted to hear. We didn’t want to waste that valuable real estate in the setlist with songs that would confuse people or not strike enough of a familiar tone to create a celebratory environment in the context of a live show. That’s very important to us. We don’t really do the live show only for ourselves – we really do it for a communal experience. So that little poll helped in deciding the songs. Our hunches were kinda affirmed, we sort of knew which songs would be the most immediate.
CM: This question is for Ryan. You had sole production credits on Eureka! whereas with The Sticks, Ben Kaplan shares co-production credits. What informed the decision to bring in an external producer this time around, and how did the workflow most significantly differ compared to the creation of Eureka?
RG: It felt like too much work on Eureka!, to produce it myself as well as sing and perform on the record. I found that to be the most problematic factor with sole production is that you don’t have that person there who is hired to be a creative mind and adjudicator when you’re doing your parts. There’s kinda this perverse dynamic that you have with yourself.
CM: So it was integral having that person to throw back ideas at you?
RG: Yes. You need a tone of definitiveness when you’re asking for advice in the studio. As a performer, you need someone to say yes or no when you’re unclear as to what the right approach is. It was really helpful to have someone like Ben who was really decisive.
CM: While it’s perhaps most identifiable with the vocals, there’s no question that each individual member of this band brings a very unique element to the collective whole. Considering that, how do these songs come to life? I know Ryan is the primary songwriter, but what’s the dynamic like when it comes to fleshing out arrangements?
RG: I write them in solitude – the skeletal form, words, music, and arrangements – more specifically, words, melody, and harmonic structure, at which point I usually send out a stripped-down demo in an email to the band and ask that they begin their interpretation process. People send the same demo back but with a drum idea on top of it, or a vocal idea on top of it, or bass line. Sometimes that will form new parts of a song, or sometimes that will take over parts of a song – like a backup harmony will become so grabbing that it takes a lead role. There’s this sort of very modern cyber jam session that goes on with the bare young state of the song that I write. Then, after I kinda play with people’s ideas on Pro Tools and sorta fit them in together, I share them back. We get a sense of it then we come together and jam it in rehearsal, as humans used to do (laughs).
CM: You’ve got fellow B.C. native Hannah Georgas out with you on this trek, and her relationship with Mother Mother is well-documented. What are your thoughts on the current state of the music scene in your home province? How has it contributed to your success so far?
AS: The B.C. scene has become a lot more vibrant in the last 3-4 years in particular. There have been a couple of radio stations that have broken the mould of what has become the “modern radio station method”, which is small playlists with songs repeated many, many times throughout a day. I guess a couple of people in Vancouver in particular had the idea to start radio stations that broke that mold that have much larger playlists that were richer in content and in sound. They bridged a few different genres from rock to pop, the indie scene and arty music and just by doing that seemed to open the door to a lot of B.C. bands to get play on the radio. Suddenly you didn’t have to compete with Christina Aguilera or Nickelback for one or two open spots on a playlist on this radio station that really doesn’t have much room for anything else.
CM: The Sticks isn’t due to drop in the U.S. until early 2013. What informed the decision to hold off and what are your plans for growing your profile in the American market surrounding that?
RG: I just don’t think we were ready to tackle the market the same time we were ready to put it out in Canada. Instead of having a deficient release down there, it made sense to stagger it to build up our resources and have the big Canadian launch under our belt before we proceed south of border. It was logistical, practical, and strategic.
CM: Is Mother Mother planning a U.S. tour?
RG: Yes, totally. We just got a new agent down there so we will be doing the whole South by Southwest amalgamation with our own headlining shows and support slots. It’s still all coming together in the vague realm. We are very excited, though. It’s always exciting to take another stab at a market that you haven’t won in yet. At this point, the sky is the limit – it’s not until you make that attempt the first time and repeat it that you know where you stand.
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As discussed in the interview, Mother Mother took the stage and played an ensemble of their best material instead of focusing solely on their new album. From a fan’s standpoint, knowing that the band takes input to heart and delivers what’s optimal for band and audience to share an experience is refreshing and welcome.
I’ve met Mother Mother once before, on set of their music video for “Let’s Fall in Love” from The Sticks. Even though it was only one meeting, Ryan made reference to recognizing me from that brief encounter, which makes their attention to detail as apparent in the real world as it is on their records. Not only did I walk away with all four albums signed, but I walked away knowing that my favourite Canadian band is humble, personable, and absolutely deserving of the recognition they receive.