Tell me a bit about yourselves, what have you been up to over the past 12 months?
I'm Ryan from Mother Mother and the last 12 months, lots has happened. We started touring and then kind of got into making a new album, so there's the whole writing phase, locking yourself in a room and trying to write songs. Then once those came together, we went to the studio and that was like the last 4 months being in the studio making this album.
Where did your bands name come from and how did you form?
Well I formed the band with my sister Molly, we were living together in Vancouver as very young adults, both going to school, I was going to music school and she was going to art school. I wrote some songs and I didn't want to sing I didn't want to sing it by myself so I asked her to come and do an open mic with me and it went well and we just kept going, we built a bigger band around us. Then a friend of mine from school, in music school, he was a drummer, he wanted to start a band called 'Mother'. That was his idea and then we never did and then that open mic that I was just telling you about, I walked off the stage and the asked 'What's your band name?' and we didn't have a name at that time, and I thought of my friend who wanted to start a band called 'Mother' and so I said 'Mother'. Then we were Mother until we signed a record deal and they did an internet search and there was already like 10 bands called Mother so they said 'You got to changed the name' and so we said we want 'Mother Mother' and it wasn't taken. No one in the world at that moment was called 'Mother Mother' so that was pretty cool.
So obviously you have recently released 'Normalize', how would you describe it to anyone that hasn't heard it before?
Like an epic journey.
So 'Normalize', what was the recording process like?
That was actually a really tough one, we did a whole first production, different tempo, different key and different style and then we decided that we didn't like it. This was after like a lot of work, probably like 100 hours of work. It was liberating and terrifying just to do that much work then burn it down and start over but that's what we did and then we did a whole other second production, that was more work than the first. I don't think we have ever worked harder on a song than that song.
What has been a standout festival that you have played?
So we played LowLands in the Netherlands and it was amazing. It was so like rustic, there was horses and big fields and it was a whole village. It was very well put together, we loved it.
What's the funniest thing that has happened whilst performing?
I mean today was probably the worst, most hilarious but embarrassing fall I've had. I was trying to jump down to floor off the stage, rocking out and then in order to get back up I had to kind of do some pretty high jumps onto the speakers. It was one after the next, it was two in a row, there was no way to play it out, you just fucking marinate in the embarrassment and keep going. So that's kind of fresh on the mind, that was by far the most embarrassing fall I've ever had on stage today. Once I like walked off the stage in the middle of a guitar solo but it was kind of epic because I like got lot in the moment, walked off the stage, kept shredding whereas this was like a great kuklunk. Everything stopped, it was like a great bang and kuklunk and then again and it was fucking terrible.
Do you have any pre gig rituals?
I don't, no but I do blow into a straw because apparently it opens up your throat for singing. Molly, my sister, she has one alcoholic beverage, that's her ritual. Mike likes to play his bass, Ally likes to stretch and then in amongst all of that we tell some jokes, you know keep it light. I feel like the gig itself is too serious by nature that if you perform some kind of ceremony, your kind of almost making it more serious so a little lighthearted hang time before the show is the way to go for us.
What's next for you as a band?
We're going to release this record early next year and then we're going to tour all next year and see what happens, hopefully people like it, hopefully people come out to the shows.
By - Katie Graham
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