Canadian five-piece brings their unique sound to the Grawood
Microphone feedback, random guitar notes and a ceaseless stream of chatter reached my ears when I connected via phone to Ryan Guldemond of Mother Mother on Nov. 10. I strained my useless ears to catch what he was saying: “… back in five minutes?”
“Yep! Sure! No problem!” I yelled back, and hung up the phone, ready to call him back in five. Then I prayed that was, in fact, what he was saying.
Luckily, it was, and things were much calmer on the other end the second time I phoned. Guldemond apologized, saying they had just been wrapping up a sound check—unsurprising, given that the band is playing a gig almost every night this November. The band’s 2011 Eureka! tour has been ongoing since the March release of their new album, their third to date. Recently returned from a two- week trek across Europe, Mother Mother will be gracing Halifax with its unique sound on Nov. 18 and 20, at the Grawood and Reflections Cabaret.
The niceties observed, we turned to talking about the music. For those unfamiliar with the band, Guldemond described their sound as similar to the Beatles, and especially the Pixies, in the sense that they encompass certain “qualities in pop writing that I enjoy and try to inject into our music… bent, melodic—strange but familiar.”
When asked to speak to the creative process that enabled him and the band to churn out three albums since their inauguration in 2005, Guldemond explained the song “starts small and ends big. It begins in a place of solitude” and goes forth from there. It “journeys through the hands of the band” and eventually, what began small “ends up multilayered and rich.”
He begins on the acoustic guitar, and takes note of melodic chords, “evolving them into some kind of form.” Interestingly, Guldemond begins a song with the music, adding the lyrics afterwards. He says he looks for the “pillar catchphrases,” then “associates other words with them and ties them in.”
Eventually, we got around to talking about the tour itself. “I like showing up and being surprised by the venues,” he says, which he describes as “a holy place for the worship of art.” One can only hope the Grawood will live up to these standards.
Fortunately, I got the sense from Guldemond that it is less the physical location that makes the venue; rather, it is the people. “I don’t put a demand on how people engage in the music—if their style is to stand there with their arms crossed, that’s fine, as long as the engagement is there.”
“The energy I bring is, I find, what I get back.”
The best part of his tour so far? Baguettes in Paris. Guldemond says he and his band mates “flogged each other with baguettes” while in France.
“Everyone really does have baguettes over there,” he says. “Victory sticks. It makes you want to go out and get one.”
Not desiring to have my interviewee descend into an uncontained stress response, I hesitated to ask what they would be up to next. The small interviewer inside me cautioned that so many shows probably wouldn’t leave him much time to think of what breakfast cereal to eat, let alone big plans for the future.
Luckily, as in all of his responses, Guldemond was cool about it: “Oh, likely another album sooner or later… we feel the need to expand our repertoire. A creative gust of wind has swept the halls of my process, and of the band’s process… I’ve been working on some new stuff on and off.”
So, Halifax MM fans, enjoy the shows, with all the tickets you snapped up before I got there. The music speaks for itself—it should be a good night.
Mother Mother is playing at the Grawood on Nov. 18, and at Reflections Cabaret on Nov. 20. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.
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