Canada’s biggest alt-rock export Mother Mother are thrilled to announce they will be returning to Australia and finally making their debut in New Zealand this November for their largest tour here yet! Their new album, Grief Chapter, which was released in February has spawned the singles Normalize, To My Heart, The Matrix and Nobody Escapes.
Comprised of Ryan Guldemond (vocals, guitar), Molly Guldemond (vocals, keys), Jasmin Parkin (vocals, keys), Ali Siadat (drums) and Mike Young (bass), Mother Mother have seen truly remarkable growth over the past three years. 2022 catapulted the band into a new stratosphere of universal success following the release of their eigth studio album Inside, with platinum certified single Hayloft II connecting with audiences around the globe.
In the pounding, profound new album, Grief Chapter – their ninth – the beloved Canadian group push the page, the pen, and their sound further than they ever have before. A dialed-up collection of songs that takes chances, swings big, goes as grandiose with the songwriting as it does granular, Grief Chapter dives lyrically deep on Big Picture concepts like life, death, mourning, and the freedom that comes with accepting the inevitable. Ryan Guldemond talks to Hi Fi Way about Grief Chapter and their upcoming tour.
It definitely sounds like an awesome way to top off what’s already been a massive year for the band touring year here in Australia?
Yeah, I mean we love it because it’s so new to us and exciting. It’s territory that we have not travelled much. We’re dying to get to know it more. Last time was so gratifying and so enjoyable. Not just the shows, but the culture and the atmosphere. It’s a wonderful place to finish the year.
When you look back over 2024 has it exceeded your wildest expectation?
The last few years have been crazy, like there’s been a lot of checking in with reality and using perspective to recognise the gifts that have been coming to us in our career. It’s a great practice. It’s like we feel lucky that we’ve been around so long and that we’re still hanging out in this because as time goes by, you get better at appreciating being in the game. So, I’d say every day we thank our lucky stars in a fairly conscious way.
Was Grief Chapter one of the more challenging albums that you’ve made? Being album number nine are the processes fairly well embedded running like a well-oiled machine?
No, you’re your instinct is right. It was probably one of the most challenging, if not the most challenging records we’ve made, not necessarily because the production was hard. We were chasing release dates as we were recording it. Art, creativity, it takes the time it takes. It doesn’t care about your deadline and we were kind of like fighting, allowing the creative process to run its organic course while also trying to meet deadlines. There’s a clash there that really made the production quite difficult.
Are you a lot tougher on yourselves now in terms of the types of songs that you’re releasing or the quality of songs that you’re putting out there?
Yeah, definitely. The bar only continues to raise, and it we seem to only care more and more as time goes by. So that can create pressure, self-imposed pressure in the studio.
Did you have a clear sort of vision about how you wanted the album to sound, or did that take shape as you started working in the studio on these songs?
No, we had a clear vision, but then it changed, which I think speaks to just how the creative process has a mind of its own. You think it’s going to be one way, but then it just sort of veers off on its own volition and you wind up with something wildly different. That was part to do with the mixing process too. I think mixing is so definitive to how a record sounds, like the aesthetic and we had Rich Costey mix it and he really had a stamp. Once he started doing his thing, the record began taking different shape. It was exciting. It was cool to see such a different perspective than how we initially envisioned.
As it changes, does that create a little more excitement or does it heighten the anxiety with how this is going to finish up?
Both I think, it was aptly called the Grief Chapter, because I think there is a part whenever you bring your vision down to Earth, you must get ready to grieve it not turning out how it exists in your mind. It’s almost like this tragic part of the creative process, these ideas come and they’re so colourful and beautiful. You must pull them down from the ether and actualize them. But they’re never going to be as good as what you’re conjuring in your imagination and that’s what I find. I find that it’s always a cruel game of comparison what I’m hearing in my head to what actually is produced here in reality. I do have to grieve the unborn vision to the finished product quite often.
How did you feel once you played the album back for the first time? Did that provide a level of comfort or reassurance once you played it back through the speakers that it was a job well done?
There’s like two markers that I consider. How do I feel about it and then how does it feel objectively? Listening to it after it was all done, it’s like, OK, this is objectively good, this sounds great. I’m proud of this and I’m cool to send it out into the world. But you know, every record that I make, that we make, I have my own personal grievances. It usually never sounds or feels like how I wanted it to. I have my own little process of working through that, letting that go. It’s worse if the record objectively is lacking. Luckily on this one, it wasn’t. I felt objectively we really did a great job and as far as how I feel, maybe that just the curse of being hyper-obsessive, perfectionistic creative type is that you’re never really going to be happy. Maybe that’s the beauty too, because that’s always going to keep striving towards greatness, I guess, and the dissatisfaction will never dull your ambition, and so maybe that’s what it’s there for?
As a band, do you do anything a like a celebration once the album is done and a bit of a closure for that particular point in time?
No, we don’t. We’re pretty unceremonious. There’s just so much work to do, we just get to the next thing.
Was that a tough choice picking first single from the album, or was that up to others to make that decision?
We all felt harmonised around that decision. Single choices are tough, man, like it’s hard to get it right. You know you probably don’t have an international smash if the decision is hard. Do know what I mean? If you have a bunch of great songs and they all could be singles and it it’s a hard decision to pick one that means you probably don’t have the one, it should be painfully obvious. I always find it a humbling process, because if it’s not painfully obvious then it then it implies that you should probably go back and write some more songs. We tried to do away with, I guess commercial projections and just picked a song that felt artistically and thematically true and authentic to our fan base. That was liberating. It’s nice to just forget about the word hit or single and pick your entrance point based on how it makes you feel and the spirit and the lyric.
Is it much along the same lines asking what is your favourite song off the album?
Probably Grief Chapter or Head Shrink. Yeah, but the flow of the darker ones, I’m more fond of deeper cuts than I am for upbeat songs.
Do you cover all nine albums with the tour set list?
I love that we’re still a band. It’s hard to actually find bands that have nine albums. So, it’s cool to still be at it and for it to still feel fresh and new as ever, and for set lists to be the conundrum that it’s either you have too many songs or not enough. It’s beautiful that the set list is still a pain in the arse, we’re still writing them.
Is there anything of interest that you want to see on your days off?
With touring the saying is you go everywhere and see nothing. I just love going on photo walks in cities. The last time we were there, I took the camera out and I took some good pictures of some large spiders. Just doing that is enough for me to feel like I got to know place a little bit.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Mother Mother on the following dates, tickets from Live Nation…
