Èva Morin | Fulcrum Contributor
HOURS BEFORE THEIR July 16 show at Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, five-piece Canadian indie-rock band Mother Mother dished on their favourite gig together as a band, their third studio album Eureka, and the meaning behind their animalistic cover art.
Mother Mother’s lead singer and guitarist Ryan Guldemond and bassist Jeremy Page don’t project themselves as typical rock stars. Soft-spoken and articulate, Guldemond and Page couldn’t be more different than the hard-hitting music they produce with Mother Mother. This summer, the pair returned to Ottawa Bluesfest with a new album, Eureka and a harder, more upbeat, sound.
“I think we made a more electric-sounding record, which I think is a product of being a touring rock band where you need to meet a level of energy that’s coming at you from the audience,” explains Guldemond.
While longtime fans can spot musical similarities between their older material and this new release, the band members reveal the creative process was responsible for giving *Eureka* the edgier sound heard throughout the album.
“I think this record is more a product of the meeting minds of the band. It was self-produced, so it was a very independent creation in terms of the band’s control over the final outcome,” says Guldemond, who wrote all the songs and lyrics on their latest release.
While some bands feel the pressure to produce a third album worthy of their critically acclaimed sophomore effort, Page explains that “the only pressure we felt was making sure we made a record that we were proud of. We just did our thing, and we’re happy with the results.”
In the release of their most dynamic record to date, Mother Mother chose to continue the animal theme embodied in their previous album covers.
“Continuity is a beautiful thing. We stumbled upon the rooster, from the band’s first album Touch Up, which was a derivative of the lyrics, and we found that to be good potential for a theme. A theme was born accidentally,” explains Guldemond.
“Our fans really identify with that, too; they always expect it,” adds Page.
As for a future album Guldemond says, “The creative process is a fairly perpetual one, and we can’t help but conceptualize the next chapter even though we’re in the thick of the current one. There’s discussion, but nothing overly definitive. It would feel premature.”
If you missed Mother Mother at Bluesfest, you can catch them at Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal on July 30.
