{"id":5794,"date":"2012-11-29T12:19:15","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=5794"},"modified":"2012-11-29T12:19:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T18:19:15","slug":"mother-mother-forge-a-new-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2012\/11\/29\/mother-mother-forge-a-new-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Mother forge a new path"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
by Devin King<\/strong><\/div>\n

\n<\/strong><\/div>\n
Indie darlings Mother Mother will be making an appearance at the Burton Cummings Theatre on December 4th. The tour comes after the release of their album <\/em>Sticks, an album which many have identified as their darkest album to date. <\/em>Sticks deals with the notions of technological infringements taking over our lives, and the desire to seek out a more balanced life. Ryan Guldmonde spoke to<\/em> Stylus about the album and how some of the ideas on this album and others play out on the tour.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Stylus: You\u2019ve written before about the problems with Babies Not Dancing. Is this a consistent problem in Canada, or is this a global problem you\u2019ve specifically identified at Mother Mother concerts?
\nRyan Guldmonde:<\/strong> Well, people\u2019s willingness to gyrate does ebb and flow, but I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s geographically based. Or maybe it is. Canada is a bit more reserved as a whole. But that being said, there [are] going to be some markets where they\u2019re just as crazy as anywhere. I would say we have a beautiful blend of extroverts and introverts in this country.
\n
\nStylus: Was there an attempt to make a \u201cdark\u201d album, or are reviewers just talking about it a lot more now?
\nRG:<\/strong> Yeah, I feel similar confusion when people seem to hit on that specifically because there\u2019s plenty of darkness on each record and lyrically that\u2019s always been the nature of the songs and their message. I think maybe there\u2019s a little more cohesion between the sound of the music and the sentiment this time around. They\u2019ve noticed that we\u2019re dichotomous in that we sound happy but we say sad things, and that this time around we look how we feel.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Is there a resolution to the problems of the album?
\nRG: <\/strong>Well, I think things come full circle at the end. You\u2019ve got your penultimate track which is a pretty bleak, apocalyptic story. Then it closes with \u201cTo the Wild\u201d<\/a> which [has] a really light, optimistic feel. But the message is to continue venturing away. So I find that those songs work really well. Even though the world as you know it is obliterated, it\u2019s a beautiful opportunity to forge a new path. That\u2019s kind of the message there, as the record wraps up.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Is that why you haven\u2019t renounced this world and gone into \u201cthe sticks\u201d yourself? Because there\u2019s some kind of beauty in the destruction?
\nRG: <\/strong>Well, I mean, the natural connotations are more metaphorical. You could take it literally, envisioning a forest and a little hut but it\u2019s really just about the spiritual calm one is trying to reach in their life amidst a lot of craziness, a lot of distractions, and a lot of technology.<\/p>\n

Stylus: And technology is a big part of this. One thing I noticed on your website is that you\u2019re crowdsourcing what songs will be played at your live show. If integration of technology is a problem, why choose to solicit fan response through Facebook and Twitter?
\nRG:<\/strong> To use it is fine. I mean, it\u2019s what it does to you that you need to be careful about. These things are all good in theory. Like much of religious principles. It is what the humans did with it that gives birth to corruption. So I think it\u2019s fine, if you use things in the right way \u2013 if you use things in a synergistic way, you take your own natural ambitions and use technology or anything to help bring them to life, to thrive, to be seen from a wider lens. I really endorse technology and social media and adapting to technology, which might seem contradictory. But that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Has this helped to determine what songs will be played? Are there any big favourites?
\nRG: <\/strong>Oh yeah. We\u2019ve tried to find a top eight off the top album, because it becomes difficult trying to appease all facets of your repertoire when you\u2019re four albums deep. So we want to make sure that we\u2019re playing ones that mostly people are smitten with. You can\u2019t play it all off the new record. You have to play the ones that got you to where you are.<\/p>\n

Stylus: When people come to your shows, are they wanting particular songs or vibes?
\nRG<\/strong>: I think it\u2019s natural for diehard fans to be in it for the old stuff, you know, music they fell in love with in the first place. They\u2019re very nostalgic about that, and biased. That always gets a stir, when you play the oldies. But for the most part our fans appreciate it all. It doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s a certain dead point when you play a particular song in a set.<\/p>\n

Stylus: If you were a Mother Mother fan, going to a Mother Mother show, what songs would you hope Mother Mother would play?
\nRG:<\/strong> I guess something that they don\u2019t play. Maybe this song called \u201cFat Kids.\u201d We should play that one more often.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Will you be playing it more on the tour now?
\nRG: <\/strong>No. It\u2019s kind of offensive.
\n
\nStylus: I was listening to a radio station and I heard Monster Magnet\u2019s song \u201cSpace Lord\u201d come on, and I think it\u2019s the radio edit, because they say \u201cmother mother\u201d in that song. I\u2019m wondering if your band name is actually censored, and your real band name is Mother Fucker.
\nRG: <\/strong>Ah, well some of us are mother fuckers. But no, there\u2019s no correlation to the Monster Magnet.<\/p>\n

Stylus: So you\u2019re not secretly a Monster Magnet tribute band?
\nRG<\/strong>: Nope. Afraid not.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Mother Mother play the Burton Cummings Theatre Tuesday December 4th.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Devin King Indie darlings Mother Mother will be making an appearance at the Burton Cummings Theatre on December 4th. The tour comes after the release of their album Sticks, an album which many have identified as their darkest album to date. Sticks deals with the notions of technological infringements taking over our lives, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[453,631,637],"class_list":["post-5794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-indie","tag-monster-magnet","tag-mother-mother"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}