MOTHER MOTHER LODE
B.C. band’s frontman sheds light on new album
Ryan Guldemond, singer/guitarist for Mother Mother, is chatting about recording the Vancouverbased quintet’s sixth studio album on a warm, mid-August afternoon at Vancouver’s Warehouse Studios.
Titled No Culture, the record is now available from Universal Music Canada.
During the making of the record, the band invited us into studio for two sessions.
The first was in midsummer when initial material was being tweaked, experimented with and played. The acoustic version of the song Family, the closing track of No Culture, shows Ryan, sister Molly Guldemond (vocals/keys), Jasmin Parkin (vocals/keys), Mike Young (bass) and Ali Siadat (drums and electronics) messing about finding the sweet spots. Yes, even a band known for its razor-sharp precision pop sounds can get goofy.
The second session, recorded mid-October at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studio, saw the final
touches to the album. The rip through the leadoff single The Drugs showcases the band blowing off steam following its trip to Toronto to film the video for the song. Guldemond delivered five insights into the mindset of a band known for developing love/ hate relationships with listeners:
On their sixth album: “It seems weird. Sometimes it seems great, and sometimes it seems depressing to think of. It alludes to both being old and hanging on. And the end game.”
On going home to B.C’s Quadra Island to write No Culture: “It kind of messed me up to go from the city to the woods. The album is kind of about finding oneself, redefining and soul-searching, so it’s right in line with that experience. There is a curse of thinking you can take a break when you finish a record, but the muscle atrophies almost immediately, so I keep creatively busy every day.”
On single The Drugs: “I guess one could take it as a bit of a statement off of a bit of a statement record. Without being too statey, er, stately.”
On the production team: “Brian Howes and Jay “JVP” Van Poederooyen, are a production team out of L.A. and this is our first time working with them. They are champions of immediacy, potency, melody and lyrics. No stone goes left unturned. I love the attention to detail.”
On aligning the territories and hitting the road: “We want to align the Canadian and American release dates, which is something that we haven’t done in the past. They have been staggered traditionally. This gives us more synchronicity with the touring. History kinds of repeats itself, but it also means getting another chance to do it as well as you’ve always wanted.”