Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Exploring Life and Art With RYAN GOLDEMANN From MOTHER MOTHER

Transcript

Exploring Life and Art With RYAN GOLDEMANN From MOTHER MOTHER · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey.
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  Speaker 2: My name is Ryan Goldeman.
• 0:02
  Speaker 3: I sing lead and play guitar for Mother and Mother
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  Speaker 3: and we put a record called Grief Chapter earlier this year,
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  Speaker 3: which is kind of like a concept album around death
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  Speaker 3: and grief and mourning, but.
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  Speaker 2: It's not as sad as it sounds.
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  Speaker 3: It's more about using those things as a way to inspire,
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  Speaker 3: seizing the day, living life to its utmost, and appreciating
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: the gift of existence. It's probably our most confident sounding record.
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  Speaker 3: I feel like just the sonics are really really tough
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  Speaker 3: and almost muscular. And we recorded it in Vancouver at
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  Speaker 3: Brian Adams Studio in gas Town, which is a really
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  Speaker 3: beautiful studio and we spend a lot of time there,
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  Speaker 3: close to one hundred.
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  Speaker 2: Days, so that was pretty luxurious for us.
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  Speaker 1: Oh lovely great, Thank you so much. You guys were
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  Speaker 1: in Australia around a year ago. Where pleased you're coming
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  Speaker 1: back so soon. How was it the first time round?
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  Speaker 2: It was amazing.
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  Speaker 3: It's more than you could ever ask for an entrance
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  Speaker 3: into a new market. You know, usually start with like
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  Speaker 3: five people and you work your way up, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's a couple of thousand kids and Sydney it's incredible.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh that's awesome.
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  Speaker 1: What is it like having some of your songs explode
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  Speaker 1: on TikTok?
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  Speaker 3: It's wonderful. Yeah, life changing. I think, you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: sort of like the medium is arbitrary. Whether it's TikTok
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  Speaker 3: or YouTube or a soundtrack to a movie, those are
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  Speaker 3: just the vehicles for.
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  Speaker 2: A connection to be made.
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  Speaker 3: So we're just, you know, thrilled that we've been able
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  Speaker 3: to connect with all these new people.
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  Speaker 2: Through TikTok. It's it's just yeah, it's been a dream.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that you responded to some people as well.
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  Speaker 2: I found that hilarious, like doing doing duets and stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we really leaned in. It was just like, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: there's a connection to the nurture here, so why not.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's been said that Mother Mother draws a big
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  Speaker 1: L G B T qu I a audience. What are
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts on that.
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  Speaker 2: I think that it's true we do.
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  Speaker 3: And it's what's beautiful to me about that is like
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  Speaker 3: we didn't mean to, like, we weren't writing specifically for
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  Speaker 3: that community or any community to.
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  Speaker 2: To resonate with the themes.
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  Speaker 3: We just wrote about the human condition and in a
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  Speaker 3: really abstract and broad way, and it found its home
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  Speaker 3: in that community, and so it's just really organic. It's
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  Speaker 3: really it was really unforced coming together. And it was
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  Speaker 3: like surprising at first, because you know, we are a
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  Speaker 3: pretty hetero, normative band, like in terms of the members,
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  Speaker 3: but then like in analyzing the music and the themes
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  Speaker 3: and the the unconventions and then attributing that to that community,
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  Speaker 3: it was like, oh, that that makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: That's sort of a beautiful marriage.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. You could say, after reflecting on your lyrics
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  Speaker 1: and songs, I suppose how it would resonate with that community.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I just loved that it was all just
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  Speaker 3: accidental and not not contrived whatsoever.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, now that is beautiful. What are some of
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  Speaker 1: the themes on Grief chapter that you explore lyrically and sonically.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, death and grief of course, that's obvious, existentialism, spirituality,
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  Speaker 3: I guess, God and the afterlife. And sonically, we just
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  Speaker 3: tried to capture the band like as successfully as possible.
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  Speaker 3: We just wanted to get beautiful drum tones, great guitar tones,
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  Speaker 3: you know, sing from the heart, and use good microphones
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  Speaker 3: and and present that in an honest way. Yeah, it
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  Speaker 3: wasn't really trying to like be too tricky or be
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  Speaker 3: too strange sonically. I think we just wanted to convey
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  Speaker 3: ourselves clear and honestly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, beautiful. I think you've done that as well
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  Speaker 1: in nearly every other album that you've released. I really
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  Speaker 1: think that you guys stay true to that raw emotion
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  Speaker 1: and you push boundaries, and it seems like, obviously you're
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  Speaker 1: not afraid to push those boundaries and stay true to yourself.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I think, Yeah, this staying true is
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  Speaker 3: the important piece. And yeah, the boundary is pushed as
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  Speaker 3: a byproduct of being honest with your craft, then that's great.
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  Speaker 3: But if a person falls into convention as a byproduct
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  Speaker 3: of being honest with themselves, then that's fine too.
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  Speaker 2: I guess we're lucky that.
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  Speaker 3: Our default does veer towards the strange, yeah, and the
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  Speaker 3: more quirky, and I'm happy for that. For whatever reason,
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  Speaker 3: we're just those types of people who when we express
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  Speaker 3: ourselves creative, it comes out a little bent.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: No, it's nice to see. Over on your Instagram, you
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  Speaker 1: recently posted a cover of Where Is My Mind by
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the Pixies. Are they a big musical influence of yours?
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  Speaker 2: Huge?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think we probably wouldn't be talking it wasn't for
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  Speaker 3: the Pixies. Yeah, they really changed everything when I first
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  Speaker 3: heard them at ten years old on my dad's mix teape.
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  Speaker 1: You're in a band with your sister. Has that been
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  Speaker 1: frustrating at times? Or do you guys have a solid
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  Speaker 1: relationship both?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think we have a solid relationship because
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  Speaker 3: it's been frustrated, frustrating, and that has you know, we've
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  Speaker 3: had a thousand opportunities to resolve conflict. I think every
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  Speaker 3: time you resolve conflict with someone you love, you get
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  Speaker 3: a bit stronger together.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. What's changed for you guys sonically since you
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  Speaker 1: first started out to now?
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  Speaker 3: I think it sounds gotten bigger, Like you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: a byproduct of your resources or lack thereof. Like when
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  Speaker 3: we made our first record, it was in our living
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  Speaker 3: room on like a shoe string budget, and we were like, yeah, limited,
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  Speaker 3: and by virtue of that, it came out as this
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  Speaker 3: sort of folky thing, Yeah, very quirky, folky thing. But
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  Speaker 3: then you know, we became a full band, we got
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  Speaker 3: a record deal, we could afford hiring some cello players
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  Speaker 3: and violin players, and so you know, with the resources
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  Speaker 3: came more experimentation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And then as you get into the industry, it's like
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  Speaker 3: you want to I think it's natural for a band
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  Speaker 3: and there.
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  Speaker 2: In their coming of age and their.
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  Speaker 3: Adolescents so to speak, it's like you want to be
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  Speaker 3: you want to sound big, and so you get a
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  Speaker 3: bit more produced and a bit more slick, and you
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  Speaker 3: want things to be impressive. We definitely had that phase, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: And now with Grief Chapter, I think a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a bit of a mix of everything, and all of
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  Speaker 3: that kind of came game together with this record.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite song in general that you
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: like to play at shows?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: I love playing Halof too, just because it just takes
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  Speaker 4: care of all the work, like it's easy to play
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  Speaker 4: and it just makes the room kind of erupt.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. And then on the flip side, I like playing
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  Speaker 3: Grief Chapter yeah, because it has such an emotional charge
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  Speaker 3: and it's so delicate and open and you really have
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  Speaker 3: to be present emotionally for it, and it's a good
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  Speaker 3: opportunity to, yeah, to connect to your audience and to
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  Speaker 3: really mean everything that you're putting out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can attest to the Hayloff song being huge
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  Speaker 1: when you play it in front of crowds. I've seen
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the videos. It looks amazing nice. Yeah, I love Explode
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: from the new album and the music video. Who and
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  Speaker 1: how do you guys come up with the visual ideas?
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  Speaker 3: So with that video, we worked with a guy named
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  Speaker 3: Colin Minihan who made a couple of videos for us
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  Speaker 3: back in two thousand and eight. So in between then
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  Speaker 3: and now, he went off to do like a career
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  Speaker 3: in horror films, oh that genre, So he stopped making
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  Speaker 3: music videos and so we link back up with him
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  Speaker 3: on our song Normalized from Grief chapter and he did
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  Speaker 3: like a horror movie offshoot and that video is really cool,
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  Speaker 3: and so then we wanted to do another one with
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  Speaker 3: him on the cycle, so we chose Explode. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: we didn't want there to be a big narrative theme
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  Speaker 3: on Explode. We just wanted it to be kind of
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  Speaker 3: psychedelic and be a good portrayal of the band performing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well you nailed you nailed that. Is there
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  Speaker 1: any band or solo act that you love and listen
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  Speaker 1: to a lot of at.
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  Speaker 3: The moment, yeah, I've been digging Adrian Linker from a
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  Speaker 3: big thief quite quite a profound talent. She is, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: nice and it's cool. She's making records in a really
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  Speaker 3: old school way like triple A.
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  Speaker 2: They call like.
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  Speaker 3: Recording to tape, mixing to tape, mastering to tape, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: triple analog. So sounds really earthy and the songwriting is
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  Speaker 3: ace oh awesome.
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  Speaker 1: And do you have any like guilty pleasure music that
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  Speaker 1: may surprise people given the music you make?
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  Speaker 2: Not these days?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't listen too much pop anymore. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 3: used to, but it's almost like kind of like studying it,
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  Speaker 3: you know, sort of like yew, do they make it
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  Speaker 3: sound so so spin shiny? I will say that I
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: think the Sabrina Carpenter stuff sounds really great.
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  Speaker 2: It does. It's really open and spacious and yeah and bright.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah I don't want to like it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And the songwriting is really good, like those melodic
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  Speaker 3: arcs are really really hooky, and not in a cheap way.
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  Speaker 2: It's like it's quite sophisticated. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, I guess that's a guilty pleasure, although I
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: don't really feel guilty for any music if you enjoy
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  Speaker 3: it then's guilt free.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: That's right, that's it. Do you think there's even more
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  Speaker 1: songs after Grief chapter for Mother? Mother?
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  Speaker 2: Of course always yeah, yeah, And is.
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  Speaker 1: There anything you'd like to say to your Australian fans.
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  Speaker 3: Can't wait come and connect and thank you for supporting us.
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  Speaker 3: We've we've been wanting to come to Australia for fifteen
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  Speaker 3: years up until we did, and we just never had.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the support to make that journey.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you know, just yeah, extreme gratitude for
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to visit that part of the world and
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  Speaker 3: to connect with people and to play these songs.
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  Speaker 2: Mean it means so much to us.
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  Speaker 1: Oh fantastic. And do you know do you have any
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: plans in your downtime to see any certain sights or
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  Speaker 1: monuments or anything like that?
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  Speaker 3: For me personally, like if I get downtime, I take
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: my camera and I just walk into the city and
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: I get lost for hours.
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  Speaker 2: And to do street photography. So that's cool.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I'll just yeah, I'll just do that and discover what
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: I discover. Yeah, I look forward to having a coffee
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: in Melbourne because yes, apparently there's the best coffee and
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: when we were there, last I was taking a break
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: from caffeine.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm I'm back on coffee. So I'm stoked
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: to drink coffee in Melbourne.
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  Speaker 1: How's the coffee in Canada? Because I know in the
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  Speaker 1: USA from personal experience it tastes like dhot. Is Canada's
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  Speaker 1: coffee better than the USA?
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  Speaker 3: I mean I think there's it depends where you go,
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  Speaker 3: Like there's amazing coffee everywhere, Like that's true. The only
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  Speaker 3: the only like country where it seemed like coffee was
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  Speaker 3: bad everywhere that I went to is Germany. Really yeah,
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  Speaker 3: But like I was in where was it Omaha? Like
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: two weeks ago in in the Bible Belt right, and
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  Speaker 3: I went I went to this like the most amazing
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  Speaker 3: coffee place. I had like pour over with all these
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: crazy hints of like cherries and this and that and wow.
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  Speaker 2: So I think there's an amazing coffee wherever you go. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: but if you drink.
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  Speaker 3: At Starbucks for Tim Horton's, which is like, yeah, our chain,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: then yeah, it's going to taste like crap.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Do you know what surprised me is that I went
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: to New Jersey, where you know, there's a big Italian
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Italian influence obviously, and it was all just percolated stuff.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm like the Italians, they know how to do coffee.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: What's going on here anyway?
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Interesting?
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Interesting?
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: But our coffee here yeah, is pretty good no matter
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  Speaker 1: where you go. So yeah, excellent, well, Ossie. Fans of
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Mother Mother can catch the tour with special guests ula
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: is it Ulla Ulla Ulla.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we played with her last time. She's great.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Oh awesome.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I have to check her out and you can even
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: get a vip Q and a package. Kicking off in
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Adelaide on November sixteen, Ryan, thank you so much for
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: speaking with us today. We hope you have an amazing
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: tool down under.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. This is a blast. I appreciate your time
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and your interest.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you yours too, Thanks Ryan.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah