The Canadian rock band Mother Mother originally had no intention to mark some of the impending historical milestones in their impressive career. As it turns out, their new record, Nostalgia, the 10th album released by the quintet in this, their 20th year of existence, sort of backed into that relevance.
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Ryan Guildemond, the band’s songwriter and lead singer, explained the scenario in a recent interview with American Songwriter. “We were writing this deluxe version for the last record, and the songs just felt too charged, too fresh, and too different from that chapter,” he says. “At that point, we decided to embark upon a new album project. And then a song called ‘Nostalgia’ birthed itself, and it’s the 20th anniversary. So it was all just fitting.”
Nostalgia, nostalgia, Guildemond sings during the title track. How I love ya, how I hate ya. As a musician with a long track record, he didn’t want to repeat old moves when writing the album. But he did want to tap into something loose and free in the creative process that was prevalent in the band’s early days.
“You don’t want to get too intoxicated by what was,” Guildemond explains. “But certainly, humans, as they get older, if they’re at all self-aware, they realize that they would be better off returning to some sort of childlike sensibility in appreciating the world and the moment. And that ties so well into the creative act. When we first begin, we’re so naïve that we’re unwitting of our own courageous brilliance. And then we start learning stuff, and it sanitizes that creative instinct.
“And then you come out the other side, and you listen back and you think, ‘Wow, those are some bold moves.’ Maybe it could use some editing, but there was a real spark there. So we tried to honor our younger sensibilities while taking what we’ve learned and trying to do our best work, as always. To have that conversation: What is so special about the birth of something? And how can we harness that, 20 years into being a band?”
Mother Mother separates itself from its alt-rock peers partly through Guildemond’s willingness to toy with common song structures. Tracks like “Love To Death” and “Finger” marry bold lyrics to unpredictable musical dynamics. The frontman said the circumstances surrounding his upbringing and early musical education formed this tendency in him, and he wanted to indulge it on Nostalgia.
“It’s a combination of jazz school, coming of age as an early twentysomething, and moving to a big city from a small island. My world was cracked open, and I was learning all this musical vocabulary and just eager to use it. I think that just came out very organically in bizarre, unformulaic songwriting. These days, I’m just trying to get to the intuitive space of writing, and return to my go-to, which is twists and turns and a more schizophrenic approach to writing.”
The band also benefits from having three outstanding singers. While Guildemond generally sings lead, he’ll often step back and let his sister Molly and Jasmin Parkin take over. In fact, it’s Molly who takes center stage on the album’s haunting closing ballad “To Regret.”
“As much as Molly or Jasmin can take a lead or a phrase, the better,” says Guildemond. “I’ve never really fancied myself a singer. It’s a necessary evil of writing your own songs that you have to sing them. The impetus for making a band with lots of singers was to hide my inadequacy. Which is cool, because the weakness became a strength, which is how rich the vocals are. But it was born out of insecurity. So I’ll always try to find ways to feature them.”
The popularity of Mother Mother, which also includes bassist Mike Young and drummer Ali Siadat, surged during the pandemic when some older songs unexpectedly went viral. It didn’t change the band’s approach so much as reinforce that they’d always been on the right path.
“The sensibilities that this new audience celebrated were the courageous, the unconventional,” Guildemond says. “Those types of songs were gaining popularity. Which reminded us that we were right, and that we should just be ourselves in the writing room, instead of trying to make a hit.”
Even though it wasn’t originally planned with forethought to be a career-summarizing peak, that’s exactly how Nostalgia feels for Mother Mother. It even pleased its main creator, which is apparently no easy feat.
“I haven’t felt this positive about a record for a long time,” Guildemond says. “I usually have postpartum depression that is just annoying to everybody. We spill blood for this thing, and then Ryan hates it for sometimes years before I can listen back and see the beauty. With Nostalgia, I’m already there, which I think is a byproduct of making decisions from the heart space instead of the head space. You’re going to wind up with something that feels authentic and resonates with you.”
Photo by Emily Bradshaw
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