On The Verge

Mother Mother

Vancouver, British Columbia
Kooky Gene-Acrobatics
www.mothermothersite.com

“I feel like raw manpower most of the time,” says Ryan Guldemond, the high-pitched lead singer/guitarist of genre-bending Mother Mother. While often pigeonholed as a rock/pop outfit, the group experiments with various instruments, including the banjo. “I love bluegrass,” Guldemond says. “It’s really human and really rugged.” The band’s aesthetic vision is based on a lack of repression and open-mindedness toward the unusual, Guldemond says, adding, “good art is born out of strangeness. Beautiful themes are discovered on the unbeaten path.” The Vancouver-based band independently released their debut album in 2005. (It was re-released in 2007 on Last Gang Records.) Since then, they’ve put out two additional albums, with a third slated for the near future. “We’ve got 15 or 16 songs and I think they’re really badass and eclectic. And it pulls from all the strong points of the band’s musical history, but also rises above it and surpasses it,” Guldemond says. Each album delivers a magically soulful sensation that flows and evolves with each song. “All of a sudden, you have this thing that makes sense. I’m always a little bit blown away and I feel like someone or something else is responsible,” Guldemond says humbly.