Who: Mother
When: Tuesday, Dec. 27 and Wednesday, Dec. 28
Where: GLC
Tickets: $10
The phone call came last week: Mike Varrin from the Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC) raving about a new band he just discovered on a Vancouver music run.
"I usually never say this, but this band is really incredible; something totally different," Varrin said. "Like the next Teagan and Sara."
Teagan and Sara were first unleashed in Whistler at the GLC before the harmonizing, show-stopping duo rose to stardom.
After listening to an MP3 at www.motherband.com – an artfully directed scene of vaudevillian country, post-punk interludes and harmonies that render the band’s sound obscure and cliché all at the same time – it quickly became apparent Varrin has discovered yet another rising star act: Mother.
More like the Motherlode, which is coming to Whistler Tuesday, Dec. 27 and Wednesday, Dec. 28 at the GLC.
All bands brag about their sound as something completely unique, but the flimsy word doesn’t do justice to Mother’s out-of-the-box sound, which plays with multiple genres – sometimes poking fun, at other times using music genres to establish the setting for cheeky lyrics while all the while, tight harmonies (so tight three voices become another performer unto itself) thread together the Mother music and stamp the Vancouver band as authentically eccentric.
Mother guitarist and vocalist Ryan Guldemond credits a classical jazz background to the complex layers of the tightly knit music.
"(My) classical music (background) works in the structure in building themes and ideas and climactic moments in the songs," he said. "Sort of like a ride in building and shaping the contour of the music, which I learned from formal training."
The speed at which listeners are catching onto Mother trio, the infant band just cresting one year old, speaks volumes about where this band is headed.
Conceived in the halls of the music program at Vancouver Community College in January 2005, a trio of voices – brother-sister team Ryan and Molly Guldemond and friend DebraJean Creelman – gathered around Ryan’s guitar and one week later Mother agreed to its first gig. Two weeks later, the group played a local festival where CBC officials caught the Mother bug. The band was showcased on CBC Radio Two’s West Coast Sounds Like Summer Festival series, a 45-minute national broadcast, which included the likes of K’naan and the Wailin’ Jennys.
While Ryan said the band was named Mother because none of the band members got along with their moms, and therefore, the group wanted to create a Mother they could relate to and be proud of, Ryan’s mom was the catalyst for the band’s next big break.
After reading that Howard Redekopp had produced the New Pornographers, Teagan and Sara and 54.40, Ryan’s mom urged him to get in touch with Redekopp.
"She’s telling me to write his name down and I am like, ‘whatever mom’," Ryan recounted. "I wrote it down on the back of one of our posters of a show coming up just to humour her."
The poster was posted at one of the vocalist’s workplaces. Three weeks later, the poster was taken down by a co-worker who inquired about the name written on the back of the poster. It was the name of his brother in law. After bringing a demo of Mother to his relative, Mother joined forces with Redekopp to produce Mother’s first self-entitled album.
"It feels lucky and deserved, all at the same time," Ryan said of the band’s success. "A definite combination of serendipity and hard work. Usually it takes a band a long time to get their repertoire together. We didn’t have a choice. We saw there was an opportunity and made it work. It set the tone for our speedy progression."
The album will be re-released nationally in the spring, followed by a national tour, unleashing the music touching on contemporary life – the good, the bad and the ugly.
"We play with different genres, hip hop, rock tunes," Ryan said. "It’s pretty in your face and rocking…. We are not going after any sort of market. It’s diverse and kind of crazy, but it feels like the natural thing to do. We’re just having fun."
DJ Ace will warm the crowds up. Doors 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.
