Ryan Guldemond, the front man for Vancouver based indie rock band Mother Mother, knew he wanted to pursue a career in music when he was very young.
“It didn’t really become crystal clear until I picked up the electric guitar,” he said. “I think I was around 10 years old and that is when I think the culture of music really seeped into my being and I saw how it could extend beyond simply playing an instrument to living an instrument and embodying a culture as a musician. A lot of that has to do, I think, with the rebellion of plugging in to an amplifier and making it distort and turning it up loud.”
On the other hand, Molly Guldemond, his sister and back-up singer, says her success as a musician is a happy accident.
“I never thought I would be a musician in a million years,” she said. “But I’ve always loved music and I’ve always played music so I guess it’s not that strange of an eventuality but it definitely wasn’t my goal.”
The two graduated from Carihi and grew up in Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island. Not to be confused with the kids who grew up in Heriot Bay.
“There was this great rivalry between the Bay Hoods and the Cove Rats,” Ryan said with a laugh.
With not much else to do, Ryan spent a lot of time in his room playing guitar and their parents were very supportive.
“(Our mom) always gave us tons of books to read and really nurtured our musical side by giving us music lessons,” Molly said. “So more so than the place I think the family environment was very nurturing towards the arts: music and the written word, painting and everything, we lucked out.”
The two agreed that it was also the greater community on Quadra, and not just their family, that fostered their musical talents.
“There’s a lot of art there and there’s great musicians like my guitar teacher from when I was young was such a huge mentor, Grant McLellan, I think he still teaches in Campbell River,” Ryan said. “I don’t really know what kind of musician I would be today if not for him.”
The band started while the two were in university. Molly was studying graphic design and Ryan was studying music.
“I think I was getting tired of the studious academic approach to the study of music and wanted to start an original band,” Ryan said. “Molly was just there. And had this incredibly unique speaking voice that I felt like I knew would translate into a remarkable back up singing voice and it did and that’s essentially how we got started.”
They performed their first gig for Ryan’s performance techniques class at university. It was a three song acoustic set.
“I hid behind my hair,” Molly said. “I hid behind my hair and I was off the stage before the end of the last song. I think I might have vomited.”
The band has come a long way since then.
“We started very stripped down, we were almost like a folk trio,” Ryan said. “Over the years we have evolved into something more modern with electronic undertones and fancy gadgetry.”
They released their first album independently in 2005. With it they gained enough recognition to play a series of festivals and shows. All of this lead to a record deal with Last Gang Records, who re-released their debut album in 2007. The next album, O My Heart, came out in 2008. Eureka followed in 2011, The Stick’s came out in 2012. With a new record deal with Universal Music Canada their next album Very Good Bad Thing hit top five in the Billboard Canada charts when it was released in 2014.
That year they were nominated for Group of the Year at the Juno’s.
Their most recent album, No Culture,was released earlier this year. And the first single from the album, The Drugs, topped the Nielsen BDS Modern Rock Chart for three weeks in February. The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) awarded the group a No.1 Song Award for that accomplishment.
“I think at the core, the lyrical themes have always existed around the human condition and dark and light and a level of cynicism and tongue in cheek-ness,” Ryan said. “I think the personality of the band has stayed fairly consistent but it’s just the architecture of the music has changed around it and the instrumentation.”
Mother Mother has been the Guldemonds’ full time job since around 2011. Though everything happened fairly quickly for the band, both admit that getting a foot in the music industry isn’t easy.
“Keep working and churning out ideas and don’t let the devil of hiatus stunt your growth, personal or professional,”Ryan advised those trying to break into the scene. “There is just so many odds stacked against you in this business that it is easy to get pessimistic and the only way to battle that is to keep working but most importantly believing in the work you are doing and increasing your odds that way.”
Molly agreed that everything falls into place with dedication.
“Be honest with what you are doing and love what you are doing,” she said.
The two are fairly agreeable right now, but working with a sibling hasn’t always been easy.
“The thing about siblingship is you are better equipped to weather the horrible phases based on the intimacy…” Ryan said.
“You have a duty to stand by your family,” Molly added. “So you can be a total asshole and get away with it.”
When asked about future plans for the band Molly said world domination. But in all seriousness the band is looking to nurture the markets that they aren’t as successful in, like Eastern Canada and the United States, and make more music.
“(We want to) just try to evolve musically and not repeat ourselves, that’s big for us,” Ryan said. “It’s a really simple formula that you keep on repeating and hopefully refine and get more graceful at.”
This is a continuation of our series about Campbell Riverites who went on to do great and interesting things. If you know who I should write about next let me know at jocelyn.doll@campbellrivermirror.com or by phone at 250-287-9227.
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