Mothers band veer magazine

By Jeff Maisey

 

What happens when you record your debut album more than a year before it’s released? In the case of Athens, Georgia experimental pop group Mothers, you tour with the likes of Of Montreal and garner favorable press exclaiming you’re one of the top new artists to watch in 2016.

When Mothers’ “When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired” finally comes out February 26 on Grand Jury Music, singer/guitarist Kristine Leschper will extend her spellbinding qualities over an even larger audience.

Considering the quirky nature of the band’s sound, that’s rather refreshing.

I recently chatted with Kristine to learn more about the essence of her songwriting.

 

Before moving to Athens at attend art school were you aware of the city’s musical heritage?

 

It’s still very much a part of what makes Athens Athens. It was part of the reason I moved here in the first place. First and foremost I came here for school, but everyone had told me Athens was great for music. There’s so much going on there. Naturally I was curious what it would be like. It is very alive musically and culturally. There are a lot of things going on here all the time.

There’s a lot of experimental music happening that tends not to get the recognition it deserves. This is a college town so people are very transient. People are here for four or five years and then they leave. So there are new bands starting every year.

 

Are you inspired by seeing other local bands in Athens?

 

Yeah, absolutely. It’s huge for us. Usually there’s a show every night, and usually more. The difficult thing in Athens is deciding which show to go to. It’s very competitive because there’s always so much going on.

The other night, on New Year’s Day, I went to GoBar to see a show. There’s an outside patio there. When I walked up there was the improve band of nine guitar players jamming on this noisy, crowdy, dissonant thing and it just reinvigorated my love for Athens because that kind of stuff happens here where people are just exploring. That moment was very inspirational for me.

 

Speaking of dissonant tones and mood, what are you expressing through your songs?  

 

What I really want to explore in my music is the human condition and what it means to be human and experience human emotions.  I’m trying to explore those ideas of mortality and things that are personal but at the same time universal because as humans we all experience those things.

 

When I hear songs like “Nesting Behavior” or “Two Small for Eyes,” there is that experimental quality to your songs, but also very much a ballad at heart.

 

So I think a lot of that stems from my earlier influences musically, which are bands like The Microphones. Those bands represent those ideas of non-traditional song structure. They’re much more linear in form.

Then bands like Neutral Milk Hotel that can be so heart-wrenching and more like a ballad.

Those are two of the inspirations for me early on. That has carried over to the way I write songs where I don’t worry about different melodies happening more than one time throughout the course of the song. I  just kind of make every moment of the song special and let it keep growing over the course of the song.

 

“When You Walk a Long Distance You are Tired” is plainly a true statement, but it’s sort of funny to say at the same time. When you come up with titles like that and “It Hurts Until it Doesn’t,” where is your mind at on those quirky ideas?

 

I love the irony of them and the kind of pointed nature of them. Some of my favorite types of literature are things that are a little bit ironic and so simple that in order to get something out of them you’re required to read more, to read between the lines. I like to write that way. Look at a sentence as simple as “When you walk a long distance you are tired.” Clearly it’s meant to represent more than what it says it does. The idea is for the viewer to perceive it in the light of their own context.”

 

Mothers

January 23

Work | Release