Since their begin in 2005, the group has launched 9 studio albums, their 2007 and 2008 albums Contact Up and O My Coronary heart having since racked up tens of millions of listeners throughout streaming platforms. Recognized for his or her soundscapes of quirked-up different rock and otherworldly androgynous vocals, the 5 member group has gained worldwide acclaim as a longtime, odd-ball band, writing unconventional anthems for the choice underground. And, with the group’s sudden bombshell resurgence on TikTok in 2020, Mom Mom has cemented themselves amidst a brand new era of followers, one which embraces the band’s alien soundscape as their very own.
The Street to Success
Mom Mom has been performing and producing music for practically twenty years, present process varied member and sound modifications in that point. The group discovered its begin in Vancouver when lead-singer and songwriter Ryan Guldemond recruited his sister Molly Guldemond and her good friend Debra-Jean Creelman to place melody to his lyrics, birthing the band’s distinctive triad vocals. With the addition of drummer Kenton Loewen and bassist Jeremy Web page, the band started performing below the title Mom, independently releasing their first self-titled album in 2005. The album earned enthusiastic evaluations, launching the group from open mics to high-profile gigs, which in flip bagged the eye of the Canadian label Final Gang Data, with whom the band signed a 4 album contract, re-releasing the album Contact Up below their new title Mom Mom. The following yr, the band launched their sophomore album, O My Coronary heart, that includes a brand new drummer, Ali Saidat. Quickly afterwards, Creelman left, changed later that yr by Jasmin Park on keyboard and vocals.
It was solely after Mom Mom’s third album in 2011, Eureka, that the band took off, the album’s lead single “The Stand” breaking by means of the Canada Singles Prime 100 chart. Steeped in electro-pop, the brand new album twisted the group’s heavy themes, extraterrestrial vocals, and different rock custom with a novel 2010s taste. From its first observe to its final, Eureka hurtled listeners amidst a cacophony of musical kinds, euphoric and high-strung all through. Mom Mom’s core sound frayed into the experimental, enchanting critics and followers alike. And, not like their first couple albums, Eureka appeared to have hit a candy spot, profitable the hearts of simply the precise individuals at simply the precise time. A yr later, the band’s single “Vivid Concept” was utilized in a Kraft Meals industrial marketing campaign.
2012’s The Sticks and 2014’s Very Good Unhealthy Factor adopted in fast succession, each breaking into Canada’s prime charts, the latter reaching quantity 4 and incomes the group a nomination for Group of the Yr in 2015 from the Juno Awards. Later albums No Tradition and Dance and Cry additional cemented the group’s musical prowess, underscored by new, experimental exploration and a prolonged tour.
These later albums mark even higher deviations from Mom Mom’s preliminary acoustic panorama into unknown territory, at instances wandering down so many rabbit holes that the older environment of their sound turns into unrecognizable. However, Mom Mom has at all times been swept up in experimentation, their earlier albums pushing at a few of these identical musical boundaries to create anthemic different tracks.
I strive to not fear about what followers anticipate, by way of any sonic aesthetic…Somebody’s going to say ‘I want it was extra uncooked’. Somebody will say ‘I want it was extra dense’. However I feel each events will react to an amazing track.
In an interview with Aesthetic Journal in 2017, Ryan Guldemond was requested if he felt followers anticipated a sure sound from Mom Mom. He responded, saying “I strive to not fear about what followers anticipate, by way of any sonic aesthetic…Somebody’s going to say ‘I want it was extra uncooked’. Somebody will say ‘I want it was extra dense’. However I feel each events will react to an amazing track.” The band had undeniably expanded their musical horizons by means of the 2010s, journeying into extra experimental and techno realms. Whereas some followers missed the nostalgic sounds of their first albums, the group’s robust fanbase and established presence allowed for them to discover past their roots, trying to find an inventive authenticity that various with every album and second in time.
A New Technology of Followers
2020’s COVID-19 pandemic hit the music trade like a punch within the intestine, canceling and suspending music festivals, excursions, concert events, and award ceremonies throughout the globe. Artists around the globe needed to put their careers on pause, hoping, ready, looking ahead to what would come subsequent, for a method ahead. Mom Mom was no exception. In an interview with ABC Information, Molly Guldemond describes her emotions of finality. “…We have been all confronted with this pandemic. We’re at residence. We predict our profession is like, executed.”
Little did the band know that they have been standing on the cusp of explosive recognition. In 2020, TikTok grew to become essentially the most downloaded app on the earth, a cornerstone for fashionable tradition, music, and flash traits, particularly for Gen Z. Abruptly, viral clips or dances may shoot any track into the worldwide charts, these flashes of highlight dubbing the Web’s present obsessions as “TikTok well-known.” Mom Mom quickly discovered themselves trending, clips of a few of their older songs, together with “Hayloft,” “Burning Pile,” and “Verbatim,” forming the backdrop for a bunch of traits. And fascinatingly, Mom Mom’s highlight didn’t disappear. In contrast to different flash traits, the freaky British Columbian band held tight to the Web’s fickle consideration span, remaining one of the related artists on the platform for the higher a part of 2020, with the lyrics to their track “Hayloft” being essentially the most searched-for track lyrics within the U.S. and second most on the earth. “A gaggle of individuals simply got here collectively and began sharing our music, making movies…” describes Molly, afterward within the interview. “It was unbelievable.”
Mom Mom’s tracks have been usually utilized in movies coping with queer and trans id or dramatic cosplay, with the track “Verbatim” particularly catching hearth amongst the LGBTQ+ group as a track difficult gender norms. The band additionally cemented itself amongst different artists used within the LGBTQ+’s musical code, their track “Hayloft” particularly morphing into an unstated sign for the nonbinary group in a lot the identical method the lesbian group identifies with woman in pink or bisexuals with The Neighborhood’s track “Sweater Climate”. To different communities on TikTok, the track’s wailing, staccato-infused chaos lent a soundscape to their very own messy struggles with gender.
Transferring Ahead: The Grief Chapter
Responding to their resurgence on on the social media platform, Mom Mom began their very own TikTok account and, to the delight of their new followers, started dueting movies (a operate of TikTok by which one’s response video seems subsequent to the unique). Frontman Ryan Guldemond appears to be notably energetic in connecting with followers, dueting younger artists as they sing and riff on Mom Mom songs or just reacting to movies with questions
Gen Z fell in love with Mom Mom on TikTok. The band’s otherworldly sound and bizarre vibe matched the odd, unprecedented environment of pandemic-era lockdowns.
and thanks. Talking with MILKY, he talked about that “there appears to be a craving for one thing that is a bit of extra unconventional” amongst Mom Mom’s latest era of followers, a longing and nostalgia for the band’s unique sound obvious of their new followers’ obsession with the group’s freshman and sophomore albums. The band’s newest album Grief Chapter, launched this previous yr, is available in response to this craving. “We’re returning extra to that quirky, eccentric sensibility as a result of the message that we’re returning from this legion of latest younger followers is that they like that essentially the most,” says Ryan. “Nowadays we really feel extra liberated in returning to our roots whereas additionally borrowing a few of the extra trendy strategies that we have picked up alongside the way in which.”
For a bunch boasting such a wealthy musical historical past of ever-changing experimentation and variety, it appears odd that solely Contact Up and O My Coronary heart have been really re-discovered by younger followers. Nonetheless, Mom Mom chooses to lean into these new calls for, “returning to their roots” as Ryan places it, whereas sustaining their creative authenticity as they pursue new avenues of connecting with followers around the globe.
Gen Z fell in love with Mom Mom on TikTok. The band’s otherworldly sound and bizarre vibe matched the odd, unprecedented environment of pandemic-era lockdowns. Loneliness and isolation birthed inside reflection and development, with an increasing number of younger individuals recognizing and coming to phrases with their very own odd, quirky, and different identities. Mom Mom’s music struck a chord with this new era of followers, the group’s experimental, extraterrestrial sound reeled them in whereas intense themes of dying, self-discovery, and love hooked them. Because of the convergence of a world pandemic, an enormous video-sharing community of other communities, and only a sprinkling of common steerage, Mom Mom struck gold, connecting with a brand new era of fierce followers and oddballs with whom to share their music.
