DEATH BECOMES THEM

Tik Tok gave Mother Mother a second lease on life. Now they take on the Grim Reaper with Grief Chapter.

- ANDREW DALY

MOTHER MOTHER HAVE been hard at it since 2005, when Ryan Guldemond formed the band in Quadra Island, British Columbia. Along the way, the alternative-pop rockers dropped eight records heading into the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they never managed to resonate on a larger scale.

All that changed after "Hayloft," a cut from 2008's O My Heart, exploded with the help of Tik Tok, catapulting Mother Mother to millions-of-streams-per-week success. Since then, the upward trend has continued, with the group's latest record, 2024's Grief Chapter (Warner), looking to be their biggest yet.

Reflecting on Mother Mother's journey, Ryan Guldemond tells Guitar Player, "If you want to marry your art with commerce and success, you probably should just get on social media and do whatever it takes to be noticed, just because it is that hard.

"I feel like our story is too romantic to be viable," he continues. "It's so impossibly miraculous that we stumbled into a pandemic on an app called Tik Tok, and that was the thing that opened the world for us. You really can't write that story."

But success isn't changing Guldemond. If anything, he's doubling down, adding string arrangements to the group's infectiously hooky tunes and his own angular electric and intricate acoustic guitar work. "Me marrying the deeper, more intellectual qualities of jazz and classical birthed a schizophrenic sensibility in the writing. And that's fine," he says. "When you start writing a song by having no limits, following your whims, doing what feels right, that's what's great about being creative. But for me, guitar is really a tone chase; it's an energy quest."

"It's not about creating a stage for the guitar as much as it could be, considering my background," he concludes. "But I'm cool with that because I love songwriting more than guitar playing."

Can you give a rundown of the themes present in Grief Chapter?