Since forming in 2005, indie-rock band Mother Mother has evolved into a critically acclaimed group known for their dynamic sound, blending folk, rock, and pop elements. The Canadian band has released multiple albums, with the latest addition to their discography being Nostalgia, which was released in 2025. With hits like “Hayloft” and “Oh Ana” going viral across social media, the band has staked their place as a modern indie rock phenomenon, amassing a dedicated fanbase. This weekend they are playing the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, TN, alongside acts like The Strokes, Yungblud, and more.
Before taking the stage in Bonnaroo’s “This Tent,” Mother Mother frontman, Ryan Guldemond, sat down with Melodic Magazine for an interview.
So I want to jump right in. Nostalgia came out last year — incredible album, by the way. How do you feel it fits into the story of the band, like the evolution of Mother Mother?
Ryan: Well, we were trying to do right by the title and create a sonic experience that was somewhat nostalgic of the earlier records where there was more space, less electronics, more band in a room energy.
And the record was split up into 2 halves, one being old songs that have been collecting dust for, you know, in some cases 2 decades. And then the other half of the record was new songs. So a celebration of where we came from and where we were at at that moment.
Like you said, you’ve been doing this for 20 years. How does it feel to go viral with songs like, “Oh Ana,” “Hayloft,” “My Body?” And how does that change the way you sort of view things in the industry now and your own sound?
Definitely over-strategizing and overmarketing falls from its pedestal a bit. Because all that virality happened inexplicably. Like, no one knew why or how, we still don’t. It was just the chaos and the magic of the internet. And, you know, a perfect storm of a pandemic and a new app called TikTok coming together. So you can’t really like hang out with your team in a boardroom and plan for something like that. So then subsequent to that time, just sort of let go more and let fate take care of it, whether or not music does well, and don’t put so much emphasis on strategy and marketing, which I think is healthy. It feels better than before.
So with that, I guess the vibrality brings sort of a new audience. Do you feel that your new audience connects more to the music than maybe when you 1st started so many years ago?
I feel like the new audience is just an amplification of a smaller group of people that has always been there. There’s always been a certain ilk in our community, and very emotional, very lyric driven, very passionate, tender, soulful people — maybe who exist a bit on the fringes and aren’t totally conventional. And it always felt like a small secret society in the early days. And then after the TikTok thing, it became the norm. And that was a beautiful thing just to see that type of person multiply.
So then when you’re making music now, do you try to make what sounds good to you or do you try to cater to that audience a little bit more? Or do you feel like they kind of go hand in hand — what you like and what the audience wants to hear?
Yeah, I think there have been times where you’re trying to write for something external than your own satisfaction. And that music has never been as good as when you’re just writing to make yourself happy. And the music that was celebrated and made viral was the music where we were just being pure. And so to then cater to the new audience would sort of go against the recipe that ended up working — which is just create from your heart and let go. And so if anything, it’s sort of the opposite of catering. This new fan base has, you know, jogged our memory that the best and most effective way to make music is to forget about them is to disregard them in the greater process.
And so when those songs do go viral, does it change the meaning of them to you?
I think the meaning expands, and there’s very little concrete specific meaning in these songs for us and for me as the songwriter. I don’t really write from a premeditated place. A lot of the time it just kind of rushes out and it just feels right. There’s like an emotional residence that suggests it means something. But to explain it, I would be at a loss for words, and it’s only, like, through interviews and stuff where I discover how to explain what the songs mean because I’m forced to. It’s like a reverse engineering of meaning. So when we see the music pass through other people’s filters and the narrative and the stories evolve, it’s great because we can really glom on to other people’s stories and go, “oh, cool, now that’s what it means to me too.” Like, I didn’t know what this song meant, but now I do, thanks to the audience. Yeah, it’s weird.
I’ve heard a lot about you guys exploring more creative freedom now that you’re like 20 years into it. What does creative freedom look like to you in your music-making process?
Creative freedom. It’s a mirror image of how free and open you’re being just in your boring, normal life. And so if I’m living in a way that’s shutting down those corridors of connecting to the world, being inspired by the world, then the songwriting pales. And so it becomes a more holistic pursuit. Live in a way that is magical so that you can write those songs that feel magical. The two are so intertwined. So if I’m like having a creative block, it’s less about the music and it’s more about how I’m living the rest of my day. It’s like, “oh, that’s an indication that I’m unplugged right now.” So I need to, like, change something or a lot of things that have nothing to do with the music. And as a spillover effect, the music will improve.
Is there anything else you have planned in the future? I know you had a couple albums come out pretty quickly, so any future plans fans can look forward to?
Yeah, we’re touring a bunch this summer, playing some cool festivals in North America, and are currently writing a new album. We’re all really excited about the new material. and are in talks of producing it in a different way. We’ve produced a lot of the records in-house, meaning self-produced, being more in control of the sound and were eager to hand the reins over to someone else in hopes that it just sounds completely different to what people are used to from us.
I think for ourselves, we’re just maybe sick of our sound a bit and we just fall into those patterns of doing what you do. Like, I can’t escape myself in terms of my technique there. So the vocals sort of always end up sounding how they do. Maybe they sound great, but they sound familiar to maybe the last record. So I want to, like, give it over to someone who has a totally different sensibility and then listen to our record and be like, “who is this band?” Like, yeah, to be really refreshed is the goal.
Keep up with Mother Mother: Instagram // Spotify // X // TikTok // Website
