Midwest Moms é um quarteto barulhento e melancólico de Fresno na Califórnia que pratica aquela tendência já comentada diversas vezes aqui no TBTCI mesclando pós punk, shoegazer e guitarreira noventista sempre com ares tristonhos e em alta velocidade.
Guilt Trip é o último ep dos caras lançado em Abril deste ano que resume com exatidão o poderio dos caras.
Para ouvir em alto e bom som.
***** Interview with Midwest Moms *****
Q. When did Midwest Moms started, tell us about the history...
The four of us started playing together about two years ago, in early 2013, I think. Omar and Ryan were friends of mine from the DIY scene, and we were all really into darkwave and coldwave at the time, so we wanted to start a darkwave band. Ryan and I actually originally tried jamming with our friend Oliver on keyboards (he was performing as Loverboy. at the time), but it was just sounding like his project, so we scrapped that idea and recruited Omar on guitar. We tried feeling things out with our friend Dave on drums first, but Shoe, who I didn’t really even know, happened to be in a better state to jam the night we first really got together, despite having an injured leg at the time so we kept him around.
Q: Who are your influences?
This is kind of difficult to answer because I think we would all say different things. Our shared influences are probably thinks like Joy Division, Elliott Smith (although I don’t think that comes through, really), Morrissey and the Smiths (except Shoe—he hates Morrissey)… I’m not sure. Personally, and I know this has been true for Omar at one point in his life or another, I was a huge AFI fan growing up, and that has probably stuck with me more than most things. Jawbreaker is a big one for me, and J Church. Modest Mouse, Ride, Jesus and Mary Chain, a lot of post-punk and darkwave.
Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
This is probably the toughest question ever. My personal top five would probably be Modest Mouse’s “The Moon and Antarctica,” David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory,” Jets to Brazil’s “Perfecting Loneliness,” AFI’s “Sing the Sorrow,” and Tiger Trap’s self-titled. Of course, my answer to this question changes all the time and never makes any sense, so take it with a grain of salt.
Q. How do you feel playing live?
I really enjoy it. I kind of wish we could play with less light sometimes, but I know Omar needs to see in order to jangle. I’ve been told I look really disinterested on-stage, but the reality is that I’m quite the introvert, so I usually take great pains to avoid eye contact with anyone and wind up with my eyes on the ceiling at all times. I do enjoy it, though. Time kind of flies during a set, and what I really love about this band is that it has seriously pushed me as a singer. Strangely enough, I was a soprano when I was in school choirs, and I couldn’t seem to get my voice to come from my diaphragm, whereas now, I feel like I’m constantly belting, so it’s nice to be in that place. It’s not so nice when I’m sick, in which case it’s incredibly hard to sing these songs, but that only happens two or three times a year usually.
Q. How do you describe Midwest Moms sounds?
I’m not really sure. Our sound has been in flux pretty consistently for the whole of our career so far. We’re a post-punk band in some ways, a shoegaze band in others, and maybe kind of grungy lately? The sound has absolutely changed from where we started, but I like where we’re headed.
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
We write incredibly slowly due to real-world constraints like school and work, so we’ve done one three-song EP per year so far. We’re sitting on a cover for a potential split, too, so we may wind up with two releases this year. Once we have a few songs we want to record, we’ve been booking time with our friend Jacob Lee (Plastic Skull) of the band Keeper. He comes over to the Infoshop, which is kind of where we’re based, and records us one-by-one. He finally has the means to do live recording now, so I think we might like to try that next. It usually takes less than a day to track it all, then he does mixes and sends them to us and we go back and forth as needed to make little tweaks.
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Ryan is in a new band with my partner, Raleigh, and it’s insanely good. They’re called Sleeve and I would venture to say they’re the best band Fresno’s ever produced, or at least in my lifetime. Other fantastic locals include Sci-Fi Caper, Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries, Tyrannosaurus Zebra (another of my partner’s bands), The Babbling Crooks, Reunion… I could go on forever about Fresno bands. If you’re not into Night Sins yet, that’s another incredible band, but not local. Sex Cross is great, too, Koban, All Your Sisters, Hemingway, Ghost Noise. I live above a DIY space and previously co-owned one (The Bel-Tower), so I see incredible bands from all over the world all the time, and it’s amazing.
Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
We cover our friends Sci-Fi Caper, and we do a cover of “Hanging on the Telephone” by The Nerves. I turned part of “Skeletons” into a cover of AFI’s “Reiver’s Music” because the chords in that one section sounded so much like it to me. As for what we’d like to cover in the future, who knows. We toss ideas around all the time. Joy Division’s “Disorder” would be an ideal one, to me, and maybe something by Elliott Smith, although Sleeve did an Elliott Smith cover set once that would blow anything we did out of the water.
Q: What´s the plans for future....
We’re working on a couple of songs we started months ago, and the guys were working on another idea the other night. Touring is virtually impossible right now due to work schedules, but we want to get out of town more often. We’ll have “Guilt Trip” tapes pretty soon, and probably a third pressing of the first EP, and someday, we’ll decide on a shirt idea and make some merch.
Q: Any parting words?
Love yourself, love others. Go vegan. Start bands and DIY spaces—especially women and people of color. Participate in and create the communities and spaces you want and need. Think critically. Learn more, grow better, practice compassion, and come to Fresno.
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Thanks
https://midwestmoms.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/midwestmoms
