Mothers are a band that are easy to become obsessed with. Remarkable vocals matched with delicate lush rhythms is an unfaltering mixture. When considering the band hadn’t been together for long at all when they recorded their début When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired, it’s hard not to think that there is something special about Mothers. Starting out as a solo project, Kristine Leschper made Mothers into a band when they went into the studio. I spoke to Kristine and Matt Anderegg to find out about the band’s origins and see what is next for Mothers now they are a four-piece.

Where did you grow up?
Kristine I grew up in Union which is about 30 minutes south of Atlanta, Georgia.

Matt I grew up in a town called Rincon in Georgia which is right outside Savanah by the coast, close to the border with Florida.

When did you move to Athens, Georgia? I have heard it has a strong alternative scene – lots of art and experimentation?
Kristine I’ve been here about seven years now. I initially moved here to start school, then studied here and ended up staying for a while. It’s a pretty amazing place. It’s a very, very affordable town to live in for how much you can get out of it. You can see music every night and connect with likeminded people – there’s a lot going on.

Do you think where you live now has influenced your music, and how?
Kristine Especially in the beginning it was a huge part in why I started playing music in the first place. When I moved to Athens, I started studying Visual Art and very quickly realised how many people here play music. It’s an environment that made me feel very capable and the people I met were really supportive. I got to a point where I was like, “you know, I should just try it”. So I did some open mics and performed with friends, and started to explore that avenue of creativity and expression.

What kind of music were you brought up on?
Kristine My mum was into a lot of classic rock. My dad was into a lot of country music. That was it for them, they didn’t branch out a lot. But they are very open minded about me showing them different kinds of music and things that I am interested in – some of them have stuck.

Matt I was brought up on loads of different stuff, my parents are huge music fans. I grew up with a lot of records around the house – a lot of old folk music like bluegrass, but also lots of old psychedelic rock bands. Music really was all over the place. I also have some older siblings who love music so they were giving me music from a very young age.

Can you remember the first album you owned?
Matt One of my first records was by Cream as my dad loves Cream, I think it was Disraeli Gears. I also remember having Metallica and Black Sabbath records from earlier than that because of my older brother.

Kristine My first record was a TLC CD that I played in my room all the time, I love TLC. I had a Toni Braxton CD that I loved as well as a Hanson one. An Aqua cassette was the first one I brought by myself.

When was the first time you discovered you had this incredibly arresting and quaint voice?
Kristine I always really liked singing and had sung in choirs through middle and high school, but it was never something I wanted to do on my own really. I felt like I had a good voice to be in a sea of other voices, but never felt confident to do it by myself. I took some learning and some acceptance for what it is.

How did you form Mothers?
Kristine I was playing solo around town for about a year. Then in 2013 I met Matt and Drew because of another band that they were playing in. We became friends and played some shows together where we shared the bill. There was this mutual respect there where we all really liked what each other was doing and felt strongly about working together. It started as a three-piece, but when we went into the studio to record the album our friend McKendrick Bearden tracked the bass parts and wrote the string arrangements. It all happened very quickly before we had worked out what we wanted to do – it’s something I really like about the record.

Apparently you went into the studio about a month after you became a three-piece?
Kristine Yeah, it was super fast. It was something we felt compelled to do. We were offered this opportunity to work with someone we really wanted to record with, it felt like something we couldn’t pass up. So we got in there and tried to make something.

Is there a story behind the name?
Kristine I titled the project when I was studying Visual Art in Athens. At the time I was making a lot of art about animals and nature and how they prepare for motherhood with these nestling behaviours that they go through. I was really interested in ritualistic routines that different people or animals go through, making different visuals and drawing about it. I was specifically interested in rabbits as I had pet rabbits at the time. I was reading and learning a lot about them so that I wouldn’t accidently kill them or something, and found out that when they are preparing for birth they start to pull their hair out to create a nest for their young. I thought that was a really good metaphor for being a creative person in general – the act of creating something and giving so much of yourself away, putting everything you have into something. I felt that being a songwriter was like being a mother in that aspect – how creation can be tragic and beautiful at the same time.

How do you approach the writing and recording process?
Matt With the first record there is almost two parts to the music, the music and then the lyrics. We purposely didn’t have much input into that and didn’t want to change it, as Kristine’s songs had been around for a while the way they were. So we arranged on top of the music that was already there. With the new music, we have a lot more to do with the process. The lyrics and the vocals however are all Kristine, and we are happy to leave that up to her.

Kristine The first record was entirely intuitive, whereas our new music is a bit more calculated and specific. It’s still intuitive but we are now taking our time and thinking things through a lot more. When recording the first record, it was a bit like, “What feels the best here? Ok, we’ll go with that.”

Have you been thinking about the next release?
Kristine We have been writing a lot and have recently been demoing some songs in the hope we can actually figure them out this time before recording them for the next record. We are creaking away at it.

Matt It is still very minimal in a way but at the same time a lot more complicated. It’s a little weirder and a little darker but still very accessible. The lyrics are less introspective and a little more observational – they are less to do with ourselves basically.

What has been a musical eye-opener and how has it affected you?
Kristine For me it was a combination of bands that circled around a group called Heller that I listened to in college – they really challenged my perception of what music is or could be. Bands like Heller, Lightning Bolt and Don Caballero – these experimental and predominantly instrumental bands. I had grown up listening to, say, folk music and being drawn to more singer-songwriters like Sufijan Stevens and Joanna Newsome. Then suddenly I was discovering these band that I didn’t really like at first as I didn’t quite understand what was going on. There was something about the way I learned to love those bands that changed the way I look at music.

Matt In relation to Mothers and our new music – I have been really inspired by Krautrock bands. Groups like CAN, Faust and Kraftwerk. Through that music I got really into a band called Women, their two albums are amazing and I think they have been a big influence on Mothers for a while as well.

If you could give a musical award of the year, whom would it be for and why?
Matt I would give an award to Zach Philips, he runs this small label called OSR. I love his music – it is like experimental pop. He writes music and puts it out, but he also releases other bands too that are around the New York area.

Kristine I would give an award to Cindy Lee for the most heart-breaking record of 2015. Cindy Lee is the solo project of Pat Flegel from Women. It’s called ‘Act Of Tenderness’ and it was released on Christmas Day.

Who would be in your perfect supergroup?
Genesis P-Orrige (Throbbing Gristle / Psychic TV) would front the band. John French (Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band) on drums. Philip Glass on keys.

What would be your perfect line-up of any three acts for a concert you are putting on and where would it be?
Kristine I would have a small show as I think it makes it more special for how intimate it is, so maybe at someone house. Zach Philips, Chris Wiseman as he doesn’t really play shows that often, and Ornette Coleman headlining.

If you could work with any artist, who would it be and what would they bring to Mothers?
Kristine I really love the work by an animator called Bruce Bickford. This is actually something we are trying to set up and work out. He is known most for working with Frank Zapper in the 70s, doing a lot of claymation and animation for his songs. I’ve been following his work for a really long time and would love to work on a video piece with him, where we can write the score for one of his animation short stories. I think it would be an incredible collaboration and a dream come true.

What music are you listening to at the moment?
Matt I’m liking The Coneheads.

Kristine There are some really great bands in Atlanta right now, for instance Red Sea and Hellier Ulysses. We have been listening to a lot of Deerhoof in the car recently, they are amazing.

Matte There’s this band in Montreal called Brave Radar who are great.

Kristine I’ve also been listening to a lot to this band called The Cradle which is only available on Bandcamp. He is the guy called Paco who is in this group called the Big Neck Police.

What are your future plans till the end of the year and after?
Kristine Just to work really hard and stay busy. We don’t have much touring left after the UK and Europe tour that is coming up, so for the most part we are taking October/November/December to be writing a lot, recording demos and maybe start the recording process for the next record.

Website: mothersathens.com
Facebook: facebook.com/NestingBehavior
Twitter: twitter.com/MothersAthens