The songwriting partnership of brothers Darcy and Spencer Ward, Mother Culture are an emerging group from Melbourne mining the sounds of pop and rock to create their own sonic landscape of lush melodies and indie tones.
The pair spent 2022 writing and recording a stack of new songs, with six tracks chosen to form their debut EP 'Lust For Love', which they released last week."As we progressed with the recordings the EP formed seamlessly, a few new songs added throughout which was a nice feeling – getting something you wrote the day before tracked is always satisfying.
"Figuring out what's needed to make a song work is always intuitive; if something doesn't feel right about the song when we try something new we're quick to move on.
"Thematically the EP ended up consisting of six love songs, so we aptly named it after the closing track 'Lust For Love'. It wasn't an intentional decision or a concept at all, I guess we're both more romantic than we thought."
Ahead of their EP launch show this weekend (25 March), Spencer sits down to chat about the EP, their influences and what comes next for Mother Culture.
For those new to Mother Culture, what's the elevator pitch for the band's style, music direction?
We lean towards guitars, keys, drums, bass and vocals. Typically in the indie rock vein though we are both endlessly excited by sounds that evoke that indescribable gut feeling.
It could be a feeling of sorrow, angst or endearment though as long as the music evokes that weird feeling we steer into it. Meaning to say a lot of our songs sound quite different though they all reside within the Mother Culture realm.
The Mother Culture origin story; how did it all begin?
Well being brothers you could say it's been a long time in the making, but this project was formed officially between us around the end of 2019, just in time for lockdown. It came about through the remnants of Darcy's old band; after that had broken up he kept working on music. We liked the name, so decided to stick with it before bringing me into the fold.
The influences each member brings to the collective... how does it all get distilled down to the core elements of Mother Culture?
Being brothers, we've been immersed in the same sonic soundscape growing up so our influences are more or less cut from the same cloth.
That being said we're now in our mid-20s and have identified our own interests and idols; it's almost shocking how different our ideas can be sometimes considering our bloodline though we always make it work. We always put The Beatles as a big influence, which sort of takes the weight out of listing them though it's true; our dad was a full Beatlehead, the guy new as much as anyone about them and so naturally we took a great liking to them.
Moreover, there's Bowie and Crowded House and some recent artists in Phoebe Bridgers and Tame Impala. We do everything on the records together, so the core elements are composed of whoever comes up with each part.
As a young, emerging band, the 'Lust For Love' EP is an accomplished, high-quality release covering a range of genres: country, pop, rock. Did you have a concrete idea of the collection of songs you wanted to gather or was it a more organic process as the EP took form?
We tried discussing the ideas and soundscape for the EP, though nothing felt concrete enough to convey over 20 minutes or so of music, so we just started by recording some of our favourites that we had written.
Over the few weeks we spent in the studio a lyrical theme started to form, so we steered into the skid to give the body of work a a loose concept. It's all about love, the search for it and all the highs and lows that comes with.
Some of the songs such as 'Dive' and 'Fall On My Face' were written in the middle of the sessions; sometimes you write something and feel it deserves to be recorded – meaning to say the development of the EP was very organic, forming itself the more we chipped away.
The EP's six songs all encompass the different layers of love... are you both romantics at heart or was that something that occurred absentmindedly?
We're both romantics no doubt. The songs themselves are therapeutic to write and for some reason maybe it's our age or something we seem to encounter these situation-ships that make their way into our songs.
Sometimes the words spill onto the page and by the end of the song you understand them, other times the lyrical intention is conveyed from the outset; either way works as long as you get that funny feeling.
Is there a real-life girl who has a Doja Cat tattoo that inspired that song?
Yeah there certainly is; she even posed for the cover artwork from when we put that one out a single earlier in the year! Darcy wrote it a week or two post break-up and it's one of our favourites – a swinging, starred-eyed love song about wishing a relationship didn't have to end when it did.
The writing and music-making process to turn an idea into a finished song; do you guys implement a similar template each time or does each song require its own space to come to life?
We usually will write a song or flesh out an idea alone then bring it to the other once we're happy with it or if there's something missing. Then we workshop it further until it sounds like a hit.
After that we take to a demo if there's going to be a band with the song, that's to work out the parts and make sure everything grooves. Sometimes that can turn into the final recording.
I don't think many musicians would use a template to write a song seeing as they really appear out of no here, so who's to say they can command that artistic nature like it's an arm or leg. All you can do is show up everyday and let them come to you; once they've appeared just record it and call it yours.
Although the 'Lust For Love' EP has just dropped, as songwriters do you have another batch of songs waiting in the wings (what can you share if anything)?
We recorded a bunch of songs for this EP, so there's a fair back catalogue of recordings there, perhaps an A/B side might be in the work for a few months away.
The songs themselves are always getting written; it's just a matter of setting some time aside for each other to work in the studio. Furthermore, the next EP's mind map is underway and we're super excited to get that underway; not sure if it'll all be out this year but certainly some singles.
The band's name is a little unusual; is there a backstory involved or just a case of throwing two words together?
It was just a matter of 'that sounds cool, let's use that' though that stemmed from the phrase's meaning.
Wiki's definition is: 'A mother culture is a term for an earlier people's culture that has a great and widespread influence on some later cultures and people', so I suppose we're manifesting ourselves as a few trailblazers among the incredibly dense indie rock scene; stay tuned to see how that pans out.
The live band you've surrounded yourselves with, who is involved and what do they each bring to the project?
We're blessed to have a band full of our best mates in Oli Collins (drums), Rhys Fraser-White (guitar, vocals) and Louis Adderley (bass).
Being in a band means spending a lot of time together and experiencing a unique emotional roller coaster a few times a week, so having our nearest and dearest to go through that with is something very special we don't take for granted. Also they're musical freaks which certainly doesn't hurt.
You have a show at Evelyn Hotel this weekend... what do you have planned for that performance/ any special guests planned?
Very excited for this one. Our biggest room yet and hope to blow the lid off. Stoked with our line-up of some amazing Melbourne artists in The Kettleheads, MOZË and Spencer O'Leary (our multi-talented graphic designer).
We plan to perform all the songs off the EP, got a few rehearsals this week to nut out the set list; if it's anything like some of our other shows I recommend buying a ticket to not miss out. It's also one of our good friend's, who'll be in the crowd, birthday so perhaps a cake and candles.
Are there plans for interstate travel?
Nothing planned yet though we plan on travelling up the east coast for our next EP's tour. Stay tuned.
Footy season is finally back (go Swans!); as Melburnians whose team colours do you fly and how intense/ passionate does the barracking get?
Darcy goes for the Swans too as he was born in Sydney – I have a soft spot for them so I'll join you in 'GO SWANS'. I barrack for Carlton who have shown some promising glimpses in round one compared to recent years. Typically never really watched too much footy, though might keep a keen eye this year as the sport is getting insanely good to watch.
The rest of 2023 for Mother Culture; any set plans or other adventures in the works?
Some good gigs, new recordings and a tour are the big ones. Radio rotation down the line, sell out a show. Typical building blocks for an up and coming band all the while having a blast.
Mother Culture play The Evelyn Hotel (Melbourne) 25 March.
