Q&A With Altered By Mom

Photo: Altered by Mom (Contributed)

Following the release of their latest EP, "AHEM," The Boom at Noon sat down with Devon and Gina from Altered By Mom to discuss the EP, their creative process, their 52-song project and their deep connection with the East Coast and its thriving music scene. On Sunday, September 3, the band will be taking the stage at the first-ever Giantstock music festival in Merigomish.

How did you meet, and when did you decide to form a band?

Devon: I think Gina and I were in each other's orbits for a couple of years. I was living in Vancouver, and she was from the East Coast, so suitably in the Canadian way, we met in Toronto. I had this small collection of songs that I had put out as a solo project after my last band broke up, and I didn't know what to do with them. I told Gina I didn’t have anybody to play them with, and she was like, ‘Why don't we do it? Why don't we play them?’ And it has become quite a collaboration. It's much stronger with Gina around. She’s a great songwriter and singer, so lucky me, it’s lots of fun. 

Gina: It was also kind of fortuitous because I got run over by a car around the time he showed me these songs, and we had just started playing around in the studio together. We did a couple of cover songs together and thought it was fun. My whole hand was run over, so I had to do some physio and I had exercises. So I started dedicating myself to the bass, and that's when I found his songs, and I thought they were so great. I started learning them, and the doctor said, ‘I don't know what you're doing with your hand, but keep doing it because it's working.’ So that’s kind of how Altered By Mom launched. My hand is like 98% better. When it rains, I get a little stiff, but overall, it’s pretty good.

What can you tell us about your new EP?

Gina: It's called “AHEM,” it's just a tiny sampling because we did the 52 songs in 52 weeks in 2020. So this is just a little snack-sized sample of what we're offering now. It's a little EP, and we're so excited it's out in the world.

Devon: I think the four songs on the EP give a good representation of the various modes that we can be. I think there's a classic rocker in “Gwendolyn,” which we wrote and performed with Ron Hawkins from The Lowest of the Low. So it’s pretty cool. He's a classic songwriter that way. Check out “Dive In” - one of Gina's songs and I think it’s so cool. It's like if Lenny Kravitz and St. Vincent were racing a Lamborghini down the highway. Another favourite is “Waiting On a Sign That's Already There,” which I sort of feel is like R.E.M. influence. I never knew that they influenced me until this record, and it feels so good.

What inspired the name of the EP?

Devon: I think we thought it would be funny to have a title that you could say “AHEM” or something. But for us, that throat clearing, when somebody is about to speak, demanding the floor, saying, ‘Look over here, I'm about to do something!’ To us, that fit the EP perfectly because we were saying, ‘Look!’ We did so many songs before - lots of stuff - but whatever! Here’s us; we’re coming in and making a strong statement. Good speeches start with a throat clear. So that's kind of what we were going for.

How do you approach songwriting?

Gina: We have a mismatch of different ways of songwriting. Sometimes, I'll come in with a complete song, and Devon will just put some icing on the cake and vice versa. Sometimes, we'll start from the ground up and write a song together. We like writing songs with others, like Ron Hawkins. He's just so prolific in how he writes. We have so many talented friends in the industry, so we take advantage of that as much as possible and write with others, especially when it's three of us, Dev, me and another person. It's the magic number, and it tends to work well. So we've got quite a few co-writes coming up in the future, and we're excited to show you!

Can you tell us about your 52 songs project?

Devon: With the 52 songs, we started 2020 thinking: Let's try to do a weekly song. We're going to be busy anyway. We're going to be out in the world playing a lot of shows. It's going to be hard. Then, it became slightly easier in some ways because we had a lot of time on our hands, but we were planning on doing a lot of co-writes, which then got complicated because of the pandemic. It also gave us something to focus on. We like to joke that maybe we were the only musicians that the pandemic kind of helped in a way, giving us a little bit of time to write all these songs. We generally were about six weeks ahead, so we were six songs ahead. There were moments where we were like, ‘Okay, we're only two songs ahead. We're going to have to work on some stuff.’ But it was good. It gave us a chance to work out those songwriting muscles, and we learned to trust each other as songwriters, and in the end, we did it - 52 freakin songs.

How did it feel once you accomplished the 52 songs?

Gina: I was relieved because the writing tank was empty. When it was done, we took a good six months off from writing songs because there was nothing else to say, you know? But it felt really good. I feel accomplished. And even today, we still get folks who want to talk about it and are excited about it, which opened a lot of doors. I'm so much more confident now. I take a lot of that confidence into the writing room and it helped us figure out who we are as songwriters. So now, especially with the EP, there's a definitive sound of who Altered By Mom is. During the 52 songs, we had a chance to stretch and dabble in other genres, so we were able to zero in and focus on who we wanted to be, what we wanted our sound to be, and how we could execute that. 

Gina, you’re from Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and you always make your way back here - why is that?

Gina: Oh, Pictou County and Nova Scotia in general, my heart lives here. I come back here as much as I possibly can. Also, we have a bit of a fan base here - it's nice. People are stoked whenever we come through, and we like to keep that relationship strong, so we're trying to facilitate more of an East Coast connection. We love coming here, and Devon is an honourary maritimer. It's so beautiful here, and there's so much music here. I don't know if I would be a musician if I didn't grow up in Nova Scotia. It's not ‘do you play?’ It's ‘what do you play?’ Most people play something. It just feels right, and it works for us, and we're very welcomed by the Maritimes, so we love it.

You’re playing Giantstock - how did you get involved?

Gina: Andre knew about our band because we've just been out passing by each other. He also came to Toronto, and we wrote a song together. He said, ‘By the way, I'm putting on this festival. Would you guys want to be involved?’ And we happened to be free. So we said yes, and we're so excited about it. There will be lots of bands there. I grew up with half the people playing, like ‘Not Like Yesterday.’ It's going to be fun - I'm excited.

What’s next for Altered By Mom?

Devon: That's a good question. Let me just say this. If any other band were to secretly release a disco record under a pseudonym, that would be a little strange. But if Altered By Mom did it... Maybe it would make sense?

There are still tickets left for Giantstock music festival, where you can see Altered by Mom and other great bands in Merigomish, Nova Scotia. Tickets are $100 with camping included.

To stay up-to-date with Altered by Mom, follow them on their website, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. Buy their music on Bandcamp.