Bad Mother Nature
Hey guys! Thanks so much for sitting down with us. Introduce yourselves and tell us how you would describe your music!
“Thank you so much for giving us the time! We are Bad Mother Nature, an original rock band from Sacramento, CA. We consider ourselves to be evolving toward a more Americana-rock sound, but we have worked with more blues and progressive elements as well.”
While writing this song, was there a certain mood or type of song you set out to write with “Hawks, Doves, and Gamblers”?
“We definitely wanted something a bit more upbeat. When Ryan presented the song to the band and played it through for us, the feel of it reminded us a bit of the song “Hey Gringo” by Kaleo. But the chorus was really the hooky part for us, we wanted it to really hit so you could sort of sing or hum to yourself when you weren’t thinking about it.”
Was this song based off a personal experience of one band member, or is this song reflective of something each member has gone through?
“Our drummer Jon McCann served in Afghanistan as a medic and is the only one of us who has military experience. The song was inspired a bit by that, but also the recent Russia-Ukraine war, as well as all the global conflicts that pose a huge risk to everyone and the leaders who take part in that gamble.”
Is there a particular musical part in this song that makes you guys air drum or air guitar it out every time?
“The opening guitar riff is pretty catchy and does a good job hooking you in, but when it all just cuts out and drops into the verse is really one of those parts where you really can’t help but start grooving.”
We see that you guys have been releasing music since 2018, how has your songwriting and creative process evolved since then?
“When we originally began writing songs we were sort of taking all of the ideas that we had and utilizing all of them to the best of our ability. The Strange Weather EP was sort of an experiment in recording ourselves, but the songs on it are literally the earliest songs we came up with. That being said, ‘Honey Rider' and 'I’ll Make You a Thief’ are still essential live-set tracks.
On ‘Porcelain Martyr’ we really wanted to make an album just for us, so it was a bit self indulgent with the opening track being only like 50 seconds and the last track being 18 minutes, but we still consider it some of our strongest original material we’ve come up with and continue to play many of those tracks live to this day.
‘Heavysong’ was sort of an album borne out of the pandemic. We had written about half of the songs before Covid hit, and we recorded the majority during lockdown in California while we were living together. We were just trying to get some material out to stay afloat but ‘Mad Oklahoma’ and ‘At the Gates of Olympus' are a couple notable tracks off that album that are absolute show stoppers live and fan favorites for sure. Also the music videos for ‘Rest of Me’ and ‘Mad Oklahoma’ are definitely worth your time to check out.
‘Hawks’ is where we have come to realize we need to focus more on the craft of songwriting, getting a track together that is a balance of discipline and ambition, honest yet digestible. It’s a tricky practice and the pros obviously do it very well, but we feel we’re getting better at it.”
How does the group dynamic shift with each new song you guys write and put out?
“Our dynamic is interesting because we notably switch between Corey and Axel on guitar and bass, and Axel and Ryan switch singing lead on certain songs. It’s not a totally unheard of thing but its not super common. The dynamic has been getting more second nature though. We’ve gotten pretty good at making the instrument switches happen smoothly while performing live - to the point where the audience barely notices.
Sometimes Axel presents a song that he wrote on the guitar, so he will naturally play the guitar parts on it and Corey plays bass. Sometimes Corey comes in with a guitar riff that evolves into a song, like ‘At the Gates of Olympus did,’ and then we write the song that way.
We’ve been trying to get more songs where Ryan, Axel, and Corey all sing harmony and backup parts to really embellish the choruses and highlight certain verse lines. It helps make our songs stand out a bit and helps to give our band a more cohesive sound."
Did the last couple of years of quarantine make creating harder or easier for you guys?
“It depends. We were thankfully living together through most of it so we were able to flush out and take all the time we needed to record the songs on our last LP “Heavysong.” The nice thing is you can take all the time you need but the downside is that sometimes we got tunnel vision and didn’t have that outside perspective to knock us into place quicker.
We’re really proud of the material we created on that album and when the quarantine lifted in our area we were able to get back into the band room together to create more material. We would just jam for like 30 or 40 minutes, record the ideas we came up with and look for ways to evolve those pieces.”
What was your definition of success when you started out, and how does that compare to where you are now?
“We were very clear with each other right at the beginning of the band that we know our odds of fame and success in this industry are incredibly low. Therefore if we just set our goal at being in a band with our friends to make music that we love, then every day that we’re a band is a success and all the stuff from shows to interviews to album drops are just cherries on top.
To an extent that is still true to this day. We love doing this, but we have also tasted what it's like to headline shows and sellout a club, and get featured in indie blogs and magazines. We still set goals for ourself to keep momentum forward and grow as a band so that more people can hear our music and see us perform. That’s a natural ambition for any artist.”
What can fans expect from a “Hawks, Doves, and Gamblers” follow up?
“‘Hawks’ is the first single in a release of singles this year leading up to a planned EP drop later this year or early next year. We just recorded another single a couple weeks ago titled ‘Excuses’ which we are planning on releasing in the next month, hopefully early October!”
Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us! What are your social media handles so your fans can find you?
“Thank you again! You can find us on Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and Facebook: @badmothernature, Twitter: @BadMoNature, and our website: www.badmothernature.com where you can find our merch, show dates, and more!”