Momma, a Brooklyn-based indie rock duo, talks about the “last name”

For musicians, there are many varying degrees of success. When you’re a rookie DIY band, it can be a very first headlining tour or a series of reviews that make you feel like you’re on the right track. However, levels of rock stardom, like constant radio shows, stadium shows, or festival headliners, can seem rare.

With guitar music just barely making it back into the mainstream, it might be hard for bands to imagine the rock superstar. But for the Brooklyn-based duo Mom, that’s not a problem: the band already knows what their most cheeky dream is. Guitarist/vocalist Allegra Weingarten describes it as the moment “when you’re on stage and you sing the lyrics, then you step back for a second and everyone sings it along with you”. She says, “That’s No. 1,” and fellow guitarist/vocalist Etta Friedman agrees.

Momma is the head of Friedman and Weingarten’s friendship, which began when they were in high school together in Calabasas, and has since grown into a full-fledged indie rock project, with the addition of producer and multi-instrumentalist Aron Kobayashi Ritch. After releasing the underrated concept album two of me in 2020 they moved to New York and this year caught the attention of bloggers and nostalgic fans, not to mention indie rock favorites wet legwhich they joined on tour, with every 90s-inspired garage rock single. Now that their LP Household name (released via Polyvinyl Record Co./Lucky Number) is here, their jam-out worthy tracks will likely become a repeat summer album for indie fans. Its massive sound and the unwavering ambition of the band of Go for it with this release, however, feels like the catalyst that might make their starry-eyed rock dreams not feel so far away.

It’s right in the title what mom wants to do Household name, and they’ve got the sound to match – drawing inspiration from ’90s acts like Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt, in conjunction with their own sly songwriting, head-banging crescendos and cheerful hooks. Weingarten says they were always “passionate about the idea” of making a record with big arena vibes and industry themes ever since the release of two of me, which they said was rushed and didn’t necessarily sound as intended. She says: “We knew that when we entered [Household Name] that we wanted it to be really loud and really big. During the demo and songwriting process, there were times when [our producer/bassist Aron] would be like, ‘I think it would be really cool to have a quieter song,’ and we’d be like, ‘No! That’s not what we want it to sound like. That’s what we want!'”

This grandeur and generous hooks, not to mention plenty of road-trip references (“Speeding 72”, “Motorbike”), make the album the perfect driving album with the windows down – much like many rock favorites that preceded it. So it makes sense that this is how Momma envisions fans playing him. “Tome, [the best way to listen to Household Name] driving in your friend’s car at night or day, but a long drive where you can really listen “, says Friedman. “It’s such a meaningful way to connect not just to the music, but to the people around you, and I feel like that’s what this album is about.”

That feeling is something they’ve long recognized, growing up in Los Angeles and taking road trips across the West together. Both can recount memories of specific records and records they’ve listened to, since the first time they heard Alex G. Rocket as they went to a thrift store in their hometown to play Soccer Mommy’s To clean on a cruise through the mountain ranges. (In addition to Rocket, Eldorado by Electric Light Orchestra, prison break by Thin Lizzy, and Aha shake the heartache by Kings of Leon are some of their all-time favorite driving albums.) Hearing songs as important as “Medicine,” it’s not hard to imagine cars full of youngsters traveling in roadside shacks. a lake with the piece flat out, just like Friedman and Weingarten used to do.

Momma describes their love for music as “hyper-fixation” and what brought them together in the first place. At the time, Friedman wanted to do something more personal than they were with their riot grrrl band, and Weingarten felt jaded because the music she had been listening to all the time-defunct Burger Records turned out to come from a toxic environment. “When the scene imploded, I was like fucking diy, that shit sucksand then when Etta and I started playing, it was like wait, no, DIY is everything“, Weingarten says, noting how she and Friedman started writing two weeks after becoming friends, with dozens of late-night chats turning into songs.

Just writing songs together was enough for Momma then as much as now, but it’s certainly fun for them to think about their rock star fantasies, even if they don’t want to “put money” on it. (This is, for example, a cheeky, self-deprecating joke on their song “Rockstar.”) “I think [the rock star dreams are] doable, but we have a mountain to climb,” says Weingarten. “We have hooks and our songs are catchy, but I don’t see anyone selling stadiums with heavy guitars. So I think it’s doable, but we’ll just have to see if people are up for it.”

With HAIM selling out stadiums and names like Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers being stars in their own right, rock stardom seems alive and well, albeit evolved. So maybe the world could use a tougher band in the mix. For now, the band are floored just thinking about the concept of their lyrics about connection and desire resonating with listeners, as the record emerged from a rift Weingarten went through that coincided with a burrow. Rabbit Nirvana. (“If people relate to it, my job is done. I think any musician feels that way.”)

It might be a song about coping with loneliness, but the way they sing “I can fill an auditorium” on “No Stage” feels like both a definitive statement and a promise to them. themselves. So while they wait for stadiums to sing their songs to them, at least mom can rely on their music blasting into cars full of kids chasing records as big as anything they feel too.

Want more Thrillist? follow us on instagram, Twitter, pinterest, Youtube, ICT Tacand Snapchat.