Mothers' Kristine Leschper on Render Another Ugly Method

We speak to Mothers' Kristine Leschper about her creative process, touring while unwell and the themes behind the band's latest collection of songs, Render Another Ugly Method

Feature by Fraser MacIntyre | 18 Feb 2019
  • Kristine Leschper of Mothers

"I’ve gotten a lot of shit from people who love The Mothers of Invention. People who love Frank Zappa love Frank Zappa."

Kristine Leschper, whose voice is being transported from her home in Philadelphia to Edinburgh by the mysterious force of Skype, laughs entirely unrepentantly as she shares an unforeseen consequence of naming her project Mothers. "To be clear, I wasn’t thinking about [The Mothers of Invention] at the time, but now it feels, in a small way, that I’m reclaiming the feminist aspect of that title from a very masculine enterprise."

Leschper began to perform as Mothers in Athens, Georgia while studying printmaking; choosing to distance herself from her own name in order to summon "more courage for early performances". While "making a lot of visual work about nature" at college, inspiration for her (unintentionally) Zappa-head bating moniker arrived as she became interested in how animals go through pregnancy and childbirth. "I was reading about how rabbits, while they are getting ready to give birth, start pulling their hair out with their teeth to make a nest for their young. There are a lot of examples of things like this in nature, where the mother sacrifices parts of her body for the wellbeing of her child. I don’t really have a connection to the name anymore, but – thinking about mothers as a source of life and creation – [it does] still fit."

Mothers’ second studio record, released in September 2018, was "absolutely informed" by Leschper’s other creative outlets. "I was interested in incorporating sensibilities of collage, because I’ve used that in visual work and in writing poetry; kind of going back to the Dada movement and the cut up techniques they used." Though Leschper had a different, less fragmented approach in mind when she began to write the songs, they gradually took shape in a manner that reflected her mindset at the time. "I was very scattered personally, largely from all of the touring we did in 2016 and into early 2017 [that] left me feeling overwhelmed, like I was cut up into a lot of different pieces. I wanted to harness that feeling and see how I could turn it into music. It wasn’t a straightforward process, but it felt very natural at the time." Leschper goes on to describe Render Another Ugly Method as "reductive abstract expressionalism", and a record that "flows directly from one idea into the next without pause", making for a tense and frequently hypnotic listening experience.

The claustrophobic instrumental of BEAUTY ROUTINE viscerally reflects the headspace of Leschper as she sings 'show me a beauty routine to erase me completely'. In direct contrast to When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired – Mothers’ warmly-received debut, a "collection of poems [accompanied by] music" – Render features "music and lyrics that actively inform each other. The words aren’t meant to exist on their own." Leschper also shook up her process by writing as a third-party in addition to employing the first-person narrative she used "exclusively in the first record. I thought that would make me more honest, to remove myself from the situation that the song is about."

Delving further into the diverse array of influences that helped shape Mothers’ more abrasive sophomore release, Leschper mentions William Carlos Williams, who "once talked about the poem as a field of action."

"There’s another poet that I really love," Leschper says, "Charles Olson, who had a similar idea when he talked about how a poem must be like a high energy construct. I thought that was very powerful, and I wanted to harness that idea of creating inertia. Because I was also using music, I could use the musical arrangement to push [the words] forward and give them that active space." Leschper’s meditations on "the body, power-structures and consent" are made all the more disarming by startling shifts into tempo and volume. 'Well you seem quite healthy so / Don’t be needy,' Leschper sings in WESTERN MEDICINE over a convulsing beat that feels as if it could crumble at any moment.

"Dismissed by doctors over and over again" while attempting to get to the root of an ongoing health issue, Leschper wrote WESTERN MEDICINE after a particularly disheartening experience with an ex-military doctor. "I was feeling very desperate," she begins. "I’d seen a lot of doctors and they’d all told me I was fine. I couldn’t seem to figure out what was going on, and he basically told me to suck it up. It was so upsetting to be dismissed over and over. Partly due to my experience with chronic pain, the record discusses the body a lot. The idea of being stuck inside a body that is either functioning correctly or is not, and the feeling of not belonging. I’m [also] very interested in power dynamics. Seeing the way that people create emotional violence towards people they love and how difficult it can be to deal with those experiences, that was a theme as well."

Leschper has only recently began to discuss her health issues publicly. "It can feel a bit self-absorbed in ways to talk about it, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m reaching out for pity. There is this vacuum within the music industry where, historically, physical and mental health are not really talked about. I do see that changing, and that’s really exciting for me, and a big part of the reason why I chose to start discussing my struggle with chronic pain and my mental health in the context of touring. I’ve realised, after running myself into the ground, that long tours are not very good for me; I’m increasingly more emotionally and physically fragile [as they] go on."

Leschper, contagiously warm and inquisitive throughout our conversation, is gratifyingly open when discussing life on the road, voicing an opinion many musicians actively keep to themselves out of fear of being misconstrued. "It sometimes feels like a trap, because the only way to be financially stable is to tour. It can feel like an obligation. For a long time I felt too guilty to say that, like it was unfair for me to admit that I don’t see myself as a performer because there are people who pay money to see me perform, and I didn’t want to belittle that experience. It’s very much something that has been necessitated through this thing that I’ve chosen to do – write and record music."

While she primarily treasures the creative process, Leschper remains animated as we discuss what makes a live show rewarding, and Mothers’ imminent return to Glasgow. "I’ve played enough shows now that it doesn’t hurt my feelings when people talk loudly. I understand that it’s going to happen, but to me, a really valuable experience [occurs] when there is mutual respect between the performer and the audience. It’s a connection that can’t be forged when drinks are being slammed on the counter. We’ve played The Hug and Pint before, and I had a wonderful experience there. The audience were very receptive and the energy was so good. It was one of our absolute favourite shows overseas. I really can’t wait to come back."

On the road, Leschper keeps stagnation at bay by reading. "If I’m not really trying to engage with something, my mind empties in an unhealthy – not meditative – way," she says, before enthusing over Bitches Ride Alone by Laura Chester and Patricia Lockwood’s memoir Priestdaddy, both of which she read in 2018. "Ultimately [Priestdaddy] is a story about how a family can stay intact while having totally different views of the world. I found that really refreshing as someone who, at times, struggles to relate to my family and their views."

Whilst Render Another Ugly Method continues to receive bountiful praise as Mothers tour in support of it, Leschper’s focus has shifted to "beautiful melodies and concise pop songs" as she begins to think about a third record, which she assures will be "very different" once again. Before parting ways (clicking 'end call'), we touch on the "extremely problematic" compartmentalisation Leschper and her contemporaries often still receive in music journalism. "I do feel that women who are singer-songwriters tend to be portrayed in a way that makes them seem like fragile beings who are possessed by some spirit outside of themselves. This is a very old idea. In some ways our most recent record is a refusal of that and a way to make things complicated. Female writers can be very direct. I wanted that to be considered. I don’t want to be compartmentalised into this tiny fraction of my creative process at large."


Render Another Ugly Method is out now via ANTI-
Mothers play The Hug and Pint, Glasgow, 23 Feb

http://mothersband.us