Ann Courtney's Pop Cock-Rock glam sensation Mother Feather has an EP released today, and a release gig planned for this Friday at The Bowery Electric. The sound might be rather different from The Late Bloomers, but the songs, the show and the wondrous talent is all there. Think Hot. Very.
Indie Sounds: You have an EP up on iTunes today. And a release party is coming on Friday. What's this all about then?
Ann Courtney: Mother Feather is a righteous mission, born out of a massive creative epiphany I experienced in late summer of 2009. We have spent the past year and a half developing our live show and have amassed some incredibly enthusiastic fans along the way. I wanted our first recording to be super-slick but also capture the feverishness of the live show. It needed to be able to get you to pump your fist and shake your ass.
IS: How did you come to be known as Mother Feather?
Ann: It was a Freudian slip. I was heading out of the city for a much-needed vacation and I was cursing. I was repeating one expletive over and over and it turned into "Mother Feather." It was a eureka moment - in hindsight I believe I uttered the sound of my third eye opening. I spent the next two days envisioning what Mother Feather was, what it sounded and looked like. When I got back home I wrote Mother Feather and a slew of other songs with a kind of clarity and urgency I'd never experienced before. I felt like I had lightning bolts shooting out of my fingertips.
IS: So tell us who is in Mother Feather, and who, what and where was involved in making the EP?
Ann: Mother Feather is Lizzie Carena on keys and vocals, Matt Basile on bass, Chris Foley on guitar, and Gunnar Olsen on drums. The quality of their musicianship thrills me. They are the dream-team. Oh, and I am on lead vocals.
We recorded with engineer Steve Wall, who I knew from playing in Jeff Taylor's band. When I was shopping for engineers, the universe presented Steve as the obvious choice. We tracked at Metrosonic in Williamsburg and did overdubs at Steve's home studio in New Jersey, which I'm sad to say took a hard hit from Hurricane Irene. Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound did the mastering.
Download the Mother Feather debut EP from iTunes.
IS: And to backtrack a bit, what's the quick musical history of the Courtney girl?
Ann: I played bari sax in an ambitious but short-lived ska-metal band in high school called Necrophiliac Fun. During my last year at drama school, around the time I was deciding I couldn’t stomach being an actor, I started Ann Courtney & the Late Bloomers, which Lizzie was also in. I always performed in school bands and sang in musicals, but my most relevant musical education has come from tending bar at Rockwood Music Hall. The sheer number of acts I have witnessed perform there four shifts a week in almost six years has had a massive influence on my songwriting and performance.
IS: One thing in common you have with the Late Bloomers is your penchant for costumes. Where do the ideas come from? Are they all your own work, or is someone helping you on that?
Ann: Pop cock-rock is epic and shameless, so it’s important that I look and feel totally awesome. I spend hours trolling vintage and trashy club-wear websites for inexpensive pieces that I alter. I’m not much of a seamstress but my limitations force me to get creative. Lizzie taught me about the wonders of adhesive velcro and we do a ton of pinning and darting. I have very emotional responses to certain colors, which determines a lot. The Viktor & Rolf spring 2010 collection is a big influence in terms of shape.
We had the incredible designer Suzanne Rae do the costumes for a couple of our shows after the band played her fashion show at Lincoln Center last spring. She is responsible for the amazing latex and tulle costumes we wore at the Bowery Ballroom. I call her our “fashion fairy-godmother” because she’s this incredibly generous, super-creative force. She loves Mother Feather and totally gets it. Having an ally like that who wants to collaborate feels great.
IS: And also thinking back to the Late Bloomers, Lizzie seems to have come out of her shell a bit, yes? By design or did it just happen?
Ann: Mother Feather is a challenge Lizzie rose to. Lizzie is an incredibly dynamic performer with a face that was made for the stage. Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to watch her perform with a multi-media dance/performance troupe called Third Rail. Seeing her in that context helped cement the idea she had way more potential than we were seeing with her hidden behind a piano in the Late Bloomers.
IS: So, what's next musically - a full album, some bigger NYC shows, some touring? Any near term goals to nail?
Ann: I am dying to get back into the studio … we have so many great songs that I’m hungry to spend some serious time producing. I'm currently trying to get all my ducks in a row for a video. Ultimately I want to play festival shows and I think Mother Feather would go over so well in Japan. I will know we’ve hit the big-time when we’re on tour there and we find Mother Feather tunes listed in a karaoke catalog.
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