Start Listening To: Mother Tongues
Exploring multifaceted perspectives in love and music.
In a world where music often fails to provide a true reflection of oneself, Mother Tongues emerges as a captivating force, blending elements of angsty alt-rock, interstellar psychedelia and dream-pop-noir. Led by the dynamic duo of Lukas Cheung and vocalist/bassist Charise Aragoza, the band brings a fresh perspective to the indie music scene. In this Q&A, we delve into the origins of Mother Tongues, the influence of their immigrant backgrounds, and the creative process behind their forthcoming debut album Love In a Vicious Way.
How did you and vocalist/bassist Charise Aragoza first meet and what led to the formation of Mother Tongues?
L: Char and I met over a decade ago in a garage-turned-DIY-venue in Toronto’s Chinatown. We kept running into each other at shows and a few years later when I was looking for a roommate she moved in. I was already making music under the name Mother Tongues at the time and Char would come to most of the shows. She eventually started playing synth with us.
C: At some point, the bassist at the time was on his way out and that’s when I picked it up.
Can you tell us about the influence of your backgrounds as children of immigrants on the music of Mother Tongues?
L: I was thinking about how growing up I had this strange mashup of music playing in my house. My father is a painter and he’d play all this stuff he heard when he was in art school in the eighties– The Talking Heads, Bowie, John Cale. I remember the first version of Dreams by The Cranberries I heard was actually the Faye Wong cover from Chungking Express. That kind of sums up the hodgepodge soundtrack of my life. I discovered recently she collaborated with The Cocteau Twins on a few tunes. They’re pretty cool!
I would say growing up this way you have this multifaceted perspective on culture and the media. You’re on the outside looking in. There’s this sense that something’s missing. On TV, in music and films, you’re watching it all unfold but it’s never a true reflection of yourself.
C: I didn’t grow up with my parents’ record collection or passed down vintage band tees. I think as working-class immigrants, my parents prioritized just being able to provide for my sibling and I. It’s that narrative of giving your kids a better life than you had which to them meant school and music lessons. But because they worked full-time, they weren’t as involved in my after school activities as some of the kids I grew up with. For my sibling and I, that meant a lot of TV. We watched so much MuchMusic— Countdown, Electric Circus, then eventually for me, gravitating towards shows like Loud and The Wedge. Then of course when MySpace came along, that’s where I discovered a lot of indie music.
Both: When you’re underrepresented in your world, you’re confronted with the need to constantly justify your existence, and this permeates into every aspect of your life–including how you create. I’ve been trying to see this as less of an obstacle and more as something that charges your work with an intensity and urgency that otherwise might not be possible.
When you move through the world not quite fitting into any space, you end up carving out your own. In many ways that’s what this record is. With the sound, we’ve created this atmosphere and emotional plane where we can exist. We’re peering into the future and imagining what this world could be.
What prompted Charise to step into the role of singer and front person for the first time with Mother Tongues, and how has her previous experience in bands influenced her approach?
C: For a long time, I was definitely too shy and self-conscious to assume the role. It wasn’t until I had been performing for a while (backing other artists) that I started to feel enough confidence and validation as a musician to be a front person. When I was a backup dancer, a lot of the movement was very abstract and performance-arty, which was a good way for my younger self to get all of my weird ideas out and onstage without a fear of judgement. Later on, I became a more disciplined dancer training in Filipino folk dance and also waacking, so I started to take performance more seriously. When I moved into music, there was definitely a familiarity with being onstage but not quite enough confidence to be right up front. That took some time.
L: We were recording our first EP and we tried Char on vocals for the song “Let You Down”. It was a real eureka moment, she sounded so great on the one tune we had her sing all of them. On the new record I wrote the songs with Char’s voice in mind. Having Char sing opens up this vulnerability and honesty in the writing. She’s this intermediary that allows a level of detachment so I can say everything I want.
We’ve got Lane Halley on guitar. Char and I were both big fans of Lane’s playing in the group Hooded Fang before he joined Mother Tongues. He has this great project called Dunge. Really out there, proggy post-punk. All the songs are about his Dungeon and Dragons campaigns. He’s a Dungeon Master but he actually also has a master’s degree in music.
Nick Kervin is our drummer. Nick played in this really great group Mimico before we recruited him for our project. He worked at a bar next door from a guitar shop I work at. I remember asking him to jam with us years ago and his response was “Oh yeah…? You want me to rock for you?” I guess now he does.
Kvesche and I have been playing music together for over a decade now in various projects. He plays keys with us live and contributed a lot of great sounds to the record. He collaborated with Lido Pimienta on her record “La Papessa” and he has a really great project of his own called Bese.
What inspired the title of your forthcoming debut album, Love In a Vicious Way, and how does it reflect the themes explored in the music?
L: It’s an exploration of the darker ways we love, the parts with teeth, it possesses you, it’s a pit you fall into. Love overtakes you, this record is about surrendering to that feeling.
How would you describe the sonic landscape and overall sound of the album, taking into consideration the elements of angsty alt-rock, interstellar psychedelia, dream-pop-noir, and '90s breakbeat and electronica?
We’re playing with contrast a lot, on the album as a whole, and within each song themselves. You have these really dense arrangements in songs like “Dance In The Dark” and “Only You” but you have these moments with a lot of space in songs like “Drip Drip” ad “Lonely Ones”. I’m a big Air fan; they’re masters of that.
We were definitely going for a more hi-fi sound this time around. Asher Gould-Murtagh who engineered and co-produced the record really made this happen. We worked really hard to find this middleground where we could embrace more lo-fi, filtered textures and sounds that evoke this nostalgia while maintaining an overall clarity. I think we used distortion and tape textures as more of a colour in key moments rather than an overall wash.
We spent hours obsessing over the aesthetics of ‘90s high-fidelity production on records. We took a lot of inspiration from groups like Portishead, Air, Ivy, Stereolab, and Björk. In the world of music we were making lo-fi production is very in vogue, but we were chasing something else. Asher and I would joke that we were trying to make a million dollar record on nothing.
Can you discuss the creative process behind the album and how you approached crafting its rich atmospherics and cinematic arrangements?
L: There were several stages that got us to the finish line. Initially, the first batch of songs were written during the lockdown. There was a lot of experimentation during that time. I taught myself the drums which really changed the way I listen to music and approach arrangements. I wrote a lot of these little instrumental pieces during that time, trying out new sounds and plugins, and different recording techniques. There was a bit of this searching period to evolve the sound and figure out where we wanted things to move next.
I remember we were still in lockdown, and coming home late one evening from our rehearsal space. It was around 2 am, I picked up the bass and played the line in “Love In a Vicious Way”. I wrote most of the song that same night. It felt like it was the first step into something new. “A Heart Beating” came shortly after that and it really solidified this new space we could move into.
Another change was things were a lot more collaborative on this record. When we could meet in person again, Char would come in and work through the pieces with me, trying different vocal takes and ideas out. Some of the songs are built off some of her songs, “Dance In The Dark” salvages the chorus from a song she performs in her solo set. “Drip Drip” Is a Char tune that we reinterpreted for the record too.
We were able to meet up as a full band eventually. We hid away in a studio that was converted from a 70’s indoor swimming pool and workshopped a lot of the songs.
The other members brought a lot to the new material too, with Lane contributing additional guitar parts, Kvesche adding a lot of great synth textures, and Nick interpreting and breathing life into my programmed drum tracks.
The recording process evolved things a lot too. Working with Asher Gould-Murtagh, our engineer and co-producer, we really saw the songs unfold. We recorded the bed tracks of the songs in studios but did a lot of recording in my home studio. The back and forth allowed us to push the arrangements to a place where we were really happy. It was like chipping away at a sculpture; we could watch it unfold without the pressure of a strict deadline.
Also, a lot of what I was listening to at the time influenced the arrangement. A pretty wide range of influences, Air, Morricone, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marie Davidson, Halo Maud, MBV, Broadcast, Stereolab, Bjork, and The Prodigy, to name a few.
What can listeners expect from the album in terms of its lyrical content and the emotions it evokes?
L: A sense of longing and nostalgia is the common thread through all the songs on the record. Songs about our relationships with ourselves, with the people in our lives, the past. A couple love songs, a couple hate songs.
C: “Dance In The Dark” is about challenging monogamy and exploring other ways of being with someone in a significant way that isn’t so rigid and conventional, namely relationship anarchy. “Drip Drip” is about one particular seductive and blissful summer, pre-COVID. The song commemorates that and serves to promise that those feelings and moments will resurface again someday.
Could you share the significance behind the track "Worm Day" and its placement as the second release from the album?
L: A close friend of mine would always say, “It’s almost Worm Day”. I never really knew what he meant by it. For me, a Worm Day speaks to the incessant thoughts and insecurities that seem to take control of us. The thoughts are the worm, or maybe I’m the worm. Musically it’s one of the brighter songs, and it felt like a spring release was appropriate.
How has your experience working with Wavy Haze as the label for your album influenced the overall production and release of Love In a Vicious Way?
C: It’s been such a pleasant experience working alongside people who are as excited as we are to release this album.
L: It’s been great having a team to work with. They’ve given us a lot of freedom, but have been extremely helpful in setting deadlines and getting the music to the right people. It’s an artist owned label so I feel there’s a lot of understanding. It’s been great having them in our corner.
What are your aspirations and hopes for the album's reception and how it connects with listeners?
L: I hope it resonates with people, that they can really live with the record for some time. I hope they build their own memories and relationships with the songs. I’d love to play in new spaces and meet new people. Music has always been this great catalyst for bringing in the best people and experiences into my life, so hopefully there’s more of that.
C: While I do think these songs have a lot to connect to thematically, there is a bigger picture for me, which is a responsibility to take up space in genres that have been historically lacking in diversity.
What do you love right now?
L: Jenny Hval’s song “American Coffee”, my band, our band’s meme group chat, playing shows and sharing our new music
C: The show The Ultimatum: Queer Love, non-alcoholic beer, comfortable shoes, practicing driving, setting boundaries
What do you hate right now?
C: The show The Ultimatum: Queer Love, tbh my wardrobe, being late for anything, screen time
L: Landlords, those robot dogs.
What album are you still listening to from when you were younger and why is it still important to you?
C: I frequently revisit Surfacing by Sarah McLachlan, among other albums by Lilith Fair artists of that time. Those voices definitely had influence on how I listen, create, and perform music.
L: Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Despite all my rage…
Looking ahead, what are your future plans as a band, both in terms of touring and creating new music?
L: We want to play everywhere. Would love to get over to Europe. I’ve got some new ideas in the works already. We have plans to do an artist residency on the Toronto Island and then do some more recording in Montreal after that. We’re also working on some remixes.
C: Like a lot of artists I know, I struggle with balancing my day job with music. I intend to work on centering music more in my life and investing in creative opportunities that will bring even more opportunities to tour, write, and record. Europe would be sweet.
