Back in 2021, Mother Mother had just released their single “I Got Love.” The song became an anthem for fans during the pandemic when live music was still a distant memory. The band’s singer and guitarist, Ryan Guldemond, remarked that the return of live music would be “triumphant!”
He also shared that the band was aiming to revisit their original sound in their new music, which was inspired by their older songs gaining new life on TikTok. Guldemond explains: “We wanted to make something that was more raw. We wanted to do that anyway. So when we discovered that this earlier music was connecting, it felt kinda serendipitous.”
Discovering that a song has taken on new meaning or a life of its own on TikTok can feel like it came out of nowhere. Guldemond shares, “We started to notice that our numbers were increasing across all platforms, which was bizarre because we were in an off cycle and not releasing any music. Our management figured out that TikTok was the cause. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is where it started.’”
The band has never felt that their sound was gendered. Guldemond told Rolling Stone magazine, “It’s such a high honor and huge compliment whenever it’s suggested that our music might serve as an adequate soundtrack to a courageous journey of self-discovery that often rubs against societal norms.”
Fast forward to 2025, and the band is Juno-nominated for Group of the Year and Rock Album of the Year for their latest album, Grief Chapter. They also have 2.8 million followers on TikTok—twenty years after the band formed. “These kids on TikTok don’t really have a face to put to the band,” Guldemond says. “They aren’t expecting us to be around for as long as we have been, or to be as old. The comment we get now is, ‘Oh, you’re like our cool uncle.’ We hear that all the time.”
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