Antonella Of MAMA Ft. Antonella
Interview With Antonella Of MAMA Ft. Antonella
SBS: Welcome to our pages! Whether you’ve been here with us in some way before, or you’re brand-new to the site, it’s probably best to get an introduction from you so that we get everyone on the same page to start. Tell us a little bit about the history of your music, and what’s happening with it lately!?!
Antonella: Okay, MAMA ft. Antonella is a duo from Wolverhampton, England! There’s me, Antonella – I write the melodies and lyrics and sing – and multiplatinum two-times BMA Producer of the Year and Studio of the Year Gavin Monaghan, who writes the sonic backdrop and produces. Oh, and I’m also co-Executive Producer.
In terms of genre, I don’t know where you’d place us. Alternative is probably the most accurate? The music is a blur of Chanson, Alt-Rock, Alt-Blues, Bluegrass, with a splash of Darkwave.
Apex Predators, our first album, is out on May 21; Kris Needs at Electronic Sound magazine described it as “a riveting stone killer.” It’s a deep, deep, dark album that emerged from an immeasurable amount of suffering. Gavin and I had both been through the wars in different ways.
When we started composing the songs, Gavin said, “Where do you want to go with this album?” I replied with one word: “Art.” So that, for me, was really the driving force. I wanted to create a thing of beauty – dark beauty, as it happened, although that was never my intention. It simply evolved that way.
The weirdest thing is that we made the album before we played a single gig. We couldn’t play live as we lived in different counties, maybe five hours away from each other by car and more than six by train if you add all the train, tube, and car journeys together. At times, it was almost Keatsian because I don’t know how to drive and Gavin’s ADHD makes driving a nightmare, so it was mainly public transport and a lot of dreaming with headphones on.
It’s only since moving to Wolverhampton that I’ve been able to rehearse with Gavin. That’s why we ended up headlining our venue at the inaugural Feel the Noise festival, a trip in itself. We now have a few other festivals lined up, which is, um, terrifying? But also fantastic. But also terrifying!
SBS: Let’s talk about the before and after of where you’re currently at. What’s something about the music that you’re making now that you don’t think you could have done five years ago, and what’s something you think you’ll be able to do with your music five years from now that you can’t do today? How have you grown as an artist/band, and what steps do you take to continue your artistic evolution?
Antonella: I can’t talk about the music we’re making now in relation to the music we were making five years ago because I wasn’t making music five years ago! I only started singing and writing songs in very late 2021. It wasn’t until 2023 that I really developed any confidence as a songwriter – prior to that, I was too busy with my commitments. The first song we recorded for our debut album APEX PREDATORS – which is out on Magic Garden Recordings on May 21 – was the second last track, “If I Can’t Have You.” I’ll never forget Gavin’s face when I came out of the vocal booth. “I didn’t know you had that in you,” he said. He was so shocked. I mean, yeah – the song is INTENSE. Throughout its recording, I was in a fugue state, accessing a part of myself that had been buried for years, so it was…powerful.
Live, I surprised myself by screaming the song. A professor from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, who was in the audience, said that I reminded him of Robert Plant – not because we have similar voices – his is so high and mine is so low – but in terms of emotional honesty.
I’ve had no idea where any of this is going, to be honest. APEX PREDATORS came out of nowhere, and we’re three songs into the second album, which is developing its own vibe. I don’t know where any of it is coming from, or where it will lead or not-lead. The sense is one of being led by an unseen force.
SBS: If you were to assess the overall health of the independent music scene right now, what would you say? What are the positives and the negatives about the current state of independent music, and what do you feel like artists & bands can do to contribute to the community & help it grow beyond the music being made? If you’re not actively looking to listen to the music of other independent artists/bands, is it really all that fair to expect anyone would listen to yours? How do you help the scene around you grow?
Antonella: I think there is so much extraordinary music out there – some of the voices just kill me with their beauty – but record labels’ insistence on adherence to genre and AI are the two real threats. If we’re not careful, music will become some awful computer-generated mood industry rather than a form of art and spiritual beauty. The bottom line is murdering our world on so many levels – you know, catering to shareholders rather than the human spirit.
There’s absolutely a place for flawlessly vivid electronic art like Charli XCX’s “BRAT” – I voted for AG Cook to be Producer of the Year at the MPG Awards; I had the great honour of being invited to judge – but to homogenise music across the board? No. To program machines to routinely sing in the place of human beings? No. This is not merely distasteful but literally toxic. Music is more than a vibe, more than a sound: music is the most profound spiritual communication and force of healing we have, and because of this, we need to fight for humanity in art – so write to your MP, your president, all of it!
In terms of helping the music scene: GO TO GIGS. Go to as many gigs as possible. Take your friends. Live music may otherwise die out, and we really do not want that.
SBS: What do you consider to be the biggest accomplishment or achievement you’ve had with your music to-date? How do you personally measure your own success – is that something that even can be measured? Is it awards, accolades, chart position…or is your definition of success based on something entirely different? Should success, however you define it, be something that artists are continually focused on – or is success something that naturally occurs in the course of doing what you love to do?
Antonella: A really interesting question. Success, to me, is multilayered. The upcoming release of APEX PREDATORS is a very big deal for us indeed. Whilst it’s not Gavin’s first rodeo, it’s very much mine, so I’m overwhelmed at the thought that people around the world will be able to connect to it, and to me. That intense spiritual connection, you know? Conveyed through sound, through language, through the tenor of a voice. There really is nothing else like it. If we succeed in getting through to just one person, or helping them understand something about themselves, or in healing them in a subtle way – well, you know, I think that’s absolutely what I would define as success.
Money is amazing and making the charts is amazing, but in the end, what does it mean? A river of music flows through the charts, most of which will be forgotten.
To be remembered in the heart is the thing, really.
The other point of success we’ve had – and here I speak for myself, not Gavin – was our first gig. We headlined at our venue at the inaugural Feel the Noise festival. I’d never played live before, not my own songs, and had no idea what to expect. The intimacy of the experience blew me away.
SBS: When you’re working on something brand-new, and something about it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together the way that you think it should, how do you know when it’s time to give up on it, or how do you know that it’s time to dig in even harder and find a way to make it work? Are there distinct red flags you can hear when something’s not working? What are the signs you look for that tell you to stop forcing the material? What would actually encourage you to keep going with the process instead?
Antonella: Ha! Gavin tries to steer me in certain directions, but I generally resist like a mule. Musically, I think, I can suffer from ODD – Oppositional Defiance Disorder! He and I meet at so many musical levels but I tend to veer towards the weird and the obscure: through the woods and through the woods and pick the crooked sticks. He’s naturally more melodic. There have been a few tracks we created that just weren’t working for me – I’m super-super-critical of my work – and I’ve junked them. They just didn’t feel TRUE, and I can’t handle that. Not only that, but I don’t want to handle it. I need everything we write to be true, to be real, to be visceral in some way.
Gavin gets very frustrated because I will, without hesitation, just junk lyrics – hours and weeks of work. Same with melodies. Boom! Gone. But I need that sense of truth, that ringing conviction.
Otherwise, songs are like people: they differ wildly. Some arrive fully formed; others take weeks to get right. I’ve never taken months to write a song…yet, but I imagine that, too, will come.
SBS: One of the points of general consensus in the art of making music, is that we all get our sound from somewhere…we hear what we like, then more often than not, we take tiny pieces of what we love to find our own voice & approach to go on and make music in our own way. Essentially, what I’m saying is that it’s absolutely natural to be inspired by other artists/bands, and almost every artist/band ends up having that inspiration show up in their own work in some way, shape, or form. What the real key is though, is retaining your own organic perspective – you still wanna be original too, right? So how do you go about doing that? Are there artists or bands that you know have been an influence on your style & sound? How were you able to incorporate that influence without becoming too noticeably derivative and still be yourself? Should we embrace and celebrate our influences more than we do? It’s almost like we try not to admit influences exist in the pursuit of being original, but it’s like, bruh…if it’s there, we can hear it. We all borrow something from those that came before us to some extent, don’t we?
Antonella: Interesting. Our music has been compared – a lot – to that of The Kills, whom I’d never even heard until recently. Ditto with Chrystabell, the late David Lynch’s muse. We’ve also had parallels drawn to PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed, and Patti Smith. The latter five I’ve certainly been influenced by. Also Nina Simone, Anita Lane, Unloved, the Sex Pistols.
I don’t have one of those gorgeous smooth and winding bird-like voices – you know, like Beyonce or Ariana Grande; I couldn’t even hope to sound anything like that. My voice is growly and deep; it does its own thing, always. To sound like anyone other than myself would thus literally be impossible.
SBS: Has there ever been a time where you wrote something inside one of your songs…maybe it’s a lyrical line, or maybe it’s a riff of some kind…something that you did, where you surprised yourself? I like to think we all have a moment or two where we can stand back and be amazed by something we created, and appreciate the fact that maybe, just maybe, we exceeded our own expectations of what we thought we could accomplish – you know what I mean? Get as specific as you can so the fans out there know what they should be paying attention to when they hear it – what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written on the inside of one of your songs, and why does this particular piece resonate so much to you?
Antonella: How about EVERYTHING? [laughs] Everything we’ve done, pretty much, surprises me. I don’t know where any of it came from. I’d been through so much pain – it was protracted, and lasted for almost a decade, as a result of a particular personal situation – so maybe the music was a cri de coeur? My life raft? A sonic ventilator? I really could not tell you.
My favourite things? Ooh, there are a few. The second half of “If I Can’t Have You” – that came out of NOWHERE, literally. It was like I’d been possessed by a dybbuk. Every time I listen to it, I think: WTF. Gavin, too, still shakes his head. “Love’s Has-Been,” which was recorded at 2am after waiting for over 12 hours in the studio – Gavin had had computer snarls all day, and I was so upset – so the exhaustion and heart-weight you hear in the song is real. And then the chorus of “Commercial Road,” which appeared – literally out of nowhere – 20 minutes before I was due in the vocal booth. Of course there are other secret moments, but I’m not going to tell you all of them!
SBS: I’ve been having a lot of great debates lately about whether or not everybody that’s making music has the right to be heard…and you’d probably be surprised by how different people seem to feel about this issue. I know where I stand on it, and I think you can all probably get an idea of what my position would be from this free interview we’re doing here & the way we run things at sleepingbagstudios…but regardless, I’m putting this question out there to you, because I’m interested in YOUR perspective. Just because you’ve made a song, does that mean people should listen? If your answer is yes, do your best to explain why you feel that way & why we should make a sincere effort to listen to the music of others. If your answer is no, explain why you feel that way, but also explain why people should still be listening to your music if that’s the case – what would make your music the exception, and not follow the rule? Is there any value to an idea that’s not finished, or a song in its demo stages, or maybe something that’s not recorded in a top-shelf studio or with good equipment – somebody still took the time to make that song to the best of their ability with the means they had to create it – should that be listened to, or not?
Antonella: I listen to 140 to 200 new songs by unsigned bands per week. Literally. So yeah, I love music. Gavin’s a significant producer, so he’s sent that many songs per day. We INHALE music. I don’t think there’s any “must” or “should” about listening to other people’s music, however. My own belief? Some artists are starred and some music is starred: because of this, it will be heard. It’s the hand of God. There’s absolutely a pattern, absolutely a plan. Some songs, and some artists, are not destined to be heard. It doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile – it’s simply destiny, you know? It is what it is.
If you look at yourself within the context of the planet – that is, as one of 8.2 billion people – you realize that you’re just a minuscule part of a great, glittering web of dreams. Fame almost never turns out to entail what the famous thought it would entail. Maybe the dreaming itself is the magic.
SBS: There are ups and downs in the dynamics of almost every album we listen to, with very few exceptions. Even those exceptions, probably still come down to more of a personal preference about what we enjoy about music and how we personally hear it, rather than anything being completely and totally “perfect” – you know what I mean? Does an album actually need to have some kind of up/down dynamics in terms of what’s appealing to the masses in order for the best of the best songs in a lineup to be fully appreciated? Wouldn’t every artist & band avoid the ‘down’ side (less accessible/less popular for example) if they could? Does the ‘down’ side represent something else perhaps, like the story of an album or journey of an artist? Is the ‘up’ side of a record as potent or noticeable if it doesn’t have a ‘down’ side to go with it? Would a completely balanced album somehow be boring if it didn’t have the ups/downs that most have? Do we HAVE to like every single song on a record for it to be considered complete? Are the dynamics of an album something anyone can really steer in the direction they want to, or are all artists & bands simply going with the strongest material they have created at the time?
Antonella: I can’t answer for other musicians, just for myself. Gavin wrote countless pieces of backing music for APEX PREDATORS; I just picked pieces that felt right. Musically, it was all about the vibe.
In terms of “perfect albums” – well, yeah; I’m as guilty as the next man for loving a perfect album. Never Mind the Bollocks is an entirely perfect album, you know? Also Transformer, by Lou Reed, although that’s a little more dated. Oh, and Screamadelica by Primal Scream. There are a number, in which every song is literally perfect. Blue, by Joni Mitchell. Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia by the Dandies. The Kick Inside and Never for Ever, by Kate Bush. Even Brat. They don’t have to be deep; they just hang together perfectly, and are perfectly crafted. You couldn’t imagine the album any other way – it would be gilding the lily.
This is why I wanted APEX PREDATORS to be a perfect world unto itself.
SBS: I wanna send out a shout-out to YOU from me personally – I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to talk tunes with me throughout the years, and I appreciate the time YOU have taken with this interview too. Because this one’s a little different in the sense that it’s been sent out to multiple people and is a little more generic in that regard, I have no doubt whatsoever that we probably didn’t get to talk to you about something you wanted to talk about – so let’s fix that! This final space is what we call the SBS Open Floor – a spot where you can say anything else you want to say to the people out there. It can be anything at all…your main websites…something else you want them to know about you and/or your music…your favorite bands in the scene right now…the secret 11 herbs and spices to the Colonel’s secret recipe – you get the idea, and it’s probably best you choose something that suits you rather than take any of my suggestions, but feel free to take the SBS Open Floor for a ride. Whatever it is you want the people to know, now is the prime time for you to tell’em! Thanks again for everything – keep in touch!
Antonella: Lyrics are an incredibly important element of songwriting for me. This could be a reaction to the increasing irrelevance of lyrics, where words are just about the sound or the vibe. I need a song to touch me on various levels; I need the poetry. The themes, too, are serious. The songs on APEX PREDATORS aren’t just about the vibe – they’re actual worlds impregnated with meaning. These are true stories, and not necessarily on a literal level. I adore silly, happy songs – I love playing shiny Pop – but the music I consistently return to is deeper and more nuanced, fissured, fragile. The themes, too, aren’t high school. APEX is a serious album. There are human hearts between the lines.
From “Some Love”:
“Truth, to her, is a moveable feast
Your wand’s over a cup, gentle defeatist
I watched you drown, in the weeds
She flickers in the spaces between your needs”
Here we return to our earlier point about the meaning and significance of music. Some people just want music to dance to. PROMISED LAND, my collaboration with a British electronic artist, was launched by BBC Introducing and BBC Orbit, which was fantastic. It’s a really big, bold, exhilarating piece of house music. I absolutely love it. A NYC record label is interested in releasing it later this year. APEX PREDATORS is a different animal, far more nuanced and traumatised, gorgeous, even sinister in parts.
So if you’re partial to complexity, to subtlety, to beauty, intensity and not a little madness, then come to MAMA.
WEBSITE: www.mamaftantonella.com
If you dig what we do at sleepingbagstudios & want to be part of the madness, by all means click here to be featured on these pages of ours!
