By Jim Barber
If you’re looking for a little thoughtfulness with your fun rock and roll, you’d be wise to check out the debut album from Toronto-based alt-rockers Altered by Mom! With a compelling duo of super talented and well-seasoned musicians/songwriters/performers at its core, the band has quickly earned a reputation for being one of the most high-energy, up-tempo positivity infused rock and roll experiences on the scene, with songs that can get you up dancing, but also get you thinking and feeling all the feels.
Vocalist/bassist/frontwoman Gina Kennedy and guitarist/vocalist Devon Lougheed have spent more than a decade working towards the goal of launching their debut album, with that dedication and commitment coming to fruition with the release of Better, which comes out Sept. 5 on both vinyl and the usual streaming services.
There is aa wonderfully sublime sense of anarchy to the band’s music, which carries over to their delightful and frenetic stage shows, which often lead to mass singing, mass chanting, and lots of people walking out of the venue sweaty .. but smiling.
Altered by Mom is a truly Canadian story, in that two folks from opposite ends of this vast nation came together in the eclectic hub of the domestic music industry and not only found a partner in music, but a partner in life.
“I was active in the music scene in Vancouver and around B.C. for about 10 years. I played in a bunch of other bands that sort of thing. Gina came from the east coast, and she was playing in bands. And as so often happens in Canada, we met in Toronto. I had these songs left over from an old band that didn’t really sound like that band, and Gina offered to help play them and that sort of thing. And that began the shift into what the sound of the band is now. That became our first EP, which sounds pretty different from how we sound now, but I think the roots are there,” Lougheed explained, adding that the name of the group came from a humorous interaction with his mother.
“I guess it sort of represents a time when, before I moved to Toronto, the band I was in [Juno winner] Hey Ocean!, had sort of secretly gone on hiatus and I felt like I needed to jump ship or something. I just needed something to do and so as most musicians do at some point in their lives, I panicked and created a resume that I was going to send around to try and get some work. I sent it to my mom, who was a teacher and then a school administrator, to proof because she’s really good with that sort of thing. She sent me back an edited version as ‘alteredbymom.doc.’ And I didn’t even open it. I just named the band from that and started the music from there. It seemed like a sign.”
“I was in a couple of bands in Nova Scotia, nothing really of any notoriety. I was just starting to kind of find my way and then I moved to Toronto and started gigging around just on my own, just feeling out the music industry here, because I’d never lived in Toronto before. I moved from Halifax, so I was pretty starry-eyed and captivated by the city. We were both at the same Canadian Music Week Party a few years ago and it turns out we had a lot of the same friends. We literally just met each other through knowing the same people. I would show up at a party and Devon would be there, and he kept appearing at these things in Toronto all the time. He was still with Hey Ocean! at the time on the west coast and would come to Toronto to tour with the often, but we really didn’t talk that much,” Kennedy said, picking up the story.
“We joke about it all the time, but it almost feels like he was inserted into my life, in the best way. So we just became friends. But he still lived in Vancouver at the time, so we were just casual friends. Then he eventually did move to Toronto to be in another band called Smashing Satellites and after he moved here, that’s when we really started playing music together. I remember one of the very first songs we did was a Fleetwood Mac cover together, and the way that we collaborated on it, we kind of made it our own, and it just felt very magical, and that carried over into the way we wrote together. So we just kept doing it.
“And then I actually got run over by a car in Toronto while I was on my bike [not long after they met in 2013]. And my hand was crushed, so for rehab, I found some of Kevin’s old songs that he hadn’t put out or anything and I started practicing some of those songs and that rehabilitated my hand back to normal. Right now I am back to about 98 per cent dexterity because of bass playing. Then we started playing some of those songs live and I started writing some songs and then, yeah, Altered by Mom was born, and we haven’t stopped since. We’ve written lots and lots of songs. We put out the EP and we were kind of rocking and rolling as Altered By Mom, and then we lost our drummer, so we started sort of playing like hired guns in a lot of people’s bands. I played in Monowhales, Devon was playing with Smashing Satellites, and Devon and I both played with Aysanabee, and that was for a few years and we sort of put Altered by Mom on the back burner a little bit. We were still writing, we were still doing things, it just wasn’t our primary focus. But for the last three years, we’ve sort of taken the reins back. We don’t play hired gun in people’s bands anymore, and now we’re fully focused on Altered by Mom. So in a way, this new album sort of feels like it’s a reincarnation of Altered by Mom, but now we’re doing it full time. We’re full steam ahead.”
Better is being released on physical copies, particularly vinyl, and Kennedy and Lougheed are mulling over the idea of producing CDs as well. They believe the audience who likes their music appreciates packaged, fully-formed art, as well as the more intimate and immersive process of purchasing and listening to the entirety of a physical product.
“I think people still see the album as sort of an art piece, especially if there is a running theme throughout the album. And I think, and this is just my personal opinion but I do have a bit of a barometer, I do feel like the pendulum is swinging back. We’ve been in single streaming territory for a while now so I do think it’s shifting, and we’re shifting towards people wanting to have something in their hands. They want to actually look at what people create, and I think, especially with AI coming into the fold, that this might be a really great opportunity for musicians to focus more on the physical, and live music – those moments of real connection. That’s something that we’ve been kind of starved of a little bit as of late, because of the internet. And listen, the internet’s obviously a great tool, but I also think that people are excited about something that artists have worked on for a while and really put a lot of care into and want to ingest art that matters, you know?” said Kennedy, with Lougheed picking up the discussion.
“I think two albums are required for an artist to create superfans, or to become a superfan. I think if you take albums away, then the uneasy relationship that music has with capitalism is really revealed. If everyone is just going for singles that are supposed to be hits, you only kind of get one style of song – one that is going only for broad popularity. That’s a skill; that’s a good thing too. But I think to have an album where you’re allowed to have some songs that aren’t expected to be hits, like the tenth song on you album is not necessarily expected to be a big radio song, but it can flesh out your artistic statement. It can exist alongside the other songs and its not any weaker just because it’s not a good radio choice. Those are the songs that I believe really can turn fans into super fans. It’s not necessarily the single that gets everybody’s attention or whatever. Lots of people are casual fans of single songs from artists. So if you can use those songs to get them to listen to the whole thing, those album tracks are where you can really, really get them.”
Kennedy calls this ‘community building’ which in the age of the internet, is seemingly even more important than ever.
“That’s truly the goal these days. That’s something you can’t buy – your group of fans, your community. You’re community building with a full album of songs, where you’re being really real and raw, you’re being open and vulnerable. You’re welcoming people into your world when you release an album, and I think people get to see all sides of you, not just the shiny single side. They get to see the vulnerabilities, they get to see the sad songs, they get to understand what your songs are about and who you are as a person. And I think that’s priceless,” she said, adding that they’ve used their ‘shiny singles’ as that portal into their world.
“The big single ‘Okay, Okay’ got added to Sirius XM, which was very nice. That was a big milestone for us. So that song has reached a lot more people than some previous ones. We’ve also had quite a bit of radio play across the country with ‘Okay, Okay’ so that was great. We also got almost half a million views on YouTube, and we’ve never had a video reach that height before, so that was also really good. And, honestly, the shows are where we really get a sense of how a song is landing. It’s when we get direct feedback from people. There’s one song from the album that we perform, called ‘Sucking on A Lemon,’ and we kind of broke the mold for that song. We have a little bit of a dance thing where we go off of our instruments and we kind of just sing and play around on stage, and people really seem to respond to that. They always come back after the set and want to know about ‘that Lemon song.’ We’ve only had three or four releases. We had one cover release and then we have three single releases so far. I feel like we’re really sort of reeling people in single by single, so I am really excited for the whole album to drop and see what people think of the record as a whole.”
There is an inherent positivity to the songs created by Altered by Mom. They themselves call and their music “chaos with a party vibe’ or ‘catchy well-crafted rock’ which it is, although don’t think there isn’t depth and cleverness injected into the songs. And all of this comes from a place of deep authenticity. On Better there are some co-writes which has also become a positive experience as the challenge of collaboration has led to some more interesting musical avenues for the duo to explore as creators.
“It’s funny, there are so many origins of songs that all end up at the same point, which is an Altered by Mom track. Gina and I each write alone, we will write together and we often have really enjoyed writing with the two of us alongside a third person. So there are a number of co-writes on this record with people like Thomas D’Arcy, Ryan Worsley and Josh Trager, who plays in the Sam Roberts Band. I might bring an idea for a song or a riff that Gina then writes over. Or I might save that riff for writing with a third person, or sometimes Gina just shows up with a whole song, where the song sort of completes itself,” said Lougheed.
“But we always put it through a bit of an Altered by Momification process where it ends up containing the core elements of our sound, including especially Gina’s singing. And I’m having a great time writing for someone else to sing, which is kind of a new experience for me. But when you’ve got this powerhouse vocalist in the band, you’d might as well take advantage of it.”
“Co-writing has become another sort of big pillar for us. I’d say our two main focuses right now are our live show and the songwriting. We write ourselves, we write with other people all the time. Devon works out of a studio space, Taurus Recording Studio, here in Toronto and, luckily, we have access to that space. So we do co-writes there with people all the time,” added Kennedy.
She continued talking about the symbiosis between the songs they write and the live show. The two are interconnected at a profoundly deep level, reinforcing one another and allowing for a deep audience connection.
“That’s just the way the songs are naturally distilled. What we set out to do in our shows is basically say that we’re a band that promotes radical fun. So when you come to an Altered by Mom show, it’s a chance for you to let the outside world go away for a second and to be with people who are part of your community. You’ve walked into something that you’re a part of. You’re not just here to watch the show – you’re part of the show. It’s a time for you to really release and let go. But then, and we always joke about this, halfway through the show, you’re laughing so hard, but all of a sudden you’re crying and you really don’t know why, because we have some of those really tender moments in our show, but they sneak up on you because we are having so much fun together. And that is reflected in some of the music on our record. The meat of the songs is definitely about having a good time and it being a good rock song, but then all of sudden there’s a little empowering moment, or there’s a really tender moment. I think, honestly, the songs are really just a true reflection of who we are and how we navigate through the world,” said Kennedy.
“And I do think that Devon and I are quite positive people in general. We both have very funny dispositions, which I’m grateful for, especially in this industry. So, yeah, I hope that that’s what comes across and that it’s also reflected in listening to the record alone and in coming to see the show. ”
‘Okay, Okay’ as stated previously, went viral for the band and much of that is because of its positive tone, which includes a pervasive sense of inclusiveness – of being your own person, which is a fundamental aspect of their ethos as artists and humans.
“There’s a line in the chorus where we’re saying, ‘if you got the cure, we got the poison.’ And what I think of that is whether the ‘cure’ in quotation marks, is like Netflix or shopping on Amazon or things like that – and there’s no shame if you do that stuff. We all do that stuff, but if that’s the cure that the modern world is offering to whatever ails you, just being complacent and sedentary and letting the computer do the work, well, then we got the poison for that ‘cure’ which is having a great time running around the stage, being with community. And taking that hour, hour and a half to say the world is bad, yes, but we have a community and we can find moments of pleasure in that community,” said Lougheed.
“And getting back to why we’re like this and why these sentiments come out in our music, if I look at it kind of in terms of the roles that we have played in our respective friend groups, or like in the tour vans on the road, we often just naturally end up as the ones who see the silver lining all the time, just effortlessly. We just want people to have a good time together and we see that it’s always a possibility, no matter the circumstances. I think it’s in my nature, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same with Gina too, that it’s actually harder for us to NOT bring positivity in some ways. Luckily for me I am a horribly addicted extrovert. So when we go on tour, I get to meet people, I get to do all this stuff, and that totally supercharges me. But we’ve learned that although Gina loves that stuff, and really shines doing that stuff, and actually needs to do that stuff for her happiness, she also requires some good cave gremlin introvert time after it all, just to recover. She’s super empathetic and takes on a lot of the world into her own body and skeleton and sometimes has to deal with what she’s brought on herself. So it’s good. We’ve figured it out.”
Kennedy talks about how the idea and priority of inclusiveness is most unabashedly infused in the song ‘Knee High Socks.’
“Inclusivity is a really important pillar for us, especially in the rock world. The rock world can be very much cookie cutter in terms of who plays it. It’s typically a group of four white men who all sound like Nickelback. That’s what rock is, in very general terms, and there’s no shade to that, that’s great. But holy cow, have we heard those stories time and time again. I do think that we’re considered to be a little bit quirky. We often get told that our music is very different, very unique. But I take that as a badge of honour because that’s what the rock world needs. We need to shake it up a bit,” Kennedy continued.
“It does need to be inclusive. We do need to hear queer stories and things in rock music, you know, more female perspective stories, those with softer sides, but also really fun. ‘Knee High Socks’ for example, we just released that song and it’s about feeling really damn good about your outfit. It’s about putting on a powerful outfit and feeling good. And it’s a very feminine outfit that I am talking about. I am talking about wearing knee high socks, and they’re sexy and they’re fun. And it can be silly. That’s the very basis of the song, but it’s also obviously talking about empowerment and it gets deeper into that theme as you dig into it. But you know, that’s really what it’s about. It’s about something as simple as putting on an awesome outfit and strutting your stuff and feeling great and telling the world be damned, right? I think that those kinds of perspectives are what we’re trying to impart, but in a really fun, rock and roll way.
“And it was a song that I had written a few years ago. I was on an acoustic guitar and it just poured out of me one day. It’s one of those songs that you write in 10 minutes. It just kind of happened. I took it to Devon but I told him I didn’t think it could go on the record because it had a little too much of a Joan Jett-y vibe. So we Altered by Mom-ed it and it really took on a new life as we performed it. Our drummer Max [Trefler] really likes that one. And he brought a lot of our songs to life too on the record. He plays drums on all of them and he really gave then that solid rock foundation. It just turned into this cool song that we hear today. And that’s what happens to a lot of them.”
Another significant factor as to why ‘Okay, Okay’ went supernova online is because of the highly entertaining nature of the video, which has a professional wrestling theme, including having all three of Lougheed, Kennedy and Trefler getting into the ring, first to get beaten up by a pair of actual pro wrestlers before making what is in wrestling terminology called ‘a comeback’ to eventually prevail. Kennedy said she and Lougheed aren’t lifelong fans of sports entertainment, but have become quite passionate supporters since coming to Toronto and immersing themselves on the local independent wrestling scene.
“We do go to a lot of wrestling shows. Wrestling is amazing. If you haven’t gone to some of the Toronto wrestling shows, there’s so many good ones like Smash Wrestling, and Superkick’d and Barrie Wrestling. We met the directors of ‘Okay, Okay,’ Danny Proctor and Trevor Rollins when they were filming a show that we were performing on, and we just became instant friends. We met backstage and we were talking about wrestling and we were making jokes about our own wrestling. It was like one of those moments where I feel like we’ve been friends forever. We all then tossed around the idea of doing a wrestling video,” Kennedy said.
“Danny is good friends with Kyle Boone and Shilo who are a wrestling couple in London, and they have their own wrestling ring. We went and saw them perform and they’re both incredible and we kind of floated the idea to them and they were all in. And they were so gracious with their time and they literally taught us how to wrestle. They worked the hardest in that music video: taking the hits, giving the hits, telling us what to do, trying not to let us hurt them because we really didn’t know how to do the moves. We’re even bigger wrestling fans now because of this.”
A special album release show is taking place on the day of the release itself, Friday, Sept. 5 at The Rivoli in Toronto.
For more information about the band, Better, the upcoming album release show and other live appearances, visit https://www.alteredbymom.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
