INTRODUCING: Hidden Mothers

What do a mortgage broker, a teacher and sourcing music for funerals have in common? Well it turns out that they all join forces as part of the devastating force that is Sheffield based blackgaze quintet HIDDEN MOTHERS.

“I get all sorts of crazy requests” informs guitarist Arian. “We’ve had everything from black metal to Russian folk punk and I get to discover some really cool music!” – “I would definitely pick something like Mirror Reaper by BELL WITCH and make everyone listen to all 83 minutes of it” jokes bassist Liam. When you envisage the unity of black metal musicians you anticipate it involving ritualistic slaughter and offering your soul to the dark lord, “We all shared the same barber!” chuckles guitarist Luke. “Steff was the only one who knew us all individually and basically utilised his client base and went and found himself a band”, “It was like Mission Impossible where he has all the files and picks the best people for the job” quips Arian. “By pure chance we all gelled together immediately”.

To those unaware of the term Hidden Mothers, there is a whole host of possible interpretations. Whichever path your brain led you down it is infinitely more sinister than you could’ve imagined. “Steff came across this old Victorian photography technique that they used to use where basically because old time cameras took so long to take a photo getting the kids to sit still for the photos was a nightmare. So they used to sit a kid on their mothers knee but and put a blanket over the mother to make it look like she was part of the background and so she could hold the child still to have its photo taken” discusses Liam. “The pictures are really, really creepy! You can just see these hands holding them in place and it just looks really horrible which is kind of the vibe we were going for.” “It’s great because we’re probably the least black metal band ever and that is the most black metal thing about us!” added Arian.

As well as coming from vastly different occupations all of the members stem from a broad spectrum of musical backgrounds and influences too which is one of the tools in their arsenal that makes HIDDEN MOTHERS such a triumph. “Steff is a more traditional metal fan whereas Me and Arian are more into emo music. Liam is more into his groovy punk and heavier funk and then our drummer Adam is a hardcore kid through and through” explains Luke. “If he had his chance we’d have a beatdown in every song” jokes Arian. “Me and Luke play a load of twinkly stuff and then Adam puts blast beats on it and it just kinda works!”

Their debut single, The Longest Journey Yet, turned heads as they followed in similar footsteps to their idols DEAFHEAVEN. Combining dreamy atmospherics with visceral vocal lines and blood curdling intensity. “Me, Luke and Liam in particular were really inspired by DEAFHEAVEN in the early stages of the band as they were really one of the first bands to bring blackgaze to the forefront. SUNBATHER was like a paradigm shift for me” admits Arian. “We are also big fans of the likes of ALCEST and OATHBREAKER. We kind of wanted to form a sound around our love for these bands but I don’t think our sound actually sounds like what we intended it to in the early stages” adds Liam. “We literally wrote that song in the first practice we had together and funnily enough it didn’t change much from that night”.

As they have progressed in their musical journey they find themselves amalgamating more of their other influences as they begin to forge their own unique identity. This brings us to their impending self titled EP. “When we got round to the EP we had a lot more confidence with the fact we’ve been playing together for longer. There are loads of instances in those songs which people won’t expect like we have some post hardcore sounding power chords and clean vocals which we thought we would never include” states Luke. “We’re never going to sound like it’s never been done before because it probably has but what will set us apart from other bands is that we aren’t afraid to add those little bits in and think to ourselves “Why don’t we add a CAR BOMB style laser noise just there?” smirks Liam. “We’ll be able to keep ourselves interested and engaged with our music through our experimentation. There are times when one of us isn’t sure about certain ideas but as long as we are comfortable and trust each other to make these kind of decisions and decide what is going to work and what isn’t going to work. We trust each other to make additions and if it doesn’t eventually click for all of us then we will remove it. We kind of just let things happen and it’s turned out to be more interesting!” – “That’s what I love about our writing process, that we aren’t afraid to try something out. Just do it, if it works then it’ll stay in the song. The EP is basically ‘let’s try loads of shit’ and see how it goes” declares Arian.

The band are meticulous in their song writing, never compromising on the final product until they are completely happy with it. “Our songs take quite a while to build as we are constantly restructuring and tweaking things here and there which is why a year into our career we have a total of four songs” laughs Liam. “They’ve done us alright so far! We never bring anything out into the open until we feel it’s as good as it possibly can be”. “The songs on the EP kind of revolve around the concept of loss. Whether it is loss of life, how the planet is deteriorating due to the damage to the environment and the loss of relationships. It’s kind of introspective in a sense like how could you make a difference? Could you have done something differently to avoid these things happening?” discusses Liam. “It’s the black metal equivalent of live, laugh, love!” jokes Arian.

“We felt like we knew ourselves a little better going into the recording of this EP. We knew for definite we wanted to work with Joe Clayton” adds Liam. “He’s worked with some of our favourite UK bands and is in some of our favourite UK bands like PIJN, LEECHED and CURSE THESE METAL HANDS. This time round we took a lot more time to think about the finer details which would make this EP sound more interesting. Towards the end of the last track we sat down and we thought between us ‘this could actually sound much more horrible’ so Joe pulled out a drawer full of effects pedals and helped us make that song the best it could be. With The Longest Journey Yet we basically went into the studio and recorded the song as is. We’ve also got Scott Middleton from CANCER BATS to thank who mastered the record. He is just a really lovely dude and has made the record sound really polished and sparkly. Steve Myles who is in a fucking amazing band called CATTLE put together the artwork too and this journey is about more than just the five of us. It’s all these guys that joined us along the way and have made this record as good as it is”.

Whilst their music is incredibly thought provoking and sonically crushing the band don’t take life too seriously, their sense of humour shines through and this will certainly assist them going forward. “A band has to make good music first of all but there are loads of bands making good music so if you engage with people and show a bit of personality and not take yourself too seriously then that definitely works in your favour” states Liam. “Something that has been really successful for us is that we make really serious music but just enjoy being daft on social media and making memes about our music and that’s just who we are and it’s OK to embrace that. Metal doesn’t have to be serious all the time. There is a place for the whole seriously conceptual black metal artists who wear corpse paint and stay out of the public eye etc but that’s just not us. When we had our first band meeting we decided no corpse paint, no pictures in the snow, no pictures in the forest.”

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