Say Hello To… Mothé

Jenny Sorto

We have the pleasure of introducing you to the one and only Mothé! Not just another alternative pop artist, Mothé looks to experimental influences to infuse into their sound. The musical project from songwriter, musician, and producer Spencer Fort is transcendent and electric. 

Graciously letting us into their home, we sat down with Mothé ahead of the release of their debut album, ‘I Don’t Want You to Worry Anymore’. They shared some album anecdotes, artistic inspirations, and discussed being open to vulnerability. 

Bad Wreck: How has creating as Mothé been different from your past musical projects?

Spencer: This is the first time that I'm creating completely by myself. Like I don't have other people in the band to consider. Which is kinda interesting. I think in some ways it's more difficult to have it be just myself and in other ways, it is easier. Because obviously if you have bandmates you have more brainpower and that's always fun because somebody's going to like to throw an idea at you that you would never come up with. But alternatively, I don't have to lean into any biases that I'm afraid a bandmate might have—I feel like I can express ideas freely without being like ‘Well they hate that kind of music like I shouldn't go down this rabbit hole.’ So more challenging but also more freeing would be the biggest difference for me.

BW: What was your process working on this album and do you have any memorable moments? 

S: Oh yeah! I mean a lot of this album was made in my apartment and Robert’s apartment—Robert is my co-producer. He and I work together on a lot of projects. So a lot of it was made during the pandemic. While we were doing these sessions, we were just doing them in the apartment. Then kind of in the middle of it, in December I went over to Sonic Ranch in El Paso to go finish the album which was a whirlwind because I hit a tire on the way in and my car was stranded in Bowie, Arizona for three months. And they gave me a fucking Dodge Challenger as a rental. So I was like riding around my little indie neighborhood with a fucking Dodge Challenger just looking like the biggest asshole on the planet. The car lady was like, ‘You’re in luck! We're going to upgrade you for free!’ I was like you have no idea how bad this is for me. So my car was in Arizona for three months so that was a very memorable moment of the record because I had to fly out and go get it. Alternatively, Sonic Ranch was beautiful. It was like the most amazing, beautiful place that I’d ever been. It’s like 1600 acres of a pecan orchard and then this beautiful, beautiful studio. When we were coming into the studio, the session that was leaving was Arcade Fire. They’re just now putting music out. It's so cool to hear we were using some of the same instruments and same sounds and stuff.  And I was like, ‘Oh, it’s interesting that's what you chose to do with that sound and this is what we chose to do,’ so that was memorable.

BW: How has working with other artists producing for them influenced your creative practice?

S: Oh it’s expanded so much. One of the most interesting things about working with other artists is that everyone has very, very different priorities in the art form. I think it is super helpful to learn what other people's priorities are and then learn why they either do or do not work for you. Because then you know to either prioritize that later in the future or not. So if you find yourself in a situation where it's like, ‘This person prioritizes clean recording’ and then you get to the end of it and you’re like, ‘That's why they do it.’ Or you get to the end of it and you’re like, ‘I don’t like it, you know how I feel a lot of conviction doing the dirty tape recordings I like to do.’ I think that that has been the most interesting. It has also challenged me to work outside of genres that I normally get to work in… One thing I learned about producing for other artists was I became so disappointed in how undanceable indie music is because I was working on some funk-leaning pop records for the first time. I was like, ‘This shit smacks, this is awesome.’ So then I came back to the indie world and I was like, ‘What is with this straight drumbeat?!’ I don’t want this straight drumbeat. I want to move my hips while some fucking white dude whines into the microphone. So that was kind of the perspective. Just stretching the muscle, stretching the creative muscle over and over has changed so much. It's helped a ton. 

BW: What are some milestones or goals you wish to accomplish?

S: Yeah, so I don’t really fuck with goals because I just feel like if you set a goal it turns your experience into a “yes or no” situation where it's like, ‘Did you do this goal? Yeah. Or did you do this goal? No.’ That to me is not super exciting because it’s not super explorative. I like to see what happens. I guess the thing is like—I'm just going to keep going as far as this will let me go, as quickly as it will let me do it. You know I don’t have massive goals. I like touring. I like writing. I guess I hope that at some point the artist career goes well enough that I can spend most of my time being an artist and producing for really, really choice artists—like people that I really want to be on their record and be incredibly picky about my production roster and then spend a lot of time in a creative mode. Also, I’m kind of a gear hoarder. I think at some point it's going to turn into me having an analog studio… It’s not a goal, I just think that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t want to put any expectations on this. I'd rather appreciate things as they come. 

BW: What are some of your sources of inspiration? Just any artistic inspiration.

S: So I've heard a lot of music. And I've heard a lot, a lot, a lot of different genres of music. I just listen to it a ton. I’m always looking for new artists and new genres. I listen to a lot of experimental music. I basically at this point have been trying to take experimental pieces of music like harsh noise and packaging them into pop structures and pop sensibilities because there are these alternative genres that I love a lot that I wish got more of a shot. So I usually will just take elements of those and put them indigestible forms underneath a pop chorus and kinda take that approach. When I find myself not exactly inspired by music, which happens quite often because I listen to so much of it, I especially on tours will walk around and try to find art galleries. I think that visual art, particularly abstract paintings, and abstract sculptures can bring a lot of feelings out without a very incredible intention of a direction. So, if I find myself looking at a painting feeling a certain way about it, chances are it’s an honest feeling that I was already experiencing that some amount of texture from the painting brought out. That is where I will find a lot of inspiration and feel a lot more inclined to write again. I just start looking for other art forms. 

BW: Are there any songs from the album you feel are more experimental or that you challenged yourself on a little bit more?

S: “Issac,” the second track. I think that one—I put it there on purpose because it's very ambient. Like it might be a bit jarring for people. If they’ve heard the singles they might be expecting an alternative pop album and then the second track is this sort of weird textural sound. It's not a completely ambient piece but there's just not a lot of chords and there’s weird stuff going on. So, that one was definitely bizarre. I think “Leave A Little Late” is also one that was kind of like, ‘Is this gonna fly? Are they gonna let us do this?’ kinda thing. I’m lucky to be in a position where the people I am working with give me as much creative freedom that an independent artist would have. Those were really important to tie the record together so that it wasn't just an alternative pop album. I love alternative pop, but I mean at some point you’re just beating the same bush. I wanted to throw in a couple of pieces that I was like, ‘I don't hear people doing this right now.’ Those are important tracks to me. I’m certain they’ll be the least favorites, but I think they’ll be important to the people that they’re important too. 

 BW: When it comes to your songwriting, do you face any challenges regarding being vulnerable? What is your process with songwriting?

S: I live in a fourplex. So, that has put me in a position where if I'm recording vocals my neighbors can hear me and if I'm recording piano you hear me. You can hear the highway all the time here. But that has started to become an essential part of my records—is this sort of hum of the highway. I hear it every day and for me, it’s comforting because I have tinnitus and it sort of drowns out the harsh ringing. But whenever I was first moving in here, I was timid with my vocal performances and I remember to lean into that feeling, I started coming out here and recording with the windows open so that my neighbors could see me and hear me. It was the most uncomfortable thing. A lot of these vocal takes were so timid and whenever I went back to try to recreate them confidently, they didn't feel as good to me. So that was kind of a challenge that ended up becoming very beneficial to me. Other than that I don't have a lot of difficulty being vulnerable in subject matter or content. I think the thing that is a little tricky is a song you write might end up having implications in your personal life. But, that is true of every artist and I think that's just a weird thing that everybody has to live with… 

BW: Have you ever had someone that you wrote a song about know the song was about them? 

S: I mean I’ve definitely had to have very weird conversations after releasing songs which I hate doing. That’s one thing about me that doesn’t really line up about me—I’m a really private person. I don't like people knowing what's going on. I don't really like people coming over, seeing my house. I’m always hiding a little bit but for some reason, that blanket goes away with music… then people will start assuming stuff… like, ‘Oh do you hate me?’ this or that... So it does kinda conflict with my desire to not be known but it’s okay.

BW: What are you most excited about once I Don’t Want You to Worry Anymore? is out?

S: I am excited to get in and play these songs live. Everybody says that but it's just the truth. I think that the things I’m gonna have to do to arrange them into a live set that works are gonna be challenging. I’m just looking forward to figuring out how to pull off some of these sounds and these textures live. My band—they’re very, very good musicians and I feel super lucky to play with them. One thing that has been really bumming me out a lot is that I haven't played any shows. This album’s coming out and this brand new thing, it’s big. I see these  Spotify numbers and they're like the biggest numbers I’ve ever had in my life. Or like numbers, numbers, digital things on the internet, followers—I can’t wrap my head around it because none of it is tangible. So you see the number “a million” and that doesn't make sense to me, I don't get it. So then what I'm looking forward to is being like, ‘Fuck all this stuff that has never made sense to me, let's have tangible experiences with other humans, this is was why we started doing music in the first place.’ I think that especially after not playing live for so long—to be able to take these songs to rooms in the physical form is going to just reignite my relationship with music as well as be very fun. I’m so excited to get some real shows under my belt. 

BW: Did you always know you wanted to pursue music?

S: No, no it wasn’t. I actually started as a gymnast. I did that for like 10 years. I thought that was what I was doing with my life and then at some point I got injured and I didn't want to get back into it… Then I was lost and temperamental and, I'm a fucking teenager. I had been classically trained on the piano which made it super boring to me. So then I went to a music festival—where my best friend's mom's best friend was the stage manager and she was like, ‘You guys can come stagehand for the day.’ I watched The Flaming Lips from the stage and I saw Wayne Coyne out there and he was playing to this sea of people, they’re an incredible band. And I was just like, ‘Woah! I didn't even know this existed. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.’ We immediately started a band and started going as hard as we could. That was like 10 years ago. I remember picking up the electric guitar at roughly 16 years old and being so stoked because I didn't know what I was doing on it and I was so bored of the piano. I was like, ‘What is this noisy, raw thing that I can't break down into theory and I don't understand?’ It's amazing. It’s so fun. Then it was just downhill from there.

BW: Is there anything else you want to say to people who are just finding out about you? 

S: I guess I would just say, have fun. Do your thing. Be you unapologetically. Hang out. Appreciate your friends. Don't take anything too seriously but also be super thoughtful with the things that you do take seriously and then enjoy everything you can. 

Listen to I Don’t Want You to Worry Anymore here!