Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers’ debut record was liberating to write
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12.06.2019

Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers’ debut record was liberating to write

Laura Jane Grace And The Devouring Mothers
Photo: Katie Hovland
Words by Tammy Walters

Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace is bringing her new project, the Devouring Mothers, to Australia for an intimate run of dates.

The Devouring Mothers sees Grace joined by fellow Against Me! bandmate, Atom Willard and renowned engineer/mixer, Marc Jacob Hudson (Against Me!, Taking Back Sunday). Along for the ride will be Indiana five-piece, Murder By Death.

“Being able to go to places that Against Me! can’t go to anymore, doesn’t go to or hasn’t been to in a while, and just being in that environment where it is a little smaller and a little more intimate gives us the ability to kind of loosen the flow of everything and [it] becomes more laid back. That just lends itself more to what we are doing with this.”

They will be bringing their 2018 debut album, Bought to Rot, along as the showcase, an album that Grace describes as a high school mixtape of songs born to excite nostalgia, with the production being an overall liberating experience with no expectations or pressure.

“Once you relieve that pressure of trying to define it, or what do these songs mean as Against Me! songs, how do they fit into the catalogue of music, how would they fit into the live shows – that’s a lot of weight for a band that’s been a band for a second,” Grace says.

“Once it was determined that it’s not going to be an Against Me! record, and it can just be whatever [we wanted] it to be, you can just play for the love of playing and record for the love of recording.”

As with the record, the band formation was quite an organic process with Grace having an itch to make new music again and also take a much-needed break from her alternative venture as an author – her gripping books Kill Me Loudly: A Memoir of Gender Dysphoria, Music, and Addiction and Tranny being published in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

“I had reached a point where I was like ‘I can’t sit in front of a computer anymore’ … so I booked a two-week-long tour and I had Atom and Marc come with me. We were doing shows that were a mix of like spoken word and then playing some Against Me! songs acoustically and then a couple of covers.”

She continues, “Have you ever seen the movie, Some Kind of Monster, the Metallica documentary? Do you know the scene where James [Hetfield] and [Lars] Ulrich and Bob Rock are in the studio and Bob Rock is the producer and they’re like, ‘fuck it! Let’s just do it with Bob Rock. Let’s just make it a three piece’, and for a second they think that’s a really good idea. That is this record. That’s how this came together [laughs].

“Marc Hudson is Bob Rock and I am James Hetfield and Atom is Lars and we actually decided to do the record. If you watch that scene from Some Kind of Monster, you will know exactly how this all came about.”

Against Me! fans can rest easy though – the move to a solo project does not sound the end of Against Me!, with Grace confirming the band are still very much alive.

“You just go out playing songs and it doesn’t mean that Against Me! has to end or Against Me! has to feel threatened. There will be another Against Me! album no matter what, so one way or the other, there will be Against Me!”

Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers come to the Northcote Social Club on Saturday June 22 (sold out) and Sunday June 23. Grab your tickets via the venue website.