By Maddy Yen

The Eugene house show scene goes way back, and recently the shows are back to the caliber they were at pre-pandemic. In honor of this, I wanted to start “The Eugene Scene,” a series highlighting local bands who have released an album or EP this year, getting insight into their creative process and playing shows. First up is the band Mommy, composed of Martina Hemstreet (lead singer), Patrick Walker (lead guitar), Sam Galyen (guitar), Milo Brosamer (bass), and Asher Loewenstern (drums).

 

Who is Mommy?

Local Eugene band Mommy has been playing since 2021, becoming one of the scene’s most well-known house show bands. “I met Asher before school even started freshman year,” said Galyen “and two guys who lived two doors down from me in Bean knew Milo.”  The band began to fall into place late their freshman year and Galyen met Walker through a mutual friend since they were both trying to start a band. After some Hamilton basement jam sessions, the band began playing together that spring. Because of the pandemic, no shows were happening and it took some time for Mommy to establish themselves. However, Walker and Galyen wrote some songs over the summer going into sophomore year, allowing them to have a basis for playing live. Hemstreet joined the Winter term of their sophomore year with a previous singer in the band during the Fall term. 

 

The “Villard Street” Album: 

Fast forward to now, Mommy’s album “Villard Street” has been in the works for nearly three years and they wanted to release it before they all graduated. “One person brings a concept of a song and everyone builds on it,” Galyen says. Hemstreet said this allows everyone to collaborate and flush out the songs together. “Heatwave was the first song released and Asher and Patrick had an internship at Sprout City,” Galyen said. The band produced it with Christian Brown, being their first recording experience. Brown mixed and mastered it as well as Villard Street which was released later. “Meet Me On The Way Home” was the third single before the release. Galyen said, “Asher and Patrick were in a recording class and had to create a song for a project”. So the band entered the studio at around 8 am and recorded in front of 15 classmates. The rest of the album was recorded at Sprout City where Loewenstern now works as an engineer. He racked up free studio time so the band arrived at 9 am and then left at 2:30 am, recording all 4 songs in one long day. Loewenstern mixed the tracks but wanted someone else to master them so the studio owner, Thaddeus Moore did. He also remastered all 7 songs so the album would flow better together.

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Sam Galyen and Milo Brosamer at Mommy’s house show on April 19, 2024. Photo by Maddy Yen.

Tracks

“Mary Suiter”

Walker’s favorite song off their album is Mary Suiter. He wanted to write a song like Pumped Up Kicks. Taking inspiration from an upbeat indie pop song with a catchy melody but about something dark. “The story of the song is based on a woman whose husband was a police officer and finds out his police department was corrupt,” Walker says. He further explains the husband is about to expose what the other cops are doing but gets killed and Mary Suiter finds out about it. She goes on a rampage and kidnaps his coworkers trying to find out who killed her husband. But she was caught before she was able to do anything and was put into a mental asylum. 

“Villard St”

Villard St is their most important song,  and the last song they play at every show. The lyrics and the name are important to the band. Loewenstern and Galyen have lived on Villard Street for three years since the summer of making the band. All of their practices have been in their garage, the first show they played was on Villard St, as well as their Matthew Knight show. Mommy emphasized this song is about how the people who surround you, and who you make memories with,  are your home.

“What Else is New”

This song was a prime example of Walker having a premise of what he wanted the song to be about, and then Hemstreet adding the melody and verse lyrics around his idea. “It allows it to be a mixture of both of our experiences, allowing it to be collaborative,” Hemstreet states. “What Else is New” is about still being in love with a person. Walker wrote part of it and Hemstreet said she could relate to it, and added her experiences. “This happened to both of us in different ways and then we get two different perspectives on the same phenomenon,” says Walker.

Playing in the Eugene music scene

“We’ve gotten comfortable with it, it has become a weekend activity,” Hemstreet said.” We do our show and then hang out, and I see it as ‘Hey cool I get to hang out with my friends and we get to play music.’” Walker says often when they are performing he has moments of “holy shit this is the coolest thing that’s ever happened.” Hemstreet and Walker also vocalized that the dynamic in the house show scene is so cool and very supportive of each other. “We also have a unique perspective where we came in at a time when most of the bands who were more experienced than us were leaving Eugene,” said Hemstreet. Walker added, “ Now we get to see our homies Verb8im, Down Rad, Pink Door, and Hearing Loss evolve because we’re the old people in the group now”. Mommy believes the house show scene is a big family of musicians and is glad there is a future and it will continue after they graduate. They also stressed a house show is the only thing on campus where everyone shows up, regardless of their background and whatever you’re associated with. “Everyone is welcome it’s a beautiful thing” Walker states

  

Patrick Walker and Asher Loewenstern play at Mommy’s house show on April 19, 2024. Photo by Maddy Yen.