Marcia Hanson of Mobina Galore talks real life
Since forming in 2010, Winnipeg band Mobina Galore has achieved notoriety for its explosive, fiery punk songs and outsider attitude.
Despite being a band of just two members—guitarist and vocalist Jenna Priestner and drummer Marcia Hanson—the dynamic power-house duo was able to defy the haters who see punk rock as men’s music and successfully release three albums.
Hanson was able to take time away from the band’s current tour with Against Me! to update The Ontarion on Mobina Galore’s newest release.
Nadia Teh: Your new album Feeling Disconnected deals with the theme of detachment. What were the inspirations behind making this album and what makes this different from your previous work?
Marcia Hanson: I feel like there are two parts to this answer. First, we went into the recording process in a totally different way. Our last album, Cities Away, was our first time in a proper studio with a great producer JP Peters in Winnipeg and we kind of just had all the possibilities in the world at our fingertips.
JP was so inspired and so full of ideas that we ended up adding a lot of layers to that record… just because we could, we were like, “Why the hell not? Who knows when we’ll be in the studio again?”
With this record, we wanted something more true to our real life sound because it’s just me and Jenna. We’re the troops. We wanted something that we could 100 per cent replicate on stage and JP was super excited about that idea… To me, it’s full of energy, it’s really raw, and it’s really true to how we sound live.
We took a step back to look at the songs and what were they about and realized that there was a very clear underlying scheme. It was about feeling disconnected and detached. We’ve been touring for the past couple of years and always dealing with this feeling of, like, when you’re at home you’re thinking of being on the road and when you’re tired on the road after months of touring you’re just [thinking], “Oh fuck, I just want to be home.” [The album] is about all of those experiences.
NT: According to your tour dates, it looks like you have a very back-to-back schedule. Does touring ever become exhausting, or do you find the whole experience of being in different places and on your feet exciting?
MH: We love touring. Touring is our favourite thing in life. We feel so so lucky to be able to do it. It’s very fulfilling and [Jenna also] really loves being on tour. It’s our happy place, you know? Just being in a different city every day. And it definitely does get exhausting when you’re sleeping on people’s floors every night and you don’t know when your next shower will be or you’re going to bed at 4:00 a.m. every night because you have to be in the venue until 3:00 and then you have to be up to drive all day the next morning. There are definitely exhausting points to touring, but it is all very worth it and very exciting for us.
NT: Can you describe your experience touring with Against Me! and how they have influenced you and Jenna as a band?
MH: Touring with Against Me! is a dream come true. It’s just been nothing but positive. They are such great people—everyone individually and as a band—they’re extremely inspiring to watch. They all have so much energy even when they’re tired or they’re not feeling it, they just like put on a great show.
We feel super lucky and spoiled and a little nervous that this is our first big support tour, because we feel like it can’t be this good all the time. There’s no way everybody is as kind and thoughtful and awesome as they are. It’s just been nothing but great times.
They definitely influenced our music, we’ve both listened to them for years and years and, on our first record, in the liner notes, we’ve listed a couple of bands: “Here’s the bands that we love. Hope to play music with you one day.” It was kind of written light-heartedly, but here we are on tour with Against Me! and they were listed in the liner notes. It was like a dream come true. It was just the best.
NT: What was it like meeting them for the first time?
MH: I don’t remember our first show in Europe when we toured with them this December, but I remember standing in the dressing room on the first night and Laura Jane Grace walked in and she’s super warm and just came right in, introduced herself: “Hey, I’m Laura! I’m so happy you’re here. Thank you so much,” and that’s pretty much how they treat us. They’re so appreciative that we’re there and we’re like, “What are you talking about? You could have literally picked any band in the world,” so we’re like, “No, thank you! No, thank you!”
It’s a strange thing because you feel like you know somebody when you’ve been listening to their music and watching them and following them for so many years and then you’re like, “I know you, but you don’t know me at all. I feel like I know you so well” (laughs). It’s kind of a weird thing because you’re trying to keep enough of a professional distance to not weird them out, but you want to be open and honest and let them know how much they mean to you.
NT: As an all-girl punk rock band in an industry that is dominated by men, do you still receive scrutiny from viewers, employers, producers, and even people from your personal life? What advice would you give to aspiring female musicians to combat this type of patronization?
MH: The music industry, like a lot of industries, is for sure male-dominated. I think that the longer we’re in it though, the easier it’s getting being both women.I remember the first year we were playing shows, we would walk into a venue and they would just assume we were [acoustic] singer-songwriters, because we’re women and we’re like, “Did you even read our emails? Did you listen to our songs? We’re clearly heavy and loud and we’re not going to play in a coffee shop.”
It used to be a lot harder than it is now, and I don’t know if it’s because we’re just used to it so we’re not taking it anymore. I don’t know if we have this face now when we walk into a place [that] says, “Fuck off, we’re here to play,” so they just treat us like any other band. So people are just finding it more normal.
I do think it’s important for women to be in bands and for women to be on stages, and for women to try to equal out the numbers in every industry. And I feel it is only getting easier. I’m sure that I might take that back on certain days, but it’s been a while since we’ve faced any negative response at a venue or from anybody because we’re women.
Photo courtesy of Sven Hoppmann.